Ben Wilensky

Johnny in the Jordan

Before I sleep
I cap the coming day
by shaping words into possibilities.

I operate early in the morning
so it’s time to cover up the cage and hood the parrot
silence my dissent.

Excesses and excuses
non-canonical explorations
are dumped into a pot of bubbling plaster
where they harden into stone.

When I’m up and ready for monastic duties
I take an ax and split my skull
then pick on through a mass of chipped rock.

Endings are never secure
but I eagerly engage.

Frequently visuals are overwrought and over ripe
especially when ravens rattattattatt into a dead cow’s eye.
I simply dig a hole and bury the week’s work.

But Lord
so many moments of pure delight
when I’m Johnny in the Jordan
stripped to my skin
mining gold inside the rubble.

____

Ben Wilensky lives in Rockaway Park, New York.