Liberian Literary Magazine
Promoting Liberian literature, Arts and Culture
Jack Kolkmeyer
but then there are the birds that perch on
top
w ho come and sit and w atch and sing
they come from different tribes and climes
orioles dov es jays thrushes and crow s
singing their ow n songs of joy and lov e
and w hispering secret bird migration sounds
birds of a feather w ho like this stop
until the haw k w atching from abov e
sw oops in to leav e but a pool of w ings
ominously fluttering birdless on the ground
Mending The Fence Day
today is mending the fence day
w alking along the barriers betw een us and
them
and plugging holes along the system
designed
to let in or keep out something or someone
you hav e a particular attitude about both
then and now
these are some of the pains and blisters
of mending your fences
here is the opening w here the possum
sneaks through
late at night
to come and eat the cat food on the patio
and w alk around in a daze a bit of a fool
and it’s w here the big black snake sticks its
head out
looking around for the danger of me w ith
shov el in hand
and slithers into the garden grow ing or
fallow
to find its morsel there to ensnare and
sw allow
w e let that entrance stay
allow ing for an occasional fool or slimy one
be that as it may
People of a Different Mind
the process of thinking along the lines of
obtuseness
and differences of opinion
or
simply hav ing regard for a different
perception
inv olv es a subtle shift of v iew
because seeing is not alw ays believ ing
seeing can ev en be deceptiv e
refracting reality into prismatic fragments
that crash against our daily discourses
and strangle strange angles of light
that can redirect a sight line into another
v ersion
of reality in a different drop of dimension
w here dow n is up
and uptow n is dow ntow n
and bad is goodly and good is badly
and then there are the creeping v ines and
shrubs and bushes
innocent at first
but w hen left alone
they find an obsession w ith taking ov er
and under
and all around for that matter
sometimes they fool you w ith their aromatic
beauty
and their lilting curv es and siren w ays
and some are truly that in their splendor of
hues
and their bonnets of orange and blues and
reds
but then there are those w ith thorns
that prick you till you bleed
and a drop of your ow n blood
colors the sister seeds buried along the w ay
this is the w ay it can sometimes come to
pass
by us
w hen strolling in the neighborhood
w ith people of a different mind
Jack Kolkmeyer, a Delray Beach-FL resident,
w rites poetry amongst other things. His
chapbook, Higher Glyphs coming out soon
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