Joseph Farley- Three Poems

Heretic (5)

in any past age

I could have been burned

at the stake,

though I would have preferred

to be stoned.

all can be accepted

so long as you can find

the right grass

to be buried under.

Anime

I keep waiting for the robots,

the ones in the cartoons,

to rise up from Tokyo

like metal balloons,

and float from imagination

to the corner store,

where they will bag my groceries

or stomp upon my car.

Innocent Victims

The old man stepped out

from the optometrist's office,

vision blurred by drops in his eyes.

He walked passed the tall hedge

and sought to cross the street

not knowing the light had changed.

An electric company truck hit him,

and he lay there dead under the wheels

while the police and an ambulance came

to sort out who was who and what was what.

The driver was a former soldier

who had never killed a man before.

He stood there crying

until his boss told him to go home.

The newspaper boy saw it all

and testified so in court

where he had to relive a scene

that had haunted many of his dreams..

No one was convicted,

but those sturdy bushes were cut down.

They were silent until the end,

never confessing to any crime.

Now the corner is barren,

except for commuters waiting

in the frost for their morning bus,

stamping feet against the cold,

checking watches and passing time.

Bio: Joseph Farley edited Axe Factory from 1986 to 2010. His books and chapbooks include Suckers, For the Birds, Longing for the Mother Tongue, and Waltz of the Meatballs.