Raphael Moser

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

As supposed persona discolored
by melody and rooted to the bump
of allegiances and stubborn fancy
Atlas’ tears lays waste to his issue
Like his bravely mass punctured by terrors
Japanese maple drops its voided leaves
dark and brittle sutures of memory
swept up in a masquerade of weather
Each time that the small boy loses his way
a hunkering compresses a season
iridescence dimming at the traplines
acquisition of ashen rind in kind
The father seizes the shape of the son
slippery and blunt it falls from his hands


The Last but One

Fitful in a field of hyacinth
unfolding unto lilac
unfolding unto hydrangea
Helena
pulls out pieces and
wraps them around
her arms around her waist
around her self
Petals levitate petals

pastelist descent
through the eye of
a needle threading
aqueous inky scent

Freshly fastened tendrils
mend the quickening
the sympathy of nocturnal
fissures  Entering


Litchfield

One hundred eighty acres in a circle
lost in the dark
sweltering fear strips composure

The two women lay down

Rain falls, like the memory
of breathing licking the
vulnerability from the body

A bed of raincoats
separates skin from soil
A water woven reservoir
of wonder and repose

Leaves like seals drink
deep from the mist

In the loamy cove, lungs
of the forest
A cry strikes unseen

complicit
roots gnaw a path

Ravenous earth consumes
that which sleeps too long
in its embrace


About the Author

Raphael Moser’s poetry has appeared in Salonika, BigCityLit.com, Madhatter’s Review, Far out, Further Out, Out of Sight, and Catskill Mountain Region Guide and she was a regular contributor to the poetry blog October Babies from 2009-2013. She has participated in readings at Bowery Poetry Club, Bluestockings and the Ear Inn and has performed original music and poetry in various venues on Long Island and NYC. In 2021 she was a consultant and her poetry was included in the visual arts project Poetry Alley by artist Robert Tomlinson and in 2023 she participated in the Arts Mid-Hudson Gallery exhibition Poets Respond to Art. She has received residency grants from SLS Concordia College and the Vermont Studio Center.

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