The Rummage

it is a day that never begins

from the window dead leaves die

die again fall away

a cold wind breaks against a stone wall broken

vultures hunched on old silos stare coldly

an old man on the road stares back

there is no why

seeing the dark masses of rising starling falling loudly are they

what passes for sky

a woman's voice calls to no one

the attic stairs are darkly worn

a dim light creates more shadows than light

the woman's voice calls again

bothered her words are buried deeper

then again

jppestana

The Rummage

12...8..2020

 

Before and After

when there is nothing left to see

blindly pleased you see everything

before me

and what little is left you feel escaping

like some bandit desperately riding away under an all consuming sun

and strangely you leave me abandoned

a victim speechless here

in the before and

after

jppestana

Before and After

12.8.2020

My Desire

bring the beautiful flower to me

it is my desire

it is the sum of all things in this minute

of all things

it is the striking sound

of a breeze repeating in frail leaves

all around me leaves reveal

a season nameless desiring

waiting for the lightest caress

let today be the day when paths cross

when a smile used but once

fans the flames of a sun in bare fields

a fog rising from dampened earth

a shimmering puddle of desire

shaking off the wings

of darkly nervous

birds

jppestana

My Desire

11.26.2020

Spanish Dance

slowly the crow lower than ever overhead

shed the remaining rays of day

their wings move thick air pulse

the boy in him lies in the same place he was born

lies in the subtle disguising dim but wonders out loud

stares into the flood of blue space

bridges collapsing in the stream

this is the distance in him speaking

this is the travel of one

freely fearlessly he dances dances

at last ecstatic he applauds

there is no one to hear

no one to see

the last of this

his spanish

dance

JP Pestana

Spanish Dance

11.22.2020

 

A New You

I have no memory

of dark suns running from me

of the thunderous irritations

of a frightened night

of the abandoned child crying broken

in a grove of broken trees weeds over graves

but I should

but please go ahead

set me free from the most heavenly among us

enthusiastic clap of dead eyes

echo of the most righteous ghosts

echoes of hollow lies

and who is the he that stands shivering uncertain

pleading to the most minor of gods

mythical bowing

to the new truth

of a new

you

jppestana

A New You

10.26.2020

Death of Birds

within a circle small

children kneel

in their tears crumbles

of warm earth

the sky calls their names

growing softer over time

the conflicted light embraces

its telling shadows

their lowered eyes

hidden from me

time crawls stops

the great egret passes high

so slowly over tall trees

green summer water

is this the illusion

ask me again

ask me when it

begins again

when the death

of birds and

the cold hand of truth slaps at me

wakes me from this holiest of

restless sleeps

Death of Birds

jppestana

10...2.2020of

Hurricane Rain

dogs bark harshly at nothing seen

a shrinking sky obscures

it's comes as sure as louisiana drowns

the old church bell tolls its loneliness less me

sees what there is to see

meet the newly half blind man

weeping trees

the brown stream through the heart

races crazily from here to there

from the same trees emerges the shoeless woman

holding her shoes high

black dress clinging

black umbrella twisting in wind

she splashes happily

going her own way

to her only

eternity

jppestana

Hurricane Rain

8.30.2020