PoemBowl 9

Well, it's the start of Round Two! It all gets much faster from here on in. Have I mentioned how much I appreciate the time you take to vote? Thanks for your feedback - it makes the whole thing much more fun. So here is the next match-up, fortunately two shorter ones. 

In the Quiet

Matt Quarterman

I’m waiting for something, but I think
the waiting is what I’m waiting for.
I’m listening in the silence, but the silence
is what I’m waiting expectantly, hoping to hear.
The stillness and the passing of time
are also things to taste and touch.
And if the taste is tasteless,
the touch unfeeling,
this is just the taste of water,
the touch of air.
To feel the flavor of water on your tongue,
to let your skin prickle in the grip of air
is to tune your senses finely,
to calibrate them to the highest power.
So I wait silently and let the still time
be the thing I wait for in the quiet,
in the dark.

Animals After the Fall

Matt Quarterman

At night the garden curls into a ball,
crustacean lost inside the flowered leaves.
Scavengers crawl through its roots to fall
upon her carapace, where rodents grieve.

What knowledge does the mouse have of the owl?
Perhaps the taste of fear, the cautious scent
is all the prey can have. The hunter’s scowl
gives rise to wisdom lost on innocence.

And in the final view the predator
possesses all the knowledge of his catch
except that hidden lesson caught mice learn:
surrender without pity or reproach.

Two hearts throb slowly, warm and self-aware
but ignorant of loves the other bears.

Click here to choose a winner!