ScherzoCity
.
Smashing crashing drumbeats surround,
Foot stomping prophets’ pronouncements profound.
Scarring jarring thundering storms,
Teary preachers rapidly reborn.
Wild-eyed believers
Are admitted for free.
Scowling skeptics
Are cast out to sea.
Gamblers and gangsters
Inherit the Earth.
Amoral aspirants
Demand virgin births.
Lions and lambs
Gang up for a change
On hunters and gatherers alike.
Vultures and doves
United in aim
Deploy barbaric strikes.
Cackling crackling electric fields swarm,
Hardcore pacifists reflexively rearm.
Jeering sneering spectators endure,
Soft-core pornographers indecently pure.
Door-to-door salesman
Prepare for a showdown.
Burnt-out teachers
Tear up their lesson plans.
Vagabond poets
Calculate their gains.
Temperance addicts
Snort up the pain.
Cowards and the clueless
A well-designed fit
Embark on an ill-conceived mission.
The bored and insipid
Conspire to commit
Brutal acts of omission.
.
When You Fly
.
When you fly,
Can you taste your thoughts?
Do you feel them tumbling about in your mouth,
Pressing down on your tongue,
Forcing open your lips?
Do you hear the wind singing your song,
A song you know is yours,
That you never before have heard.
Are you aware that everyone who has ever loved you deeply,
Who has endured the turbulence of sentiments inflamed,
Whose ardor is reignited each dawn by your flair and elegance,
Your daring and wonder,
By your quiddity,
Is falling drifting gliding,
By your side.
You are falling, disengaged from time and place,
Aware only of your energy and exhilaration.
But they see you clearly, distinctly, as they always have,
As someone who is never the same from one moment to the next.
They hear you — all of you:
Your beating heart, the rush of your blood;
Feel you — your muscles contracting,
Readying to take heroic measures;
See your body twisting into position,
See you landing, stumbling,
Fighting for balance,
Hear you laughing, screaming,
Joyfully, triumphantly.
But, by the time you regain purchase, they have gone,
Returned to their havens and lairs, their desks and screens,
Leaving behind only fleeting traces of their presence:
A warm soothing breeze of no regard,
An impression in the clouds, summarily distorted,
Leaving you alone to decide how — and with whom —
You will rejoice.
.
BIO: Zev Torres, is a writer and spoken word performer whose poetry has appeared in numerous print and on-line publications including NYC: From the Inside, The Rainbow Project, Otherwise Engaged, My Father Taught Me, Flora Fiction, Three Rooms Press’ Maintenant 15, 12 and 6, and Great Weather for Media’s Escape Wheel and Suitcase of Chrysanthemums. In addition to being a featured reader at many New York City spoken word events, in March, 2022, Zev participated in POETS BUILDING BRIDGES: A Worldwide Triangulation Project for World Poetry Day. Since 2008, Zev has hosted Make Music New York’s annual Spoken Word Extravaganza and in 2010, he founded the Skewered Syntax Poetry Crawls.
