• Home
  • About This Archive
  • Submissions
  • Tao of Jesus Crisis, v. 3.0
  • Crisis Chronicles Press (printworks)
  • Contact

Crisis Chronicles Cyber Litmag (2008-2015)

~ Contemporary Poetry and Literary Classics from Cleveland to Infinity

Crisis Chronicles Cyber Litmag (2008-2015)

Category Archives: Roth (Sy)

The Spelunker (by Sy Roth)

07 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by Crisis Chronicles Press in 2000s, American, Poetry, Roth (Sy)

≈ Leave a comment



 


The Spelunker
by Sy Roth


 


He waddles into the room.


They all watch his camel’s walk in their desert.


Heads swing like pendulums as he wends his way their way.


He spelunkles their cave,


lower jaw fixed in a smiling pout.


Ill-fitting teeth make a bat-clacking cha-cha as he moves.


Brillo-tufted chin jerkily moves in synch with them.


A toupee rests on his head like a beret on a bowling ball,


gray hair matted, weighted-stiff with muck


sponged from the air around him.


 


This day he changed his shirt,


a sere cloth of indistinguishable design.


Pearly-white skin peeps through a four-inch rent


where he clutches his pouch but fails to cover a droopy breast.


He unearths a seat, hidden beneath a pile of jackets,


people on either side leaning Towers of Pisa.


 


He mines his pouch


as their lemon-sucking faces glower,


and removes a sleeve of Saltine crackers,


gnaws at one daintily, pinky in the air.


Crumbs soon litter the table.


 


He mumbles garbled non-sequiturs


at the world around him.


Teeth and tongue conspire to splinter it with his presence,


then sighs as the Towers work to ignore him.




* * *

We gratefully acknowledge Dead Snakes and The Weekenders Magazine, where this poem previously appeared.


About Sy Roth:


He comes riding in and then canters out. Oftentimes, the head is bowed by reality; other times, he is proud to have said something noteworthy. cRetired after forty-two years as teacher/school administrator, he now resides in Mount Sinai, far from Moses and the tablets. This has led him to find words for solace.   He spends his time writing and playing his guitar. He has published in many online publications such as BlogNostics, Every Day Poets, Danse Macabre, Bitchin’ Kitsch, Scapegoat Review, The Artistic Muse, Inclement,  Napalm and Novocain, Euphemism, Humanimalz Literary Journal, Ascent Aspirations, Fowl Feathered Review, Vayavya, Wilderness House Journal, Aberration Labyrinth, Mindless(Muse), Em Dash, South Townsville Micropoetry Journal, Vox Poetica, Clutching at Straws, Downer Magazine, Every Day Poems, Avalon Literary Review and Kerouac’s Dog.  One of his poems, “Forsaken Man,” was selected for Best of 2012 poems in Storm Cycle.  Also selected Poet of the Month in Poetry Super Highway, September 2012.  His work was also read at Palimpsest Poetry Festival in December 2012.

Follow Crisis Chronicles Cyber Litmag (2008-2015) on WordPress.com

CC Press on Facebook

CC Press on Facebook

Follow Our Feed

  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 6,073 other subscribers

Twitter

My Tweets

Latest Additions

  • Welcome
  • Reverse Cowboy Hexapod Viking (by William Merricle)
  • Romance Is a Problem Too Massive to Fix (by William Merricle)
  • Xanax for Xmas (by William Merricle)
  • Trusting That the Heart Will Know the Way (by D.R. Wagner)

Recent Comments

Meribeth Hutto on Welcome
Bob Phillips on Romance Is a Problem Too Massi…
Crisis Chronicles Pr… on The Poet Tells the Truth (by F…
estela on The Poet Tells the Truth (by F…
cricketmuse on Summer Silence (by E.E. C…

Categories

  • 0100s
  • 0600s
  • 1100s
  • 1200s
  • 1300s
  • 1500s
  • 1600s
  • 1700s
  • 1800s
  • 1900s
  • 2000s
  • Abbott (Steve)
  • Addonizio (Kim)
  • African American
  • Aiken (Conrad)
  • Alexander (Elizabeth)
  • Alexis-Rueal
  • Ali (Kazim)
  • Alighieri (Dante)
  • Allen (J. Lester)
  • Allen (John Thomas)
  • American
  • Anderson (Sherwood)
  • Andrews (Nin)
  • Angelou (Maya)
  • Anstey (Stephan)
  • Arabic
  • Aristotle
  • Arnold (Matthew)
  • Ashbery (John)
  • Auden (W.H)
  • Aurelius (Marcus)
  • Australian
  • Autobiography
  • Baird (Tom)
  • Bales (Marcus)
  • Banned Books
  • Baraka (Amiri)
  • Baratier (David)
  • Barks (Coleman)
  • Baudelaire (Charles)
  • BC
  • Beers (Shaindel)
  • Bengali
  • Benitez (Sandy Sue)
  • Bent (Cornelius)
  • Berlin (Irving)
  • Bernstein (Michael)
  • Bhagavad-Gita
  • Bible
  • Blake (William)
  • Blanco (Richard)
  • Boehm (Rose Mary)
  • Bonaparte (Napoleon)
  • Bond (Gary)
  • Borsenik (Dianne)
  • Bouliane (Gabrielle)
  • Bowen (Jeffrey)
  • Bradstreet (Anne)
  • Brandt (Jean)
  • Bree
  • Brightman (Steve)
  • British
  • Brodsky (Adam)
  • Brodsky (Irene)
  • Brontë (Emily)
  • Brooks (Christina)
  • Brown (Kent)
  • Browning (E.B)
  • Browning (Robert)
  • Bruce (Skylark)
  • Buck (Chansonette)
  • Budimir (Miles)
  • Burke (Martin)
  • Burkholder (William B)
  • Burns (Robert)
  • Burroughs (John B)
  • Byron (George Gordon Lord)
  • Cage (John)
  • Caldwell (Janet P)
  • Canadian
  • Carraher (Séamas)
  • Ceraolo (Michael)
  • Chernin (Shelley)
  • Chin (Marilyn)
  • Chinese
  • Cihlar (Lisa J)
  • Clark (Patrick)
  • Clark Semenovich (Lacie)
  • Cleghorn (Sarah)
  • Cleveland
  • Clifton (Lucille)
  • Clover (Joshua)
  • Colby (Joan)
  • Coleridge (Samuel T)
  • Coley (Byron)
  • Collins (Billy)
  • Collins (Megan)
  • Conaway (Cameron)
  • Confucius
  • Cook (Juliet)
  • Corman-Roberts (Paul)
  • Craik (Roger)
  • Crane (Hart)
  • Crane (Stephen)
  • Crate (Linda M)
  • Crawford (Robin)
  • Cricket (Ryn)
  • Crisis Chronicles Press
  • Cummings (E.E)
  • Cutshaw (Katie)
  • Darrow (Clarence)
  • Das (Nabina)
  • Dauber (C.O)
  • Dawes (Kwame)
  • Derricotte (Toi)
  • Descartes (René)
  • di Prima (Diane)
  • Dickinson (Emily)
  • Dickman (Matthew)
  • Donne (John)
  • Doolittle (Hilda)
  • Dorsey (Brian)
  • Dorsey (John)
  • Dostoevsky (Fyodor)
  • Doty (Mark)
  • Douglass (Frederick)
  • Dove (Rita)
  • Drama
  • Drehmer (Aleathia)
  • Dryden (John)
  • Du Bois (W.E.B)
  • Dunbar (Paul Laurence)
  • Eberhardt (Kevin)
  • Egyptian
  • Eichhorn (Danilee)
  • Eliot (T.S)
  • Emerson (Ralph Waldo)
  • Espada (Martín)
  • Essays
  • Euripides
  • Finch (Annie)
  • FitzGerald (Edward)
  • Fitzgerald (F. Scott)
  • Fortier (Leila A)
  • Fowler (Heather)
  • Franke (Christopher)
  • French
  • Frost (Robert)
  • Gage (Joshua)
  • García Lorca (Federico)
  • Göttl (T.M)
  • Geither (Elise)
  • German
  • Gibans (Nina Freedlander)
  • Gibran (Kahlil)
  • Gildzen (Alex)
  • Glück (Louise)
  • Gnostic
  • Godace (Johny)
  • Goethe (Johann Wolfgang von)
  • Gogol (Nikolai)
  • Goldberg (Steve)
  • Grabois (Mitchell)
  • Grayhurst (Allison)
  • Greek
  • Greenspan (Sammy)
  • Grochalski (John)
  • Grover (Michael)
  • Gulyas (Ben)
  • Haaz (JJ)
  • Hambrick (Jennifer)
  • Hamm (Justin)
  • Hardy (Thomas)
  • Hass (Robert)
  • hastain (j/j)
  • Hawthorne (Nathaniel)
  • Hayes (Jim)
  • Heaney (Seamus)
  • Hebrew
  • Hecht (Anthony)
  • Heins (Ben)
  • Hemingway (Ernest)
  • Hendrickson (Susan)
  • Henson (Michael)
  • Herbert (George)
  • Herrick (Robert)
  • Hersman (Mark)
  • Hicok (Bob)
  • Hirsch (Edward)
  • Hirshfield (Jane)
  • Hivner (Christopher)
  • Howe (Marie)
  • Hudnell (Jolynne)
  • Huffman (A.J)
  • Hughes (Langston)
  • Hutto (Meribeth)
  • Igras (Monica)
  • Indian
  • Interviews
  • Irish
  • Issa (Kobayashi)
  • Italian
  • Jaeger (Angela)
  • Jamaican
  • Japanese
  • Jesus
  • Jewett (Sarah Orne)
  • Johnson (Azriel)
  • Johnson (B. Preston)
  • Johnson (Michael Lee)
  • Jopek (Krysia)
  • Jordan (Mark Sebastian)
  • Joy (Chuck)
  • Joyce (James)
  • jude (tj)
  • Kabir
  • Kafka (Franz)
  • Kaplan (Ed)
  • Kaufmann (A.J)
  • Kauss (Cherri)
  • Keats (John)
  • Keith (Michael C)
  • Kennedy (Bill)
  • Kennedy (John F)
  • Kerouac (Jack)
  • Khayyam (Omar)
  • King (Martin Luther)
  • Kinnell (Galway)
  • Kipling (Rudyard)
  • Kitt (Ken)
  • Kleiman (Alan)
  • Komunyakaa (Yusef)
  • Konesky (Lara)
  • Kooser (Ted)
  • Kosiba (Jeff)
  • kuhar (mark s)
  • Kumin (Maxine)
  • Kunitz (Stanley)
  • Lababidi (Yahia)
  • Lady K
  • Landis (Geoffrey)
  • Lang (Jim)
  • Lao Tzu
  • Latin
  • Laux (Dorianne)
  • Lawrence (D.H)
  • Lebanese
  • Leftow (Joy)
  • Letters
  • Levine (Philip)
  • levy (d.a)
  • Levy (P.A)
  • Lietz (Paula Dawn)
  • Lincoln (Abraham)
  • Lindsay (Vachel)
  • Line (Andrew)
  • Longfellow (Henry Wadsworth)
  • Lovecraft (H.P)
  • Lowell (Amy)
  • Lundh (Lennart)
  • Machiavelli (Niccolò)
  • MacLeish (Archibald)
  • Mahoney (Donal)
  • Malcolm X
  • Mali (Taylor)
  • Malinenko (Ally)
  • Marcellino (Mike)
  • Mary Magdalene
  • Masters (Edgar Lee)
  • McGuane (Jack)
  • McNiece (Ray)
  • Melville (Herman)
  • Mencken (H.L)
  • Merricle (William)
  • Merwin (W.S)
  • Metres (Philip)
  • Metro (Frankie)
  • Millar (Joseph)
  • Millay (Edna St. Vincent)
  • Milton (John)
  • Moks-Unger (Marisa)
  • Moll (Zachary)
  • Mondal (Sonnet)
  • Montaigne (Michel de)
  • Moore (Berwyn)
  • Moore (Marianne)
  • Morrison (Anna)
  • Morse (Stephen)
  • Moyer (Cheryl Lynn)
  • Mueller (Leah)
  • Music
  • Nardolilli (Ben)
  • Nash (Ogden)
  • Nepali
  • Nicaraguan
  • Nielsen (Alex)
  • Nietzsche (Friedrich)
  • Northerner (Will)
  • Novels
  • Nye (Naomi Shihab)
  • O'Keeffe (Christian)
  • O'Neill (Eugene)
  • O'Shea (Sparkplug)
  • Orlovsky (Peter)
  • Parker (Dorothy)
  • Passer (Jay)
  • Pastan (Linda)
  • Patchen (Kenneth)
  • Patterson (Christy)
  • Peacock (Thomas Love)
  • Persian
  • Peruvian
  • Pessoa (Fernando)
  • Pezzo (Jen)
  • Philosophy
  • Pike (David)
  • Plato
  • Poe (Edgar Allan)
  • Poetry
  • Poetry by JC
  • Polish
  • Pope (Alexander)
  • Porter (Dorothy)
  • Portuguese
  • Potts (Charles)
  • Pound (Ezra)
  • Praeger (Frank C)
  • Price (Justin W)
  • Provost (Dan)
  • Provost (Terry)
  • Qu'ran
  • Rader (Ben)
  • Rahbany (Aline)
  • Rainwater-Lites (Misti)
  • Rand (Ayn)
  • Rearick (C. Allen)
  • Reid (Kevin)
  • Religion
  • Rich (Adrienne)
  • Richardson (Chuck)
  • Riga (Jill)
  • Rimbaud (Arthur)
  • Robare (Libby)
  • Robinson (Nicole)
  • Romig (Josh)
  • Rose (Diana)
  • Rossetti (Christina)
  • Roth (Sy)
  • Ruiz (Anna)
  • Rumi (Jalālu'l-Dīn)
  • Russell (Bertrand)
  • Russian
  • Ryan (Kay)
  • Safarzadeh (Yasamin}
  • Sagert (Ryan)
  • Salamon (Russell)
  • Salinger (Michael)
  • Salzano (April)
  • Sandburg (Carl)
  • Sassoon (Siegfried)
  • Sawyer (LuckyLefty)
  • Schmidt (Heather Ann)
  • Schubert (Karen)
  • Scott (Craig)
  • Sexton (Anne)
  • Shaffer (Wendy)
  • Shakespeare (William)
  • Sharma (Yuyutsu RD)
  • Shavin (Julianza)
  • Shelley (Percy Bysshe)
  • Shepard (Helen A)
  • Shevin (David A)
  • Short Stories
  • Simic (Charles)
  • Smallwood (Carol)
  • Smith (Dan)
  • Smith (David)
  • Smith (Rob)
  • Smith (Steven B)
  • Smith (Willie)
  • Snodgrass (W.D)
  • Snoetry 2010
  • Snoetry 2011
  • Snyder (Gary)
  • Solanki (Tanuj)
  • Spanish
  • Speeches
  • Split Pea/ce
  • Srygley-Moore (Carolyn)
  • Stanley (J.E)
  • Stein (Gertrude)
  • Stern (Gerald)
  • Stevens (Wallace)
  • Suarez (Lou)
  • Swain (John)
  • Swedenborg (Emanuel)
  • Swift (Jonathan)
  • Swirynsky (Vladimir)
  • Tabasso (Gina)
  • Tagore (Rabindranath)
  • Taylor Jr (William)
  • Teasdale (Sara)
  • Tennyson (Alfred Lord)
  • Thomas (Dylan)
  • Thomas (Steve)
  • Thompson (Daniel)
  • Thoreau (Henry David)
  • Tidwell (Azalea)
  • Tillis (Jami)
  • Townsend (Cheryl)
  • Traenkner (Nick)
  • Tres Versing the Panda
  • Tristram (Paul)
  • Turzillo (Mary)
  • Twain (Mark)
  • Uncategorized
  • Updike (John)
  • Vicious (Lisa)
  • Video
  • Vidrick (Russell)
  • Wagner (D.R)
  • Waldon (Merritt)
  • Wallace (George)
  • Wannberg (Scott)
  • Warren (Robert Penn)
  • Washington (R.A)
  • Waters (Chocolate)
  • Waters (Linnea)
  • Webber (Valerie)
  • Webster (Natalie)
  • Weems (Mary)
  • Welsh
  • White (Kelley J)
  • Whitman (Walt)
  • Whittier (John Greenleaf)
  • Wilde (Oscar)
  • Williams (Cee)
  • Williams (Lori)
  • Williams (William Carlos)
  • Womack (Katheryn)
  • Woolf (Virginia)
  • Wordsworth (William)
  • Wright (C.D)
  • Writing
  • Wylie (Elinor)
  • Xanthopoulos (Eva)
  • Yeats (William Butler)
  • Yevtushenko (Yevgeny)
  • Young (Alicia)
  • Young (Emma)
  • Young (Kevin)
  • Zambreno (Kate)
  • Zamora (Daisy)
  • Zeimer (Beverly)

Monthly Archives

  • July 2020
  • January 2015
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008

Pages

  • About This Archive
  • Contact
  • Submissions

  • Follow Following
    • Crisis Chronicles Cyber Litmag (2008-2015)
    • Join 53 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Crisis Chronicles Cyber Litmag (2008-2015)
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar