Tsunami

Red Wall rising up out of Sea,

a construct carved of fault.

Watery pillar of salt

licking Asia’s shores.

Tsunami, your wave signals goodbye.

Eden’s lost and found:

Karl Nilsson’s parents

and 2 brothers.

Gluttonous, global avarice devours

One

quarter million

Throw away rotting flesh and disease,

that toiled and healed and cared.

Sumatra freshly brewed,

bleeping video cameras, unmanned.

Who will be your witness?

If the youth didn’t disturb dead ancestors while making love,

the Sea wouldn’t be angry!

I can’t get no satisfaction.

Despairing spirits drowned,

living in thirsty graves.

Nick, you weren’t there,

you can’t know.

Noah build your ark!

© 2005

 

Writer’s Block

Caught in a blizzard, stiff

Its icy fingers gripping at my throat

the white night blinds my step

Jeering wind mocks me

Its garlic pickle breath

stuffs my voice

Blinging hoarfrosted trees taunt my poverty

I rip them to shreds in defiance

Their icy crystal deposits clog my arteries

white powder of gold, wasted on babies bum

The blackened ink rushes from brain and limb

freezing up my pen

Buck up Nick! Watashi wa Regina.

Get used to the friggin’ frigid air

“God only knows why he left his home in the south to roam.”

By Shuana Niessen (20 Little Poetry Project Exercise)

©2005

Paper Weight

Heavy weight of ink on paper

Signifier signified

Ratified and gratified

Blue, blood-stained bond paper

Bonds of affiliation and kinship

Broken too

 

24 pound first choice

Agreements of Divorce

Gone

Be careful what you signify

In the bond of signature

And heavy weight of Ink on paper

©2009

The Fall of Life

Sadly, the leaf clings,

clutching desperately

like an infant rooting for its nourishment.

Violent gusts slowly sever

beloved from limb

in the fall of life.

© 2012