Again the Amite River Beach

     Over ten poems to you now and nothing
significant has happened to me
lying between your thighs.

     But your salt and dirty foam

     the sun has burned into my skin.
And I recall things.
Choking on mud till the far bank

     of mud. Then jumping

     nostrils pinched into the cloudy glass.
Or legs entangled
with legs, all sheathed in sand, or

     the river a throat

     bellowing the fishermen’s approach—
swallowing, convulsing in their wake.
And the campfire I made at dusk, alone,
it was out

     when I awoke trembling in dew to the dawn.

A Series of Short Poems

Death of the Body

A shattered bottle
can hold no wine.

Our Marriage

A shattered bottle
can hold no wine.

A Shattered Bottle Can Hold Wine

A shattered bottle
can hold no wine.

Alzheimer’s Was the Diagnosis

A shattered bottle
can hold no wine.

God Bless America

A shattered bottle
can hold no wine.

Self-Portrait

A shattered bottle
can hold no wine.

Portrait of Ben Luton

A shattered bottle
can hold no wine.

After Tuesday Night She Found

A shattered bottle
can hold no wine.

After-Party Rug Stains

A shattered bottle
can hold no wine.

While Walking Alone in the Woods

Across the muddy pool’s surface like glass
window to a burnt-out factory

insects dart and leave brief trails
of ripples there, as though

this surface were not a surface
but a history, and they

amid its workings trying to leave some mark
but ripples all they’ve left

(or as though this surface were not a surface,
as though it were a mirror).

Interview on Nature

Q: When I awoke trembling in dew to the dawn.

A: Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.

Q: Scaling a beach’s dunes, in a state
where I have seen no mountains.

A: And the earth was without form, and void.

Q: They wave to me. I wave back.

A: The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Q: The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

A: God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.

Erick Piller has published poetry in the  Boxcar Review,  In Other Words: An American Poetry Anthology (2007), and elsewhere. His essays have appeared at PerceptionEngine.com and in the Reader's Response, the Loyola University New Orleans' academic journal. In 2006 he won first place in a Louisiana Scholastic Press Association writing competition for journalism and, in 2007, a Dawson Gailliard Award for screenwriting. Contact Erick at ejpiller@gmail.com