Roy Blokker Poems

I am often asked,
Asked quietly by myself
While the dark trembles
Like the cold expectant thing
...

The altars stand in ruins, some,
The shrines where we keep watch,
Old churches filled with dust and soot.
Pews empty and unlatched.
...

Mister Chamberlain was wounded
At the Battle of the Somme.
He disappeared for seven months,
Lost to everyone.
...

I've already caught one,
Though today's search just began:
I feel like a recruiter
At an ROTC camp:
...

The wait excruciates.
The wait is life
Between those brief seconds
Of pain and joy,
...

The disquieting quiet,
Electronics shut off,
Ambient light in banishment
Under the midnight shy,
...

The graveyard shudders.
Ungrateful dead prepare for
A long dreamless night.
Waiting for their living guests
...

There are those who did not fall,
Who now stand, hunched, weighed down,
Whose stoic resistance
To the embrace of Death
...

(for Carl Sagan)

There’s a dragon in my garage.
You can’t see him, he is invisible.
...

Put away your cupcakes,
Lock up the chocolate chips:
The hostess is in mourning –
Ahoy sank with his ship.
...