Three Poems by Jason De Koff

 Tangled Lives

The captured rays,

slide gracefully along,

the tendrils of,

tensile magic.

A shimmering and shivering,

cacophony of light,

with each silent breath,

of pulsating song.

A dancing mélange,

of scintillating gyrations,

punctuated by the capture,

of long anticipated guests.

A floating spectacle,

without mass but with substance,

symbol of grace and beauty,

until torn from life’s weave.

*

Under Sedation

Dank, cool, and quiet,

the shadowy undergrowth,

provides the perfect blanket,

for the underbelly of Morpheus.

Coddling the succor,

of flightless birds,

and sightless cats,

the deep is the essence of resistance.

Black water sounds,

from every corner,

a bedlam for those,

who seek respite.

Entering the solemn hollow,

of forgotten boyhood dreams,

where flight and fight are lost,

among the fallen timber.

To the final wrinkle,

along the cranial screen,

where flicks skip backwards,

in an endless river of responses.

*

Ascending Time

Multiple melodies take flight in the morning,

as light turns green to golden hue,

the vagaries of twilight lessen,

as if perspired by morning dew.

Shushing timbers quiet senses,

and ruffling living pages,

catch unseen eddies,

greeting the phantom forces.

Brilliant peach dermal hues,

are washed in watercolor diffusions,

each new palette a rendered experiment,

from the same artist’s brush.

Within dark globes shadowed,

glass arrows pierce and streak,

shielding the giant in its forever march,

to the ends of the earth.

___

Jason de Koff is an associate professor of Agronomy and Soil Science at Tennessee State University. He lives in Nashville, TN with his wife, Jaclyn, and his two daughters, Tegan and Maizie. He has published in a number of scientific journals, and has over 30 poems published or forthcoming in literary journals this year.