ENTANGLEMENTS
Alan Toltzis
To unknot impossible snarls
in fine gold or silver chains,
don’t clutch or quarrel
with lynchpins, no swift clean slice.
Don’t cast blame.
Don’t think
why or how.
There’s a trick to it.
With two delicate probes,
poke and prod.
Enter its heart
and feel it ease.
Tease the knot,
between your fingers.
Fumble the precious links,
snagged and jumbled,
to disrupt the course
of its convoluted coarseness.
Over and again. Feel
tangles loosen, unwind.
Work it, watch
it puddle up
into a loopy muddle
as every twisted intricacy/complexity
opens
itself.
THE UNREDEEMED
A sticky trickle,
dried and sweet,
clouds the wide shoulders
and tapered
waist
of this twisted
green glass bottle.
No deposit.
No return.
These days,
who wants the empties;
worthless shells
that once compressed
evanescent contents?
Instead we ignore or dispose
of what is
inevitable—
the inescapable, uncapped, upward bubbling release;
the pure rising;
and final shimmering, iridescent pop before it all dissipates;
leaving a still,
flat essence
waiting to evaporate
in the heat.
ELEPHANT HEART PLUMS
You didn’t need the sun to yawn above the horizon for evidence
that night had long since gone.
Your heart’s prescience
told you things well in advance—
which plums to pick, which to leave
for three more days to ripen,
how to make me laugh or grieve,
and precisely when to bite me open, the red juice trickling down your chin.
Alan Toltzis is the author of two collections of poetry, 49 Aspects of Human Emotion and The Last Commandment. His work has appeared in numerous print and online publications including, Hummingbird, Right Hand Pointing, IthacaLit, r.k.v.r.y. Quarterly, and North of Oxford.
Find him online at alantoltzis.com