Two Poems by B.Z. Niditch
Escape
The sunshine rests
on the humid noonday
and you hear radio talk
from a truck driver’s window
a superstar crashes
from one reviewer’s opinion
and feeling animated
for no good reason
you wonder why
every earthly crowd
betrays its idols and oracles;
yet this poet longs for the sea,
with half-speech dialogue,
stoops in front
of the beach’s glancing rays
over clear sandstone
oscillates his shadow
in sudden blue water
to escape a mind-racing world.
Neruda’s Day
With your splintered voice
charred from sand pits
by flowerless fields
on an walking stick
you survey a sleeping sun
somewhere in Valparaiso
shaken by a posture of wind
the day revives you
with single light glance
at the general injustice
of a hungry earth time.
A child rises under a bridge
shouting a manna of words
wishing for a taste of bread
from a brush fire of solidarity
you pass by honeyed trees
your giant footprints
on a rust belt road
wanting to be boundless
as a sea of featherbed eagles
covers the tattooed sky.
B.Z. Niditch
|