Resolutions
Sever the knot – snap buttons and bands.
Never be bound again. Strike a match
beneath the To-Do list and dismiss
dogma – pretense out the door. Rage
with new photosynthesis fueled
by moonlight, proclaim the restored soul.
Stake next season’s garden. Discard weeds
with flotsam and recrimination’s rinds.
Resist waning when language replaces touch.
Fill the hourglass with accuracy.
Leave windows open. Beat back a blue heart.
Refresh ideas’ haven.
Live harder. Skip along sidewalk.
Strip bandages and small talk. Reboot
with swagger. Sip the feast of my holy grail.
Welcome the ghost and its garland of dreams.
Send detractors to their corner with familiar
scraps of rope, and palms of sand.
Unthread her bows. Allow flesh.
Learn my lover’s newest songs.
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Sam Barbee has a new collection, Apertures of Voluptuous Force (2022, Redhawk Publishing). He has three previous poetry collections, including That Rain We Needed (2016, Press 53), which was a nominee for the Roanoke-Chowan Award as one of North Carolina’s best poetry collections of 2016. Also, the Uncommon Book of Prayer (2021, Main Street Rag), chronicles family travels in England. His poems have appeared recently in Poetry South, Literary Yard, Snapdragon, Asheville Poetry Review, and Adelaide Literary Magazine, among others; plus online journals American Diversity Report, Exquisite Pandemic, Verse Virtual, The Voices Project, and Medusa’s Kitchen. He is a two-time Pushcart nominee.
Editor’s Notes and Image Credit: An image of blue hearts [Carly Gaudreault at Pixabay] pssesses a sense of hope and love.