Issue 2:1 | Poetry | Robert M. West

4 Poems
By Robert M. West

 

 

 

Icemaker

 

 

A true

poem first

 

finds its

way into

 

words as

flooding, irresistible

 

forcebut

trades heat

 

over time

for stability,

 

evens out

and settles

 

down, cooling

at last

 

into the

crystalline, immoveable

 

(and yet

moving) object.

 

 

 

Writing Desk

 

 

Too little

of what

 

takes place

here (too

 

rarely in

the first

 

place) ever

does take

 

shape to

speak of.

 

 

 

Creek

 

 

Wed hunch down, held rapt

by the crawdads caught up in

our bucket-rapture.

 

 

 

Three Candidates

 

 

1. The Dauphin

 

A borrowed fame equipped him for the race:

he bore his fathers name and wore his face.

 

 

2. The Populist

 

Each stop he made so many promises

his own top aides turned doubting Thomases.

 

 

3. The Spoiler

 

He took a twisted pride in tearing down

the side that didnt take him for a clown.


2000  

 

 

Robert M. West