by Steve Hellyard Swartz
This side of snow mountain is Past
On the other side, where I can't see -
What Will Be
We have your snow now
We have the wildlife that died
On your side
Your bears
Your seals
Your glorious emperors of Night
Are here now
I can't see above snow mountain to report exactly and precisely what the nature
Of life is, in its many and varied permutations
And there is no one thing left on your side
To carve the tale of what's to be
Here,
I hear the gunning of engines
The running of tongues
The emperor who held sway
Is dressing down as a nun
You had your majesty
Your million year run
We have what is Past
Or what passes as past
We have the fleeing tense
A new construction
A syntax
Built not on cold and permanence
Built, behind snow mountain, which itself was built by the plows in the parking lot of the suburban middle school
What we have, in fleeing abundance,
Is a simple postscript
On every wall, in every hall
Easily interpreted by scholar and fool
What we have
Is cool
Steve Hellyard Swartz's poetry has appeared in The New Verse News, Best Poem, Haggard and Halloo, The Kennesaw Review, and switched-on gutenberg. He has won Honorable Mention in the Anna Davidson Rosenberg Poetry Competition and the 2007 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards. In 2008, his poetry will appear in The Paterson Review and The Southern Indiana Review. His film, Never Leave Nevada, opened in Dramatic Competition at the 1990 U.S. Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
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