Donovan Acuna Imitation # 2

Poem of the Day: Over Greenland

A current like a noise machine through sleep.

Blue lichen fields. Mossed boulders. Waking up

to ice cubes cracking in a plastic cup

and voices (“awesome for the Hong Kong branch

. . . well, most of all we miss our daughter . . . ”) I still

see it: the climb up slate as runnels spill

from some bare misted summit like a source.

Whatever sense this dream might make

to others. And whatever when they wake

they also have been dreaming. Rivers of faces

down hallways, merging, as desires mesh

and fissure. Cash for clothes or arms or flesh.

And if there is no towering sublime

where all comes clear to all, no final climb

through cloud, like some old Bible illustration:

how could that ever stop the current flowing

out of the glass at jfk: skin glowing

plumb and peach as we walk inside the sun.

Source: Poetry (July/August 2010).

Peter Campion

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Over Greenland – Arizona – Imitation By Donovan Acuna

Boisterous winds and neon sparks sweep the sky.

Red, dusty lands. Rustic boulders. Turning my back to sleep

with my feet in the pool and lemonade in some cup.

Occasional voices of the many people in and out of life (“6 more months of deployment

. . . I mean, I wish you could come visit . . .”) I still

Miss it: that flat, long drive and the hours of good sleep, or the quick straight flight over ripples in the ground.

They’re like a sandbox on a rainy-day imprinted with feet and hands.

Whatever sense this memory might make to you all; whatever your reality is,

in slumber or in wake. Is just one on the river of faces, walking down hallways, merging throughout lanes of traffic. Money gets you a sugar-coated illusion while humbleness gets you harsh reality.

And when those who say there is no “towering sublime” – God in fact,

when their smoggy vision becomes clear and it’s too late for them to climb up and out of the clouds . . .

they might feel like the fools in an old Bible illustration:

It’s hard for that to happen though, with minds and hearts hardened

right from the womb: life is not all bad though especially in the water and the sun.

The wind is warm, the water quite tepid and sparkling blue.

Face corroded with oranges and grapefruit as we swim through the pool baking in the sun.