Thursday 5 February 2015

2 Poems by James Babbs

Darkness Comes Around

I started with coffee and whiskey
and the fading light of another day
seeping into the room
it was the end of the week
and I sat quietly for a little while
listening to everything
the silence had to say
later on
when I switched over to beer
I drained one bottle after another
before going out into the dark
and pissing between the trees
you were gone
and there was nothing good on TV
I played one of my favorite
Neil Young albums
stood in the middle of the floor
strumming air guitar
while laughing maniacally
into the face of death


A Fine Wine

my heart’s been broken again
I can hear the wind blowing
through a crack in the wall
late at night
when I’m trying to sleep
another empty bottle
lying on the floor
I listen to the pieces
rattling around in my chest
and it doesn’t matter
how long I wait
they never seem to fit together
the same way again
there’s a different beat
no longer reckless
and brimming with fear
but something more restrained
aged
the taste so bitter
and sweet


Bionote

James Babbs continues to live and write from the same small Illinois town where he grew up.  He has published hundreds of poems over the past thirty years and, more recently, a few short stories.  James is the author of Disturbing The Light(2013) & The Weight of Invisible Things(2013).

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