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T. Kilgore Splake: Featured Poet
UNTITLED
nearly teen young girl
growing into young lady
santa easter bunny "may day"
halloween "let's pretend" masks
rapidly slipping away
soon
birthday celebration
going to bars
meeting same men
her mother
knew.
GOOD GOODBYES
youthful near
teenager
almost stepdaughter
bead shoppes clothing store
fancy femme-fille boutique
shopping gifts presents
last time together
asking
"want a hug"
"how about a quality squeeze?"
jesting
"last chance, girl"
feeling chilling reminder
auschwitz bergen-belson dachau
mothers separated
babies young children alone
terrifying time
before
death.
GENERATION WARP ECHO
twelve-year old girl going on young lady
teens, family dining room table, perusing
mail order fashion catalog, femme-fille
jewelry, blouses, sweaters, and jeans,
choosing new pair of boots, soon dark
early morning arctic treks to school,
graybeard poet in love with her mother,
reading used camera lists, canon, nikon,
olympus, pentax, wondering if pennies
enough left over.
THANKSGIVING EVE
old gent john's family restaurant booth early
morning cuppa-cuppa, breaky, perusing yesterday
wall street journal, "stocks and bonds" lists,
asking waitress, "hey, syl, who's cooking the
turkey tomorrow," "how many are coming over,"
"when will you sit down and eat," lonely voice
trailing off, wistfful whisper,
graybeard poet next booth, patched winter parka,
raggedy jeans, swallowing high octane caffeine,
soon quick steps back to loft over the gallery,
turkey day date with elusive damn-dame lady
muse, doing contest, wrestling blank pages
between yellow legal tablet lines, hoping to
make words sing.
TWENTY-FIFTH HOUR
waking sweaty weary spent
bad dreaming eternity
chasing lost lover young daughter
back asleep
forcing restless slumber
hoping next scene discovery
"happily ever after" finis
usually
my nightmares days
matinee performances
late afternoon dramas
wide awake.
ADVANCING TERROR
no longer fearing testosterone levels going
dry, "use it or lose it" taunts of younger
men, forever measuring vitality with wild
romantic passions,
or worry about body wearing out, hospital
hospice, nursing home prison, nightmares
over welfare, past poorhouse shame of
mother, father,
death no longer number fear, "so this is
it" final benediction, slipping away one
quiet moment between now here nowhere,
alzheimer dementia real devil lurking, no
longer remembering simple things, afraid
to sleep, waking mornings to continuous
"etch-a-sketch" nothingness.
T. Kilgore Splake, the bard of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, is a prolific and widely published poet. His many chapbook collections include Pictured Rocks Poetry, Trout Dancing Sonata, Last Train Out, and his most recent, The Murderous Clown .
