Knut Kargel & Yolantha Harrison-Pace 

Earthworms
the little boy
scurried down the hall and
limped into
his mama's bedroom
one of her three eyes blinked
"what now?" rasped
her swollen vocal cords
"the earth worms are back"
the boy fearfully whispered
"and they are knocking on my bedroom windowpane
scratching on the screens and roaring my name"
"is your window down?"
"yes mummy, but tonight
the earth worms have thumbs"
"nonsense" the mother wheezed
"go back to your own bed, go back to sleep"
the little boy ran sideways
down the hall tucking under
his extra half leg he leaped
quickly into his bed
pulling the covers over his head
"ha, ha, ha, what took you so long?"
whispered two earth worms as
they slithered in beside him
and a cool breeze fluttered in
through the lifted windowpane
"shhh, or you'll wake mummy"
the little boy began to go insane

God's Cheeks
the earth
scratched and
scratched and
scratched her
head
infected by the
lice of people
eating
away at
the scalp of her land
infecting the tips of her mountain tops
polluting the depths of her waters.
earth sinuses
were swollen with
a horrid head cold of humanity.
the earth ached
at every turn of her axis.
what remedy she wheezed
for this ailment called man?
nature shuttered as she
hid a hunch backed whale
with two tails nudging
a hairless polar bear cub
the whale missing pockets of flesh
strained to keep
the cubs nose above water
as they both gasped the oil greased air for life
what remedy?
the tower of babel?
sodom and gomorrah?
noah's flood?
the son of man?
concentration camps?
september eleventh?
tsunamis?
earthquakes?
star wars?
the men in black?
again man wipes his heart with
a tattered and rancid kerchief
demoralizing the
universe with imagined legalities
spewing green mucousy spittle
in the eye of God.
how many cheeks
hath God to turn?

Monthly Poetics
a lifetime of poems
written in 30 days
a pen kissing paper
wishing for another way

Rise and Fall; Rise and Fall
I could barely
convince my chest
to rise and fall
this morning when I awakened.
i could have held my breath til death
eased the tease of pain
this is the day
My dearest daughter will head on her way
to New York.
I feel her little girl hands
in the protective palm of mind
and the thick ropes of her hair
being braided between my fingers,
now she is grown,
googling where next she belongs.
she mapquests at best
her next living test
and i lay here
trying to convince
my chest to rise and fall

A Moment Ago
a moment ago
it was 4 a.m.
now it is
9:36 a.m.
where did time go
even more
where was i
at that time
for 5 hours and 36 minutes
was i nowhere to be found
my unawareness of me
confounds time
a moment ago
it was 4 a.m.

Tears Know Not
tears know not
how to define or
differentiate between
transformations or
life's changes,
tears often cry
for their need of
sameness
until the change
transforms into
the norm