Benjamin Roque

Benjamin Roque Poems

The cremation was premature,
Bischoff admits when apart from the parade
that rounds the corner of another Sunday—
Cuts urban air into diamonds.
...

A vice-grip twists off the silver band
of a mason jar
to release the final breath of the deceased
composer's only symphony.
...

Eyes open like snapped piano wire.

Condensation upon shellbark tables,
now milk-white, is dry.
...

Benjamin Roque Biography

Benjamin Roque’s titles include Living Paint: Strange Stories and Calliope Steam, a collection of gothic poetry. He plays music as The Wagon Box Fight and is a member of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Horror Writers Association. He aspires to one day carve one of his stories into a totem pole.)

The Best Poem Of Benjamin Roque

Counterfeit Destinies

The cremation was premature,
Bischoff admits when apart from the parade
that rounds the corner of another Sunday—
Cuts urban air into diamonds.
Pendulous cufflinks like nickels wink at his back,
made visible as if by electrocution.
The advance, an underwater sprint,
mocks even a banquet of opiates;
Its inevitable rush
toward absence bookends life—
A domestic slur on anonymity.

Madness in his voice, Bischoff stalks
arbitrary sidewalks, sex worn floors—
The city devours naked language
with unhinged jaw—
Spits a cloud of dust, once teeth
from a mouth painted by Schiele.
From wine soaked hyena laughter,
honesty withers until morning's occupants
emerge, hands knitted beneath a roofless skull—
A bivouac for rats, restless for the next dwelling,
one replica after another.

The faces of a doll rush past,
sealed in train window glass, lips stitched on
to negotiate each variant. They remember
the wrong Bischoff—He paces between minutes
that counterfeit destinies. Room shrinks,
demonstrates claustrophobic dusk,
whose iron-pressed city stages rallies
for a comatose patient. Nobody participates
within the white sheet of the patient's dream:

Upon which, a monument to Bischoff crumbles.

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