July 7, 2016

Three poems by Robert Beveridge: "Freedom," "Liberty" and "Liquid Prisoner"

Robert Beveridge makes noise (xterminal.bandcamp.com) and writes poetry just outside Cleveland, OH. Recent/upcoming appearances in Chiron Review, Riverrun, and Third Wednesday, among others.





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Freedom

Flowers lie crushed
under terrible weights of ice
but the jonquils you planted last summer
still stand, heads
raised proud through
the ice around them





Liberty

Bind our wrists with heather, our fingers
with silver. Bind our tongues with themselves. Twine
the days together like roses in a bottle.
Hang pictures in a new house. Let yourself

relax against them all, let them support you;
they'll hold you as sure as a pair of arms. Let
these things we've grown together be your strength.
Find your freedom in the bonds between us.

I have found in you the satisfaction
of another body's warmth at night, a partner
in housework, endless landscapes in your hands,
your throat, your eyes. I looked and found you willing,

let you in, helped you tie the knots
that pull us tight. Now we stand together,
embraced, meshed like links of mail.
I found freedom in my ties to you.




Liquid Prisoner

the liquid prisoner
pent in walls of glass
shattered by a stray stone
at 11:59

the prisoner exults
in his freedom
even as his liquid body
rushes to dissolution

on the smooth cement



~Robert Beveridge 

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