JABEZ ANDRE BARON RICHARD - POEMS

Jabez Andre Baron Richard is an experimental artist and doomsday prophet, working towards a double major in Creative Writing and Literature with a minor in Film Studies from Western Washington University. He lives in Bellingham, Washington, where he produces rap, electronic music and horror films with his family.

Applying for a Housing Loan
​

​Open up the file cabinet
Drawer TUV
“Unsatisfactory” folder
Today did not go completely
According to plan
 
Close the drawer
Without filing the sheet
Instead select PQRS
It was “salvageable”
Enough I suppose
 
But shake my head no
And shut the case
Still pinching paper
LMNO chalk this one
Up for a calculated “loss”
 
But you still “win” some
Reconsider drawer WXYZ
The real enemy is stagnancy
We are finally taking steps
Applications properly submitted
 
More importantly the past
Has ceased to exist
And tomorrow isn’t real
Until the “dawnlight” ignites
The horizon—drawer ABCD
 
What I want and what I get
Somehow conflict like polarity
Folder “haves/havenots” in HIJK
I’d mend this rift before all
Others in the cabinet
 
I’ll open the last drawer
And “eyeball” it desperately
Fated for an anonymous pile
Nothing worth mentioning
Written all over it.
 

Greetings From a Puddle
​

​Greetings
From a puddle
You look skywise
So high up above
 
Like a bubble
So gentlefragile
Can you imagine
If it suddenly popped?
 
That’s why we huddle
Too close for comfort
A crowded concert
When the the rush pushes forward
 
In perpetual motion
I am the ocean
A pristine mountain stream
When it’s frozen
 
I am an iceberg
Submerged in a surge of urges
And crucial
Nonessential moments
 
Hello
From a puddle
Someday soon
We’ll all be sunken ships
 
 

It Was Inevitable!
​

​late last night
my mother cat
brought a live
bat into the house
(unbeknownst to me)
she let it go
like a slingshot
to fly wild
circles around
the living room
while myself
and the other
land animals gawked
awestruck and dumbfounded
eventually it flew into
the kitchen but took
a wrong turn
up the stairs
trapping itself in
the girls’ room
while I was at work
I received a text
from Ciera saying
“The bat emoji
is still alive
and out of the house”
I was relieved
the cats didn’t kill it
though that was always
a viable solution
to prevent the spread
of rabies and wall-bats
 
 

Ego Death
​

​ 
This shape is not me
I have been dishonest
My thoughts, my words,
My voice are lying
Between an extremely
(head-shakingly) long
Sequence of events
And infinity: Don’t trust them
 
This life is not mine
I have been dishonest
There is no ownership
In death the only things
Relinquished are heat
And the invisible (close eyes)
Patterns firecrackering up
And down my spine
Sensational!
 
I have been dishonest
The codes that I represent
Belong to a much
(hand-wringingly) greater
Body of work
I am less than a line
On a page of the final chapter
And this me is just a link
Made of many twisting chains
 
 

Thunder and Blazes
​

​There aren’t enough sugar    cubes in a day
To sit and enjoy         my favorite teacup
 
Without being whirled on the          carousel
Calliope plays                         Entry of the Gladiators
 
And circus clowns      hit me with balloon bats
Every time I extend my pinky                        the cup to my lips
 
It’s a good thing          I have always pictured it
As China         chips and porcelain powder
 
From the first                         it entered into my possession
And what I love about           everything I’ve ever known
 
There are mushroom clouds             ceramic urns for us all
Savor the bitterness               its complexity
 
That never fails          to relief and release