Solid Advice

Long abandoned train tracks that run straight into a concrete wall.

Some say the perfect metaphor for the small town life.

Every time I stare at them,

I see the answer for getting out.

Why haven’t I listened to such solid advice?

E.A. O'Connell

Where Do They All Go?

Where do all the letters and words go?  

When the cursor stops, momentarily disappearing, but fingers keep typing? 

Do these absent letters and hidden words, the misplaced thoughts, all the enigmatic punctuation, have an ultimate destination?  

Where they join in the language abyss, writing their own poetry, their own stories with anonymous form?

E.A. O'Connell

You Remind Me

You remind me of the tempting drain

Placed at the very bottom of the deep end of the pool

The one I feared tremendously as a child

I was convinced some small part of me would get stuck within an opening of that drain

And I’d drown under the weight of the water

Robbing my lungs of the air needed to keep me afloat 

More often than not

I find myself staring at you

And as I start to dive into the depths of you 

And why I want to look that deep inside you

I startle from that familiar fear

That a small part of me will get stuck within you

And I’ll be consumed by the desire to trust you

Love you

And I feel my lungs being robbed of the air I need to survive

So I retreat to the surface

Taking a deep breath

And diverting my eyes

E.A. O'Connell

Hope For Us All

I was driving behind a holy man today

Unsure if he was a priest, a pastor, or a reverend

He was holy, nonetheless…well I assume…he had a cross and one of those fish symbols and a telling license plate frame and various other holy accoutrements on his car

I couldn’t help but notice that his pearly white Buick, shone so bright in the afternoon sun

And then I laughed out loud, thinking about the pearly white car and the pearly gates of heaven, and realizing this couldn’t all be a coincidence

And then I began to wonder if this man, this man of God, was truly perfect or was there a possibility he was just as imperfect as me, as the whole lot of us it would seem

And not being a religious person, I have a strong faith, but no specific religious affiliation, I wondered if thinking about this holy person as a sinner was considered a sin and that maybe I should cut him off and flag him down to get some religious education there on the side of the road

But out of nowhere he floored it and he was through the red light and coasting down the road to wherever his destination was

And while sitting at the red light, watching that holy man who just blew a red light, disappear from sight

I thought to myself

Maybe there’s hope for us all

E.A. O'Connell

My Moon

I was always enamored with the moon

How he seemed to smile lovingly upon me

And made me feel secure, following behind or beside, everywhere I travelled

But then came the day, walking me home beneath that trusted friend, when I told you my thoughts about the moon

And all you could do was laugh at me, mocking my affinity for him, correcting my inaccuracies and telling me that there was no man in the moon, humans are just programmed with a facial recognition system  

And you were right

Because in that moment, under his trusted glow, I was able to see your two faces

So I let my moon guide me home 

E.A. O'Connell

Castaways

Your kiss would be an island

Afloat amongst the sun born freckles

That splay across the back of my shoulder

Like birds in flight

Your kiss would sink deep within

Lost to the naked eye like Atlantis

But it would be a private poem written into my flesh

To carry with me through this life

As a reminder of who we were

That late summer eve

E.A. O'Connell

Missing

He said I miss you

I told him he missed the idea of me

And ideas can be put into motion or fade

And I choose to fade

In the hopes I will dissolve like a stream of watercolor

On a scrap piece of paper

That he hangs on a far wall of his mind

Maybe…with the chance of being rediscovered

But most likely to be covered over

Layer upon layer

And somehow

I find a great beauty in the latter

E.A. O'Connell