MH Clay lives and works in Dallas, Texas. He has a poetry page at https://madswirl.com/author/mhclay/. His poetry chapbook, Perhaps This Rain, was published in 2007 with a second edition released in 2010. He has published two poetry collections, sonoffred, Rebel Poetry in Ireland, 2015 and Angst, Mad Swirl Press, 2016 with a second edition released in 2022.

Pillars

The itch
The pull
The blink
The fool
You’ve been 

The tear
The tissue 
The open issue 

The scratch
The squall
The cloud over
All your sin

Hope is a rope 
To push uphill 
Living is lasting 
But shortly filled 

The top
The tiller 
Full to the brim
Pillars fall
In the interim 

Found is the treasure
The precious thing 
Failed is the measure 
For everything 

The itch
The pull
The blink
The fool
You’ve been 

The fool
You’ve been

Weird Medicine

I’ll take not getting laid
For a month
To stay in my secret place 
Sequestered and safe

I have mad skills 
I bring them out 
When no one notices 
My spoken shelter
Words to wend
A peaceful way 
Mercurial 
Capricious
Meant to make mayhem
Softer
Quiet
Quiescent 
Just to get a god-damned
Moment of sleep

Slippery slush
From stream to cascade 
Eddies churning
Rippling round 
Demons spinning in the maelstrom 
Bubble popping 
Surface stirred with malevolence 
Dispelled 
My truth tears the fabric 
Ripped and rent

Got the devil by the throat 
I’m a hell of a cook
I can simmer down your fear 
To a slick syrup 
Sweet in the afterthought 
Of all your angst

Entropy II

Our icons ascend
Celestial incendiaries
Stars shooting through
Our stratospheres
Lofty thoughts, inspired ideas
We applaud and idolize
Allay our fears

Then begin investigations
Castigations
Base motivations exposed
As self-serving aspirations
Gods accused
Of selfish manipulations 
Of innocence
While there is none

And there it is

None of us
Can stand up to
Public scrutiny

In the end
Icons topple

No faith
No trust

Only mutiny