John Cullen
Seeking
I’m finding hope in strange places.
When I kayak, I paddle close to shore, the desert
of lily pads, the hilarious hair of young waterfowl
and the suicidal courage of an enraged swan.
Last week, I witnessed a Saguaro cactus
near Adam’s Motel outside Tempe, Arizona.
An elf owl peaked from a woodpecker hole.
Thunder rumored. I understand now
old mystics who fingered innards
and washed the mandrake’s weeping
thighs with wine and incense
to discover in the red flow
the raisin of hope.
On Your Knees
Watch a mouse negotiate
into grass after you shroud
him with a tea towel
and release, or deliver mail
to the nursing home and discuss
slippers with a failing patient
who wet his pants but calmly
awaits a nurse, or forget you will die
and feel the buzz reverberating
bones as you touch the power grid.
Renewed, you understand
forgiveness isn’t necessary
or yours to give. But if it makes you
feel better, go ahead
and forgive yourself.
Bended knees is not about knees
but about levelling eye to eye
with mouse, diaper, and death.
Limon Libertab!
Bees on the butterfly bush clog
a stumbling foreplay to recreate
the world, pollen and nectar
pellets in saddle bags, each centimeter
the right direction. Staring
out the kitchen window,
you too plan to stash and drink
sweet tears as a reward.
Behind your back, huddled
lemons in a bowl discover courage.
They felt the breeze sing,
and cry “Limon Libertab!”
A lemon’s cry is like a fly’s curse,
and yet there is a possibility
they will parachute onto the lawn.
because when you read those lines,
aloud at Starbucks or mumbled
in the dusk of your eye, you danced
with the bee and wed shy fruit.
This happens for the same reason
compelling anyone to stare
into an open manhole.
John Cullen graduated from SUNY Geneseo and worked in the entertainment business booking rock bands, a clown troupe, and an R-rated magician. Recently he has published in American Journal of Poetry, The MacGuffin, Harpur Palate, North Dakota Quarterly, Cleaver, Pembroke Magazine, and New York Quarterly. His chapbook, Town Crazy, is available from Slipstream Press, and Bass Clef Books will release the chapbook Observation of Basic Matter in 2025.
