After the Gallows Trap Flaps

We all have little secrets

Things left unsaid

Things we think of in silence

These gather like a mob,

Curious and bloodthirsty,

Come to see some public hanging

And after the gallows trap flaps,

Because it was not ourselves,

We simply turn to our everyday affairs

Flies in a Jar

Eating each other

Gasping for air

Breathing more hatred into our lungs

Spitting and fighting

For every morsel

Of cold hard cash

Biting and tearing

The vicious struggle

To claim precious space

Everyday

More and more warriors are born

And thrown into the modern free-for-all 

My Lifeblood Burns Down

Like the pull of a red-glowing cigarette

My lifeblood burns down

The past

Gone

The present

A shell being forced through

The great eye of the unknown

The future

Phantom River

Slowly

Placidly

So relaxed

Just like all the other times

I dip my thirsty feet

Into the cool piranha stream

A hot rush of blood

Explodes in the water  

Calvin Becker is a poet from Calgary , Alberta , Canada . His poems explore ideals and themes in a pithy and highly metaphorical style. He is inspired by essentiality.

Embarking on the beginning of his poetry career, Calvin has already had his poems published in the United States , UK , and Canada in both poetry magazines and books. Recently, his work has been shown in the Black Book Press, The Poetry Institute of Canada, Black Widows Web of Poetry, and Scars Publishing.

His work is influenced by the French Symbolist poets of the19^th Century and the minimalist stylings of masters like Leonard Cohen and William Carlos Williams. Expressiveness and compactness mark the work of Calvin Becker.

Calvin's poetry has been published online and in print in publications: The Coat, 

The Prospector, Venus De Milo, The Blood Came in Drops, and The Cell.