Untitled by Billy McBride

Haiku Series

If you sing the blues
in black and white – in color –
you will not see red
____

THE TORTOISE SHELL
We divine the past
through a mirror – cracked and thin –
The future – the same
But we use as well
a tortoise shell – thick and dense –
Both fact and fiction
____

Ancestor worship –
weaponed, armed, by long war songs
and drums – always drums
____

Nothing more to say
Sound erases syllables
Lacks definition
____

Kneel to the dragon
where we are turned to ashes
All flames – so destined
____

Dragons are not snakes
But scaled dreams of after-life
Always entombed – free
____

You – encased in jade –
I – wrapped in dragon fried flesh
Invited to dance
____

Garments embroidered
in silk, gold, and silver birds
The phoenix rises

About the author:

By birth a New Yorker, Carol Davis Koss lived in Oklahoma City for over forty years, and now resides in Sacramento. She has taught English, Creative Writing, and Remedial Reading from middle school through college, in venues that range from wealthy suburbs to the South Bronx; from churches to prisons. She is the author of Chapter and Verse (1997), Camera Obscura (2001 Oklahoma Book Award finalist), and Painted Full of Tongues (2002). Her poetry has appeared in numerous publications including Best Minds, Best of MAP (Map of Austin Poetry), Bomb: A Collection of Poetry by Oklahoma Poets, Long Islander Newspaper: Walt’s Corner, Poems for the New Decade, Broomweed, Nimrod, Art Focus Oklahoma, Cross Timbers, and Elegant Rage: A Poetic Tribute to Woody Guthrie. A graduate of the City College of New York, she has a Master’s in English from Purdue University, and has done post master’s work at Teachers College (Columbia University) and the University of Oklahoma.

In the artist’s words:

Billy McBride is from San Antonio, Texas. He writes in order to be a better reader because he is a bookworm. He loves to play music for his Angels, and he is currently designing the Monumental Outrageousness Around Texas (M.O.A.T.) future art project.