five poems || Vernon Frazer

Alternate Routing

concise detour

normal deathbeds added

on every step the donkey head

confined scraps

in handsome uniforms

question the circus

            *

neither alteration

observed the entire party

the gate and ends inquired

able to guess the backs

admitted course editing

            *

newspaper following the roadside

another light

inquired the cavern stones

the note fastened

clumsy daylight advancing

to the box in silence

Defying an Order

whenever you commanded

thought to struggle

excess blundering declared

serpentine shaking

surprised wind

crowder cries looking around

so brightly

after the gate and ends continued

residing sides of music reached the news

distributed infinite groaned emotion

isolated daylight howling

perturbed from whenever

penetrating money came

clutching problem hammer

experienced pulp

swimming peacefully in Samoa

Forwarding

bombast rockets throttle arsenals

loot the pocketing source at terminal

vendors pent cold notions rooted

in complicit shrubbery vacuums hidden

under breath allowed intrusion turned

modeling behavior as frocks tarnish

under the gloomy transits flayed

decibel awnings for plated servants

working assurance yields to cotton

couched verbatim rollers ossified

persona graters at shrapnel weddings

shale to varnish lead isles venting

portal entry garners passport fashion

oral as elastic livery’s pocket bottles

grifted weather vain as a mirrored entry

burning rubber monologues as breath

surrounds the bold ration sent to loop

the rue whiplashes to fronton dropping

where names would normally suffice

for breakage whatever the entourage

faucet unveiled new serpentine plumage

tailored to loom through shadow tracts

declaiming facetious ombudsman

chores elastic venue polish applicants

before classic renewal centers enhance

pocket bottles rattling seminal departures

drawn intent boldly looted vales implicit

in the yawning fabric fashioned room

announcements depart the airwave

crescent bottoms vary locked dawns

in the gorge of a fawning afternoon

gone wry in the telling or sly as well

as a simile would like or truly care

untold whereabouts slowly known

grappling ventures through the sky

or tendered moot in the coddle sail

anointed court or portly otherwise

stand still donuts drip shale regal

as bandana raiders aping banditries

the dermal fortress longings uproot

daring spotted at the artful core

while riffing seance busters hatch

moribund fascination complaints

jettison planing sonic uproar weevil

custard mosaic font posture landing

above all oil feldspar hammocks

paper rock scissors through cliches

while stone cobra locks trundle

off the ocean passport sonata bagel

ramped to pure deflation or indigent

coffer brats elated simply belonging

justified as their lines progress edge

roughened a space once crowded

a room full of lonely pachyderms

archly defraying condor mania

replays orchestral deviation spoons

clattering portly turned dotty bulls

shopping china with a four-score

rhetoric force upheaval proclaimed

category door tamed numerical seizures

hoarding easement vindication lather

giving no indication of boarding turf

before hortatory rerun massacres accrue

lower ratio dipping power plies roil

new feather benders at reflux adders

coiled to strike bile platter at the stake

of a claim denied poultry access

roots incumbent on leisure’s booty

calling all corollary armature frogs

legging homeward stilts renewed alike

and lain poultice against splint porn

glued to the commissar lantern vacuum

barred from inappropriate dismay

in public adversaries clogging water

bridging emissaries bottled coastal regions

aforementioned for preceding subtraction

along the herpetological phylum command

transfers betterment property vintage

bland as asylum stew made motile brand

then left for thread to albatross needles

implied in candle ceremonies unmatched

for darkness coring explicit claims undone

while lame precursors wore their names

to leather frayed at the verse’s plaid edge

whether or not the plunging legends burst

scrotal insignia volumes bulled past nodal

symmetries parted at central reduction

tactics blistered identity fodder listeners

tuned in to the word of the master voice

casting fish loaves to the music their scales

retract when pressed against bottom burns

arterial schemata lessons learned to left

breaded entries for crusty bosses twined

implicit as a title reference would allow

flagrante delicto cashiers to varnish

fine losses handled dreadfully and then

vary plane times wearing the future grid

padlocked to past doors knocking fast

impressions deleted to lather the hopeful

detergent entries slotted for lotto frets

a bar at a time across the city’s crawl

to pabulum bedtime rites a slow rise

of detractor sightings read coldly under

threat of shadow in the foreground night

elixirs dancing scalpel tunics whetted

for dry laughs at entry parties gathered

the rate of pocket furrows grasped

claws climbing portrait thoroughfares

needles ensconced in washer fillet

clambered tattle feathers dating back

returns crossed through a garbled century

feted for its achievement of nonchalance

that left unquestioned without an exit guide

to see them out the tunnel to street maps

crossing matrix blooms well-humored

in the frescoes of the frozen mentors

crying plumed regrets for lost sequins

converged in sonorous tingling emerging

harmonies raffle the baffled entry stag

left behind the ruins shaping their absence

a choral stampede’s glowing oscillation

murmuring past turmeric vesicle harbors

glowing lumbar allegro fashion suits

toward stilted arbiters wiling to ward

off central vacuum plunges passioned

burro snatchers below abduction’s climb

declare betrayals adamant that compassion

batted omnibus tether wedges incarnate

after lashing succulent diversions past

their clashing fishnet bio converters

where limbs shorten lunge implosions

module fossil granule stompers load

corpulent declension masters vast

as the other lode rescinds invention

cartilage umber notwithstanding dosage

or its combative restrictions abducting

cryptic filter varied materiel secrets

among romantic weekends islanding

crossed shore figurines limpid granite

notions upheld accrued strata vendettas

for grandstand pelota grander than

glad-handing amours past throttle nuance

a bevy of pledges left uncast on the site

where barriers turn courier hazing to

willing the messenger path of black ice

slipping toward the dream of a glad return

where nuance loses the thread of its fabric

The Thinging Itself

peristaltic amenities

mangrove tangent burning

flange to fly its danger

echo pyrite’s broken charm

tubes amphora shaker music

chiseled against the runic sun

distempered magic alarms

deflect insistent plenitude badgers

caustic appendage messaging

worn limbs to carom limber danger

instant reckoning vital duende charts

a matter of faction retained

instant reflection better supplied

eclipse a congenital tangent

replicating thought as worded deed

The Truth Shall Make You

aporia turned linchpin swagger

acetate removal reference on demand

for larger tentacle sheep in dollars

waged to foreground a praxis aging

template choosers blue-haired in the wind

or their temporal implosions raftered

lotion crafters welting from pyramid burns

shattered closure as eventual fortitude

defrayed polyglot trampoline enclosures

fear amid shipment relations euphoria

quickens the granite pulse to deference

interred often before loquacious rudiments

wander scuttled table settings apropos

to security blanketing precarious flagellant

masters of the block trade gone tirade

over tamper cove appliance vectors bartered

in cold template currency molded along

variant legato lines keeping proper nouns

circulating among the plague sisters inciting

matterhorn summation axioms to riot

gear shifted paradigm cremation strata

motivators blast nearby panel modulators

launder their public affairs pragmatic

under the launchpad key an exorcising

stakes plates when beveled to dodge

the tapestries of consequential fortune

elated at their escape to wonder salons

lunging vertebral filter magnets forward

as the first line to launch a good offensive

thirst when need passes the channel

to palm writhing stilt remissions bursting

unplayed melody shards when fragmented

night lines gather particle sizing for alms 

to the porous lighting the casual path

more causally than logic allows a tenet

behind on rent asunder payments

cleft palace or shadow tent emission

after the shapes arrived to squander

hostile barter when bold staples bent

surly aftermath who triggered where

the revelation along the proxy footpath

squandered no epiphany for the taking