JOSEPH K. WELLS - POEMS

Joseph K. Wells works mainly as a businessman, doctor of occupational therapy and an adjunct professor to pay his bills. Since he began publishing in 2016, his poems have found a home in over two dozen journals and lit mags. A selection of his published works is available from https://paperonweb.wordpress.com/. 

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​Eternity
(First published at Indiana Voice Journal)

​I wish
someday
you’d  de-orbit,
zip unrestrained,
cross universes,
enter my lost world
to collide with me,
while all watch
in shock or in awe
as we explode
and turn to dust
of fire,
annihilating
into one matter
or then non-matter
and then we quickly
vanish the eye
eternally, sucked in by
a giant black hole,
every ion of us,
every fermion of us,
every boson of us,
never to escape,
inseparable
at last,
forever.
 

​Youth
(First published at Peeking Cat Poetry Magazine)
 

Parched, frail and delirious,
lying under the merciless gust,
blinded by day, sleepless through night,
naked, covered with sheets of dust.
 
Through the crooked paths of fate
that she carved in her buoyant youth,
memory flashes back random images -
            of the music, the cheers, the laughter,
            the parties that seemed could’ve lasted forever.
            So raging, and vivid were the songs of her youth
            that the other sounds around her drowned in mute!
 
Abruptly, then she
jolts back to reality.
Silence rushes to pierce her ears,
sight returns to scorch her eyes.
Looping thoughts start streaming again-
              was it some manmade dam
              that paralyzed her midstream?
              Or, was she damned by the gods
              that left her voiceless in her scream?
              Was it…?
 
With nowhere to go,
she lays still.
All alone.
Her questions continue.
Her answers aren’t new.
Will it ever
rain enough to fill
the voids she
now has?
Will she ever
be the river she
once was?
 
 

​Viewpoint
(First published at Vox Poetica)

​Windows open…
 
shady groves
of palm trees
picture frame
the sky and sea
and the sparkling
sand draping below.
 
 
Clunk…clunk…clunk…
 
a small boat
in the shallow
gently bumping
the docking pole
delicately nudged
by flirting waters
approaching shore
 
and the whistling
swoooooooosh…
 
of retreating waves-
a long gown
of shimmering blue
with rows of white
beaded lace
departing land.
 
 
Sounds so…
familiar.
 
In-coming
and out-going e-mails.
 
My PC, my beach!
 

​ 
DENERVATED
(First published at I am Not a Silent Poet)

​ 
We did.
 
Shots.
Numb.
No more highs.
News.
Not new,
just hit low,
below belt.
Molested.
Yet again
is life.
 
We did.
 
Shots.
Numb.
Don’t hurt.
They did
before.
Bullets
zip by
 silent.
Kill.
Guns didn’t.
Never did.
 
We did.