Poems by J.R. Solonche

 

VERY SHORT ODE TO MY NOTEBOOK

O, open-minded one!
O, beautiful blue-veined butterfly!

I thank you.
I thank you for being here.

I thank you for opening yourself up to me.
I thank you for letting me fill your space with my inscrutability.

I thank you for your blank stare.
I thank you for your silent dare.

 

VERY SHORT ODE TO MY PEN

O, ink-arrow, O, where
would you be now
if not now in my hand?
Would you be now
writing a shopping list?
Would you be now
signing a check?
Would you be now
penning a letter
to a distant cousin?
Or would you be now
writing a poem better than
“Very Short Ode to My Pen”?

 

VERY SHORT ODE TO INK

O, ink!
You are the blood of poetry!
You are the tears of the poets!
You are the blue of the sea!
You are the bottomless blue of the sea!
O, ink, I do not know where you have come from,
but you are welcome to stay here forever!
O, ink!

 

THERE SHOULD HAVE BEEN ANOTHER MYTH

A myth is missing.
There never were enough.
There has always been a space.
It has always been a chasm too wide to cross.
There has always been a burning question.
It has always burned the tongue.
There has always been the gaping gap between the hills.
It has always been impossible for the moon to fill.
A myth is missing.
It should have been.
It should have been meant to explain the future.
It should have been meant to explain the origin of failure.
It should have been meant to explain how fire begat desire.
A myth is missing.
There should have been one more.
There should have been one more behind the temple door.
Certainly a myth is missing.

 

SALE

I had my eye on
the broken scythe
in the corner of the barn,
covered in cobwebs
next to an old churn.
I asked him how much.
It’s not for sale he said.
How did it break?
I asked. Did he strike
a stone while harvesting
the wheat?  No. He broke
it against a tree while
remembering his high school
sweetheart. It’s not for sale,
he said again. Is it all
right if I write a poem
about it? Sure, he said.
Somebody should, I guess.
Thanks, I said. He smiled.
Then waved, more or less.