Two Poems

Jim DeWitt

one-way passage

stand back, observe it well
my former real world ending
I swerve off
to the right side road shoulder
shut off the engine, get out
lock it up, pitch the key toward a bird

then for the last time
crossing over into my “other place”
I blend with a meadow
of swaying daisies, queenanne’s lace
clover & goldenrod

now even deeper into more of this realm
I plunge, soaking up scents
of spring blossoming
summer soft breeze visions of beauty
laced with dreams
of the scintillating universe
of far sky depths
clear beyond enlightenment
totally lost in twilight’s high-noon experience
I fuse with the sphere
of pleasure scents and sights
plus perfect love reached at last
my version of nirvana
never to be returned from again

ALL THE WAY 
TOWARD EXTINCTION

summer was fading into the futile air
am I the one killing it
		   killing it?
scorch strokes of sun spew
a seeming sportingplay glare fixed by
void-of-time	   undercuts
live wires snarling its former children
     splash hapless
across bones scents gripping
of faded maples, who is it
		   killing them
killing them?
lock onto their growing growls too loud
repeated slices into heart
	  at its color
green frameart shatters blind toward
total fish-escape slipping
inside out our what-were lives try
whispering “hibiscus”
what someone is killing them
			        killing them?
as a jewel seen centered
into my	   forehead impossible
from last nights twirled stringy thin
mock light-void lightning bugs
      pretend neon dance
why are you killing them
	    killing them?
blading down cascades of stainless steel
solar blazes sizzle a chopping
into many a
     mismatched phrase pulse less
cold the water’s ice age
becoming tugs against
	     our limbless legs pinned
apart we are killing all
killing all . . .