Three Poems

J. Oscar Polano

pipesmokemeditation

a wind runs through
and up
between apartment buildings
and idon't know if my breath
is in the grey smoke that lifts
and exits
or the ashes ikickout
on the stoop
when i'm done
daring me everytime
to sweep them out
and over
if ireally believe
in the reincarnation
of moments

***

somekindofaccident

six o'clock comes
stripping daylight from the rocks
while late again
i'm chipping away
making a mask
from the song on the radio
and all of a sudden
your eyes
they're looking up at me

and work calls
and isay
there's been some kind of accident
but i'll be there
soon enough
just hold on longer

and sliding down the street
with no one ahead
no one hurt
or bleeding on the inside
in a wrong way
a song comes on
that doesn't feel
like you to me

by the time ipark
i'm coughing
it's from singing along
so loud

***

keepsakes

let's work out a fiction you and i
trace the muscle til it dips
and we've both left smiling
we have a story to keep repeating now, keep rewriting
once we've left to the old jacket feeling
of an empty bedroom
let's talk of the life worth living
places far from the ash
and the uncomfortable waitingroom chairs
let's rush the ending of the books
we've meant to read by now
stalk the keepsakes all the true believers
have stolen, wearing thin
let's drape over our piece of century lightly
take comfort from the questions without personal miseries
that we answer alone or together
spending our agains again

lets you and i blame the dead
not for giving in so quickly
but for doing it so well

J. Oscar Polanco was born in odessa,tx in january1984 and lived in the monahans area until 1999 when his moms got a new job. he’s lived in centraltexas since then, and after much smalltown dreaming and procrastination decided to move to austin,tx in sept2008. he loves the city, but owes the desert he comes from; there you have to fill the distance with your own visions, and he thinks an empty page is a desert too.

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