David Russell Writes

Fast Lane

Let’s get in the fast lane –
Rip off the doors and slice the breezes;
Let’s get in the fast lane –
Thread the highway through a needle.

We can loop the date-line
In a coral reef-knot;
Turn our jet-lag inside out,
Inverted, oblique, reversed.

Let’s fly an exploding plane,
Turn on our parachutes –
Chrysanthemums of fire
In the fast lane.


Clouds

In chroniclers’ minds
Past wars all went full circle
Making great urban filth destroy itself
So that the finest flowers and shrubs
Could sprout at random.

And birds, in exultation
Or happy in their ignorance
Made rills of melody
Now man had passed them by.

But now, with ice and poison
For one full year enthralled, embalmed.
And after that, growth’s circle
Jarred shuddering in mid-turn

Can even a worm
Or an amoeba celebrate?


Disintegration

The bottom fell out
And all things gathered,
Reverted to their origins
In skips, on pavements,
Fell to casual hands.
But at the pit
Of all exhaustion,
The bottom of grip’s loss
Are seeds and roots
Of restoration
Which in throbbing cycles
Breathe out on pine and belt.
The bottom stood solid.

David Russell