Two Poems by Sy Roth

Hirsute Fantasy

Hair sloughs like snake skins

In piles on the pillow, fashion
Auburn berms where dreams hide
In petite oases of the mind.

In morning, the gatherers
Count them like sheep
Baaing relentlessly at the loss.
Shimmering tracks of emptiness

Lay there in Saharan deserts.

Hairy sentries left behind, nomads,
Find a final resting place
Wadded in toilet tissue.

Comb overs hide the wadis

Visible when the sun shoots
Rays through them.
From behind mirrors capture them.

Brown dot sun-mound, a camel, rests

In that desert waiting
For the others to jump ship
Before hair spray attempts to hold them hostage.

Two Pictures Resting Side-by-Side

They were not lovers, the two pictures,

but reminiscences of elapsed youth,
sand-buried tortoises crawling gravely to the ocean.
Virtual reality in both.

In one, an afro rests like a Brillo pad on his pate.

Detractors called it a head in a nest.
He answered, yo-yo-yo, no!
Creaseless brow,
shadowed smile,
smirk,
all subterfuge.
Zippered shirt reveals décolletage.
Youthful hairs sprout like Saguaro cactuses in a beige desert.
Slick stream of sweat on the exposed chest makes it glisten.
Dash of brio as he leans on a table posing for the air
aping the King Kong poster pasted on the door.
In the heat of the room, he melts,
awaits the writers to appear,
glad he is not wearing a tie.

In the other, the kinchin attempts callow savoir faire.

Thin beard, a sling of curls, sparsely wraps lobe to lobe.
Downturned mustache, a thatch of tendrils, faintly meets van Dyke.
Smileless Mona Lisa’s eyes stare blankly at the world,
contemplates all from within, without emotion.
No longer tight-curled, Russian cap flaps hide ears and brow,
Sikh man posed, head tilted a few degrees from normal.

Resting side-by-side, the tie creates the difference.

No ties with what has passed, only vestiges,
inexact memories behind the hollow eyes.

Sy Roth comes riding in and then canters out.  Oftentimes, the head is bowed by reality; other times, he is proud to have said something noteworth.  Retired after forty-two years as teacher/school administrator, he now resides in Mount Sinai, far from Moses and the tablets. This has led him to find words for solace. He spends his time writing and playing his guitar. He has published in many online publications such as BlogNostics, Every Day Poets, The Weekender, The Squawk Back, Dead Snakes, Bitchin’ Kitsch, Scapegoat Review, The Artistic Muse, Inclement, Napalm and Novocain, Euphemism, Humanimalz Literary Journal, Ascent Aspirations, Fowl Feathered Review, Vayavya, Wilderness House Journal, Aberration Labyrinth, Mindless(Muse), Em Dash, Subliminal Interiors, South Townsville Micropoetry Journal, The Penwood Review, The Rampallian, Vox Poetica, Clutching at Straws, Downer Magazine, Full of Crow, Abisinth Literary Review, Every Day Poems, Avalon Literary Review, Napalm and Novocaine, Wilderness House Literary Review, St. Elsewhere Journal, The Neglected Ratio, The Weekenders and Kerouac’s Dog. One of his poems, Forsaken Man, was selected for Best of 2012 poems in Storm Cycle. Also selected Poet of the Month in Poetry Super Highway, September 2012. His work was also read at Palimpsest Poetry Festival in December 2012. He was named Poet of the Month for the month of February in BlogNostics.