An Introspective | Josh Hatcher

i (train tracks)

Standing ankle deep

muddy boots,

by empty silent train tracks

underneath a dogwood,

blossoms like white cigar-smoke rings.

(Don’t worry: the lilies have clothes

and the birds have food.)

ii (bald spot)

Lying knee high

brown-grassy curtain,

atop my mountain perch,

Sun, behind his orange veil

perched on his own mountain,

underneath a yawny blue sky,

cloud trails like dying white cigar-smoke rings.

(Conscience is quiet behind gratification.)

iii (inside)

Crouching beside

crimson tinted heart,

inside my rib-caged chest.

Lungs filling thick with air,

slowly deflating flat,

stomach pumping full of bile.

long winded exhale blows white cigar-smoke rings.

(Sometimes one must test to make sure he is not what he hates.)



“An Introspective” is included in Josh Hatcher’s “Sawdust, Sweat, and the Millpond” available now at Amazon.com