Blue Heron
by Connolly Ryan

An untangled ampersand
stalking through shallows
with epic stealth
to impale a slippery
pickerel in its staid beak.

Studying the way it studies
the water--deciphering the specs,
paginating the ripples and context-
ualizing the illuminations--
one need no longer
wonder by whom
the first master lesson
in martial arts
was dispensed.


Ennui On Trial

Boredom morphs
into consumption,
consumption into
emptiness, emptiness
into disgust, disgust
into rage, rage into
assault of other
earthlings. Our
boredom knows no
bounds, so anger is the king
and carnage is his design.
Pick up a stick,
study its shape,
meditate on its solidity,
basque in its logic,
inhabit its secrets
and then, if you
find yourself bored,
(which willingly you will)
lift it high and bring  
to bludgeon
a head of a child 
because boredom is murder,
so why put it off?


That's What Cliché Said

The first rule of Fight Club
is not to apply one-liners from exhilarating movies
to your comparatively uneventful narrative.

Feel some pain
instead of no pain.
Have a few worries
in lieu of none at all.
Don’t pretend it’s all good
when at least a little of it stinks.

Resist the newest cliché
before it slits your wit’s wrists.

By all means, keep it real,
but admit it’s frequently fake.
That may be what she said,
but what did she feel when saying it’
and moreover allow that
what she left unsaid
murders your ego in its sleep.

If it takes a village, then it
is guilty of genocide, period.