—The /tEmz/ Review, March, 2024
They drift through classrooms,
pass us in the hall
on the road to their there,
our here now,
gather what they will
from us, the elders.
We gasp in wonder
at their innocent ignorant beauty
their nourishment from nothing, their streaming
surge, raw-ripe rumpled shine, like huge wrinkled
hatchlings glorious glowing unknowing
every sighting a new species ID
(Adolescencia prepubencia)
middle school gen zero, twelve and thirteen
that age for me a series of neurons
connecting revenant emo-djinns
I no longer feel.
I saw a boomer on a screen play
a boomer in a scene where all agreed
things were better
when and there, then and how.
They weren’t.
- Where were you then? Where will you have been?
When will you be where you are?
Answer in complete sentences.
Show your work.
Some in their journey join us on the verge
to ease the pain of smart eruptions
with prodigious plants and entheogenic fungi,
grown and dried,
burned and breathed,
sold and swallowed
long before they knew
there was a truth to seek.
We mentors lie and say we never cared
because it hurts too much
to be ignored when we do.
We watch them as they fall off hidden cliffs
we lied and said we never saw
because we didn’t want to be a cause
of death predicted not prevented.
- What can be done
when you bare yourself
and can’t bear up?
Who or who else?
Complete show in your answer work sentences.
Fear is
substrate of
action/inaction
enaction/reaction
substitution substitute submission submit
sublime subliminal sublimate
stand-in stand-up
stands and delivers
stands in the river
watches it rise.
Submerged.
Naked. Drowning.
Poser Imposer Imposter Fake
- In what way is this
a syndrome?
Answer sentences in complete
work your show.
- Who am I when I am
someone else?
(Who are you today?)
Who was I when I was myself?
Who will I be before I am no one?
In show sentences answer complete your work.
Link to publication, The /tEmz/ Poetry Review:
https://www.thetemzreview.com/bickford.html