HEATH BROUGHER

HEATH

BROUGHER

THE WORD-WEAVER

(for Don Beukes)

I know a man who was born

at the intersection of History and Injustice

and through a head-spinning whirlwind

of astounding word-weaving sculpts brilliant statues

of language often dealing with this experience.

What is the experience, you ask? That would be

growing up in South Africa during the Apartheid.

It is imperative that the masses

read the words he has woven

as his voice is one of the most important

to be heard among the contemporary noise.

He is

an endless stream of Humanity and Magnanimity.

He is

one of the most important voices in the world.

I am

astounded by the Genius with which he tells these tales.

I am

so utterly honored to have the privilege of calling him a close friend.

OBSCURED BY LIGHT

Still through

glass and other transparencies

we see a perception all our own

our eyes

glisten with the light-flicker

of the shining sun—

your niya may be dirty but your nagi need stay clean—

for who knows what really decides anything at all?

NOVEMBER BOUGH

However you talk,

in any meaningless language,

reciting the sculpted gutturals

that distinguish a human

from a goat, from now on whenever you speak there will be

a hollowness in the tone, the voice-pitch

will ring empty for a moment,

as no birds will anymore flutter

rom the trees of Wholeness and Integrity. November staring down

the calendar, eyeing once-bulbous euphony,

and eclipsing the cascade of echoing words

down the drain, left flushed and pallid

by this gaunt thing that whispers through the breeze

its sordid songs played over the begging and beseeching.

HEATH BROUGHER

HEATH BROUGHER is the co-poetry editor of Into the Void Magazine. He is a multiple Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net Nominee and his work has been translated into journals in Albania and Kosovo. He was the judge of Into the Void’s 2016 Poetry Competition and edited the anthology "Luminous Echoes," the proceeds of which will be donated to an organization which helps prevent suicide/self harm. He published three chapbooks in 2016, one full-length collection, "About Consciousness" (Alien Buddha Press), in 2017, and has 3 full-length collections forthcoming in 2018. His work has appeared in Taj Mahal Review, Chiron Review, MiPOesias, Degenerate Literature, Main Street Rag, Blue Fifth Review, BlazeVOX, and elsewhere.