Patti Masterman Poems

They herded them in the cellar,
like dumb animals to the slaughter,
at the bottom of the stairs,
and into the lowest level of that house,
...

Loving voices die-
but first they dwindle
to a whisper;
The fragile throats
...

Spilled a dropp of aromatic cedar oil
Upon the worn out leather of my shoe
On that graceful day, I walked upon
The most fragrant, incensed sole
...

I've set 'Somewhere over the Rainbow'
On auto-play for one thousand times
As my last badly planned escape.
...

Sleep in dreams:
Raw found data, of what it seemed
Deaf voices, carrying sound
As we ripped out all the seams.
...

Water me down, water me down; tread me under-
For life's too long, the precious things get sundered;
Take me someplace safe, where we'll find the way,
Where there's no difference, between night and day.
...

Last night in furtive dream
Wheels turned and cogs smashed together
Out of anyone's control;
All those that I once loved
...

We thrust and parry
Then step aside for the occasional respite-
This complex minuet we're born to
This waltzing with weapons drawn
...

My soul, into granite
Into quartz; into feldspar-
The flesh world can't hold
My roving mind, bold
...

Children's faces I see no longer
Voices of those vanished long ago
Scenes and places now dismembered-
In the subconscious vaults below.
...