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Three Poems by Joseph Roque

Three Poems by Joseph Roque

The Hours

Original Online Poetry

Three Poems by Joseph Roque
Three Poems by Joseph Roque include The Hours, Solitaire, and Ghosts & Granite.

The Hours

The hours after midnight crawl
along nonchalant walls,
leisurely disregard
circadian punctuality,

pay no heed to those poor souls
who cannot sleep; petulantly pray
for the night’s end.

The hours do not compromise,
do not reprise
anyone’s pain or suffering,

The hours move,
but never go anywhere,
mute, morose, and mindless,
they are immune
to critics and complainers─

couldn’t care less
about the 3D mess
of my restless dreams.

Original Online Poems by Joseph Roque

Solitaire

What if we could play
with time, the way we
play solitaire?
Move people around
instead of cards, control
the destinies
of where and when
everyone goes.

We could cheat death,
keep our loved ones
here, long as we wanted,
locked in place,

in neat rows and columns─

no one goes
anywhere until we put
the cards away,
if ever.

Original Online Poems by Joseph Roque

Ghosts and Granite

Wrote most of my poetry
at Swan Point Cemetery,
surrounded by fantasy gardens
and rollicking, restless residents
offering suggestions.

These slumbering spirits compete
for my attention, from the Civil War hero
in the southwest corner,
cannon balls on his granite coffin,

to the children who crowd around me,
taken from this world early 1900’s
by fever and consumption,
I hear them all, whispering in the wind.

Even H.P. Lovecraft,
here since 1937, has something to offer,
especially around All-Hallows Eve.

I listen to them all. These are my friends.

Original Online Poems by Joseph Roque

Poems by Joseph Roque have appeared in Aphelion, Silver Wings Magazine, MadSwirl.com, A Tender Touch and A Shade of Blue, RagMag.org, eMuse-zine.com, Faith Hope and Fiction, A Long Story Short, Psychopoetica, Cerebration, Censored Poets, The Poet’s Haven, Death Head Grin, Eunoia Review, Pens On Fire, and Zygote in my Coffee.com.

You may also like the poem: “Last Vows” at Faith Hope and Fiction.Image Credit: © Tom Tom / Alamy Stock Photo

 

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