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

Take off your shoes and stay a while

Stephen M. James — Mon, 02 May 2005 05:00:00 +0000

“Solid rubber backing keeps Matt always in place and built-up rubber borders keep dirt and moisture on the Matt surface.”

some run bare
foot calloused
since childhood–probably
need a shoe horn for the other to drop
by and rub their soles, clean, expose their toes, clean
some say foot massages are too intimate for friends,
but will lay
their boots under your bed,
WELCOME: “Tell me all!”
the parquet border woven like transistors is deceiving
{WHILE A == B DO C IF}
edges fray, yarns will be written,
fly though the wind, the ear,
save their soles from–
“Where are you going? Come back. I miss talking to you.”

Mobstones (debt would make it easier)

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

Thanks to Paul, my Christian name is a Christian name,
grateful for his “before story:”
Everyone sits in a circle,
“Hi, my name is Saul–er– Paul, and I persecuted Christians.”
Everyone claps.
Were there Stephens before this one, do we,
children of a Greco-Roman-Judeo-Christian Western World,
care?

Or what of Corinth–Love–or the Roman Road?
Sometimes I wish to just kill someone,
to get a debt to span centuries,
criminals make the best evangelists, you know?

At least the guilt would make it easier to take:
a micrometers-from-death jihad thrashing,
a fire roasting in a New Guinea swine pit, or
a free burial (like Stephen)
under mobstones