Restored Poems Poem by David McLansky

: Answering A Poet's Caught Between Worlds

A deer tick
On a human skin
Has no choice
But burrows in;
It feeds on blood
Which nourishes,
And when it feeds
It flourishes;
Thus life prepared
To widely feed
Finds many homes
To fulfill its needs;
And plants its seed
In many soils
While narrow souls
Are often foiled.

Love Seed

I shook a seed from out your book,
A dried and wrinkled pit;
I placed it in my breakfast nook,
And sunned and watered it.

It sprung a plant of leaf and vine
That curled along the glass;
It wrung my heart with curlicues,
It spoke of love bypassed.

How strange that plants
Grow to the light
While love retreats
With sun in sight.



Evolution

A shrewdness of Apes,
Unresigned to their fate,
Made their escape,
Climbed over the gate;
At the bus stop
They sit and wait.




The Grave Digger

The air was dank
In the old church yard
The stained glass windows
Dark with grill-work barred.
The moon was smoked
By the rising fog,
As tilted grave stones
Sunk in the bog.

A shovel clanked against
A new grave stone,
A flash light shone
And a figure moaned,
Caught in the beam
Of the rays of light,
Stood a haggard man
With blinded sight.

Said the Officer
On foot patrol
In a crisp harsh voice
Both sharp and droll,
'Put down that shovel
And come over here;
What are you some kind of
Necro-queer.
Step away from the grave
And into the light,
Move it Igor
I don't have all night.'

'This is not what it seems,
Officer... er..McCue,
I was havng bad dreams
And I was wondering who
Was spooking me so,
So I got my shovel
And this rusted hoe,
And I thought, well, er,
Well, you know,
I'd dig her up,
My old girlfriend, I mean,
And ask her why
She was haunting my dreams.
I mean what if she's really
Not dead down there,
Stuck in the box
And gasping for air.
So I thought I'd just dig
And take a peek.
I'm no Dr. Frankenstein
Freak.
I'm just a guy
Trying to get some
Sleep.'

There they stood
In the old church yard
In the weeds and wood,
Behind the black fence barred,
Amid the graves with their
Tilted stones,
In the dank moonlight,
How the flashlight shone.

Said Office McCue
Into his radio phone,
'Phil send a car,
Don't come alone.
We got that weirdo
Who was digging up graves.
What's his a story?
You'll be amazed.'[



Sea Grass

The sea grass waves its sea of green,
It shakes its hair now combed and clean;
Here we pressed the sea grass down,
So far away, the steepled town:
And though we did as lovers do,
It wasn't me who ran from you;
Now we pass in village streets;
I kissed those lips that smile discreet.




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