MFreeZone:Ward Kelley

A Temple Prostitute Ministers to Titus

by
Ward Kelley

The skin gallops, the skin purloins,
the pursuit of the mindless marries
us to our mammalian brethren . . .
all united in the appeal
of the furtherance.

The skin stretches, the skin retreats,
and there are kingdoms to be won
or squandered under these linens,
while the hand of an emperor
moves inside my robe,

yet here he is precisely akin
to all other hands, whose fingers
can either entice or clench . . .
and is that not our approach
to the whore of life itself --
sometimes a plea, sometimes
a stranglehold?

My lord, my lord, do not let go,
for the skin may beseech,
the skin may remit,
and I know
well my mission
is to bring a tear
to your eye, caused only
by the volume
of pleasure
I may deliver,
and this is how
I say my prayers,
my prayers . . .
my soul needs
to forever
say its prayers.

Titus Flavius Vespasianus (39 - 81) was a Roman Emperor for four years. As the chief military assistant for his father, Vespasian, Titus was responsible for the destruction of Jerusalem. His own reign was noted for its lavish entertainment of the people and the completion of the Colosseum. Even though the eruption of Vesuvius, a plague, and a fire in Rome all occurred during his reign, Titus was still a very popular emperor. Such was his popularity, that the historian Suetonius called Titus’ death "a far greater loss to the world than to Titus himself."

Ward Kelley is Asst. Vice President of Logistics for TruServ, the parent company of True Value Hardware, Servistar, and Coast to Coast, a co-op of 10,500 hardware stores. Ward and his wife live in the Chicago burbs; have two adopted daughters, and currently foster three others. Ward was selected by Annaliese Bischof, a professor at the University of Massachusetts, to serve as a contemporary poet to her junior year writing classes. He was also recently selected as a featured Poet of the Week on an Internet poetry site, Poetry Super Highway, and chosen as the Featured Poet by the Canadian site, Pyrowords.

Carl Hampered

by
Ward Kelley

I am hampered by my very nature,
and I find I distrust my most intense
premonitions . . . how does one function
as an animal of the earth if intuition
cannot be embraced and followed?

Were we meant to think everything
through to a human logic, this same
esteemed thinking that has created
wars and murders, with a genocide
here and there . . . exalted minds?

We need to soar our nerves
and catapult our emotions
beyond the very boundaries
of what we dare to imagine.

Blood, blood, our veins were meant
to pulsate the spirits of the earth
then return something of ourselves
to the soil, that which we managed
to intuit from the breathing . . .

This air, this air . . . the grace
of the human is that which conspires
from the friction between our
assumed logic and the nature
of our blood . . . a dare, a dare.

Carl Edward Sagan (1934-1996), American astronomer and pioneer exobiologist, centered his research on discovering evidence of life in outer space. Along with geneticist Joshua Lederberg, Sagan was a leader in establishing the field of exobiology, the search for extraterrestrial life. Earlier he advanced the understanding of how life developed in Earth’s primal atmosphere, showing how adenosine triphosphate, a fundamental molecule that stores energy in all organisms could have been created by ultraviolet radiation. Sagan co-produced and hosted the award winning television series "Cosmos," and published several books during his career, among them "Dragons of Eden" for which he won the 1978 Pulitzer, and the novel, "Contact," recently made into a popular film.

Author information

Ward is making huge inroads in this area. Here is the list of work published by Ward.

• Novels written by Ward.
• Poems written by Ward.
• Short Stories written by Ward.
• Work by Ward found on the internet.
• Contact Info.

NOVELS

Two novels, "Divine Murder" and "Keenly Alive, Tony," are represented by The Sternig & Byrne Literary Agency

POEMS

Beauty For Ashes
Black Spring Review (six poems)
The Cutting Edge (two poems)
El Dorado Poetry Review
Lucid Moon (four poems)
The Lucid Stone
Mad Poets Review
Medicinal Purposes
Melting Trees Review (three poems)
Möbius
Mojo Risin’ (two poems)
Muse of Fire (six poems)
Poetry Motel
Potpourri
River King
Skylark
Small Garlic Press
South Ash Press
Tomorrow
Uprising
The Web

SHORT STORIES

Reader’s Break (two stories)
Timber Creek Review
Nugget
Best of Nugget

INTERNET

Clappers (three poems)
Ism( (two poems)
Poems From the Planet Earth (three poems)
Poetry Super Highway (three poems)
Pyrowords (three poems)
M Web Magazine