Poetry by Tony Brewer
Good morning! Here is another part of October Stories! Today, is poems by Tony Brewer.
The Cancer Tree
By Tony Brewer
In Quebec a provincial arborist
takes samples of a conifer
above the fourth limb
from the ground
where a lung would be
beneath bark & pith
He pronounces a grim diagnosis
with a solemn frown:
If it’s not a wasp nest
it’s a mess of tumors
The entire humble forest
of the roadside rest park
is festering & terminal
Not this summer’s smoke
nor generations of acidic pollution
but a simple insect wound
untreated has doomed the stand
planted shallowly last decade
to flimsy roots between sidewalks
The arborist trims & amputates
as best he can the tree’s treelike shape
up & down the interstate
keeping the nature of death at bay
at the difference of a border
In Canada the state supports you
tree or arborist
smart decisions based on care & concern
while in the lower 48
long-term care hangs in the balance
between self-preservation & dignity
like fruit on a spoiled vine
Who’s going to pay for this?
Not me says the tree silently
dropping dead limbs
onto deaf grass
cut high & left to lie
Confession to the Witch
By Tony Brewer
I beg forgiveness from the woods
indifferent to everything but stars
I need not pray but shrink & crawl
inside a quiet wild stump & be silent
Not eternally empowered but listening
not for a chance to speak but for answers
that come fast like cold water to parched lips
Too much & I am sick – this is known / I know this
yet I gulp it grow bloated brain freeze
slaked & forsaken at the verge
of taking something true into my soul
near to this warm body of lies
The planetary existence I have
& the celestial light-made being I want
Here in the woods beside the creek
I found the divine secret of breathing
& suffocated it in my caring arms
Together we are slowly losing me
to a world in place of a planet
fat with the milk of love & tenderness
I sleep it off awake & begin
a sojourn away from broken clearcut
to the next dark secure green space
some gossip is haunted but
that’s only partly true
The New Ritual
By Tony Brewer
Not children lost
wandering the naked woods
but resilient fighters
emerging from a front
is what we’re manufacturing
when the pipelined block slides
from chute to mold
someday they may grow
up to be kind
oblivious to ruling bullies
their secret language
the only thing
unable to be washed off
says the spokesman at the scene
as they walk out & away
from we know exactly
what & where
Radio Silence
By Tony Brewer
The rotting face is what we start
from punishing ash of arm
observing the violence of stars being born
from great distances through magic lenses
no – not science – its detached caress of greater good
nor primitive and complicated death and flame
flame and death habit at the core of creation
souls in lidded crucible smelted into
something stronger than constituents
faces disappearing ash
static between stations and the signal lost
the waves go on repeating unanswered scream
lost in rubble knowing where we are the way birds find home
there are no birds here anymore
faces of stone – dust – ash
fly up in smoke to where we are always ending
tales of monsters while humans laugh
do what they do
skull beneath skin treachery under peace
unblinking drones and eyes that can afford to turn away
stamp at embers when they shoot or shut
you must see the burning
your job is sifting ash
for memories – for valuables
for bone that survives
it will be hotter next time
to cease is to admit defeat
to admit is to be human
to be human is to burn
we are fuel
touch and raise sparks
watch us be consumed like the friable earth but you can’t
eyes have been gouged mouths
have been sealed towers
of transmission toppled skeletons
collapse with no connective tissue
we cannot wait to burn
the screen snow shrinks like an iris
a new star when you shut it off
no – not silence – they have cut the power
Bio
Tony Brewer is a poet and audio artist from Bloomington, where he is executive director of the Spoken Word Stage at the 4th Street Festival of the Arts and Crafts and co-producer of the Writers Guild Spoken Word Series and the Urban Deer Performance Series. His most recent books are Centaur (with Jonathan S Baker, Dark Heart Press) and Good Job, Lightning (Stubborn Mule Press). Tony has been offering Poetry On Demand at coffeehouses, museums, cemeteries, churches, bars, and art and music festivals for fifteen years, and he is a frequent collaborator with experimental music & field recording ensemble ORTET. He was named Indiana’s 2024 Literary Champion by the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Awards.
FB: @xtonybrewerx
IG: @demand4poetry
linktr.ee/TonyBrewer
