Jake Berry

Household Objects

Autumn's edge

when summer surrenders

to rust

Each one returns

to its nesting ground –

a twilight play

of mineral intelligences.

How to maintain

the core structures –

trade routes

through the chaotic isotopes

A man whose face

is all mirrors and noise

summons the populace

who'd rather sleep than

fight another war

The clothes hung out to dry

are left in the rain

until nothing remains

but tattered rags

for the birds to shred

“Amen,” the preacher said

and the congregation echoed

Tyranny is a peculiar

form of entropy

Well documented with

murals and parades

and the return of greed

as a virtue

If the philosophers

read the cobwebs

rather than clean house

the feasts will continue

another year, a decade perhaps

before all motion stops

On the steps of the courthouse

wrens flicker black

and children gamble

for the articles of faith –

a chalice

a railroad spike

and the familiar clothes

of their mothers.

                                             © Jake Berry

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