undergroundbooks.org - PS: Your Poem a Week w/ Philippe Shils

52. Notaprayer

11/23/2020

52. Notaprayer

He licks each
palm once
and presses
them together
at bedtime.
For luck said
matter of factly
when I ask why.
Startled and unashamed.
This is a Viking move I say.
A casual path
to the gods.

I try this same salt and it
does slide the knuckles
and clench the difficult fist.
My sleep is ferocious:
steeples
lurching
economies
candle
profiteers

In the morning
a perfect red
drop on the porcelain
that I scratch away
with a fingernail.

#weeklypoemandpic

51. Beatlesdemosreviewsonnet

11/20/2020

51. Beatlesdemosreviewsonnet

JohnJoeGeorgePeteGaragePaulVanRimgo
fight me fight about it all we wantgo
is these demos learning how to do it
do itwith their girlfriends they daytrip
problems we have problems with revelation
each of their handclaps hero’s subsaheroin
problems they know how to do it fight me
fight meteddy boy trigger happytesty
boy sing and fight me got a stupidsong
In my head looks like emperor elviskong
paulbrawljon twoofus on knees argumently
his fists we like it before sung perfectly
plague days require imperfect tunes
beaches presand and trees prepruned

itjars just a little amidst the
studio looking ondrugs in jambor
jamburg fire your manager fight me
fight menot right to hear this warped record
and it’s scratch just scratch a scratch the stretch marks
as they happen the laughs about them
about the coolgirl the fangyration
record needle innoculation
fight me fight me fight for makingup a
word like mama jeweli uhmabell
foyerstarsfourof them fable fabtop
johnlikeajockey stands highatop
diga horsey dig thepigsty armband
I wannawan highlyrec recoup yerhand

#weeklypoemandpic

50. Theftstudy

11/12/2020

50. Theftstudy

Query:
How manyman
mento robo torob
two women:

Process: process:
Variables include
Include/sanddepth
Include/rainfall
include/moonphase

Interview:
the second
woman asecond
was asked
asked interrogatd
ifshe if she
suffered much
from the deeds of
her son when he was
hewas as mayor.
she answered
whenasked: why am
I why was I why she
was responsible

Answeredanswergiven:
toldshe
was told to suffer
foolsbetter.

Following. Followup:
mistrial. mistrial:
a man went free.
loco doll local
news smiling
courtreporter
writ broke story
brokenegghoarder

Follow up. Follow:
hiswife
shechewed
her nail
until itbled.
it itstained
her pillowwith
redslivered moons.

#weeklypoemandpic

49.warrantymurderballad

11/10/2020

49.
warrantymurderballad

I can not
I tried to
fix it repairher
needs parts
sadly parted
warrant out

Warranty
void void
faulty
ballchain
woe worn
swornaffid
affidavit

I can fix
deep troubles
but itis shot
twice he tried
shakesnakebit
his headher hand

Sadly infixable
dustand defeat
and the end
of aroad
it’ll cost you 99

99 years it’s time
is up up to judge you
99 years it breaks
every 99 years
itrains every

99 years cell in
this cell I have to
sell you a new one
every 99 years

#weeklypoemandpic

48.battlesongballad

11/7/2020

48.
battlesongballad

name me
the scourge
as well are
you well
do you have
the courage to
be a star
at the altar
do you
who do
youawait

I resent
the letter
I resent
the bitter
wayyou
havemade
me feel

don’t lament
at the door
bellow to the
choruschorus
choruschorus

did I tell
you about
her her
her holster
and it’s
potential
for disaster
this is no
closure full
dulldisclosure
this is revenge
thisis isis

disaster for you
andonly you
and them
thatare
likeyou

#weeklypoemandpic

47. invest

10/31/2020

47. invest

ment counsel
ing here things
to buy and
say cellular

I can wise you
in up nowadays

stock called
waxing gibbous
contrail merge
cocktail surge
laughing talking
tasking stacking

your money
replicate
yourmoon
yer money
rumors gossip
growing your
gunnysack
yourmoneysack

if you
are willing
willing
in me
to trace
to trace
to trust

in me it isn’t
free but it
might as
well be

for you for you
get it before
it catches
before
it hatches
eggs nest
eggs

rules are rules
are rules what
do you care for

#weeklypoemandpic

46. Polynya

10/20/2020

46. Polynya

After a year in the ice studying studyingice and puffin bear fox dreams of icewe left for the oldhome. Our ship lockedin in ice drifting. We hadradio wehad tv wehad books we hadjobs wedid. Wedrifted purposefully chose to live therewe bored in the crust the icewith drills with hardsteadydrills tofind the nests tofind the age during which we beganto know enough to dissolve the ice. There wasa plague awayfrom fromthe ice. Where it was toowarm and where the icewas was made to undo therewasa plague. Farfromthat werewe weredrifting. We drilled the ice we lookedfor traces gases salt ice salt. A hornet was found in some flour aflower and nurtured untildead from the cold and saved kneltto in a jar inamber. During the long nightwinter there were dances. In the longdaysummer we slept hardly at all and neverprayed. We looked for medicine in theice forlife in the ice. We were the onlylife wefound. Brash ice became pack ice. Ice floes you think youare the icefloes but the landedge is whatyou are.

#weeklypoemandpic

45.Love letter 15: Builder

10/17/2020

A poem and a pic a week. For a year. Or so. And this is also Lu’s birthday sonnet as it is Lucia’s 15th birthday at 12:01.

Happy birthday to Lucia Lee!
There will be cake, and glee, and anarchy!

(With a painting of his sister courtesy of DiamondPart 20/20. )

45.
Love letter 15: Builder
She says to build. Pats her chest at the tree
to say build more trees. Nods to the sea
to ask for boats built not from trees
but from the sea.
Looks to the moon and sees the marbled
paths on its lower edge and we wonder
can we shape and smooth the ragged
plumes
the clouds make of the other boundaries
of the moon. The crux of her crooked arm
is the tip of the season towards winter
which spills into spring. A basket, a
ball,
a chair, a table, at last a spoon.
At last a spoon, at last a fork, at last
a rod to cast at the moon’s verge at last.

#weeklypoemandpic #diamondpartart #lbsonnet

44. a cat in a mask is

10/7/2020

Drawing by DiamondPart 20/20.
44. a cat in a mask is

covidcat
captures
your fancy
to get you to
pay tension
attend to

your duties
to neighbors
your duties
obligate
tensions
attention

drawn to
appeal to
kids covidcat
stands in the
muddle middle
of the pale
pavement
staring down
a concrete mixing
tick tock
truck

muddling
swirling
germs

this is no
pole barn cat
slinking
this is
covidcat
not viralkitty
no pawlicker

she says
carve me
a sore
a sharp
clawed
sword

covidcat in
her mask
faces you
down calumny
calmly ears
down feline
fever down

needling
neading
you to
understand
that alley rules
are no rules
not rules at all

a cat in a mask
is covidcat

#weeklypoemandpic

October 04th, 2020

10/4/2020

43. antler velvet medicine harvest

covideer
splutter
clutter
clatter across
the concrete
along a river

signiflied
single file
but spliced
displaced
spaced as
like family

rattatattat is
the sound that
they make

get close
to the houses
don’t glide
sidle hide in
the trees

the houses
and their rooms
are for growing
pearls long
into ragged
plumes

along the
river are the
homes
where the
deer hide
the hunters
lay the
children play

along the
river ratta
tat tat
where
the trees
snap

grown
treacherous
from the weight
of nests

mounding
woes
angers
antlers
entangle
untangle
as they grow
ratta tat
tat

#weeklypoemandpic

PS: Your Poem a Week w/

Philippe Shils - he lives in central Illinois. He has chapbooks available from Underground Books, Right Hand Pointing Press, and a collaborative one with his band The Red Wheelbarrows available at gigs and on Facebook by request. He plays old time banjo and has two kids who are patient with their father.
Check out his New Band, Books and Social Media!!

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