The Argotist Online

Home       Articles       Interviews       Features       Poetry       Ebooks       Submissions       Links

 

RYAN ANDERSON

Ryan Anderson's poems have been published in such magazines as Spire Press, Purple Rose Publications and Big City Lit. He is currently attending Moorhead State University in Minnesota for journalism.

 

The State of America

Nights spent longing for soft skin valleys
in the cool breath of midnight,
staring out onto the ghostly blue
windows illuminating
neon bars
buzzing
a distant train whistle -

I want to sleep in your cosmic waves
away in awkward rooms
to relive some nostalgia
of a feeling I had
some place,
a long time ago -

I hear the quick scurrying
across wet cement and marching
along gray hotel asylums
where television armies
have begun rounding up 
bearded men
in the cold cemetery dawn,
where only Zen could save me now -

Paranoid- I heard they're training
the children's video game consciousness
with the word "DEMOCRACY" Flashing
over and over,
to kill for a new slavery
of superstore factories
spewing its lost spirits rising...
across metal skies.


Hive

Weighted eyes
sink past lamps
afraid of drowning-

Bad dreams last night
flapping and buzzing...
somethin' bit me -

Morning windows
open to smoke
looking up at grass -

At little mother sparrow
who thinks I'll viciously 
eat her eggs-

Constantly dodging close
obstacles, around and around
in the hive -

We can't get out of!
the red and blue flashing
sound of banshees -

Wailing through the tunnels...

 

 


copyright © Ryan Anderson