Eulogy in Verse

Twenty years of age
and isn’t it an outrage?
A life cut short by celestial caprice

I never knew his name
until today
and isn’t it a shame
it took a crash
to spread his fame?

Amid the shattered glass and crumpled rims
I see a vision of him
Smiling, I can see the family traits

He might be buried
day after tomorrow
and isn’t it a shame
the best I can manage
is a cold and distant sorrow?

We never met
and it’s an outrage:
He was only twenty years of age.
I’m twenty-five
and still alive
Somehow it seems unfair

Two decades ago
he rested in the womb
of his mother
Now he’ll rest in another:
the tomb
where she will lay him.
Isn’t it too soon?

An exercise in snowballs

A
an
the
than
Those
Things
Falling
Listless
Trapped
Broken
count
down
two
to
A

I
am
big
huge
small
mighty
forlorn
headless
intuitive
cumbersome
inquisitive
incandescent
foolhardiness
violetstreaked
chronologically
permafrosticated
seventeen’stoomany
 
© 12/17/2012, Joshua Owens

La cuillère

 
Je donne, je donne, je donne
Quand puis-je manger
Quand puis-je manger?
 
© 2009, Joshua Owens

A Short Experiment (for Free)

Cold
the way
you turn away
Forget, as if
it all meant
 
nothing
 
 
 
Bold
those things
you said to me
Forever was
nothing but
 
pretend
 
 
 
Old
the way
you do not leave
Although you’ve left
You’re still here
 
always.
 
 
 
You can listen to an audio recording of this poem here.
 
 
 
© Joshua Owens, 12/15/2015