Clayton Medeiros's Shared Poems

What do the bricks know
After years and years
Of authors’ book talks
Biographies and poetry
Novels and memoirs
Writer’s words and voices
Offer solace perhaps
For bricks’ foundational work
Holding up the roof beams
Keeping out wind and rain
As the sound of books
Disappears in the night

In this shared end of all moments
Where there are only cover songs
In contention for number one
In this ultimate millisecond
Where are you in the last song
Of melodic disappearance
A notation for future bands
Alternately singing and playing
Among universes without clocks

In the used book store’s dusty corners
Hard bounds and paper backs
Read out loud to one another
Mellifluous metaphors and crisp prose
Comedies melodramas tragedies
Tall tales and romance
Literary essays pontificate
Philosophical treatises mumble
Mathematical tomes are certain
About everything worth knowing

In a time of avarice what to do with anger:

Rant and rave at friends and lovers,
Toss beer cans at television screens,
Dance madly on cell phones and ipads,
Become a monk or imbibe even more drugs.
Perhaps, make love more often,
Hug the kids with gusto,
Watch Buster Keaton.

Children’s good morning
Scooters clatter on the cracks
Woodpecker’s tap tap