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JAMES GABRIEL - POEMS

6/1/2019

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James Gabriel is a poet and writer living in Los Angeles, CA.  His poetry and short stories have appeared in Spillwords, Vita Brevis, The Local Train Magazine and The Eunoia Review.  His first collection of poetry, Black Atlas, is available on Amazon and iTunes.

​THE YELLOW SCAR

​the skin is green
ripe and overgrown
stripped razed and cleared
it browns and begins to whiten

here are the houses and the
school. here is the church
and the ceremony. here are the
tanks and the banners

fire and bullets 
pock mark the skin
flesh and blood soak the soil
houses are abandoned

silence 
slowly the land 
breaks and the roots and
branches bloom

in the sun
bursting and a breeze
pushes the flora and fauna
like unkempt hairs put in place

the yellow scar
is the only keepsake and a
hand brushes over it
feeling no pain
 

​CAR FIRE

​the clouds are thin
a lace cloth stretched over a
blue table
he pulls out what he can

brushing off the soot 
chipping at the char covering
everything inside the car
from the fire 

moving quickly
piling all that is salvageable 
into a small stack
in the weeds

dirty skin and a tattoo of the 
virgin mary
across his back
the tow truck pulls up to take the

remains
he crouches down 
near the driver side door
and lights a cigarette

looking over his shoulder at what
is left of his possessions
waving his hand at the driver as
the car is towed to the yard

he stands in the middle of a halo
black and white rimmed
stubbing his cigarette out in the
asphalt sun

​2:59PM

​staring at 
them in their 
lazy agitation

books pressed
to their breasts 
eyes searching
cars passing

honk
smile
wave

hair trailing
like streamers

music blasting
legs pumping
doors opening

she picked at the
grass
picked at her
scab
she picked at her 
nose

shirt
stained
brace correcting
her
scoliosis
creaks
nosily 

they were off
to their boys
their sticky
fumblings
her hair
greasy
covers her eyes
as they all go
home
 

​JIM

​ 
Marion and Jim 
lived in a pink house
next door to me
Jim dressed in 

a white t-shirt
tucked into
black slacks
hair white and trim

combed with military precision
their lawn 
edged and green
a hobby he worked at

with detail and exactitude
Inside their house my only
memory is as
dim as the lighting

in their living room.
After Jim died, Marion
married Jim's brother
whose name I do not remember

only that the lawn fell into 
disrepair
turning brown with patches of 
dirt, islands in a dead sea

they moved 
after a couple of years
and three families lived in
the pink house

next door
then painted brown
in the summer I 
sat in the garage

smoking and reading
the new neighbor
from Guatemala walked up the
driveway 

to say hello
we sat across from one another
smoking and talking about
Schubert's piano sonatas

his new speakers
and his side job as a DJ 
for parties
I nodded

the sun went down 
and the bulb in the 
garage and the 
occasional flick of a lighter

keep two neighbors company
 
 

​Saints in Fashion

​saints in fashion
mingle about the hall
of the white tower
to herald their martyrdom

van dykes and pipe smoke
choke the room 
fire from below bellows
and the sound of the water wheel

churning rhythmically
fusing with the horse cart
plodding down the dirt road 
and the madmen standing

on their pedestals
testifying that the 
apocalypse is close at hand
to the men and women

shopping in the plaza
that cannot hear the 
string quartet readying
to perform Schubert for the

soldier lying on a table
behind a cotton screen
as the amputation commences
he bites down on a 

leather strap to muffle the
screams as to not alarm the
dinner party in the adjacent 
room and the guests

in their fineries 
speaking of the contemporary trends in
microbiology and the simplest method
to remove stains from white linen
 
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