Poetry by Brian Rihlmann

A SOFTER, EASIER PLACE

In the place
where you tell yourself--
I can’t stand much more
there’s always more
to stand

there’s no “10”
on the volume knob...
it keeps going

and there must be
a spectrum
from (voices)
to VOICES

if I could slip into
schizophrenic skin
just for awhile
and then leap back
into my own

“Huh....this ain’t so bad...”

maybe I’ll get tattooed
like...all over
days of black ink
and the pain of the needle

or see a dominatrix
for a long, long session
and by the time she’s left heel marks
all over my body

maybe the paranoia
and the terror
will have fled
someplace softer
someplace easier
to survive
​



​A SUDDEN URGE

At 8 a.m., Monday,
just as the sun
is chasing the fog away
and warming the chill
from my bones;
at the exact time
my fingers would be
punching the dreaded buttons
of the timeclock,
and then tapping
at the dreaded keys of my keyboard,
I feel this sudden urge--
to do SOMETHING.
So I do.
I pick smooth pebbles
from the sand,
and hurl them into the sea.
The distance I achieve is impressive,
and the splashes
are magic.


​

Brian Rihlmann was born in New Jersey and currently resides in Reno, Nevada. He writes free verse poetry, and has been published in The Blue Nib, The American Journal of Poetry, Cajun Mutt Press, The Rye Whiskey Review, and others. His first poetry collection, “Ordinary Trauma,” (2019) was published by Alien Buddha Press.

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