Language climbs an unsafe slope
waiting for either shoe to drop
into the washed out canyon
where the scrub jays scream
go back where there are
too many seeds.
Any given screed
flowers in sage September
descrying description against
verse verses flinging curses to
deny repetition the pattern
as hated as a sign's curve
that would otherwise
indicate pause.
Quotations rotate
the circumspection
back toward analysis
and its psychological function
deep subconscious counterarguments
seeping into otherwise clean sewage systems
where rants decant until there is another
hill to climb and another another to
inscribe on the inside of this pipe
this magnolia tree without its
neighborhood connotation
upon which memory says,
don't forget to imagine
another way the hill
could meet
the creek.
Roman Ryan 