“Sugar”

sugar bones
“Sugar Bones” – Original painting by Luke Spooner

Sweet apocalypse in the blood!

Stephen-King nightmare in the brain!

Mortar rounds at synapses!

Invader of our personal stash!

SweetSweet as Delilah’s lips!

 

Cooing with the voice of Mom—

Bubela, Bambino, come home, come home

To peaches and cream and castles of fructose,

To sugared hot cocoa and honeycombed words

In hives of endearments buzzing on eardrums;

To plaudits and gambits and all sweet beginnings;

 

To endings and outcomes wrapped in thin wafers

That crackle and clang buds on the tongue—

Then soothe… and admonish

All dissonant voices: No trespassing!

Only sweetness—no light!—

Down labyrinthine portals…

 

Words like agave flowing down sewers

Where “liberty” trudged, with “freedom” and “heroes,”

To ransack and pillage dreams of the village.

Tenderest mercies are syrup for wounds.

Sweet lies to die for… Sweet lies to kill for…

Sweet God… Sweet Jesus… Kali is calling…

Luke Spooner is an artist and illustrator living in the South of England.  Website www.carrionhouse.com

Gary Steven Corseri is the grandson of Ukrainian-Jewish and Sicilian-Catholic immigrants.  He has performed his poems at the Carter Presidential Library and his dramas have been produced on PBS-Atlanta and in universities, high schools and Little Theaters.  He has published 2 novels, 1 full collection and 1 prize-winning chapbook of poems.  His poems, articles, fiction, dramas have appeared in hundreds of global publications & websites, including: Countercurrents, Village Voice, Redbook Magazine, Miami Herald, The New York Times, and Transcend Media Service.  He has taught at universities in the U.S. and Japan, and in US prisons and public schools.  He has worked as a grape-picker in Australia, a gas-station attendant, and an editor.


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