Two-Person Architect

While doctoring the sun, my wife expounds
On gradients of moonliness called “love.”
Attending raves in giant fields, she’d tell
Us, “Nothing is a drug,” and drop it like
A mic. And neon lights berated costly
Nights, so full of naked, blaring animus;
If not, at least of intimations. Without
A wink of hesitation, a raccoon is
Digging through my trash outside; emaciated
Martian with an ear for the eraser, like
My wife, whose syllogisms overlapped with hope.

While proctoring tomorrows, Obama rounds
The radiance of spoonerisms up to one.
“Pretending saves a little space,” he’d tell
Us (nothing like a bug), and pop it like
A collar; neonates conflated bossy
Rights – the pull of naked, blaring animus –
With tons of steely scintillations. Pick out
The pinkest nation: A cocoon is
Hugging the rough trash inside me, wasted,
Marshalling an iridescent pacer like
My wife, her syllogisms home with overwhelm.

Sonnet for Democracy: or, Epigrams and Sound Bites of 2016

“You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.”
Mario Cuomo

Reporters quoted thermophilic Trump:
“My wife’s the only girl I care to hump.”
The New York Times lent Hillary its ear:
“Your crossword puzzle suffers, much like Lear.”
The brothers Koch were drips of condensation
On the greenhouse ceiling; glass somatization.
A Marxist Yankee ate a pound of fees
To rush adrenaline’s fraternities.
The Onion’s parodies: a haemorrhoid
Deployed that contributions out-diploid.
The categorical judicial branch
Decided John Doe Jr.’s avalanche,
At best, unconstitutional; and Scalia’s
Dissent, “Divide the horse!”: paraphernalia.

“Abound but to abandon!” was the chant
Protesting what The Talking Light was can’t.

Jake Sheff is a pediatrician and veteran of the US Air Force. He’s married with a daughter and several pets. Poems and short stories of Jake’s have been published widely. Some have even been nominated for the Best of the Net Anthology and the Pushcart Prize. His chapbook is Looting Versailles (Alabaster Leaves Publishing). A full-length collection of formal poetry, A Kiss to Betray the Universe, is available from White Violet Press.