poems by Michael Lee Johnson

I Feel Lightning in Your Wind 

 

I feel light in a thunderstorm.

I electrify your touch through my veins.

I’m the greenery around your life

that breathes your earth into your lungs.

I challenge all your false decisions and doctrines

with the glory of my godliness.

I’m your syntax, your stoic,

your ears, your prize.

I walk daylight into your morning breath

allow you to breathe.

I let the technique of me into your brain cells;

from the top tip to the bottom

of small baby foot extensions.

I’m the banquet hall of all

your joys, damnation;

your curses, your emotions

and you’re breathing with the wind.

##

*This poem converted into a song:

Poet In an Empty Bottle

 

I’m a poet who drinks only red wine.

When inebriated with earthly

delusion and desire, I crawl inside

this empty bottle of 19 Crimes Red Wine,

lone wolf, no rehab needed, just confined.

 

Here, behind brown tinted glass

and a hint of red stain, I can harm no one

body squeezed in so tight, blowing bubbles,

hidden, squirming, can’t leap out.

 

My words echo chamber, reverberating

back into my tinnitus ears.

I forage for words.

Search for novel incentives.

But the harvest is pencil-thin

the frontal cortex shrinks and turns gray.

Come live with me in my dotage.

There are few rewards.

My old egg-beater brain is clunking out.

 

I lay here, peace and quiet in prayer.

I can hardly breathe in thin air.

 

I’m a symbol of legacy crumbing

stored in formaldehyde. Memories here

are likely just puny, weak synapses.

 

“I’m not afraid of death, I just don’t

want to be here when it happens.”

Looking out, others looking in at me.

Curved glass is a new world intangible dimly defined.

I no longer care about cyberspace, uncultivated

wild women, the holy grail of matrimony.

I likely will never write my first sonnet

with angels; I only fantasize about them in dreams.

 

Quiet in osteoarthritis pain is this poet

who only drinks 19 Crimes Red Wine.

##

*Quote by Woody Allen.

poems by Michael Lee Johnson

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Scroll to top