DUALING CAPTIVITY
BY NOLAN JAMES BRIDEN
The remnants of time are left scattered
Across the white painted steel desk latched to the wall
The hard desk is notched with specks of chipped paint
Showing the dark underlying view of steel
Notches left from the countless hit of food tray
Or drop of nail clippers after the past to present prisoner clipped his nails.
I sit looking back into history as the speckled desk holds up
My arm, my pad of paper, my pen, and my heart
Quantified bloodlines glance back in time to future
As my energy bursts into the space of space of space traveling.
Traversing through the Willamette Valley kicking up asphalt in the ruts of time
The yellow lines and black bird travels alongside
The galloping hooves of the Ponies
Boxed within boxes my bones rattle on the highway as hearts
Tumble through the gorge
I sit feathered in chains of shame, as the feathers of birds fly free
Over the power of rolling hills of mountain peaks.
With eyes unbound the lined human sit in rows of locked entraptions
Roaming the landscapes of change
Changing lands in prayer as the current of the Columbia River
Catches the tears of my falling eyes.
The Pacific Time melts into mountain time. Ontario. Idaho. Becomes
The same, yet different inside the madness of in-sanity
Dysfunctional cycle circle and the cyclic sickness of tired eyes
Eyes that meet and greet the healing shifting time
From sun to moon to
All my relations
The fast Buffalo Horses traveling across galaxies
The spotted Eagles flying across Big Sky
The rides at the dock carrying the People to safety
Linguistic tunes that wash the spirit in love
I look back behind me to the years of growth
I got lost in the cost of the material world's hit
Bit by bit I melted into something else as I again sit
Looking at the remnants of the time left scattered across
The teal painted steel dusk latched to the cement wall
Notches left from numerous hit a food tray
Or drop of nail clippers
After the past to present prisoner clipped his nails. | NJB