Lip-Syncing A Vague Terrain - Maurice Oliver

Lip-Syncing A Vague Terrain.

By the time she returns from the restroom I've been ayatollah-ed twice.
Or any gravedigger for that matter, entwined with sawdust on the floor
and the faint smell of turpentine around the magician's wand or best
drank at room temperature. The stowaway hides between the turkey
stuffing or low-life is a voice-over using French sub-titles. The bar seats
are all occupied by ghosts. An ocean parks in the driveway of Italy at
a beach that was once merely stunted pebbles or could successfully
manage to evade capture. Either way, all the money that was originally
ear-marked for more exhaust fumes now resolves to live in a play or
becomes a scene already revised in the script. Or just to curse the sea
she captained, I later admit, once I'm safe on dry land...
deliberately allowing my speech to accept the award.


After spending almost a decade working as a freelance photographer
in Europe Maurice Oliver returned to America in 1990. Then in 1995
he made a lifelong dream reality by traveling around the world for eight
months, recording his experiences in a journal instead of taking pictures.
And so began his desire to be a poet. His poetry has appeared in The
Potomac Journal, Circle Magazine, Bullfight Review, The MAG, Tryst3
Journal, Pebble Lake Review, Eye-Shot, The Surface, Wicked Alice,
Word Riot, Taj Mahal Review(India), Stride Magazine(UK), Dandelion
Magazine(Canada), Retort Magazine(Australia), & online at zafusy.com,
megaera.org, unlikelystories.org, girlswithinsurance.com, subtletea.com,
interpoetry.com(UK), kritya.in (India), & blueprintreview.de(Germany). He currently lives in Portland, Oregon where he is a private tutor. His poetry
blogsite can be visited at: www.bloxster.net/mauriceoliver.