Friday, April 13, 2012

the price of memories




what outside influence
intrudes upon us surreptitiously
stealthily
stealing our breath like carbon monoxide
letting us do something we don’t want to
explain 

as the soaring price of
precious metals seeps into our consciousness
heirlooms have found their way
reversing the gold rush
to pawn shops
coin dealers
hotel lobbies
instead of into jewelry boxes
dresser drawers of nieces
or nephews 

no dust or danger
no pack horse or partner
searching for Sutter’s Mill
just a paved strip mall parking lot
and a sandwich bag of rings, lockets, chains
the remains, the props of the past
the stuff of personal history 

more than gold traded but
the memories weigh easy
on the digital scale
the tipping point, the balance
some logic that someone else
would just stake their claim 

after we’re gone 

Barry DeCarli
April 12, 2012
Copyright 2012 Barry DeCarli


Monday, April 9, 2012

like father, like son


wanting to pour poetry
from a bottle
of Pinot Grigio
to uncork the perfect pairing
of words and emotion
in an untitled document
trying to escape the collision
of headache and hope with
the right metaphor
stoking my muse there in the wine
my poem scrapes against the easiness
of inkjet black on white

he stood unsteadily
the car was his vehicle
driven with a practiced recklessness
he sought to slake a more primal thirst
I never understood
as the bourbon burned his throat
then softly drenched
his drought of dreams
for a while he found forgiveness
fulfillment there in the bottle

his Oldsmobile keyed with barbed wire
while taking out the farmer’s fence

there was nothing easy about his poetry
of rubber and speed
steel and noise

Barry DeCarli
April 15, 2010 (6)
Copyright 2010 Barry DeCarli

Thursday, April 5, 2012

like a ghost

like an invisible cloud
I sneak across your life
like a ghost
with no place to haunt
I watch and remember
secret handshakes
and passwords
I gaze through your days
and nights
unseen
I linger just near enough
to dream again
then
like a whisper of wind
I say goodbye unheard
unseen
like a ghost
I'm gone

Barry DeCarli
From Of Sun And Rain
Copyright 1972 Barry DeCarli

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