2 Poems by Frank Iosue

Litany For An Enlightened Dejection


            Though you have digested all your deepest secrets,
                and the stars have feigned
                regalia for your anonymity.

            Though each elation has emancipated yet another
                metaphor, and everything's the matter.

            Though you have shed the fewest possible tears
                and have been always grateful, silently,
                that others suffered more
                than you might have or ought.

            Though someone whispered, more than once,
                what must be done, and you did
                exactly as he pleases.

            Though your mother may have loved you best
                but could not love you better.

            Though you heard so many church bells ring,
                but discovered the path
                of prayer went only everywhere
                your blood was running.

            Though the boats of summer kept on undulating
                effortlessly underneath you when
                they could just as easily have sunk.

            Though the next step you took led in some
                intoxicating new direction eerily
                similar to the last.

            Though every day you ate as if you wanted to,
                but found that you grew
                hungry out of habit.

            Though the dream has yet to arrive
                that will not save you.

            Though you have admirably, and without fanfare,
                conquered every piece of space
                you have ever occupied,
                and are to be
                congratulated on the triumph
                that has been your existence.
                 
            When you walk into the earth and finally drown,
                your loneliness will free you
                from your prosperity.   


The Quarry

                    A bridge between
                    two points on the ends
                    of the earth. A path
                    for the mind to traverse.

                    Here
                    to there.

                    Over the abyss
                    of the surface of water,
                    white and unreflective.

                    It is not
                    about loneliness.

                    It is just another place
                    for solitude
                    to reside.


Bionote

Frank Iosue was born in Los Angeles, California in 1951. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from California State University, Los Angeles and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing / Poetry from the University of Iowa. In November of 2017, he published his collected poems: The Au Revoir Of An Enormous Us, through Wheatmark Press. His poems have appeared in numerous publications. He has been a featured reader, and has conducted reading groups, and writing workshops, at venues throughout Southern Arizona. He lives near Tucson, Arizona.