Poetry of Todd Possehl


En Passant

They say
there are more potential moves
in the game of chess

than grains of sand
on the beaches
of this world

but I would rather leave
pieces safely on their squares -
enjoy sunshine

and sea breeze, than endure
my limitations
in the realm of possibility.

I know my checkered past.

If I don't push
that first pawn
I won't hear her

say checkmate again
when she goes through me
like Patton.

I'll listen to the waves
instead, potentially invading
our sandy base.



Distant Geography

If you won't be my world
would you be my top shelf globe?

I promise not to spin you
and cause some dizzy spell -
like those you've cast over me.

I'll only trace the travels
which you won't let me take -
to warmer places than this room
where I sit

like a cooped-up Marco Polo
caressing your dateline -
pining for distant shore.

But someday you'll discover
me along your Ivory coast
and find yourself
longing for lost latitudes -

knowing I was the one
to navigate your stars.

In the meantime,
since I'm a little parched,
if you ever want to kiss me -
just let your oceans spill.




Dumb Love

Quit talking -
try to understand
the connection afforded us
by returning to first blush.

There we couldn't speak
our feelings, or formulate
dumb needs -

reaching instead -
believing we'd catch the other -
trust declared itself -
tenderness affirmed.

No words then -
just each other
racing, stumbling,
daring to fall -

rosy-cheeked and mum.




All poetry  by Todd Possehl
copyrighted 2002



Todd  Possehl is a member of the St. Charles (IL) Writers Group and his poetry has appeared in over 20  journals, including Bryant Literary Review, Limestone Circle, Chaffin Journal, Zillah, and Arts Beat, which is a publication of the Fox Valley Arts Council  in Illinois. When not writing he works as an Account Representative for an educational resource company ,Contact him at tepossehl@yahoo.com



Artwork: From Allposters.com
Music: Eyes of Blue

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Radiance

The power goes off
and truth begins.

There's no politics
or business going down

in the dark -

there's only time
to feel your way.

Can I touch you, my friend,
in the dark?

Can we know
without seeing?

I hear a siren -
not the normal kind -

this may be the end.

I taste the sweet strawberries
you've eaten earlier

and know they've permeated
your cheeks -

and how warm you are.

Listen to the heart's blood -
if the light goes on
we're done.

Before the Big Bang

What was all there?
A new age coffee bar
and an atmosphere.

A cosmic explosion
of warm and strange folk
unfolds music family style -
evolving into the ugly beauty
of a black hole heart,
while mystery with a mouth
sings in alien tones
an ethnic dirge.

A spoiled graceless Venus,
whom I love, orchestrates her
attention getting super-nova tactics -
when appears her aunt in the
coffee black night sky -
and she's everything
I wanted Venus to be -

a bright and morning star.