Joseph D E Phillips

Said the old woman
while holding
her lover's hand
...

It's almost midnight.
Please don't pine
as clock hand finds
one one five nine.
...

the gray cloud of the gray world
will grab you
make you sad
...

Her feathers are her pride
And skin her feathers hide,
Her skin so pale and pink and frail,
She suffers deep inside.
...

Be still, loves, be still!

Find the happy medium
that path to enlightenment
...

Look.
Light seeps through maple leaves
like stained glass windows
veins the frames between colors.
...

Dear grandmother,

your pottery
is immaculate,
...

The lamb has dreams to beat
the shepherd who will bind
her brave and lion-like feet.
...

My name-tag slides
into the time-clock, beeping
into eight hours more without you.
...

When these forgotten hands begin to wither,
bereaved and shaking they will grab their pen
and, with it, scribble nonsense on a page.
Then, in frustration, they will cast the pen
...

She rolls away to face the wall
And I turn toward her just to stare.
I watch her breathe— her rise and fall.
Her soft, white shoulder says it all,
...

The old clock gongs each hour
to tell what life is left of us
to speak of what we left behind
only hours ago in shadow.
...

There are monsters inside
each and every one of us.
There are dolphins inside of us too.
...

My words may not be exuberant
but poetry is nothing if not truthful.
I put it to you straight:
...

There's a glitch in the matrix
and I've seen this before.
Why, I've written this
a thousand times
...

it does not look like what we imagine.
Often it resembles the shape of a red blood cell
though clear, colorless and reflective as glass.
...

A lion paces
the cage of the head
of the bipedal mammal
who dreams
...

passed by in aisle eight at the grocery store.
Your eyes met mine and your hand, reaching
for a box of cereal, hesitated as you returned
...

A flare of anger
a stark reply

a scowl, indifferent
...

I spent twelve hours in the factory
to put heat in the house
and pay for the house
and put food on my family's table
...