Vox Populi
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Scott Silsbe: Two Poems
Tapestry from an Asteroid
That was the summer of the unrelenting wildflower smoke.
It felt like the end of something, but not completely dire.
Every night, those birds started up with their chattering
in one direction as the sun was setting in the other direction.
The sea was never the same twice. It was somewhere beyond.
I had a dream of sleeping and the wrong end of a straight flush.
It really wasn’t all that dark out and I wasn’t quite sure why.
“I am another one,” I said to no one, “I am something else.”
I know a fugue when I hear one. And I know my question.
I don’t know her anymore. But I think we are both alive.
~~~
Thai Basil
Bobby got me a little Thai basil plant.
I put it in my kitchen by the window.
He told me that I needed to pluck
the little purple flowers off, saying
that, if I didn’t, it would “go to seed.”
But I thought the flowers were pretty.
They made me think of you—
I was already thinking of you.
~~~~
Scott Silsbe’s books include Meet Me Where We Survive (Kung Fu Treachery Press, 2022).
Copyright 2024 Scott Silsbe
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I love the little basil plant poem — so minimalist & tonally perfect.
And I love “The sea was never the same twice. It was somewhere beyond.”
For that is why I walk the ocean’s hem each day, to watch its perpetual mobile…
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Thanks, Laure-Anne. I admire Scott’s poems because each line contains a surprise, such as “unrelenting wildflower smoke.”
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“I am another one,” I said to no one, “I am something else.” I know that. Oh, I love poetry!
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