
syndrome
I have at times been one possessed of fire and darkness in the black hours courting evil in sight of the silent sacred houses and the fearsome moonlit woods mumbling words only I understood made signs of earth and stone survived the madness and returned ashamed at times and wanting blood I have been both within and out the circle and have kissed the serpents tongue
skid noir
drinking cheap whiskey at one night stand hotels sirens moan outside down empty weed choked alleys homeless gypsies in rags like ghosts pass by broken windows ambulances and police cars leave trails of red and blue the skidyard holds its secrets as boxcars rumble through the night cheap glasses on scarred tabletops hold ice cubes melting in the weak air conditioned barroom stains on warping wooden floors both blood and piss mark where lost souls fought and lost dignity and more alone against the wall afraid and drunk, he stands his night ends here in a musty backroom and unmade bed the sounds of diesel engines roaring in the darkness his shadows conspiring to choke him as he tries to sleep as he slips into the coldness of unconsciousness waking without memory in sweat and grime his morning a hoarse continuation of his nightmare a resident of the madhouse that is his life the terrible morning revealing beggars, heretics and thieves in silence he walks down cracked avenues his head droning like flies on roadkill walking in his sunrise's twilight curse he sees behind uncurtained windows faceless inhabitants under flickering lights echoes of yesterdays before his horror took him bathed in red and blue the sirens sound as the boxcars roll
Joseph A Farina is a retired lawyer in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. An internationally award winning poet. Several of his poems have been published in Quills Canadian Poetry Magazine, The Wild Word, The Chamber Magazine, Lothlorian Poetry Journal, Ascent ,Subterranean Blue and in The Tower Poetry Magazine, Inscribed, The Windsor Review, Boxcar Poetry Revue , and appears in many anthologies including: Sweet Lemons: Writings with a Sicilian Accent, Canadian Italians at Table, Witness from Serengeti Press and Tamaracks: Canadian Poetry for the 21st Century . He has had poems published in the U.S. magazines Mobius, Pyramid Arts, Arabesques, Fiele-Festa, Philadelphia Poets and Memoir (and) . He has had two books of poetry published— The Cancer Chronicles and The Ghosts of Water Street .
If you liked these poems, you might also like “Nightwalker” by Joseph Farina, which was published in August 2021.
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