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Manhattan Blues
All is still but the rivulets,
rain that pelts the Jane Street
cobbles. Beneath the sky’s
steely shawl, the lone
emerge from a broken day,
rovers in rustic alleys,
ugly lovers bound in half-light,
all face and shadow, the low-drone
whirl of coos. At dawn
their limbs will harden, ears
cupped to the concrete, waiting
for a steed’s quickening drub.
***
The Genetic Flaw:
My family tree is an aspen, naked
and starkly white, in want of fronds and the casual brown.
I'm a frosted limb in the shade
of ancestral elbows, elided of the sun's dainty spoonfuls.
An artless thing:
My blood is less ruddy than others,
slightly diluted. My skin, a weaker beige,
the texture of crumpled leather.
A need for excess:
I blame my father, who toppled
from a chittering plank, greeted
by the burn of stained waters.
I'm the last of defective males
with no seeds or shame. I too quivered on the plank,
but rose above, shed myself
of burden, a legacy that seethes in the bottom brew.
***
Bio: Richard C Williams resides in NYC, is a graphics/web designer, a firm supporter of animal rights, and editor of the innovative literary journal Pierian Springs.
Williams' poetry is published and/or forthcoming in various magazines, journals, and e-zines, including: The Adirondack Review, can we have our ball back?,
The Pedestal Magazine, Three Candles, Eleven Bulls, Snow Monkey, Comrades, 3rd Muse, Niederngasse, Little Brown Poetry, Pig Iron Malt, Snow Monkey, among
many others. Williams is currently seeking a publisher for his first collection of poems
entitled "Little Boy Blue" and can be reached via email at richardc@pieriansprings.net .
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