Three poems by A.R. Arthur
Unsplash image by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona, @mettyunuabona
An Exciting Emotion
We stare over prosecco
your eyes shift to brut champagne;
A metaphor for my cheapness;
A lie you tell your wandering eyes,
A gentle reminder of truth
that jolts you awake
just before slumber assumes
its nightly revival of meditation,
Reflective but never pro-active.
But I demean myself,
Weaken myself in your presence
until I break and sever desire
until sinew is shredded
And lust grows into a hatred
most peculiar,
Exciting.
The Con Artist
Complacency leads to sentiment
forgotten and maimed by the ravages of time
where compromise is blurred
by manipulation and hands that move sleekly
through the woven lies that disturb lives
and shatter livelihoods.
For passive acceptance is not merely corroboration
But an action adorned in shattered glass
and lost years that double as a testament
to suffering endured at the darkened hands
of the perfect con artist.
Ascription
The consumption of the libertine
Cannot be rendered to antiquity
When overconsumption dictates
Worldly affairs overcome
By the intoxicating whims
Of romanticised elites,
Now bastions of mobility and gumption
Jaded facades attempting to conceal
Cyclical strife.
But one must question
The extent of achieved success
When ascription often informs power.
But I glide into the very heart
Of banal ignorance
Where bastions of arrogance
Cavort amongst the departed minds
That make collective disillusion possible,
Passive acceptance approved
By bliss blinding.
A.R. Arthur (formerly A.R.Salandy) is a Black Mixed-race poet & writer who has spent most of his life in Kuwait jostling between the UK & America. Anthony's work has been published over 240 times internationally. Anthony's Flash Fiction was shortlisted and received an honourable mention in the 2022 The Dillydoun Flash Fiction Prize Competition. Anthony has 3 published chapbooks titled 'The Great Northern Journey' 2020 (Lazy Adventurer Publishing) & 'Vultures' 2021 (Roaring Junior Press) as well as a novel 'The Sands of Change' 2021 (Alien Buddha Press). Anthony's Chapbook 'Half Bred' was the Winner of the 2021 'The Poetry Question' Chapbook contest. Anthony is the EIC of Fahmidan Journal/Publishing & Co, Review Editor at Full House Literary & Poetry Editor at Chestnut Review.
Twitter: @ararthurwriter
Instagram: @ararthurwriter https://arsalandywriter.com/
