Ray Succre

Little Ghost


Be the sentencer, you small ghost, come out and be the limiter.

You’re the soul, yes?

Tell me what comes, and in what cold dale I may brutalize,

or in which narrow court I may be nice enough.

Do you exist?  I’m asking you.

Sentence me as I have, in lines, sentenced else.

You might exist, ghost:  I have heard your first words. 

Please continue.

(Granted, I have dimmed the remainder to night,

and as a cretin with far sight, or else tonight blind,

I will still deny you)

I know the day has marketed us and admits it does not know how,

so ghost, mine, come out and make words.  Market.

Make my sentence curt and cold.

There we are.  Concision.  Good. 

The nausea settles.  Hallelujah. 

I have limits and sentences,

and a righteous, cocksure faculty,

but while the face dims,

while the remainders spin into servitude,

and as the days devour the Sun,

and as the soul begins to snow.

Out There


The unique artist is in direct contact with her madness

and has accomplished that rare, uncharted thing

of domesticating it.

It runs away with her,

but she comes back with it.

Out again and home again.

The leash is a strange and precious commodity,

a thick bleed.  She constantly recaptures this madness

from its escape, or else they merely go for walks.

Others sometimes uncover these maneuvers or walks

from a distance.  They squint and see

the artist or the madness but seldom both,

only that something would seem to be out there.

Perhaps she is lost?

Or else some minds arrive before they embark.

Ray Succre is an undergraduate currently living on the southern Oregon coast with his wife and son. He has had poems published in Aesthetica, Ditch, and Pank, as well as in numerous others across as many countries. His novels Tatterdemalion (2008) and Amphisbaena (2009), both through Cauliay, are widely available in print. Other Cruel Things (2009), an online collection of poetry, is available through Differentia Press. Homepage: Ray Succre