Read an Excerpt
STARTING OVER Like Sisyphus each morn I start
My task again with a heavy heart.
Each Genesis day I began anew
This endless chore I'm assigned to do.
Tying loose ends as I travel,
That before another sun, unravel.
My course is set, this is my fate.
How slowly the gods retaliate.
RESURRECTION We browse in dusty places,
Pilfering through each pile,
Of secondhand and one-time-new,
Out-of-date and out-of-style.
The faithful optimists of this age,
The last of the true believers.
We recycle dreams, recover hope,
Defy brand-new deceivers.
THE ONE-EYED MAN He still stands in the agora
Where the sun warms the salty shore,
Marble columns line the way
To the open assembly door.
Barefoot against the sophistry
Of Reason's cruel waste.
The justice of injustice,
Hemlock's bitter taste.
DEJA VU In the mirror of memory
The future is cast
When we relive scenarios
Performed in the past.
JOURNEY The amber edge of memory
Sharpens my recollection,
Calling back a used-to-be
In silent retrospection.
It baffles my perception,
And spins my mind around,
When uninvited inception
Transmutes from lost to found.
THEN AND NOW Then I was young
And so naive,
Head in the clouds,
Heart on my sleeve.
How long has itbeen
Since I was she
Who believed
Vain possibility?
Now with altered perception
Tell me how do I cope?
When I find no mean between
Desperation and hope.
FLASH POINT In my mind's mythology
She's always coming back to me.
Whispering her veiled intention,
Heart's desire, time's invention.
In the legend of my memory
Fusing fancy with reality,
She, no me—imagination
Erases the line of demarcation.
IMAGES Imagination's artistry
Etched by diamond memory
Cuts across my reverie.
Severing bold reality
From unassuming fantasy.
QUICKENING There is a toxic loneliness,
The soul's own desolation,
That strikes in crowded places
With deadly devastation.
It coils on busy sidewalks,
Slithers through thoroughfares,
Hisses in congregations,
Takes you unawares.
With an instant isolation,
A poison in the bone,
Then in the midst of many
You are aching and alone.
BEQUEST Daylight couldn't shape it,
That dream that stayed the night,
Then vanished as the first rays
Of sun brought morning light.
Amorphous, then invisible
In my fading recollection
It dimmed like mist at midday
In the glow of introspection.
My day was rent with discontent
And a nagging sense of woe;
A dream that I couldn't remember
Left a sorrow that wouldn't let go.
DESTINATION I am a genie in a jar,
In a little space I've traveled far.
I do not know my destination,
Such is the fate of encapsulation.
Through a glass darkly, now I see,
I wonder, could some wizardry
Uncast the spell, unscrew the cap,
Give the vessel a gentle tap,
Copyright © 2006 Billie Houston.
