Silent Sirens

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem 

Don’t let the silent moment pass.  Reach out

And grab it, with the fist your mind can make.

Reach deep and seize time.  Hold it.  Make it shout

Its sermon or its symphony.  The snake

Will try to shed its skin but don’t let go.

Hold on until the rattle shakes your soul

Awake.  If life is frozen, let the floe

Float through you, slicing.  Show it you can thole

Its worst the way an iceberg crushes ships.

The womb takes in the semen and prepares

The woman’s body for birth pangs.  His lips

She wanted.  She knew all, not unawares.

  Face moments as if eons were just beeps

    Because the epochs are produced by bleeps.

Phillip Whidden