The Poetry of Mark Daniel Milbocker 
Off Center

Ever a half-tone under
warble-wrapping around 
harmonic expectations
echoing on the offbeat
a priest of the jezebels
mona lissajous smiling
speaking in beat frequencies
against the muzakgeist
my rhythm satisfying those
of similar length and depth
plucked in my cloud hammock
where I hide from the meter
with caesuric mirth awake
and perturbing the matrix
with predictable dissonance
patterns poured patternly
almost completing the 
circles traded for spirals
because the tale was held
too long so inky marbling
may gild the preface of
babbling grains brooking
smoothness for a fur of 
florescence of anthers
dangling oddly about the
firing pistol so garishly
wielding life as a sticky
instrument of perseverations
carving talc into titanium
memento moris of golden locks
tied into umber harps so
all may relish the obscura of
it all and the rise of tensions
crescendoing with righteousness
just another jericho to dance
into irrelevance with ever
burgeoning palatial glee
that only the unkiltered
hear in the deafness of
tones held against the glass
ears swallowing the galaxies
that somehow spin off of the
 center
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©2026 Mark Daniel Milbocker  All rights reserved.