Clayton Medeiros's Shared Poems

Art is a choice each day
For some a simple pleasure
About being in the world
Done for its own sake without
Expectation or recompense
Unaccountable to anything else
Words images sounds separately
Or integrated one to the other
Like lovers on a park bench
In the late afternoon light
Indifferent to diligent runners
Amblers and dog walkers

In a time of endings
The last language speaker
Animals and plants disappear
Ancient trees fall to board feet
With their knowledge untapped
Like the stones quiet whispers
Islands drowned by rising seas
Brief footnotes in future histories
If there are more to be written
Perhaps it will all be epitaphs
About distantly remembered this
And that known only from books
Or digital reconstructions
In their cool indifference

Eternal
Ephemeral
Refined
Earthy
Invincible
Vulnerable
Requited
Defeated
Sedate
Tumultuous
Practical
Idealistic
Romantic
Tragic
Simple
Complex
Sensible
Foolish
Articulate
Inhibited
Joyful
Sad
Silent
Lyric

How are you doing with
Your spatio-temporal
Events on this day
Did you find
Soul satisfying
Scientific answers
To why you are here
To love and loneliness
What you should do
Why you should do it
Did you make any
Quantum leaps

What mask should I wear today
What mask could please me
What mask could please
The audience for this Tuesday
Friends family acquaintances
Those yet unknown to me
As I drive down the avenue
With so many others on their way
Who might or might not know
Who I am and why I am here
This mask should serve me well
The mask of the night like Juliet
Speaking with Romeo