Kurt Philip Behm

The Rind (+3)

We breathe the same air

and split the same bed

 

We share a last name

in silent lament

 

The children are out

new grandchildren named

 

But frozen emotion

has left us both lame

 

The sins of the one

to the other are death

 

In terminal sorrow

we take our last breaths

 

Time has no answer

and not often kind

 

Our inner fruit rotten

—just leaving the rind

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2018)

 

Love Without Pain

 

Can you paint without color,

   can you think without language

 

Can you dance without music

—can you love without pain

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015)

 

 

Chamberlain Falls

 

Refusing to fight the major war,

the war based on principles,

the one we can win

 

We’re forced to fight a never-ending series

of political wars….

ones that we can only lose

 

We’re trapped in the middle of Appeasement River

and headed for Chamberlain Falls

terror awaiting in the rapids now ahead

 

Slowing down the current or rowing harder wont

save us, it only extends the time of our demise,

capitulation pulling us under toward the roar

 

As a country, we’re now in the middle of that river

arguing over who has the water rights….

arguing over whose paddle is best

 

Until we get off the river and back on dry land,

Chamberlain Falls will continue to pull

   —and Armageddon will continue to call

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015)

 

 

 

Compression

 

Stackable living

hackable lives

 

On top of each other

like bees in a hive

 

Inside a box

hard corners to know

 

A neighbor above

a neighbor below

 

Stackable moments

fractional lies

 

The walls serve two masters

invasion implied

 

All differences measured

in bedrooms and floors

 

A blueprinted nightmare

its maze underscored

 

Stackable meaning

the truth wearing thin

 

Its elevator stuck

stairs covered in sin

 

The higher you climb

the farther you fall

 

Stackable living

—the death of us all

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2018)