{"id":2591,"date":"2014-05-29T19:16:23","date_gmt":"2014-05-29T19:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/?p=2591"},"modified":"2015-03-27T00:52:02","modified_gmt":"2015-03-27T00:52:02","slug":"they-smile-with-stiletto-eyes-poem-by-joseph-armstead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/they-smile-with-stiletto-eyes-poem-by-joseph-armstead\/","title":{"rendered":"They Smile With Stiletto Eyes Poem by Joseph Armstead"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

something twisted and brittle
\ngrows imperiously
\nunder the burning glare
\nfrom a distant dying sun
\n 
\ncrippled souls swimming
\norange panoramic skies, open and vast,
\nthe high frontier
\nstreaked with thin purple scars
\nand elongated, julienned cuts
\nof flashing metallic azure,
\n 
\nthe bloom reaches towards
\nthe ruins of Heaven
\n 
\nin the perfume of its rosy musk, the voices of ghosts…
\n 
\nThey smile with stiletto eyes at tomorrow.
\n 
\nDialogue:
\n 
\nHer — “It’s the sound of the telephone,
\ndon’t you see, that electronic bleating,
\nthat sudden, startling interruption
\nof your thoughts, its the absence
\nof THAT
\nwhich is the thing that makes me saddest…”
\n 
\nHim — “Black coffee fills my leaden limbs
\nwith the acid from my numbed mind,
\nI’m just tired sometimes, weary,
\nlethargic,
\nand it helps me summon the energy
\nto face the dragons beckoning me
\nfrom the wasteland at the edges of the map…”
\n 
\nNarrator — “They converse in an alien tongue,
\ntheir out-of-synch voices pitched
\njust beyond the range of human hearing,
\nbut they speak volumes to one another
\nthrough the staring bleakness of their eyes.
\nA disjointed exchange of discontent,
\nit is a gift of unwanted predestination.”
\n 
\nThe audience is confounded.
\nTheir ennui is as solid
\nas the bars to a prison.
\n 
\nHer — “I can’t stop crying,
\nknowing I’ll never
\nfeel that way again.”
\n 
\nHim — “They won’t break me.
\nI won’t let them. I owe it
\nto all the wounds that mark me.”
\n 
\nThe audience blinks and remains unmoved.
\nVision is defined as hypercompetence
\nin
\ndiscernment
\nor
\nperception.
\nAnd if they see anything, they see dissonance.
\n 
\nThey smile with stiletto eyes at the image of a strangled eternity.
\n 
\nin ashes, the gnarled flora hungers,
\nseeking nourishment
\nin the crumbs left
\nfrom a banquet of the dead,
\nand an entrepot of melody
\nreleasing its goods,
\nan unfinished symphony
\nfrom an alienated, tone-deaf
\norchestra pouring in
\nthrough the colorful, ragged tears
\nin the fabric of unstable Reality,
\nwashes like the ocean tide
\nacross a celestial Sahara
\n 
\nstarlight feeds the thirteenth rose of hell
\n 
\nand the velvety carmine blossom
\nunfurls its bloody petals to catch
\ntainted brilliance
\ncascading
\nonto the specters
\nof a concrete and steel
\nanthill,
\nstaring
\n 
\nThey smile with stiletto eyes at weeping nothingness.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BIO<\/strong>
<\/strong>
Joseph Armstead is a suspense-thriller and horror author living in the United States’ San Francisco Bay Area. Author of a dozen short stories and ten novels, his poetry has been published in a wide range of online journals, webzines and print magazines. A mathematician, Futurist and computer technologist, Mr. Armstead’s poetry often defies easy description, but frequently includes neo-classical imagery, surrealist viewpoints and post-modern themes.<\/strong>
\n 
\nhttp:\/\/redroom.com\/member\/joseph-armstead<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Condemned-Of-Heaven-Joseph-Armstead\/dp\/0578013665<\/a><\/p>\n

 
\n\"Uroborus<\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

robin@artvilla.com<\/a><\/p>\n

www.facebook.com\/PoetryLifeTimes<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/strong><\/p>\n

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  something twisted and brittle grows imperiously under the burning glare from a distant dying sun   crippled souls swimming orange panoramic skies, open and vast, the high frontier streaked with thin purple scars and elongated, julienned cuts of flashing metallic azure,   the bloom reaches towards the ruins of Heaven   in the perfume … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":857,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,43],"tags":[18,136,3],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2591"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2591"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3744,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2591\/revisions\/3744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}