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The Block Train

Waking in a sand blast of bad sleep
past some blinded Sphinx
I hear the chalkboard scream
of a yard pigeon dying
as bars slam through orange,
making the same sound
as teeth rubbing against stone.
I know one thing vaguely
as ever; I am inheriting
these stems of your dementia
Cell by cell. For want
of ritual plastic burns,
Mop wigs, kool aid lip balm,
bored with sharp origami
in a men’s colony, you pause
a moment in rec time
to fingerpaint a wail
wide as a rude thumb
in a block that moves steamed
as a train, and the bars shadow
breeze by in one Rorschach spill,
with my head smudged
in one hexagonal smatter.
You always loved our
Aztec books at Christmas,
the gloss of rolling limp prey
down estuary steps.
Here I am in these
dual temples
of civilization killing
time, wailing, bloodletting
with your barbed wire.

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Comments

It's good to see a new face.
I don't care much for free verse, but I liked the imagery wrought here.
One suggestion. Sometimes the sentences seem over long. Too much imagery in one sentence. Don't drop the words (they are too well wrought to abandon them), but perhaps you could break them up into smaller sentences.
Okay, two suggestions. Think about some line breaks. I have a habit of writing without them and it creates this "wall of words" that becomes intimidating to read.
Still and all, a good poem.
I see from your profile you are quite prolific. A lot of poetry in a month's time. I hope you get more attention.

W. H. Snow

A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds. Percy Bysshe Shelley

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