High Cotton

Grandpaw used to run the farm
but he don’t work no more;
but he still rides his tractor,
a new one, that’s for shore.
He’s busy spendin’ money
that he don’t have to earn
‘cause Grandpaw won the lottery
an’ he’s got cash to burn. Read more.

Life Undisciplined

Life undisciplined
Unruly, punctuated
by serene moments
dressed with soft flower buttons
sewn on green woven
noisy jungle platitudes.

JO's Blog

Events

Some events wait/ beneath your bed/ all night,/ or months if you are slumbering deep,/ and grab your ankles by their teeth/ when you get up/ and snarl and grind and gnash/ dragged down the corridor.../ (read more)

Pickles

Pickles here, pickles there,
pickles, pickles everywhere,
pickles hot and pickles sweet,
pickles are the best of treats.
I eat pickles everyday.
Pickles help me rhyme this way.
Pickles, yes they’re good for you,
they’re vegetables you love to chew! Yum, yum!

Spring

thousand flowers.. read more

Rain

the drizzle.. read more

Reader Logic

taking a page from better read heads now dead and gone turn in, look beyond

orgasm

feel soft the fire rise, burning with hunger
and a need to release and take in new fuel.
I can imagine you, hands playing proxy
for my desires. your body slowly surrendering

William F. DeVault. all rights reserved.

Cathedral

sore joints
in an angry room
where fluttering wings
brought echoes to the silence

Little, The Chicken

Little was a chicken
who chose to fly the coop.
“I’ll not be some man’s breakfast,
sold for pennies-- dirty loot.
I’m off to see the world,
chicken poetry?

A Proposal

So hold these helping hands
because i have something to say
there’s no need
for a reason
so I left you
unwilling
and unknowing
as we break out
all dressed up
in our bravado
little killers
out for vengeance
and with some notion
of conscience

Monday Haiku

Spent sunflower droops

Faded as summer romance

Life lets go like leaves

That Package

That package
arrived wrapped with brown paper
soiled with abstractions
in screaming shapes and forms,
an abomination of masking tape
criss-crossed in confusion.
The whole thing
left me breathless
because I knew you wrapped it
cursing my name.

JO's Blog

hole in starry sheet / mended every fortnight ....Read more

Rapture

As the room darkens
and the pace quickens,
whispers fill the room,
echoing through
tunnels and chasms
and endless labyrinths.

Traveller

long scorched path he travelled alone like everyone else

fruit

is heavy on the trees peaches touch the ground curving branches plums gather in purple masses on the ground bleeding a rotten crop continue reading

Orange Jim

Orange Jim, he was a carrot,
though the veggies called him, Slim.
He said, “I want to see the world,
get out of this dirt I’m in.
I’m tired of only hangin’ out.
It’s time I pulled up roots,
and if the gardener, he gets mad,
I don’t give a shoot!”

The Loner

I went to sunny climes
and ignored the light.

In my worn satchel I carried a book,
an old tome
I had since high school,
its leather cover scarred and tested
like me.
I'd never read it
merely carried it as I traveled through life,
and it got knocked and bumped along with me.

... Read more

Late Larry Strait

Larry Strait was always late
no matter where he’d go.
Teachers, parents, the traffic cop,
they chided Larry so,
read more...

Dreams Gone Black

Thunder faces, hearts in despair
it's over, no more games to play.
So lost, so sad, pure angst laid bare
Earth spins out an unnoticed day
as we sit, motionless display.
Fanned out, our field of dreams gone black.
Waiting for another game day
Sitting here until it comes back.

JO's Blog

Ringlets

when I wake I know
I made a decision
to be real today
to be real tomorrow
because the air I breathe
is the air you breathe
But it’s easy
to believe
in air.

The Nooning

Ants run
on dirty plates
tossed on summer green grass
while Mom's wash fans boyish rumbles
at noon.

JO's Blog

Old Generator

One day I asked my granny,
“Why do you move so slow?
You’re lots bigger than me
but Granny, you don’t go.”
Was then ol’ Granny said to me
these words I’ll not forget.
They’ve never left my memories,
at least, not yet...
Find out what Granny said.

when the snow settles

I shake the snow globe
and when the snow settles...

Maltese Summer

A slower breath, a sweeter sigh
A time to take away for measure:
Swimming in heat, feasting on water,
As silence softly unfolds its treasure.
White light, blue haze,
Movements distilled of pace by distance
And then they come, the whispered stories
Tumbling across time together.
Goenchi

Efface

It’s been too long
since I’ve heard this song
but back then
the lyrics made more sense
and you weren’t sitting here
unwelcome in my bed

Petunia The Pussy Cat

Petunia was a pussy cat
who hated her life so.
“My brother’s always get their way
when Mommy doesn’t know. Meow

Two Strikes

Summer heat, good old boys, two strikes in the ninth
peanut vapors, gritty vibes, cacophonous uproar
beery stenches tickle fate, sweat forms on the brow
Cross your heart, clench your fists, come on bring it home!
beery stenches tickle fate, sweat forms on the brow
peanut vapors, gritty vibes, cacophonous uproar
Summer heat, good old boys, two strikes in the ninth

JO's Blog

Clockwise

she collects magazines
in her socks
and sells her words
for an easy way out
she craves direction
because her clocks
can’t stop pointing north

Hyperlink Love Affair

She gave me a link--
a little thing--
but it made my soul soar,
made my heart sing.

I fell to the bottom

I fell to the bottom and saw a million eyes.

Swam through the dark light and the fallen sky,

Out into the sea. [more]

Kicking Up

Storms gather
with tides nipping shore
but sisters know how to swim
dancing in rushing waves together
kicking up inspiration
that way sisters do
holding hands.

JO's Blog

Come, come over here

Come, come over here.

Let me spin you in my arms.

Let me feel your hair on my shoulder,

As you stare into my eyes. [more]

Paramour

When the first one tore into you
it blew your heart into my room
and as the world, it cut right through you
You were freed from its cocoon

Because we’re weaving these bright pictures
on your mother’s sacred loom
and the visions are so pretty
as they leave their holy wounds

Blinded

I lie sprawled on concrete
like an alley cat
looking to the stars
my body iced
by frozen concentration
and Jack Daniels
eyes zigzagging the skies
like jet rockets
looking for recognition.

...More

Once Upon A Time

‘Twas once upon a time
in a world of no sunshine
lived a little boy who hated his life so,
for there were those you see,
who knew he’d come to be
the boy who’d never dare tell all he knows.