Clifford K. Watkins, Jr.

 
(RoTuN) Clifford K. Watkins, Jr., is a writer/poet/lyricist/rapper/spoken-word artist from Jacksonville, Florida. 
He currently resides in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia where he makes ends meet by doing odd jobs. 
His second novella "A Painter's Ghost" was recently published online by the Oracular Tree. 
If you'd care to read more of his poetry or listen to his music, visit myspace.com/rotun 
 


 

Gesundheit
~~~~~~~

The words reach a deafening peak
And then diminish into frivolity 
Echoing with the short-lived potency
Of a gesundheit in between sneezes
 
 
 
Cold-shouldered Subterfuge
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Cold-shouldered subterfuge 
A mere caricature of indifference
Treading compassionately through your sanctum
Finding consolation in a warm smile
Hobbling through a drudgery of shadows
Floundering with an arrow through my heart
 
 
Theatre of Echoes
~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
A hastening creek's elevated voice
Resonates even in sound-proof rooms
Unremitting despite the circumstances
Hell-bent on rendering you captive
Incapable of drowning out the echoes
Imprisoned in the theater of nocturnal dreams
 
 
A Random Passerby
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
An old man's drunken belligerency 
Thrust upon a random passerby
Finding hilarity in his blundering stab at aggression
I assist the elderly fellow to a rickety chair
And he soon nose-dives into unconsciousness
 
 
The Absence of Words
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
A puddle's iridescent splendor
Muddled by deafening footsteps
Echoing without words
And I'm an enchanted witness
Always covetous
Despite inconspicuous footprints
 
 
 
Taxing
~~~~~
 
Testing the wind of despair
No longer sated with recurrent imaginings
As your voice reverberates in this heart
Rendering me wholly exhilarated
And yet perplexed to the point of jousting at stars
 
 
A New-fangled Dawn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Fly-by-night enthrallment
Seeking liberation from a withdrawn tinge
Superfluous to the morning's wake 
Repressing you into the unconscious abyss
Welcoming the restorative sunbeams
 
 
 
Wittiness Dispels Gloom
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
The unrelenting mirth-filled tempest
Numbing my ears and stinging my fingers
Reverting to trouble-free times
Unable to fathom horrific darkness
Reveling in the enlightenment of wittiness!
 
 
 
Laughing Pond
~~~~~~~~~~
 
Laughing pond of foolery
Scrutinizing words in a mind of desolation
Adversely affected by a distant voice's silent echo
At wits end with rock-bottom ambivalence
A prattling scribbler revels in darkness
Warming his hands over a burning fence
Milliseconds from heavy-handed realization 
And the fleeting face of bliss
Becomes a pasty-colored mimic of ridicule 
Baffling no one any more than herself 
Yet she continues to read
And words reverberate endlessly
 
 
 
 
Onlookers
~~~~~~~
 
The dreaded face of vainness
Mercurially looming for most mortal beings 
Sent cascading down into chasms of uncertainty
Leaving the weary onlookers questioning humanity's function
Enlightened spirits transcending shades of doubt
Or merely scanty rations for an insatiable tomb