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Every Jeep is a god

Two poems by Don Kingfisher Campbell

Don Kingfisher Campbell has taught Writers Seminar at Occidental College Upward Bound for 33 years.
Don Kingfisher Campbell has taught Writers Seminar at Occidental College Upward Bound for 33 years.

In the Sea of Dolphins, I Am a Manta Ray 

  • Dive into the sun to find opened eyes 
  • An empty sky, full of ghosts 
  • Smile because trees become bare 
  • Carcasses on snowy streets 
  • A monkey dreamt the cosmos, found a house 
  • To sit in, gaze at an apple, stare at a fist 
  • Pray in the wilderness, he said 
  • We might as well be ants 
  • But the scientific mind was high on civilization 
  • They celebrated our rocks and roles 
  • Envisioned the perfect you 
  • Driving a lonely night freeway 
  • Galloping to repopulate the stars 
  • And play the game of movement through air 
  • Read a poem on the shore, the sad cliffs watching 
  • Us, eventually eaten by the shark mountain 
  • As the lords in welkin have already seen 
  • Ancient temple women in flames 
  • Our babies litter the world like clouds 
  • Say, hi god, teach me something

Car People

  • red taillights
  • of that golden
  • Toyota Corolla look
  • like mad eyes
  • of a jaguar,
  • bumper smiling wickedly
  • that Sienna
  • dark blue van
  • is just sleep driving,
  • tail lenses lidded
  • horizontal as its
  • expressionless plastic bar
  • every Jeep is
  • a god with
  • one large sphere
  • tire in the middle
  • of their backs
  • in the opposite life
  • path hundreds
  • of headlight pairs
  • blare and buses are
  • multi-eyed aliens
  • my gray Saturn
  • must be near-sighted,
  • two lamps too close
  • together brightly seek
  • attention each day

Don Kingfisher Campbell, MFA in creative writing from Antioch University Los Angeles, has taught Writers Seminar at Occidental College Upward Bound for 33 years, been a coach and judge for California Poetry Out Loud, a performing poet/teacher for Red Hen Press Youth Writing Workshops, Los Angeles Area coordinator and boardmember of California Poets in the Schools, poetry editor of the Angel City Review, publisher of Spectrum and the San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly, leader of the Emerging Urban Poets writing and Deep Critique workshops, organizer of the San Gabriel Valley Poetry Festival, and host of the Saturday Afternoon Poetry reading series in Pasadena, California. For awards, features, and publication credits, please go to dkc1031.blogspot.com.

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Don Kingfisher Campbell has taught Writers Seminar at Occidental College Upward Bound for 33 years.
Don Kingfisher Campbell has taught Writers Seminar at Occidental College Upward Bound for 33 years.

In the Sea of Dolphins, I Am a Manta Ray 

  • Dive into the sun to find opened eyes 
  • An empty sky, full of ghosts 
  • Smile because trees become bare 
  • Carcasses on snowy streets 
  • A monkey dreamt the cosmos, found a house 
  • To sit in, gaze at an apple, stare at a fist 
  • Pray in the wilderness, he said 
  • We might as well be ants 
  • But the scientific mind was high on civilization 
  • They celebrated our rocks and roles 
  • Envisioned the perfect you 
  • Driving a lonely night freeway 
  • Galloping to repopulate the stars 
  • And play the game of movement through air 
  • Read a poem on the shore, the sad cliffs watching 
  • Us, eventually eaten by the shark mountain 
  • As the lords in welkin have already seen 
  • Ancient temple women in flames 
  • Our babies litter the world like clouds 
  • Say, hi god, teach me something

Car People

  • red taillights
  • of that golden
  • Toyota Corolla look
  • like mad eyes
  • of a jaguar,
  • bumper smiling wickedly
  • that Sienna
  • dark blue van
  • is just sleep driving,
  • tail lenses lidded
  • horizontal as its
  • expressionless plastic bar
  • every Jeep is
  • a god with
  • one large sphere
  • tire in the middle
  • of their backs
  • in the opposite life
  • path hundreds
  • of headlight pairs
  • blare and buses are
  • multi-eyed aliens
  • my gray Saturn
  • must be near-sighted,
  • two lamps too close
  • together brightly seek
  • attention each day

Don Kingfisher Campbell, MFA in creative writing from Antioch University Los Angeles, has taught Writers Seminar at Occidental College Upward Bound for 33 years, been a coach and judge for California Poetry Out Loud, a performing poet/teacher for Red Hen Press Youth Writing Workshops, Los Angeles Area coordinator and boardmember of California Poets in the Schools, poetry editor of the Angel City Review, publisher of Spectrum and the San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly, leader of the Emerging Urban Poets writing and Deep Critique workshops, organizer of the San Gabriel Valley Poetry Festival, and host of the Saturday Afternoon Poetry reading series in Pasadena, California. For awards, features, and publication credits, please go to dkc1031.blogspot.com.

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