“No rest for the wicked” Mom used
to say in her biblical tome tone and
I must be wicked in these days when
it is harder and harder to find any rest

Walking as the darkness falls into cool
of breeze that seems to be so stirred up
by the setting sun as it slides on down
the edge of the earth and many insects

Raise the rhythmic cry as dense leaves
exude a last gasp of oxygen-rich breath
that heals and invigorates flesh & bone
that beats its so material motherly way

Across the spinning planet with all the
great circulating oceans of air and water
oh, the precious moisture that kisses our
lips and sweet sounds of life in our ears.

 

James Van Looy has been a fixture in Boston’s poetry venues since the 1970s. He is a member of Cosmic Spelunker Theater and has run poetry workshops for Boston area homeless people at Pine Street Inn and St. Francis House since 1992. Van Looy leads the Labyrinth Creative Movement Workshop, which his Labyrinth titled poems are based on. His work appears weekly in Oddball Magazine.