nothing / ray heinrich

< nothing >

there is nothing
between you
between the air
between the motion of the day
and the quiet of the floor
and the water
the sound of water
flowing
through the ground
beneath you

~~
ray heinrich
Texas, U.S.A.

[Some rights reserved under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivs-U.S. 3.0 (BY-NC-ND-3.0) License] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/

from the website:
Word Biscuit by ray heinrich
https://wordbiscuit.com/

how far away it was / ray heinrich

<  how  far  away  it  was  >

i'm standing over my father
in the hospital
he's stopped breathing
i'm holding his neck
and shoulder
and i've been rubbing them
because he always liked that
and it's the best i can do
while i'm waiting for him to die

waiting for his next breath

and it comes

and another

and then

i'm waiting for his next breath again

and i count

one thousand and one
one thousand and two
one thousand and three

like he taught me
standing in our garage
watching a thunderstorm
on the gulf coast of texas
sometime
when i was maybe six
he taught me to count
between the lightning flash and the thunder
taught me to figure out
how far away it was

~~
ray heinrich
Texas, U.S.A.

[Some rights reserved under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivs-U.S. 3.0 (BY-NC-ND-3.0) License]

From the website:
word   biscuit   by   ray   heinrich 
http://wordbiscuit.com/

concrete / ray heinrich

< concrete >

a condominium on the 23rd floor

one with a balcony

is NOT the place

for a poet

or even someone who pretends to be

a poet

you see

there is a sliding glass door to the balcony

and you open it and walk six feet

to the railing which is three feet high

and look down

23 floors

~~
ray heinrich
Texas, U.S.A.

[Some rights reserved under Creative Commons U.S. License 3.0 (BY-NC-ND)]

from the website

Word Biscuit by ray heinrich
http://wordbiscuit.com/