quartz
a world pursued by causal effects brief understanding landing in tall
grass grasped inexorable dawn gone before my older brother came home
attempts to faintly know a row of suns dove into you from a broken
spire i’ve grown faster vainly lasted partly inflamed i became a wingless
dove tangled in my body you said find me where the sky ends blended
honestly with sin until i’m driven beyond the ocean my emotions are
concave time made me walk soberly taken under waves saved your portraits
for fire my environment’s mired in nocturne realm of endless pleasures
trees are at the helm i feel but cannot abscond beyond harmless bombs
sent into the sky setting our minds in motion
gambits
undercurrent of realms i don’t withstand the shells & ashes in my mind
climbing banisters pouring over photographs only time could tell between
my former selves delved from a restless height platforms obscured my
sight sailed until i met earth cursed faces of lesser gods arks of blue
lightning distracted for no one my mother hummed hymns my mind is
everything i can’t defend hemmed in one sided dreams my understanding
is all i refuse to see used like dull knives or blighted foliage disfigured
staring in reverse
garden
your smile pervades the traffic in my mind belied
the urge to be totally immersed already seers turned
blind sites of your heart’s desire teeming inward
the naked entrance in my body alive for how long
examined our life-lines joined a single point in repose
your face like the shore at my door the lore of feeding fire
because it’s alive
— J.L. Moultrie is a Detroiter and multi-genre writer who communicates his craft through words. He hasn’t been the same since encountering Sylvia Plath, Edgar Allan Poe & Fyodor Dostoyevsky. He considers himself a modern, abstract imagist.