July 6, 2018

Three Poems by Fabrice B. Poussin: "Beyond the Bars", "Crannied Heart", and "Discovering Ecstasy"

Fabrice B. Poussin lives in Rome, Georgia, where he teaches teachers at Shorter Univerity. He is the advisor for The Chimes, the univeristy's award-winning poetry and arts publication. His writing and photography have been published in print, including Kestrel, Symposium, La Pensee Universelle of Paris, and more than 350 other art and literature magazines in the United States and abroad.


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Beyond the Bars

They never saw beyond the steel bars
caught up in the freedom of promises
capturing glimpses of what could never be
vanquished before the battle began.

No jury, no trial, not even the trusted squad
for those criminals of a wished everyday life
caged prays to an invisible predator they fall
unsuspecting to the darkness of ghosts.

Blind to the universal truth,
comfortable in a blissed ignorance of light
they walk between the lines on the walls
bumping their futures on dangerous voids.

The realm outside remains of fragments
and they cannot find an escape to a life
crushed by a weight of supposed nothingness
without unity they can barely hope for a self.



Crannied Heart

There is just a little crack on the wall
dried on the edges, pink inside, and
still wet with a semblance of a thick nectar
where she rests her thoughts so lightly.

It was but a few memories ago
darkness prevailed on the steps below
to trip up a sweet dream of perfect hours
a blink from warn sunshine to icy stone.

It is but a fissure on the frame of a soul
warning that a light flickers in sweetest life
flame easily smothered in windless moments
perhaps to lay down what is left of a passion.

Too soon today, the trap not set in doom
she arises yet again, a grunt, then a grin
a little crack on the heart the child rests
her soul on a chest her home once again.



Discovering Ecstasy 

Encyclopedic knowledge lies between the parchment sheets
carefully peeking there remains fear of a fatal break.

Curious he wets a digit to gently part the pages of a prologue
gaze intent upon enchanted words retelling a known tale.

The story once put to rest eternities before his arrival
dry with dust of forgotten eons longs to cry its adventures.

Crackling softly his inquiring light shines upon the calligraphy
golden illumination upon the dreams of a courtly maiden.

Lost in an impossible narrative of fays, dungeons, and aging magicians
if only he could discover the spell to awaken the kind damsel.

Daring he flips through the landscapes merely catching glimpses
of letters, syllables, making verses of everlasting ecstasy.

One chapter past the other, the volume trembles to life
yet he does not violate the intimacy of this fragile treasure.

Resting an old soul upon the royal pillow of aging days simply
he steals a moment from the odyssey she wisely embraces.

A smile is all he will be afforded, the greatest gift to the explorer
as joyous scenes emerge from centuries of undue slumber.

The alcove now warm on the vulnerable duo, slowly he fades
particles of an unlikely present, to be with her beyond the realm.

Safe at last in the bright glare of the world she birthed
he will let the book close unified in the shiver of infinity.



Fabrice B. Poussin



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