The Sky Is

the sky is
a crisis of lying maddened nights 
violet light last signs of 
escaping days
the sky is what it is
small voices in darkened shapeless trees
belong to the bodies of all lost to the ages
carved away from the reality of hearing 
the quietest sounds
screams of the drowning crowd
the whisperer
a slow sip of whisky later
a man shapes his image 
with the help of the moon
then loses himself
in the warm songs
of his own
making

jppestana
The Sky Is
8.5.2019

One Day In Place of Another

she moves slightly ever so in
a gentle enough breeze
ceases to be 
then returns

diffusions of ocean light bluish enough
remnants of sun touching
deep into green leaves
the when of it
survives

fades then in the litter
of our tossing
thoughts one day
in place of
another

One Day In Place of Another
jppestana
8.12.2019

Bones

a senseless incessant breeze
withering days
leave me weak
like the waning light 
of a half-hearted day
say by the way
have you heard
I have turned into
something new
meet me in my new place
away from the old faces
old lines of old stories of life
wound deeply in a kind
of living crazy sin
and yes let the children skip away
and sing
and be
I can guess the time
I will walk alone for now
remembering nothing
but this sound of my bones
in some maddening
dream

jpestana
Bones
5.16.2019

The Call


a procession of thin clouds

brighter than the calling sun 

than finch singing 

ever so 

brightly


jppestana
The Call
5.13.2019

This Day Or Next

the sun is at a loss complete
yet the yard is ever brighter bound up in blues softer
the trees silver gloss are somehow
a thousand eyes envious upon
upon a bird surely golden
in its sensuous flight
but surely not in this sudden stillness
of this day
or next

jppestana
4.10.2019

Risk of Darkness

before me
dark horses move slowly into dusk
dust hangs low in their shuffling trot
confuses consumes the reddened horizon descending still
their wary glances from eyes too dark to see leave me
abandon all but
the risk of 
darkness

jppestana
Risk of Darkness
3.30.2019

The Shadows of Crow

ah the impossibilities of this 
deepest untroubled sleep
seeing the sparking edge
of a moon burning away 
what's left 
of my
deserted 
earth
the wind rises 
sings from the hymnal
of hills 
gospel 
of dreams
now the moon pillows me
soothes me in the tremors
or the coming 
shadows of 
crow

jppestana
The Shadows of Crow
3.27.2019