(Today we are pleased to run a collection of five poems by our friend David Henson. We have decided to depart from the one poem a day format, but instead of just shoving them out all together we have included images and the end result is quite nice. but always, it is the words that rule the day.–The Ed’s.)
Death Everlasting
A man rubs ointment
on the stub
of a new arm he’s growing.
A woman dons her levitation cloak
and goes for a ride.
Massive seawalls
gird coastal cities.
Robots do the dirty work.
Human brains braid with AI
and each other.
People live for centuries,
a boat I miss.
Polar bears prowl
the tropics after ice
reclaims the earth.
The planet regreens.
The continents touch.
A boy and girl cartwheel
on thick grass
outside their home on Europa.
Their descendants,
part human, beast, mechanical,
will live on ships
that sail deep space.
The sun burns red,
obliterates its kingdom,
my atoms chasing space and time.
The universe turns cold
or crunch.
So many things that will be,
and my death will survive them all.
(end)
The Man Who Quit Trying To Understand
My new approach
begins during a movie
when I ask myself
Why did the guy with the beard do that?
Who is the guy with the beard?
I find the film more enjoyable
when I accept
there’s a guy with a beard,
and he did what he did.
My mindset expands
to everything and everyone.
What do they think they’re doing?
Don’t care.
How could anyone believe that?
Who knows.
Are these people for real?
Apparently.
Friends caution me
ignorance is no way
to go through life.
Without my asking why,
they give me reasons.
I nod.
(end)
Jack’s Song
This here’s a little ditty
‘bout Jack, a fellow with wings.
Adriane has none,
but does have a big ol’ gun.
She tries to rob the bank
where Jack works nine to five.
When he pushes the hidden button,
cops swarm like bees at a hive.
Adriane’s trapped
and makes a hostage of Jack.
The standoff goes days,
puts Jack in a Stockholm haze.
He visits his new dearest
in her prison for the unwinged,
leaves his wife, sweet Betty Lou—
a flyer, born like Jack.
His feathers itch like crazy
when apart from Adriane,
who one day admits
she’s fallen for a woman named Pam.
Jack hatches a plan,
and gets his wings removed,
shoots a guy and gets locked up
with his darling Adriane.
Jack woos Adriane away
from that hated Pam
and plans a fairy tale life
with Adriane in the slam.
But Pam goes all If I can’t have her,
no one else can
and shivs poor Adriane in the shower
where she bleeds out down the drain.
Oh yeah, Jack’s shattered,
but life goes on,
and he starts regretting
his leaving sweet Betty Lou.
Jack knows she’ll shun a man
bound to ground like him
so he tells the warden he wants
to be winged again.
The warden says Jack, make Big Shirley
confess the murder we could never pin,
and we’ll sew some wings
back on you again.
Well, Jack charms himself
into Big Shirley’s arms,
and when she says Don’t stop,
he does—until she says I did.
Jack’s re-winged and transferred
to a flyer’s cage,
writes Betty Lou: Please visit.
We’ll flutter as best we can.
But Betty Lou is soaring
with another fellow by then.
Oh yeah, life goes on
So Jack spends the rest of his
flying alone
in a pen.
(end)
Splinters
Dreams splintered
in my father’s hand.
Those just under
the calluses.
he needled to the surface,
drew between his teeth,
spat out.
Those worked deep
into his palms,
he ignored,
carried to the factory
thirty-eight years.
(end)
(image of Da Blues, who likes a good poem)
Mary’s Lullaby
Mary arrives at the human
resource center workshop,
announces she’s pregnant
and high-fives Big Bob.
They roar with laughter.
I contact the nurse,
who takes Mary
to the center’s clinic.
When they return,
Mary goes to her station.
The nurse confirms
Mary’s pregnancy — shocking,
he says in hushed tones,
because she’d undergone
a somewhat voluntary procedure.
When I ask what
he means by “somewhat voluntary,”
he turns heel and hurries away.
I can’t help staring at Mary.
She notices me,
makes several pelvic thrusts,
rocks cradle arms,
and begins singing.
(end)
All poems by David Henson
(images all taken in the Charleston District of Bremerton, WA)
