Brian Rihlmann (Western Voices 2020)

Exclusive: Western Voices, 2020: Edited by Scott Thomas Outlar

Bio: Brian Rihlmann was born in New Jersey and currently resides in Reno, Nevada. He writes free verse poetry, and has been published in The Blue Nib, The American Journal of Poetry, Cajun Mutt Press, The Rye Whiskey Review, and others. His first poetry collection, “Ordinary Trauma,” (2019) was published by Alien Buddha Press.

MORE CONVINCING

I had a bit of back pain yesterday

for no apparent reason

from no obvious cause

not unbearable, but tenacious

in its ability to find me

no matter how I stood or sat

or twisted myself in bed

(pain’s funny that way)

it’s mostly better today

and I’m grateful for that, but still,

a crooked, shrunken version of myself

stands in the shadows

at the end of a hallway that’s

not quite as long as it once was, saying

“one day some pain will seize you, my boy,

and it won’t go so easily.....in fact,

it won’t go at all.”

I ponder this a moment

as I review my history—

the varieties of pain I’ve known before

the many flavors I’ve sampled

and reply “No problem—

I already know what that’s like.”

then I smile, but he laughs

and his laugh

is more convincing

***

YOURS, ALONE

leave the blaming

to others

who weren’t in the cockpit

with you

when you missed threading

the eye of that storm

who watched from a distance

screaming instructions

the way you do

at a housefly

who can’t see

the open window

"it's right there!"

their voices meaningless

unheard through the gusts

and the blinding rain

that was yours

alone

*** 

STRANGE GRAVITIES

  

the gravity of a ledge is obvious

for the feet that inch along

the white fingertips

clutching granite

for a body in space

perhaps not—

a wobble, a bulge

might indicate a black hole

some unseen dark object

stripping away surface layers of skin

distorting its shape

and there are strange gravities

as inexplicable

as numerous as the souls

invisibly pulled

and torn apart

like spiral galaxies

shredded, dismembered

into a thousand limbs

hurtling through the darkness

no one witnesses this

and believes

this once flawless pattern

intended such dramatic

and irreversible

self-destruction

or that it acted

alone

Setu, April 2020