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.
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
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
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
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
