Do you hear it? The beat of the bass that drives the bass upstream, 
fearing the bows of the mountain tribe, those who bow to the sky. 
The low bass: their running steps, closing in to close the gap, unassailed 
by periwinkle waters. The lead man holds no arrowhead of lead, but 
of obsidian, a minute shard presented to him the minute his father died. 
The present arrived by wind of Father’s final sigh, and a far-away clock 
he never knew stopped, with no one in the mansion to wind it. 
That lean patriarch died with heirs waiting by telephones 
and no tribe to lean on. 
One arrow in one man’s left hand 
gave him more wealth 
than spinning numbers left up on a screen. 


a poem of homographs

This is right behind The Dandelion Movie as my personal most-hated poem of the month. Again, this is thanks to the Writer’s Digest prompt (homographs). I did my best to combine the prompts, but it severely limited my word choices. The “autorank” algorithm feature on Allpoetry gave it a high score though (8.8 out of 10), so I suppose that’s something…

…and, ironically, this contest entry for Day 8 of NaPoMo is the first one of the month to place GOLD. I don’t understand it, but okay! https://allpoetry.com/contest/2830811-National-Poetry-Month-April-8th-noguest