She fades against a canvas of stars a trapeze artist trembling inside her own shadow
on the canvas of a traveling tent transfigured to the mother of La Pieta
outside the Bislaliko Sepulchri beside a wall pockmarked by shrapnel
fragments of a war torn among burned books by live rounds
trembling again the shy girl, whose war I fear I loved above
the girl that came before into a life who shied away the blood
bloodier than the belly of a hit and run knew death only from a freak accident
or accident a suicide away in the next tower block Oh! soar to her day and night
Brittled by my own haphazard events while I enfeebled to inaction when she nears quiver back to the sandpit love dais
when she breezed into my cracked circle
a train spilling its guts like a dissected worm.
Bio: Phillip’s poems have appeared in a number of magazines including: All Poetry, Asian Signature, Tripod, Miracle Magazine, Suisun Valley Review and Wilderness House Literary Journal. He currently lives in Prague.