Michael Cluff- Three Poems

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At 5:02
July 19
Lilith Adams
and Damon Cain
were at the top
of the hillock near
Edenia and Pussy Willow Roads
karate chopping
the thirteen foot
balsam wooden cross
Bruce Lee-style
down to nothing
in front of the near
rush hour
ninety-six or so feet below
and no one paid
attention
not at all.

They were sad
and bothered
all those lesson
were for naught
until the Sheriff dropped by
their lower class neighborhoods
arrested Beluah and Zeke
Philonia and Jeremiah
their parents.

Cold dinners and
empty propane canisters
were unplanned for
but the beatings to come
when the adults got home.



Day 4
In A Highland Garden

In the waiting evening
a snake watches bumblebees
chortling over the stung wasp.
The viper turns
and smiles
as only a demon can do
when he sees Valerie and Mario
engrossed in the other
as they move eye to eye
down a bucolic ridgeway.



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Chinese elms
chaparral clippings
the metatarsal
an afternoon
nee brunch junket
beyond the extension
of the test site
for unannounced fiddlings
Shelley could not fathom.