"Deaf Market, Blind Speaker"

I wrote a lot of poetry back during my undergrad days, but once I found that I enjoyed doing fiction more, I never picked it back up (despite filling a huge notebook with well-transcribed versions along with accompanying images). Since Steemit seems to have a thriving (and growing) poetry community, I thought I'd add a little fuel to that particular fire. I hope you enjoy :)

He wore his words like plastique,
strapped to chest and arms
and hidden under cloak
until the proper crowd amassed,
wearing innocence in smiles
and clothes two sizes big.
A verbal jihad on ignorance
spoken best in syllables and fire,
the shrapnel was anxious to prove
a point on dulled senses
and years lived through colored lenses.
With a soliloquy that shook the ground
and a language lost on most
he spoke until
his throat caved in,
collapsing to the dust.
The crowd dissipated
as his voice reverberated
through the courtyard of the market,
an echo off unhearing ears,
until the skyline darkened
out of blood-red horizon.

"Arizona"
"Lasso the Moon, George Bailey"
"Sphinx Song"
"Purgatory's Visiting Hours"
"When Atlas Shrugged"
"Christmas in Viet Nam"
"Apocalypsis"
"New Novel, Issue 2, Vol. I"
"Star God (My Final Thread)"
"The Universe is Right on Schedule"
"Absence of God & Time"
"Hale-Bopp"
"I Want Out"
"Good Morning, Creation!"
"Reflected through the Looking Glass"
"Symbiosis"
"Dream of a Dream"
"Azure Interlude"
"Hubris, My Love"
"Sin"
"So Many People, So Little Time"
"Deafening, Shameless Horror of War"
"Weary Traveler"
"Dead Poet Society"
"Untitled, 12.13.05"
"Untitled, 01.17.06"
"Untitled, 01.25.06"
"Untitled, 04.17.06"
"Tongue Painting"
"The Orator of S(kin)"
"Insert A into B"
"Mornings"
"Wake-Up Call"
"As If Hanging in Dreams on the Back of a Tiger"
"Mano Viejo (An Old Hand)"
"...And on the 8th Day"
"Choir of Anvils"
"Paris"
"Epilogue"
"Accident in C Minor"
"Scaring the Stars into Submission"
"Raising Hell in the Garden of Eden"
"The Push"
"Thong Decision"
"Kline in Love"
"Un-"
"Hollow Points, Anonymous Tips"
"Poke, Process, Repeat"
"Healthy Living"
"Natural Selection"
"Icarus"
"The Religion of Ink"
"The Chaos of Thought and Passion"
"Attempting Patience"
"Tongue-Twisted and Blistered"
"Ice Drift"
"Once Every Forever"
"Nude Unbending a Stare-Case"
"No One Smokes Here Anymore"
"First Memories"
"A Lifetime in Tijuana"
"When the World Ends"