Kurt Philip Behm

Until Darkness (+1)

The Genie-us crawled silently out of the old clock,

and climbed up the bookshelves at night

 

The Genie-us then read from the pages forbidden,

feeling shame with a lusty delight

 

The Genie-us returned as the sun came up,

crawling inside the tall clock in the hall

 

The old pendulum again swinging, the chimes reset

—until darkness anew comes to call

 

(Dreamsleep: April, 2020)

 

 

To Ken Kesey & Neal Cassady

 

If you’ve never been lost,

there’s no need to be found

 

As the self-disenfranchised,

circle around

 

They question and lecture,

and spew out their grief

 

To lure you within,

their false broken beliefs

 

“You really don’t get it, man,”

they sing from their bus

 

They say “You’re unhip”

and “You need to be us”

 

The chanting of llaughter,

they march to inane

 

Where a prank on themselves

—waits in drug induced shame

 

(Villanova, Pennsylvania: December, 2019)