Art: Conflicted by Robert Ferrier
NO SPACE, NO TIME
Face it. The distance dissolves
from Tom Jones to Tiago Hannah,
the sun is cold & wet in Mopti.
To bring about its areas such as
Cape West in the offing,
a request for the location,
the basic values are its rivers
that promote inner pattern that’s
not strong enough to impose
a new body on a periodic basis
in both itself & the house
that’s mirrored by the guard dog
still watching.
That friend is brute
& its eyes make a bulge
in his pocket that’s
become larger than itself,
someone is using his eyes now.
Behind him, you see the bulldozer
clearing a way through the old buildings
in front of the Budding Bank,
you take a walk in a normal shape
around Stone Street
to explore the white shimmering
outlines from a bucket of water.
In this swirl, a luminous mist,
the gleaming wet animal
is covered in bruises
after the fight, after
the moving lights.
The two male animals,
or lit drops,
flooding over the flood
among the bleeding cacti,
a paradise of these plants.
Robert Ferrier is a retired university research administrator living in Norman. He received a BA in Journalism and an MBA from the University of Oklahoma. He has published two novels at Amazon Kindle ebooks. His photo, “Magnolia Morning,” was the cover of the Summer, 2016, Dragon Poet Review. His photo, “Sunflower,” was the cover of the Summer, 2017, Dragon Poet Review. “Diagnosis in Stasis,” was the cover of the Fall, 2012, Blood and Thunder, OU College of Medicine. His poems have appeared in, Dragon Poet Review, Red River Review, Oklahoma Today, Blood & Thunder, Crosstimbers, Westview, Mid-America Poetry Review, The Exhibitionist and Walt’s Corner of the Long Islander. In 2007 the Norman Galaxy of Writers nominated him for Poet Laureate of Oklahoma. His influences in poetry have been shaped by poets who write clear, passionate verse: Howard Nemerov, Billy Collins, Pablo Neruda, Ted Kooser, Elizabeth Bishop, Ruth Stone, and Seamus Heaney. In photography, he has developed increasing interest in abstracts.