Yeats at his prayers

A poet wrote a poem for old age

words spoken from upon a stage

a rhymer without a thing in his head

he said

       but he was more than that

cast hobbling

just any street knave

a pauper without purse

unafraid

dogs didn’t bark

roots shivered

trees moved birds yearned

cloaked him in velvet

a plume in his hat

Merlin returned to life

they dance together in the glade

youth and beauty courage and cheer

full of marrow

time will chew

bones they’ll strew

Spartan supple

Athenian able

banquets by the lake

he remembers Excalibur

her hand holding a sword

its hilt held high

from

    transparent

                water

Camelot

Dick Russell

copyright © 2017

To Those That Ask

those 

that glance on this 

this inscription 

traveling far afield 

a page read by robots

giving voice

to what is retrievable 

by only those who ask

to those
living enmeshed in sensation

tingling with reality's touch
aye those

you few
that glance on this

please ask for the moon

if you would go there 

knowing there is nothing there
that isn't already dead

but teach the robots to measure this
who asks for the moon
means an un-invaded moon
a moon of mystery

a moon
alive with hope

so ask for the moon
for something much more
than this

Dick Russell

copyright © 2017

Donal said


telling a story in advance of it happening
is called
articulating a strategy

a business
measurable
but not necessarily pleasurable
for all concerned

and he told a story of
malware hidden among pages of books
educated Greeks left behind
outside Troy’s walls
to be read by Trojans and allies
after the Greeks cleared off
no camp fires lit on the beaches
just ten years’ worth of trash

malware loaded by Trojans
into Troy’s systems
that would take control
when the time came

and to prevent this from happening
Troy’s systems were programmed to resist
intrusion by a weave that entrapped
intruders in silken thread
woven by women

so Odysseus was caught
by Helen of Troy
then let go

for she had seen right through him
at first glance

saw he was destined to pull out
then put in
then carry his oar inland

and the rest is in Homer

         Envoi

she’d seen right through him

that first time they met

no need for torture 

to make him confess

what he deserved 

he would get

in the fullness of time

what he got

for free

was liberty

to pull out

then put in

then carry his oar

inland

Dick Russell

copyright (C) 2017

                     America, USA

your buttons splay

rising like antlers of gazelle

your coat dark

like shadow land of jungle

your buttons epitomize furtive deer

your club   impact of a summer without rain

one stone alone

in the land of stones

offers you shade

one shadow

moving over the rim of sight

distorts your mirage

one hawkish eye

its lid stitched back

watches...

vulnerable to an irritant fly

Oh America

the surgeons removed your tear ducts

you are unable to cry

                                     copyright (C) Dick Russell

                                                     2017