Expressed Vessel Poem by John Weber

Corrugated box with floppy wings
howling from a gape-that
mournful dog.

My duty
manifests threads
unraveled by revelation

in Svetlana's isolated face laminated
on cardboard, pleading with me to
share a phantom dance as

her tension wanders in tepid
waters; distance compels skating
ambition until scandalous betrayal
spits brutal retribution, jealous
rage and sharpened jabs to expel

vicious silence.

He debates the
scoundrel in the mirror, eyes
defiant: refuse to surrender,

shred the doll and bundle
those discarded husks,
conceal the torment-
shed the flesh
down the
drain

to Truman Reservoir.

Daddy guards your journey
never vanquished,
yet balking,

Svetlana’s skull in
the trunk-
a boulder
too great to throw.

'Mommy will be okay, '
pins down his mantra.

Mercy secures wings
with a blabbering
tape gun.