Perpetuity
Neither grief nor belief serve me.
A tap-dance around doubt, never a curtsey.
To differentiate between prayer
and a prayer’s answer provides me a thud…
Heartache in a vacuum throbbing
amid both contrition and infinity
of faith—every soul’s footnote for forever.
Apparition fraught or ashes wrought,
the imaginable beckons, as a dial
on a radio makes it easy to rescue
golden oldies with a twist.
Their renewed soundtrack bolsters
a vigorous voice eager to craft questions
coiled in my cranium, earning answers
without cliché, not passé—
You’re Out of Order / Your Ship has Sailed,
or Your King is Dead…Checkmate!
Perpetuity probes my failed certainties.
I listen for further instructions…eyes and ears
encouraged by a next step beyond Stalemate.
Sam Barbee‘s most-recent collection is titled Apertures of Voluptuous Force (2022, Redhawk Publishing). Three previous collections include That Rain We Needed (2016, Press 53), a nominee for the Roanoke-Chowan Award as one of North Carolina’s best poetry collections of 2016. Also, Uncommon Book of Prayer (2021, Main Street Rag) which chronicles family travels in England.
His poems appeared recently in Poetry South, Salvation South, Dead Mule School of Literature, and Streetlight Magazine, also upcoming in Cave Wall, among others; plus on-line journals Ekphrastic Review, Verse Virtual, Grand Little Things, and Medusa’s Kitchen; and is a two-time Pushcart nominee.
Amethyst Review 