*****

Recorded Reading (1:50): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/4lhf5kf8x0ibk0pn5x4rl/iconic-beat.wav?rlkey=0gotj75zp12v68vyxc0xyxjcc&dl=0

*****

iconic beat

eye
saw no less than
sixteen
eerily similar
men’s room
doors
shifting
before my too believing

gaze

blurring their
cigarette burns and
fingerprint smears of miserably
methodically
induced oblivion

but not

the endless sea
of stained threadbare
carpeting per
petually swirling
motion of which makes me
reflect on the probable
nature of those stains and also
probabilities around
my access to
the now

so

desired

pristine purity
all in cool clean white
curves
of the goddess
of social redemption behind
one
of those sixteen
doors

without

adding another
stain of my own

*****

This poet is physically disabled. Public housing being insufficient to her medical and creative needs, she is presently living, in order to continue working, in her minivan, publishing all of her works using one thumb on the touch screen of her smartphone, surviving at an income of a fraction of her nation’s poverty level. She would treasure any donation you might care to offer ~ http://www.UgiftABLE.com ● #72D-31S.

Please be aware that it takes several days for the poet to be notified of contributions. International patrons please contact the poet via email or post a comment for the necessary numbers.

*****