In Absentia
by Christopher O’Brien

A light blasting like heat through a beveled mirror

            rainbows across a barren floor,

                        igniting motes of transparency,

                                    giving substance to air

The swirling particles float at attention

            turning for inspection,

                        bowing,

                                    moving on.

The prismed light-like-heat

            bounces sussurously from a cat’s water bowl,

                        spreads spider-like upon the wall,

                                    making almost noise and movement.

The metallic ring of the light dancing from the steel bowl and clear fluid echoes

down a dark hallway.

 

I Made You Happy

There’s my name, above me,
Chipped like forever in granite
Or marble,
Dirt stacked upon me like blankets
Or like love.
You danced upon my grave
Briefly,
And then went on
To dance
Upon others...
As if they deserved it.

 

My moldering bones weep,
Staining my polyester suit,
Ruining my tie and shirt,
And all I can think is:
“You danced.”

 

Something I did
—I know it was my death
but it was
something I did—
brought you joy.

 

I am now the happy dead.

 

Amen.

 

CHRISTOPHER J. O’BRIEN teaches high school English in Philadelphia, PA. He graduated in 1991 from Lincoln University and received his Master of Writing Studies degree from St. Joseph's Unversity. He has been refining his craft and his vision of poetry since his early teen years. O'Brien works to introduce inner-city youths to the joy of reading and writing poetry. Influences include e.e. cummings, T.S. Eliot, and Stephen R. Donaldson.

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