poet russ cavanagh

each episode plays out across the street as loud young braves in short-sleeved shirts enact rites of passage for prospective lovers (un)suitably in uniform in yet another evening in another velvet autumn in another distant town alone in my unlit room squeezing the last from a cheap red not stopping to wonder what became of us our symphony played out the stage finale dismantled but the truth my loveliness is quite simply that you should never have fu*king told her     © copyright Russell Cavanagh     

I found out how Adam felt gifted with such natural pleasure! Warm rain on my bare back as you took me inside out in the wild. Remember smiling hello to that old birdwatcher who appeared, panting and ruddy, even as we closed our very last button? Does he ever frown, I wonder, back upon that day? And what about you? My Eve?     © copyright Russell Cavanagh    

From the Lamentations of Jeremiah: {1:1} How doth the city sit solitary, [that was] full of people [how] is she become as a widow she [that was] great among the nations, [and] princess among the provinces, [how] is she become tributary {1:2} She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears [are] on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort [her:] all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies. {1:3} Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits. {1:4} The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she [is] in bitterness. {1:5} Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy. {1...