the poetry knook :: the poetry of stephen m. james :: indianapolis, indiana » crowd

Unpopular as innocence (thankfully)

Stephen M. James — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I still shiver when I consider sex before my driver’s test,
two years before my first kiss a girl undressed closed
behind a door I wanted to remove,
waiting, a scared little boy,
if she would have dangled herself before my nose, who knows
what I would have followed

crowded with the crowd into locked rooms,
as if taped up doors ever stopped them.
afraid to be forced do anything (or anyone)
to be in control I must be out of popular circles and 7-minute heavens,
being unconventional at high school academic conventions
when they called my name,
I wrote, I wrote, I wrote.

Concert’s over

Stephen M. James — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Closeness-stickiness of humid humanness
urges the closeness-stickiness of humans,
among the crowded crowd
threatening minds not to bow
to anything but selfish cares-
in the woods? Would you care
never seeing me again, girl?
I, aware of your presents
indwelled in your presence?
With females flopping round?
Called to bend, mend,
Or scare scared hearts
all but dead bleeding?
Lights fade-intending to return to my tent.

Gladiator

Stephen M. James — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I will never be a soldier fighting a barbarian horde
Or see my family, crucified, hanging on my door,
But will stand on my word and my promise
To not seek the crowd’s thumb gest
For if I shall kill to seek revenge
My soul I know I’ll singe.
If I am to die in a tragic mess,
So be it, but that’s easy to say in U.S.

You do not fear Rome. It does not live.
You fear my God because He lives.
“I will see you in the after-life,
But not yet (unless you change).”