POETRY

Poetry by Richard King Perkins II

Wasabi Sun

In my final awakeness

the levitation
of morning’s wasabi sun 

an expression of heat

unfastening blooms,
steaming the stone pathway 

the dreams
you floated before my eyes

in different angles of light.

I have reveled in the landscape
of your being 

the soft muscles
the shivering pearl— 

so much of my lifetime wasted

blinking.

Trawler’s Quadrille

Like plastic clogging oceans
there’s too much synthetic love
agitating air,
swallowed as something
it could never be
strangling the devotion
found in
the deepest blue of space
and lesser blue of seas
the silence you hear is my fault
not entirely
but enough.

Richard King Perkins II is a state-sponsored advocate for residents in long-term care facilities. He lives in Crystal Lake, IL, USA with his wife, Vickie and daughter, Sage. He is a three-time Pushcart, Best of the Net and Best of the Web nominee whose work has appeared in more than fifteen hundred publications.