Coyote Howl (For Brother John)

You graduated early from the school of hard knocks complete with
several concussions.
You sharpened your wits on the whispers and sneers of less intelligent beings.
You possess the hands of a mad genius, making everything you touch shine
brighter, cut deeper and move faster but ultimately too beautiful to last.
Your heavy Viking heart beats too strong, loves too hard and howls like
a lone coyote on the hill, pining for the waxing moon.
It will be the death of you.

She Left The House In Ruin

Her reasoning cracked like her lip under his fist.
She let the children play with his tools.
They dipped them in the pool and left them to rust.
His other remaining possessions sat curb-side on trash day,
Waiting to be picked up then discarded.
She went room to room methodically destroying whatever she could.
From the outside everything looked normal but the interior, much like her own,
was left to rot in ruin.

Renegade

Awake to greet the menacing dawn.
Sirens and shadows fill the room.
The haunting voices of life in the fast lane.

Mercurial.
Somewhat frightening.
I watch the world fly by my window at light speed.

We talked about martyrdom and music.
Tried to bend chaos into art.
I miss those wanton nights when it seemed as if
the world couldn’t survive another day.

We send each other rabid greetings from afar.
You wrestle your demons to the floor.
Trying to keep a lid on the jar before those visions can escape.
You and I know they can only scar.
May the neon buzz sing you to sleep.
Only the moon knows of your isolation..
We never beg if we can borrow.
May you rise to fight tomorrow, my favorite renegade.

Kevin M. Hibshman has had his poetry, prose, reviews and collages published around the world, most recently in Punk Noir Magazine, Rye Whiskey Review, Piker Press, The Crossroads, Drinkers Only, 1870, Synchronized Chaos, Yellow Mama, Unlikely Stories Mark V, Literary Yard, Lothlorien Poetry Journal and Medusa’s Kitchen.

He has edited his own poetry journal, FEARLESS for the past thirty years. He has authored sixteen chapbooks, including Incessant Shining (2011, Alternating Current Press).He received a BA in Liberal Arts from Union University/Vermont College in 2016. A new book, Just Another Small Town Story from Whiskey City Press is now available on Amazon.

This is the season when small children write cryptic notes to a white bearded stranger in the North Pole, and dream of lighted Christmas trees with bundles of colourful packages underneath: When the elderly dream of past Christmas dinners packed with relatives and children, and those long past times when the air was pure, and masks were only worn during Halloween.

This is the season when a mystical atmosphere seems to form out of a sense of wonder and want, and a tiny baby in a stable becomes real again: It is a special time when we attend church in the late night to celebrate the coming of a baby who will become a beacon of hope and light.

This is the season when a magical atmosphere develops bringing a sense of peace, and wonder to our hectic lives: When we actually wonder if enemies are really enemies, and if there may be a Saint Nick, that brings happiness into the lives of children.

This is the season when tree leaves fly about like young lads and lassies in their bloom: A time when we welcome the blue moisture of rain, and the whiteness of snow upon the earth to tell us all things can change.

This is the season when husbands and wives fall in love all over again, and the future appears brighter: When families get together in gratitude and love, sharing hugs and smiles.

This is the season we yearn for all year long to do all those wonderful things we should be doing all year long: It is a time when we see each other in a different light, and candles in windows reflect the wisdom of our dreams.

(First published in California Quarterly).

James Piatt is a Best of Web nominee and three time Pushcart nominee. He earned his doctorate from BYU, and his BS, and MA from California State Polytechnic University, SLO. He has had four collections of poetry; ‘Solace Between the Lines’, ‘Light’, ‘Ancient Rhythms’, and ‘The Silent Pond’, over 1,550 poems. 35 short stories and five novels, ‘The Ideal Society,’ ‘The Monk,’ ‘The Nostradamus Conspiracy’, ‘Archibald McDougle PI’, and ‘The Carmel Mystery’, published worldwide in over 225 different publications.  He writes poetry to maintain his sanity with hopes to succeed someday.