Apocalypse Now, by Elizabeth Kirkpatrick-Vrenios

Still Life with an Old Shoe, by Joan Miro (Spain) 1937

Apocalypse Now
 
the fever-coloured sky remembers        the thrill of birds
apocalyptic shapes impaled on flames    slip 
over the hill   crawl towards me    well-oiled tongues 
lap at stones   spit songs that bounce     bitter and barefoot
crooked tines of bottled nightmares like rib bones
cage fruit’s flesh     isolated      rotting
bitter earth             with a dearth of joy 
 
a refrain   like liquid fire        laps at me
repeating a chant   yellow and black   that cracks 
the land    homeless     headless   sightless    i eat the skull 
like bread     hollowing out          the eyes 
and weep for stillness beyond the stars
 
this is no time for despair     a door
we all pass through      and so i do    and so i do
 
Elizabeth Kirkpatrick-Vrenios
 
Elizabeth Kirkpatrick-Vrenios is professor emerita from American University, having chaired the vocal and music departments. Vrenios’ solo recitals throughout the US, South America, Scandinavia, Japan and Europe have been acclaimed. Recently featured in Tupelo Press's 30/30 challenge, she has been published in such journals as Clementine, Cumberland River Review, The Feminine Collective, The Kentucky Review, Unsplendid, Edison Literary review, Passager, NILVX, Unsplendid and featured in such anthologies as The Poeming Pigeon, Love Notes from Humanity, Stories of Music, the American Journal of Poetry, and was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her chapbook Special Delivery, prize winner with Yellow Chair Press, was published in 2016, and her chapbook Empty the Ocean with a Thimble will be forthcoming in April of 2021 with  World Tech Communications LLC. As the artistic director of the Redwoods Opera in Mendocino, California she has influenced and trained vocal students across the country.