DISCOURSE FLAMED OUT

by Kenneth Johnson

AI-generated graphic by NightCafé for The New Verse News.

Words once enlightening,
now smoldering on a trash heap,
thoughts unraveled like smoke
rising, intertwined, undecipherable.
The air, thick with thieves,
is a place where meaning
crumbles, dissolves
before it can be formed.
Voices that once nurtured
dialogue now carefully hone 
their obsidian edges.
Once, we built conduits,
word by word,
constructed to withstand scrutiny,
to span great divides.
Now, we stand at the ruins,
watching the remnants 
flicker out into darkness.
Discourse flamed out,
the ashen particles
becoming less dense
as they float aimlessly,
finally disappearing.

Kenneth Johnson is a Pushcart-nominated poet and visual artist living in Claremont, California. He is the author of the chapbook Molten Muse.

ESTRANGED: LINES OF AN AMERICAN EXPAT

by Andrew Frisardi

Our smoldering has turned to smoke

That streaks the sky like contrails spread

Across the sea. Your fertile body

Gave me a life before I woke

To sleepwalk where my dreams had led,

Oblivious there’d been a rift.

Though distant, you still have your hooks

In me. Your plain talk has gone shoddy,

Your ruddy natural good looks

Are faded, yet your undertow

Still raises riptides in my blood.

Marking our continental drift

Apart, our fits of fire and flood

Are all goodbye and half hello.

My mother, my love, our past runs deep.

We don’t know what is going wrong,

To whom or where we now belong,

As we turn and toss and turn in sleep.

Andrew Frisardi is a Bostonian living in central Italy. His recent books include The Harvest and the Lamp (2020) and Ancient Salt: Essays on Poets, Poetry, and the Modern World (2022, forthcoming).