4 Poems by J. Bechard
Boneyard
I’ve built a cemetery all for myself.
Graves upon graves yawning before me,
Their mouths stretching to touch the horizon.
Every evening I lower my body beneath the dirt,
Every morning I am formed in clay.
I am God
And I am Adam;
I shape a body in the dawnlight,
Return to mud by dusk.
How many iterations can be made
Of the same broken body?
How many times must I kill myself
For it to finally stick?
Neural Coupling
For Eleo
I can feel your heartbeat against my cheek,
And for the hours we have lain here
I have been comparing it with my own.
Slowly, our syncopation becomes synchronization.
Every pulse against my temple matches the rhythm in my chest,
Our blood being pushed and pulled through our bodies
To the same meter, same tune.
Our breathing follows the same time signature,
The neurons in our brains firing off the same symphony.
One beat, two beat.
One breath, two breath.
Same meter, same tune.
With gouged eyes and ruptured eardrums,
I would search for the body so perfectly in unison with my own.
I would know you by nothing but that.
I would know you without senses.
Heliophile
Extended Tanka
Be my destruction
Doubts that fester within me
Unvoiced and unheard
Melting wax running red streaks
Your nails trace paths down my spine
We may choose our sun
Your lips for eternity
Fortune or failure
My downfall was not conceit
I only longed for daylight
