MICHAEL LEE JOHNSON

MICHAEL LEE JOHNSON

IRANIAN POETRY LADY

(V2)

The first time I saw your face, cosmetic images, dust, dirt, determination

fell across your exiled face.  Coal smoke lifted with your simple words and short poems.

Your meaning drawn across a black board of past, rainbows, future

fragment, still in the shadows.

Muhammad, Jesus twins, only one forms a hallo alone.

One screams love, drips candle wax, lights life, shakes, love.

I encrust your history in the Ginkgo tree, deliverance.

I wrap in the branches the whispers in your ears a new beginning.

I am the landscape of your future walk soft peddle on green grass.

I will take you there.  I am your poet, your lead, freedom clouds move over then on.

I review no spelling, grammar errors; I lick your envelope, finish, stamp place on.

Down with age I may go, but I offer this set of wings I purchased at a thrift store.

I release you in south wind, storms, and warm in spring, monarch butterflies.

Your name scribbles in gold script.

Night, mysteries, follow handle, your own.

HARVEST TIME

(V8)

A Métis lady, drunk-

hands folded, blanketed as in prayer

over a large brown fruit basket

naked of fruit, no vine, no vineyard

inside-approaches the Edmonton,

Alberta adoption agency.

There are only spirit gods

inside her empty purse.

Inside the basket, an infant,

restrained from life,

with a fruity winesap apple

wedged like a teaspoon

of autumn sun

inside its mouth.

A shallow pool of tears mounts

in his native baby blue eyes.

Snuffling, the mother offers

a slim smile, turns away.

She slithers voyeuristically

through near slum streets

and alleyways,

looking for drinking buddies

to share a hefty pint

of applejack wine.

CHEATERS

(V3)

I am tired of cheaters

online, weary eyed crossword

players complicated chest moves

drift dancers, lies, laid soft peddle,

shared pillow, dark closet dreamers.

Campaign gossip whispers,

infidelity, sex objects shoved up orifices

in open or private places.

Sex shops open late, consummation

nightclubs, cities dark corners.

Two doctrines of selfishness

you should know about

penises and affairs most are short.

Flesh and fights, scabs, cheaters in the night.

ONE-LEGGED GOOSE

You see me in the parking lot hobbling, avoiding cars.

I am that one-legged Canadian goose guest of the wild.

You toss me a handful of mixed birdfeed.

I am your morning wing flapper picking up leftovers

by sparrows brown wing doves, yet grateful for charity.

I learn to survive dipped in red resister North then South

traveler, lifelong, mute to borders, I cross the line.

I thank you poet, bouquet, crossword flowers

gusty winds mix carnations.

Cheap, reasonable costs in depth, death, within religions,

tones of god Zeus, one space to Mary wept.

Those cheap carnations at the foot of the cross.

One-legged goose singled out.

FLIGHT OF THE EAGLE

From the dawn, dusty skies

comes the time when

the eagle flies-

without thought,

without aid of wind,

like a kite detached without string,

the eagle in flight leaves no traces,

no trails, no roadways-

never a feather drops

out of the sky.

MICHAEL LEE JOHNSON