Racing a Seagull far from Home

Racing a seagull far from home

Traveling on a road I’ve travelled before,

I'm following so close as to see the vanes

Attached to the rachis of the sea bird’s tail.

Foraging far from the edge of his world

He's caught in a traffic current

Unfamiliar to him, culling for help,

When a blast of wind and a dip of his shoulder,

Shoots him to the safety

Of the un-car-ed parking lot.

My heart races in fear, watching

Through a windshield smeared, with

Creatures not fast enough.

Fearing a meeting of demise,

I am relieved then, to see

Him safely away, yet

Missing his company, and

The thrill of his flight.

I can no longer watch,

No longer see,

Traveling on quickly myself,

Far from safe, far from secure

Foraging myself, scratching at nothing,

A hard concrete field of relationships

Stretches out before me,

Hurt souls and misplaced words,

Lonely like the seagull,

Racing far from home.

Sonnet 29

When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
   For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
   That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

9th Annual Reading of the Sonnets

April 20 in person Burning Coal Theatre
2-5 pm Sonnets 1-77
April 21 on-line in Zoom
2-5pm Sonnets 78-154
Readers and Listeners needed  Free Event

Phone 919-271-1801  | Kurt Benrud

Email fairestcreatures0423@gmail.com

Glass Tornado 

Into pavement,

Like glass smashing.

Onto concrete,

Like windows crashing.

The pull to the chest,

Of the heart breaking.

Like a crystal tornado

Wrapped up in your veins,

Tearing it out

With each swirl of the winds,

That carried you off,

At the begins.

Onto the ground,

Like tossed carcass.

Hands over head,

Like a curled ball.

Contain the storm,

That lashed out of bounds.

Heels to ass

Elbows to knees

The smaller the target

The less there will be

Shards of the tornado

Destroying the soul.