POETRY
“Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.”
I have an axe
with hearts gashed
The two of us toast to a man we both love, to whatever degree, clink our glasses and laugh…
The poetry of Brian S. Ellis unravels, inverts, investigates, and complicates. His poems are radical koans and invitations to forego common narratives.
I like to think I’m also sprung,
released from the furnace knocks,
done with the heavy meat stews
and salty soups.
I buy too much, for someone of my stature.
could pawn a skinny metaphor to purchase a plump skin.
its reputed in our lineage— to daydream a life that shreds our pockets.
I slumped in front of a massive desk, a passive patient corroded with failure and dread.
You let the yellow glow
from eye sockets. The building up the street
is burning faster and faster.
Empty vessels
make the most sound, I think,
as you rip the fairy lights off the handrail.
Should have found a job by now; should have slept in the night;
should have boiled old coffee before noon.
Millions of Americans have been affected by identity theft. It’s probably the greenhouse gases.
the man is stayed bent over the canvas
of my sofa. the man is me the man is him
self and I bring down the whip…
