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Saturday, December 30, 2023

Familiar Territory

—Poetry by Wayne Russell, South East Ohio
—Public Domain Photos Courtesy 
of Joe Nolan, Stockton, CA
 
 
 
familiar territory

the bell tolls
four o'clock
I start my stroll
across the grassy knoll
into a sea of death
red brick walls
around souls locked away
winter has banished
us into the throes
of hades
that frozen abyss
that familiar territory
a bitter sting
 
 
 


OFF THE GRID

Approach the night
galloping legions of
mythical creatures
drawn up from lucid
dreams.

Waters freeze as do
stars fazed diamond
dimension morphed.

Sounds of bird nor bat
shall rattle senses now
caged.

Approach the night
ocean tide surrender
fading into shoreline.

We have faded from
stage of life the radar
can no longer detect
our whereabouts.
 
 
 
 
 
PTSD

At 18
I dropped out of college
and eloped with the Army,

boot camp was hell, and
it sounded like a metal trash
bin being thrown against the

wall at 4am; Satan sounded
like a drill sergeant named
Tower.

I was his "own special project"
he robbed me of the old me and

like a lifeless lump of clay, he
molded me into the broken

"warrior" here before you now,
writing this horrible poem;

a poet without a heart or soul,
just a man longing to go backwards

in time, living life for me, this time;
I could have been "the something"

that I knew I could be, "the something"
that mother & father said I would never
ever be.

____________________

Today’s LittleNip:

You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.

―Buckminster Fuller

____________________

Wayne Russell visits us in the Kitchen occasionally (since 2010!), and we’re glad to have him back with us today. Wayne is a creative writer who was born and raised in Florida; when he first visited us, he lived in New Zealand. He moved to Ohio in late 2016. His first book of poems,
Where Angels Fear, was published by Guerilla Genius Press in 2020 and is available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com.au/Where-Angels-Fear-Wayne-Russell/dp/B087HFGT26/. His second book of poetry is titled Splinter of the Moon and will be available via Silver Bow Publishing in early 2024. Welcome back to the Kitchen, Wayne!

____________________

—Medusa
 
 
 
 Wayne Russell
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
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