Enclose Her & Close Her
for Ayla Roberts

were I a snake,
I'd swallow her

choking until I got her down
I'd not throw her up


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
9:57 p.m. 1/08/07


To Hold Back or To Share

obsessed with herself,
everything, she takes off the track
she derails trains,
trains of thought


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
2:10 a.m. 02/08/07


Watch And Wait
for Wilfred Owen

sneek into a married woman
a moment, husband out
looking at, looking into
patients with health issues

his wife and I
have a few back issues of a magazine
enough time needed
to turn their pages,
look through, look up a few
forgotten stories
read and absorb

towel beside the bed
to absorb what spills
must wipe the evidence up
leave nothing,
not what would give away
what we want kept
hidden

when he returns to her
when evening comes, green jacket raw
smell of the wounded
of the wounds he's closed up

while doing this,
his out-of-this-world wife
opens doors, until she opens one
I croach down to enter, to get into,
to go through

didn't want to leave
though she had dinner to prepare
for a hungry physician


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
2:24 p.m. 02/08/07


Pack of Dogs Pack of Cards
for David Allen

dog getting his ass chewed up,
chewed off
by whoever in the pack
is biggest, is baddest

the most angry on the street
greeting the most passive

chewed up and yelping,
helpless, howling until allowed
to get up and run

I run to the door,
too late to see,
what is for who lives over-the-hill,
inner city, Nassau

as thrilling as a bull fight
in the middle of Madrid,
is for who's Spanish


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
2:46 a.m. 02/08/07