The Knight vs. a Swamp Monster by vegasmike (deviantART)
Between the Words and Under the Bed
JCD Kerwin
I fight monsters
in the nighttime
while you
remain afraid
of the sun.
(June, 2013)
With Wooden Swords I Slay Monsters
Tag Archives: poetry
There’s a Hurricane in my Coffee
Haircut
JCD Kerwin
I grab the scissors with both hands,
and hold the blade between my fingertips
to see if the blood will make
my hair a deeper shade of red.
I have styling gel in my eye
and it’s turning my corneas to fire,
but I’ll simply wait to see
if it’ll make my irises turn grey.
I wish haircuts were plastic surgeries,
so my former self could be
swept away with the tiny piles
of scraps upon the floor.
Maybe I’ll go blonde.
(Dec., 2011)
Being Artsy
Day-Glo Flow
JCD Kerwin
I beat myself with brushes ’til
watercolor splashes from
my ears, and my hair
drips with the colors of
some acrylic pigment
I never knew existed.
I stare at canvases
until my heart beats a red
I saw once upon a time
in Nat Geo photographs
of a sunset Nevada Babylon.
My dreams are black and white,
but sometimes dots of color
fall across the page:
sunspots on the movie frame
of my Bladerunner landscape;
reflecting a never-ending,
water-techno-color sky.
I’ll reminisce and catch my breath
’til I paint the clouds at Dawn,
and fade into nothingness at Noon.
Or, maybe I’ll fall into the river,
mix into those liquid, color lines,
and that old, used-up turpentine…
Or, maybe I’ll wake up and find
it’s all just a boring tube of white.
(April, 2012)
Tossing Back Cliches and Caffeine
Skitzacaine
JCD Kerwin
I’m subtle. Like a heart attack.
When I’m on a mission,
I’m as invisible as
an elephant on the subway.
I’m riding high, like
I’m snuffing cocaine and
soaring with wings made—
of iron.
Shit.
I fall faster than my stocks.
I almost wish I hadn’t wished
for the super dose of power
to turn me into Superinfiniteman.
Wish I hadn’t drunk the Kool-Aid and
pumped my thighs full of incrediroids
like all the other ’bots who can’t get
through the day without a pick-me-up.
I thought I wasn’t like them.
Thought I didn’t have to be.
Thought I could finish a dream without
kicking off my socks
and falling out of bed.
But I’m just another mannequin
with a pacemaker.
(May, 2013)
Blood Redwoods
Photo by Don Worth
Clear-Cutting without New Growth
JCD Kerwin
Seems like I’m drafting up my future
before I’m taking three steps
in the present.
I’m signing contracts with
invisible ink and
when I look behind, I see
10,000 acres of land acquisitions
I never knew
I traded freedom for.
Yet,
thinking I am somehow special
just makes my sight foggy;
looking at those who really matter
is like watching leaves
in acid rain puddles.
Didn’t know I could cut
the fragile dreams they have
with mine…
Like a logger in a redwood grove.
(May, 2013)
J.C.D. KERWIN 