refugees

but for the tears

a small boy may shed

his childhood has been torn from him

discarded on the tracks

a bloodied rag left behind

another past drying up

blowing across the oiled ties

scorpions dance over the cooling grey stones

he watches as if they are toys

he can not have

his mother’s dark eyes hold

the idea of home

to light the path ahead

through the dark cruel shadows

even as the razor wire slices deep

as terror tempers her hope

she does not let go of his hand

Barry DeCarli

September 25, 2015

On Hammond Pond

©2015 Barry DeCarli

Draft #2

lost message

the scarcity of time becomes

too much to waste.

still the pain lasts

and grows

as cells turn too brittle

too emaciated to hold a good memory.

no wonder we miss the sign

pulsing against our eyelids.

the message we won’t accept

takes too much time to get through:

some forgetful god is unable to shape an answer other than

no.

Barry DeCarli

May 19, 2010 & September 18, 2015

On Hammond Pond

©2015 Barry DeCarli

unpublished

so many poets

many more unread words

in notebooks

Word documents

on printer paper

who would read

a loose stack

of papers

hardly cohesive

a spineless unbound pile

unglued pages

some caught under

a weight of polished marble

corners blowing

clicking like playing cards

clothes-pinned to metal bike spokes

then luffing in the window’s breeze

who would tighten phrases

shuffle papers

fold them into a manuscript

a volume of verse

seventy poems perfectly bound

placed on a bookstore shelf

title on the spine

to wait for buyers and

readers uncommon

Barry DeCarli

August 27-28, 2015

On Hammond Pond, Goshen MA

©2015 Barry DeCarli

Draft #2

no teaser

called out

for teasing with my words

a faker fashioning phrases

to lure a trusting mind

into my poetic snare

I’d rather be

a magician pulling a thesaurus

out of a hat

a dreamer catching a falling star

holding its rhyme

in a Mason jar

a lamplighter reaching

up to light a circle

of night air

a patch of dark ground

a way home

but not a teaser

keeping a secret

or trying to deceive

with my images that anyone may see

my metaphors as deep as a mirror…

Barry DeCarli

August 15-21, 2015

On Hammond Pond

©2015 Barry DeCarli

draft #4

kaleidoscope

better obscurity

than the scrutiny

of examining eyes

this kaleidoscope of our own

broken pieces held

up to the light

some will see beauty

some pain and waste

from the rainbow of color

and jagged edges

tumbling as we turn

to the next catastrophe

or epiphany

the mirrored hall of scattered

dreams, tattered triumphs

the spare glory days

conjured with the turn

of a hand illuminating

the bits and beads

the shards of yesterday

the loose ends

the arbitrary patterns

of bliss and blunder roll

to reflect our tunnel vision until

the fractured light shows us

the mismatched fragments

wedded and welded
by shade and color
our sharp edges salt water sanded
to a sea glass satin
visible
yet ever-changing

to those who look into this lens to find the light

Barry DeCarli

August 13, 2015*
Revised August 25, 2017 On South Street Easthampton

*On Hammond Pond, Goshen MA

©2015 Barry DeCarli

despair

sometimes

hope leads us on

teases us with

its shiny baubles

its stunning horizons

it can carry us over

the roiling turmoil

the raging storm

then as easily

with its cornucopia of lies

spill us into the waves

to flounder against its loss

Barry DeCarli

July 31, 2015

On Hammond Pond

©2015 Barry DeCarli

souls in common

across the sky

the years

the miles

of a great divide

without saying

but knowing

perceiving  the bond

that just a few will see

across a country

a continent

an ocean

souls searching

without touch

embrace

or whisper

still a closeness

across the silence

the darkness

the shadows

unknown

similar dreams

light up a speck of universe

a candle flicker

a mirror image

one kindred spirit

or two in a life

finding some shared ground

symphonic similarities

songs sung in unison

answers to questions

no one asked

more déjà vu than coincidence

or memory

a waking dream

across the rippled expanse of wonder

the echo of a thought unspoken

the reflection of a rainbow unseen

unfathomable to all

but souls in common

Barry DeCarli

July 23, 2015 revised

On Hammond Pond, Goshen, MA

©2015 Barry DeCarli