“circles” & “in Oz” by George Taxon

circles

edging

out the

spaces

the circles

are going

nowhere

a

pixel

paces it-

self

unable

to walk a

straight

line

I think

I’d run circles

around

oscillating

sighs if this

tinfoil

life wasn’t

wedged

between

frames and

time couldn’t

tell

where I

begin

or I end

in Oz

when you were finally

taught to speak you

called me human

without laughing but

were hard put to prove

that without wincing

not surprising

if only for the scarecrow

inciting the squalls

and the spells

frightening the parts

of ourselves strung

out over the fields

intimidating the

crops and the crickets

straw heads

hindering tin words

sounds made of meat

staring down the lions and the legs

recoiling at your feet

ribs just crumbs

cast off by you

a smile too human

too confident to shriek

George Taxon is an emerging poet living in Brookline, Massachusetts. He’s worked as an antiquarian bookseller, a medical editor, and an administrator, among other things, and his interests include psychology, physics, and metaphysics.