The Poetry of Mark Daniel Milbocker 
Dichotomies of Deceleration

I sit at the center of the river
as the Earth glides underneath

On my right, the future dawns
like a blackhole moon leveling the mountaintops
in the unavoidable cataclysmic collision
that leaves no sun to rise

On my left, history lies open upon the waves
of what ifs answered in dappled reflections
like the familiar iridescence of mudpie memories

Beneath this waterfall grow strange lichens
that phosphorescence with grief's repudiation of darkness
for they forever bask in love's secret glow

Just as beneath the grinding of impending volcanics
there grow gardens of well-tended annuals
that floresce with the necessities of dreams
though they never reveal their covetous roots
or the frozen screams of pearls cast across the floor

Here at the center of my orbit, my closed eyes
open to an axis of escape between defiance and acceptance
purchased with the twin coins of God and Trust

hailing from forgotten shores and without destination
the boat without oars gradually arrives
and sinks me below the warm confluence
beneath the fading salinity into the chasm of sensation's amnesia
my heartstone thrown so far from its final setting

cozy in the precious blanket of lost sedimentaries
my last habits have run their course to the end
never to know whether the intention was shared

one lone ping in the dark beginning an endless ellipse
wondering whether crossed paths ever ignite twice
a stolen ember no longer yearning for what
has already been had enough, and as it should be,
has found a resting point without atmosphere

just a heavy metal ion waiting to decay

beyond the boundless hero's thrusty dismay
this offspring of consummation's kiss and cosmic bliss
feels its elemental inertia fade away...
■





©2025 Mark Daniel Milbocker  All rights reserved.