Vol.1, No.12 • June, 2008

Poetry by Dan Beams

Tiny Fractures

She Was

Runaway Trains

Familiar Faces

 

Tiny Fractures

creeping across the frozen glaze
miscalculation mostly mine
amidst the foggy frigid haze
seems I missed the fatal sign

tny fractures in delicate form
belied emergent breach
familiar calm before the storm
safety safely out of reach

fate would find me far from shore
when icy jaws bared jagged teeth
opening up the frozen door
revealing dismal depths beneath

piercing shrieks give to silent moans
dribbling from my frozen lips
replaced by creaking brittle bones
as she tightens her icy grip

traveling through my slowing mind
a single thought wound its way
considering all I'd leave behind
missing most the warmth of summer's day

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She Was

She's a message in a bottle,
that's never reached my shore.
She's fully open throttle
on the sports car I adore.

She's a needed drop of rain
that quenches all my thirst.
She's never caused me pain,
though meeting is our first.

She's a single ray of hope,
my guiding source of light.
She's fading quickly now,
nearly out of sight.

She was a vision in my mind,
unlikely to return.
She was such a lovely find,
now it's some else's turn.

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Runaway Trains

sufficiently imbibing addictions of choice;
permitting the delivery of candid voice
inebriated words birthed from distorted cells
garbled communications obscuring their hells

overindulgence released in eruption
painting thirsty walls with repulsive corruption
throbbing reminders of ill-advised consumption
unlikely to prohibit further feasts of dysfunction

patterns repeated; routines thoroughly rehearsed
filling of prescriptions not easily reversed
preferring to remain passengers on runaway trains
embracing the steel of familiar chains

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Familiar Faces

Clocks dutifully mark the passage of time,
this vital purpose explicitly designed.
Some hang on the wall, speak nothing at all,
others when prompted, gleefully chime.

Oddly, we've doled out anatomical parts;
faces and hands, but no features.
Why not a pulse from the beat of a heart
to assist such monotonous creatures.

Repetitive work for such tedious beast,
reiteratively tracking our lives.
Staring at night, when I turn out the light
and steadfastly there when I rise.

Where would we be without dependable ticks
to synchronize all that they do?
I shudder to think, we'd be on the brink
of the last of our orderly days.

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Dan Beams is a 40-year-old self-described simple man. He lives in a small town in central Illinois, with his wife, Beth, and two children, Allie 15, and Jacob 12. By a strange twist of fate, the loss of his job last year, led to his love of writing. Although this new passion is less than a year old Dan has established a great connection to the intrinsic power of the written word. Writing has again impressed upon him the fact that the key to a successful life is to possess, in great abundance, those things not easily measured.

You can read more of Dan's poetry at http://poeticjustice-dan.blogspot.com/

Send Dan a message either directly or using the Word Catalyst feedback form. For more from Dan visit the Word Catalyst archives or his online home.