Perry L. Powell- Three Poems

How It Looks

Like the moth to the flame

giving up your chance to become

a man of achievement,

your chance to become

a husband, a father, your chance

to have a serious life.

Years consumed with adventures

that lead nowhere and work lapsed

so you remain available as needed

parked like a raincoat in a closet.

Now in a grave moment

another flight around the world

as her companion not her mate

as you grow older and

other doors begin to close forever.

This is how it looks to us.

We know there are no perfect people

but we thought you were close.

How were we to know

love would be the poison in your apple?

Gangrene

A gangrenous foot is like a rotted apple

the knife slices

and only bone resists.

Diabetes:

all sweetness leads to decay.

Legacy

I have written my lines into your skin,

that warm parchment, that softened light,

and in the sinews of your walk

and in the glisten of your eye.

While taking more than could hardly be given,

I took lives from your body

and gave you fears to carry home

and gave you reasons for the naught.

And I have whispered our future along your hand,

on fingertips that bear a heart,

you said waters fall forever

but then you said the sun sings again each morning.

Bio

Perry L. Powell is a systems analyst who lives and writes in College Park, Georgia. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in A Handful of Stones, A Hundred Gourds, Atavic Poetry, Decades Review, Deep Water literary Journal, Frogpond, Haiku Presence, Indigo Rising, Lucid Rhythms, Mobius The Journal of Social Change, Poetry Pacific, Prune Juice, Quantum Poetry Magazine, Ribbons, small stones, The Blue Hour, The Camel Saloon, The Credo, The Foliate Oak, The Heron's Nest, The Innisfree Poetry Journal, The Lyric, The Mind[less] Muse, The Rotary Dial, Turtle Island Quarterly, and Wolf Willow Journal.