Night Windows

Plague Doctor

So here in the shining city on the hill we watched the broad plain with its shifting grasses always thinking the trouble would arrive at the gate announcing itself.

But no, it crept in in ones and twos broken glass lungs etched in X-rays seeping in under the gate.

We could not fathom the wave of misery that broke us open.

The burbling cry of wet breath that choked the air filling every corner.

We wailed for answers.

The plague doctor came surveying the heaps of dead plying us with platitudes and potions crying “Let them inject bleach!”

Pushing out the dead early in the morning I saw him shambling down the hill.

Empty eyes behind his mask and blood on his hands.

-Skye

Subject: Actress Mamie Whittaker, September 15, 1910 Photographer: Bassano Additional info: Whole-plate glass negative. Copyright, National Portrait Gallery, London Source: fawnvelveteen

Mamie Whittaker

I looked for you Everywhere

You had a bit part in Houp La! The almost forgotten circus musical extravaganza

You were the lion tamer of all things I cannot reconcile your angelic Countenance with Whips and roaring ravenous beasts.

And here your trail grows cold

Did a lion eat you? Did you marry and lose yourself? Did you grow hungry as your beauty fell away? Did you end up lifting your skirts in some London Alley?

One hundred and fifteen years on you are simply

Gone

Except for your sweet, copyrighted smile.

-Skye

Photograph Title: Striptease club, Tokyo, 1951. Photographer:  Werner Bischof

Striptease Club, Tokyo ‘51

Painted faces and smooth skin Lounging among dressing room clutter Channeling palace concubines For the average man

Emerging from feudalism

Tokyo girls All bouncing breasts and Swaying hips Take the stage.

-Skye

This is Wyoming 

The barbed fence undulates into the horizon The long rollers of the deep old sea feathered with grass Dotted with pronghorn and ghosts of buffalo

Capped in bright sky

The great plain The red car zipping Through the simmering tar

The woman almost 50 The woman bright and lively after 70

Talk rolls back and forth

Some thunder

There have always been hard lines Etched in old oceans There has always been wind cutting across the plane Changing everything

 -Skye’s Poem

Eleionomae

Down by the water heavy with silt and frogs the quick green eyes follow you

The mud’s daughter Lingering among the reeds The winsome whispers keep you near

Old as the bayou gator   Hungry too Reaching out for you

A finger dipped Framing the lovely face in ripples Moments before you break the water.  

-Skye

Source: Darren Almond Refractive Index I, 2018 aquatint 18 ¾ x 16 inches edition 25

Refractive Index

Waking in a rumple of bedclothes With you And the morning sun

The suncatcher Spins slowly on radiator updrafts

Bending light Into broken kaleidoscopes That travel across our Mingled skin.

-Skye

HAIKU Anatomy and Physiology

Each adrenal cell Under my microscope’s eye Holds a universe

-Skye

Photographer: Jamie Cuen Source: angiefalanji

HAIKU-River Children

Children splash and swim, heedless of the dangers found in deeper water.

Title: “Craving for Power” Author: Ilo Kunst Medium: Pen and ink on paper. Source:Beautifulbizarre.

Mad Kings with Blood on Their Hands

Psychotic Charles IV slew his own knights

Paranoid Ivan T. tortured subjects on Saturday afternoons

Oh, and don’t forget George III ranting incoherently as

America broke away Swearing off kings forever…

-Skye

Ordinary

It’s the common things The row of milk Whole Skim Even Almond

It’s the cart with the Wonky Grumbly wheel

It’s holding hands While hunting   Creamed corn

(Who buys creamed corn anymore, anyways?)

It’s standing in line Watching apples Roll along the belt Knowing with certainty There will be pie.

- Skye