#memory – Visions of Orion Poetry

Baxter at St Johns

Baxter at St John’s How you fill the armchair:neck & shoulders tilted backwith eyelids falling south;dreaming with every starbeyond our penitent dome. Once drunkard – now poet’s Christ:mouth turned from bitter sponge –how time trembles when voicesshatter the glass night –our words crackling over ice. ©️ Orion Foote

Three Prologues

Three Prologues i It’s contagious –swapping energy currenciesinside a faux Havana bar;the grotesque & profanepeering through windowsat Mama San – a lunch hourscrewball comedy – moolahfor spicy rhetoric with a decorthat reeks of name droppings;of circadian rhythms awakened. ii I wonder how he coped –a shrinking Napoleon on St Helena;sketching cherry laurels& japaneseContinue reading “Three Prologues”

Conjuring You in Daylight

Conjuring You in Daylight I lit up in remembrancewhen you called out.How foreignly familiarthe sound of one’s own namewhen spoken by another –it leapt through your mouthas a linguistic curve-ball. Once, you turned bedfellows with skateboards into Gods,wrapped in musky sheets –still damp with night’s balmand stale ginger wine. A sleazy mannequinstood vigil – loneContinue reading “Conjuring You in Daylight”

Cognizance

Cognizance It was never in my rider:these plumes of damp mistwith their bluish grey drift– poised like a spiteful tsunami.An encore of unknown dread,when as a child, my eyesburned beneath horned prongsof ancient trees – outstayingthe dead on a seared hilltop.These things I knew – long beforehuman nuance or pageantry,or of tiptoed paths cuttinga dashContinue reading “Cognizance”

Soloman Islands Song

Soloman Islands Song(four Chinese Quatrains) He sleeps in humid daylightover scorched Pacific sand;distant flags ripple slowlyin Vella Lavella breeze A sentinel moon whispersdream long my son of silence;offspring of a lost wind manscribbles tears in candlelight sotto voce words linger,taut hours unravel in sheetsof slant drizzle – heightens tangof shaving foam and sherry Croons withContinue reading “Soloman Islands Song”

Third Act

Third Act At a dawdling tempowe became this scant thing;drifting further from dayswhen clocks went unnoticed,dreaming in colour – far flung like hopeful fishing nets. We tore up the stars,revelled in dark stringsmoaning under night’s cover;their sad arabesques falling in madcap waves– drowning us in song. And your face turning slow;like Muddy Waters in mourning. ©️Continue reading “Third Act”

Memory Threshold

Memory Threshold(On my grandfather’s birthday) My father’s father-whom I never knew-saw first light in the yearthat Hardy publishedFar from the Madding Crowd. He surveyed the damagethrough Cabbage leaves,watched birds & beesilluminate their lives – like platesinside an antique pillow book. He and his sister – Mary,unwanted offspringof bug eyed immigrants,clinging to a board clad hovelinContinue reading “Memory Threshold”

Codgers Memoir in Twelve Seconds

Codgers Memoir in Twelve Seconds Each day a dog-eared copyof its predecessor–a pixelated imagesaved too often; in other words,a shroud over weathered cobbles. ©️Orion Foote 2023

Almost True

Almost True Your words throw gravitasacross silent winter skies;peeping through dusty shadesof lavender cloudsas if ripe for translation.We have all met beforebut we just don’t know it. These things will remain;compress & distortthrough a corrosive eyeuntil understood by all. And isn’t it also true,that the tracks I leaveare processed by memory;that I am hereyet seemContinue reading “Almost True”

Newton’s Epilogue

Newton’s Epilogue(In Memoriam) Once, on a cold inclinenamed after your mother,you turned as if Karajan to his Figaro;as if Jesus to Simon and saidTo conquer death,we only have to die. At the drop of a baton,time holds sway like a dirge,wincing at the refrainof it’s own untold forecast;we only have to die. And what ofContinue reading “Newton’s Epilogue”