6 Poems by Chad Horn

AERONAUGHTICALLY

Accelerate: ascend above all clouds
Entertain with aerial dramatics
Roaring engines, headache, (stomach), and crowds
On public display for thrill-fanatics
Nerve-wrecking aerial acrobatics
Airbrushed artwork gravity defying
Upward balance of skill, mathematics
Thunderous jet stream screams amplifying
Intricate maneuvers: terrifying
Co-pilot ejects, auto-engages
A single happy thought keeps me flying
Look up! Pay less attention to gauges
Look up!
Above clouds, where sky is clearer
Yesterday’s storms rage in rearview mirror

UNTRANSLATABLE
Unidentified mystic encryption
Not recognizing local dialect
Theories wrecked in regards to inscription
Recent translations have proved incorrect
Ancient (dead) language to resurrect
New discovery: my mind outmoded
Symbolic gestures, glances- circumspect
Leaking tears leave epitaph eroded
Apocalyptic-cryptic-encoded
Truthfully transcribed, yet hyperbolic
All hardware circuitry overloaded
Better letter/ lines serve as symbolic
Language of love is untranslatable
Efforts to decipher? Debatable…

VARIOUS STATES OF AGREEING, BEING, AND SEEING

1.

Agreeing not to share my songs unsung
Agreeing that new endeavors commence
Agreeing to swallow words/ bite my tongue
Agreeing to terms for lack of defense
Agreeing to cost, foregoing expense
Agreeing more than what I allowed her
Agreeing that ‘space between’ is immense
Agreeing not to take a gunpowder
Agreeing that ‘nothing’ made me prouder
Agreeing my words did not go viral
Agreeing voices are shouting louder
Agreeing that was our downward spiral
Agreeing my words are bargaining chips
Agreeing to dissolve our partnership

2.

Being choked up, unable to swallow
Being overly stressed from lack-o-rest
Being empty of everything. Hollow!
Being polite to an unwelcomed guest
Being falsely labeled ‘a man possessed’
Being cool and content to coexist
Being unimpressed and overly dressed
Being used up, then easily dismissed
Being moved to the bottom of the list
Being chipped and cracked, but not yet shattered
Being de-flowered without being kissed
Being recognized, (overly flattered)
Being damaged without being broken
Being uncensored for words unspoken

3.

Seeing grey shades inside silver linings
Seeing my ivory tower destroyed
Seeing no sacred stars realigning
Seeing ends meeting, (though underemployed)
Seeing views contrary to Sigmund Freud
Seeing the writing on the drawing board
Seeing some smiles, (previously ignored)
Seeing paths and passages unexplored
Seeing a stranger in my reflection
Seeing my severed umbilical chord
Seeing stars on my once smooth complexion
Seeing shadows of material lost
Seeing sprigs of clover through Winter’s fros

EARTH ON MY RADAR (PRAYING FOR A PEACEFUL PASSING)

I imagine that there are great wars down there
Dramas being played out on-and-off-stage
Pollution/ Revolution in the air
Penned-up prisoners with their pent-up rage
Domestic squabbles, civil uprisings
Reading groups all on a different page
Rigged election results            (unsurprising)
Peaceful sit-ins and violent protests
Lack of charity, too much chastising
Middle-age blues and Middle-East unrest
Workers on strike and partners being struck
Middle class neighbors financially stressed
Passing time, passing gas, and passing the buck
I shall wave in passing, (with any luck)

ISOLATION PHYSICS 101

sealed: enclosed          invisible barrier
grounded in alternate reality
lunatic fringe friends   more the merrier
no worse the wear, (despite brutality)
vitality versus mortality
energy, art, ideas suppressing
abnormality? (triviality)
striving to push, constantly regressing
ground-crew perplexed: gotta keep em’ guessing

anything pushed eventually moves
(it’s the constant pushing        so depressing)
yet I push till my position improves
observing all time-space’s ebb and flow
staring out a pi-shaped cockpit window

CURTAINS FOR A ROUND WINDOW

So out of sorts. Feel like a foreigner
in my own cockpit-home so small and round
with only one window and no corner
where buttons and dials and gauges surround
where journal pages float freely/ unbound
where stray light rays are constantly bending
where apparitions astound! And confound
where colors, scents, and music are blending
where dull-static-noise is neverending
where jolts frighten! And vibration unnerves

where night is ascending or descending
where my prayers bounce around and off the curves
where all is measured in angles and arcs
including (soon to be) parting remarks