The Pulse Of Arterials

by Charles Farrell Thielman

The Pulse Of Arterials

Urban pistons rush orders, the overcast

on inbound windshields, pools on my

studio floors. How to bevel pain into art

my long handled brush carries swan wings

reflected on curve ice, window cracked open

I cursor a jazz anthem loud after five day-shifts

of Muzak lulled over my sweated shoulders

The birds spill off branches, one long freight train

boxcars squeal and clang along the seams of rains

The province of neon stripes each transit

within geometries of sounds, see the light change

on initials carved on a flat-bed’s tall harvest

Nothing silhouetted by sun through waves

This day of storm undertows siphons faith

arterials brushed dark gray, dark gray