Three Poems By Philip Bram- Glass Tesseract, Spring 2005

Memory On Monday,
December 16th at 4:47 p.m.
While Waiting In Line
At That Check Cashing Place
To Pay The Electric Bill-
Final Notice, Pay Before
5:00 p.m., December 16th

I was
tan and bony
white-locked in the sun
cupped hands holding
not one but two
tadpoles I caught
in the creek
behind the playground
really fat ones
dark black with the beginnings
of legs, back legs, little nubs
and I laughed as they wiggled
around in what little water
my hands would hold
and then I heard thunder
and looked out
across the field
where those two cotton gins
had been moving
slowly all day
but now they were just
standing there
looking like elephants
and behind them
the sky had turned dark
and I saw a flash in the darkness
and again there was thunder
and then I heard my mother
calling my name:
"Philby! Philby!"
and I knelt down
and put the tadpoles
back in the water
and they stayed right there
at the edge
and I watched them
until the wind whipped up
and they disappeared
in the ripples
and again my mother yelled:
"Philby! Philby!"
and I ran home
through the playground
thunder cracking
lightening flashing
everything turning orange
the chains of the swings
creaking as the first drops
of rain came down
in strange directions


Munchhausen              (first published in Axe Factory)


that's what they called it
I kind of liked the name
it reminded me of cookies and puppets
they found out she had been giving herself the infections
that she had been injecting herself with tap water
and there would be worse shit to come
like that time she tried to cut off one of her titties
hacked off a good half of it
they sewed it back on though
but for me
the worst part of all that
was having to ride in the back seat with her
after she got her shock treatments
the hospital was in Oklahoma City
3 hours from where we lived
I would be alright for a while
but then it would turn dark
and sitting back there in the darkness
my mind would play tricks on me
not anything like today
but still, at the time
it was quite vicious
horrible images would flash through my mind
nearly all of them of my mother
or rather, something that once was my mother
but now some evil beast
doing the most horrendous things you could imagine
and nearly always to me
I mean, I knew in my heart that my mother loved me
and that she would never do anything to hurt me
but no matter how hard I tried
I could not get those images out of my head
and every so often
a car would pass
and the headlights would shine in
and there she'd be
slumped over beside me
her mouth hung open
drooling
and those veins in her forehead
like blue worms
throbbing
throbbing back into the darkness
she also farted a lot
I must've been about 8 or 9 years old


The Sound Of Love Like That

light rain
tapping on the air conditioner
subtle
as sunlight through the trees
calm
like an old dog walking beside you
that memory of my mother
bringing in the sun-tea
long tan legs in cutoffs
a red bandanna on her head
the sound of wooden wind chimes
the sound of love like that