Bound for Glory

Bound for Glory

this train of black boxcars

     raining

this rain on the too thin roof

this black boxcar blue

this graffiti blue

this hue of spray-can

this spray-can’t

     sign of times

this sign of signing

     this singing     this song

  along the rails     this wailing

of a failing America

(or is this how it works?)

this boxcar with my name on it

this train of our names

this signing

this signature

this bounced check

this stacked deck

this black cloud thunder

     under

this trestle as long as a life

this train

            this ride

                       this other side

~ Ralph Murre

hear it?

the deafening weight of disappointment

the inaudible lightness of hope

a faint sound of lifeboats rusting

and from somewhere

an orchestra, laughter, dancing

~ ralph murre

White Bike at the Cross + Roads

Mentor to the midwest and publisher of Cross + Roads Press, Norbert Blei, recently sponsored a little event in the competitive sport of poetry writing, through his excellent Poetry Dispatch . Spur-of-the-moment, drop what you're doing and write a poem.  You can have a look at the results in his two most recent posts, "The White Bicycle" and "The White Bicycle II".  Some very good work here, and I'm happy to say that while my little piece didn't make the podium, it landed squarely among the best of the not-quite-ready-for-prime-time poems.  Good enough.  Here it is:

her white bicycle

the way she rode it

as much on clouds

as on concrete

as much from as toward

on a pavement of dream

the way I saw or didn't see

the way it didn't seem

she any longer needed me

to run along beside

the way the ride then

circled back in setting sun

the thing about a cycle

is the way it'll repeat

her white bike may come back

may lean up

again against my shack

who knows when a cycle

or circle is complete?

~ Ralph Murre