BUFFY AAKAASH

★ ★ ★ ★

POETRY

Image by Justin Schuler

One Tennessee Summer 

Early in the morning the whippoorwills kept saying 
this is life. This is the way life goes. I hadn’t slept much. 
My bed still empty. My beloved bastion of domestic bliss 
out chasing the person he loved 
who was chasing the person he loved. 
It was summer but the morning cool 
and the whippoorwills said stop taking this lying down.

So I went out barefoot to the moonlit garden insects abuzz 
walked down rows of pea blossoms 
smelling that bucolic feculence, 
manure we’d laid down the sweltering day before, 
and grazed the shoots, early breakfast. All the while 
the whippoorwill shamans singing this life into being. 
The sunlight rising, the roosters arousing spirits of languor 

I dreamed my way back to bed, sweet sleep, heartache mollified 
and again the whippoorwills 

this is life this is life this is life.

Buffy Aakaash grew up as queer around the hills and lakes in New Jersey west of NYC, and has since lived in cities and rural towns throughout the US. His poems have been published by Sweety Cat Press, Main Street Rag and New Feathers Anthology, among others. Untangling the Knots, his chapbook of How To poems, was published by Kelsay Books in December of 2022. Currently he resides in Vermont’s Green Mountains with his 4-legged companion, Bodhi. His published work can be viewed at www.BuffyAakaashPoetry.com.

2 Comments

  1. Anonymous

    I absolutely relate and love this so much . This is life … Hugs to you and Bodhi

    Reply
  2. Anonymous

    This is gorgeous Buffy. And so absolutely accessible and relatable.

    Reply

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