The Big Easy

by Bernard Hamel
About Poetry Forum
Honorable Mention, June 2009
Judged by Duncan Mercredi


I want easy afternoons, lazy love and white sleep…

                                         slipping possible words in liquid sheets
                                                    and the four corners of the death dance…

                   and dry… dryness everywhere…

I want the walls to rain
                              and the floor too hot for my feet…

                    the laughter of smoke rings and pillows for breakfast…

          vertical smiles upon purple hours…
as the blindman of time winds the clock like a compass…

          I want a tongue that bites!
                        like a razor of the first shave…
 
                    simplicity like the
                                            b
                                            i
                                            n
                                            d
                                            i
                                            n
                                            g of a book.

chances cloudy…
                              mean sky: knit brows & puffy cheeks…

I think I’ll wait 
                              for sudden nights

                                                      and open sidewalks…

until…

                              the sun hustles the moon
                                                                        .and people walk
                                                             backwards