Joseph Ellison Brockway, April 2016

Return to Sender (Rorschach Test #1)

 

Walk.

Keep walking

until you find something

familiar

Unfamiliar surrounds

Flashes of light

Scream

Frowning faces

Blue streaks

Crash

Wilting flowers

White explosions

Fall

Rising dust

Green blips

Burn

Passing clouds

Red splatters

Shoot

Swaying trees

Gold waves

Twist

Trickling stream

Purple splotches

Feel

Blowing wind

Yellow static

Vomit

Forming dew

Flashes of light

Wake up.

 

The fax machine answers and

from out of the receiver

I am born into this world.

 

Everything is new

to me.

 

I don’t want to walk

anymore.

 

Please return me to

sender.

 

 

 

Black Splotches (Rorschach Test #2)

 

black splotches

my mother

a sprawled turtle

spilt milk

pointed breasts

ladder saving a cat

my father

letter q

nose on a treetop

swiss cheese

 

slant left

not turtle, dog paw

not milk, umbrella

a ladder down a sewer

my nose on top of a j

 

upside down

two pointed breasts

now shriveled testicles

black splotches

me

 

 

 

Joseph Ellison Brockway is a bilingual poet, translator, and educator.  He’s currently working on his Ph.D. in Studies of Literature and Translation at the University of Texas at Dallas.  He likes to experiment with poems that explore the human psyche and ways to manipulate language.
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