Sam Silva
Dark Rooms Where The Smoke Rose
Curled slaves such as I
..anger, fear, and spite!
...and then the numbness of the night
drifting in
like dust from the harbor
here in New York City
...or further south in Norfolk
where slavery is
a more darkly rooted tradition
in that African Diaspora
which more rightly made a nation of Jazz seekers!
One way or the other
a nation of people born to run away
and be caught
-up by money
and chained down
to a factory job
and a religion
of prohibition
and speak-easies
...dark rooms where the smoke rose
and deals were cut
for Democracy...
Sam Silva was born in Washington DC in 1954. He lives in North Caroline, USA. His poetry has appeared in legion journals including Samisdat, Sow's Ear, The American Muse, St. Andrews Review, Dog River Review, Third Lung Review, Main St. Rag, Charlotte Poetry Review, Parnasus, Rio Del Arts, Megaera, Big Bridge, Comrade Magazine, Ken Again and at least thirty others. Nine chapbooks published by Third Lung, M.A.F., Alpha Beat and Trouth Creek presses. These chapbooks were well received in newspaper reviews by Shelby Stephenson, Ron Bayes, Steve Smith, and the late poet laureate of North Carolina Sam Ragan, and solicited by Brown and Yale Universities for their libraries. Silva has a full length collection of poetry called Eating and Drinking based on a royalties contract signed with Bright Spark Creative. His most recent collection is poems from the recusant (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, July 11, 2013).
The Populist Right
The election of the century!
Dinosaurs raging on volcanic fires.
The flippant end
of all money, all trees
...cards and posters we might send
like scurrying bees
in our mindless work
and our pointless desires!
But of course there is honey
dripped by angels in the sky
on the great TV
....for a reason
as to why.
thistles stretch their prickly arms afar