Leo Falling

T. K. Edmond

 

When stood a Summer King

     days were laborious, long, 

         effortless.

 

When Lords of Dandelion reigned,

     no word intention though it swam 

         in song.

 

In a kingdom of weeds and a host

     of trees, muddy feet 

         and grassfire signal 

 

season’s peak, and feasts and games. 

     The Sun God’s time 

          is come.

 

From an honored seat at the top 

     of the friendliest tree 

          seasons pass like dreams.

 

Hard air, hard times, hard men:

     curses weird as moon and fire

         on water.

 

Slow seeping contagions danced 

     and dined on the dark side of reflection.

          Finery kept feet clean.

 

From the mud crept a castle;

     from the sky fell a flood.

          The driftwood

 

saw the world, found  temporary tombs,

     became stone,    

          and sank leagues

 

to where a summer king now sleeps

     and some lords of dandelion 

          seem to lay low.

 

 

 

***

T. K. Edmond is a writer, musician, and graduate student in English at the University of Texas at Arlington. As a fifth generation Texan and a preacher’s son/grandson/nephew/cousin, he writes about beauty and cruelty colliding in odd corners of Texas–where the size and conception of ‘nowhere’ is beyond reckoning. He is interested in dream logic, dramaturgy, and the opposite of the middle. T.K. has poems in Novus Arts & Literature, Eastern Iowa Review, and Broad River Review.