By Oak Clarke

7/24/2022

I tore open the sky

And peeled it back 

like a worn canvas

Something warm like blood

And sweet like cane

Trickled out.

There was an awful draft

Cold wind from the outside

Carrying frostbite and voices

Of that which never was.

It seemed dark out there

For my eyes are mine

Only a human’s

And observe but a narrow 

Slice of the spectrums of light

8/18/2023

This is a song called

I left my notebook in the overhead compartment

This is a song called

Most of my poetry

Is technically prose

The lines are just short for

Reasons

This is a song called

Fathers who love so much it hurts

This is a song called

You can never outrun yourself

This is a song called

We’re as far above the clouds

As they are above the ground

This is a song called

Conversations with a woman of science

This is a song called

Elijah Muhammad promoted vegetarianism

(Maybe he was right about the other stuff too?)

This is a song called

Saints get a raw deal

This is a song called

“Straight boys in the Navy”

This is a song called

*unintelligible screaming*

This is a song called

Gen Z hearing loss due to headphones

This is a song called

Self-Inflicted heartache

This is a song called

“A wolf in men’s clothing”

This is a song called 

Fire burning green

Fire burning red

Fire burning black

This is a song called

“The Adventures of SARK and Bad Jack”

This is a song called

You should be kinder to yourself

But I should not

This is a song called

When I die, bury me in the ash grove

This is a song called

It never hurts to be a little bit gentler

Than you absolutely need to be

This is a song called

Don’t hug a rosebush

Don’t get intimate

With a shattered mirror

And if you kiss a broken bottle

Oh please don’t use tongue

This is a song called

“What do the drowning sailors hear?”

This is a song called

Put me in a brass lamp

And call on me only when you need

This is a song called 

Fear of loss

8/26/2023

I forget that it’s fair season

That the leaves will soon turn 

All the colors of a fire burning low

Fall to the ground

Like sparks extinguishing

I remember a night 

That never happened

Standing around a fire

With all the boys that I failed

It’s dark 

Snow muffles all sound

Save the crackling of the fire

And a horse’s snuffling

Snowflakes, delicate and individual

Fall too close to the fire’s hungry maw

Going from droplets to steam

In less time than it takes to blink

Grave expressions

Glassy eyes

Cast in fire and shadow

It’s a serious business, living

A serious business, loving

And some of us could do to be

A bit more gentle 

It’s a serious business

Endings

The fire shoots up sparks

Crackling and spitting pine

Little lights that are soon lost

In the snow that blankets the sky

The fluffy flakes that fall down ever so delicately

That void that consumes all sound

When the world ends

It’s not a matter of “Can I survive this

And let things go back to normal”

It’s more a matter of

How far can I run

How long can I burn

Before the snow catches up to me

Before I want to lie dow

And let it cover me

Like the coldest warm blanket I’ve ever felt?

8/27/2023

It’s a funny way to say goodbye

Burning down this house 

I understand

That it’s supposed to be a metaphor

For your burning passion

Or whatever

And it’s very sweet of you

But now I have nowhere to stay

8/28/2023

Angel

If you have to fall

I hope it’s into the arms of someone kind

Someone who’ll hold you while you miss heaven

And look up at the stars

And tell you it’ll all be okay

Someone who’ll make you hot chocolate

And be there for you when you have to scream

I hope you find a place with tall pine trees and lake

Or by where the ocean yearns for the moon

Or the sparks and wires and weeds of the concrete jungle

I hope you can make a place that feels like home

Or find one ready and waiting for you

I hope you’ll be able to go for long walks

And put all the bleeding colors from your head

Onto a page 

Let the whole world see

How fun your thoughts are

I hope 

You can learn how to put 

Soft gold between all your shattered pieces

Make something

That’s not beautiful because it was whole to start

But something that was beautiful

Because even though it got broken

And kept getting broken

It found a way to put itself back together

A mosaic

On a square or wall

That’ll say

“Behold! I was here! I was beautiful, and I made beauty!”

9/7/2023

Sleep creeps in

On countless silent limbs

It’s are faceted

Like gemstones

Or fly eyes

If light were to shine on them

They’d glow a terrible yellow

It gently touches you

Caresses, even

With countless things

That are not quite hands

Pulling you into empty places

And through full ones

Sleep rests at our king’s feet

Like a loyal hound

Waiting to be set on interlopers

It wraps us in its foggy embrace

Offering release, for a time