Mantis 22 (Summer 2024)
eccentric/eclectic/electric/ekphrastic

J Parker Marvin

from A Diary of Slowly

44234

Fracture bowl stained with water ::

the grayish residual :: the green hand

swollen and feathering in imperfect

definitions of rot :: both divergences

of time against this moment

are love ::

the smears of ink are not yet irrelevant ::

the nostalgic litter of damp paste

holds the form of words against the soft current

of a shallow wind :: there are no moments still held

in whisper ::

the sudden moan of a cow somewhere up the dark

hillside reminds the scene of place :: the

motion-sensing lights seem to click off in unison ::

there never was the expectation of witness ::

the emptiness remains :: the emptiness moves on ::

44235

The salty evaporative stain

residues are forbidden

as witnesses into the after ::

the preference is blindness ::

black blood energy ::

faint colors :: the thin passing

of faint light ::

Rectangles of capture pile up ::

we fear the impulse

of deletion :: we know we

will not look again ::

the scrolling of history

the anodyne against the

constant suddenness of birth ::

the memories of reincarnations are

reincarnations :: in the white spaces

we splice in words

J. PARKER MARVIN is currently a data analyst working in the semiconductor industry and lives in Saitama, Japan. Parker’s poems have been published most recently in Thin Air, Levitate, and Second Factory. Parker’s collection Postlude to the End of is forthcoming in the Fall of 2024 from April Gloaming.

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