Matt Forrest Esenwine

TO THE ACCUSED

You didn't cut deep enough.

Flesh separated from flesh,
muscle from sinewy muscle,
bone from bone,
but like the scarred tamarack
out front
branded with ugly etchings
of names
and hearts
as old as you and I,
death does not come easily.

You didn't cut deep enough.

The taste of iron
red, salty
still wakes me
while I try in vain
each day
to ignore the stench of that night,
of Marlboro Lights
and urine
and hibiscus.
Through a steel-blade memory
forged from your hand,
through blazing pain
of wounds and tears,

I think of you
sitting there now
caged between concrete and steel,
sunrise and sundown,
wires and weapons,
with nothing to remember
but an old tamarack,
the taste of iron,
and the stench of Marlboro Lights
and urine
and hibiscus.

And I hate that I wonder why

you didn't cut deep enough.


Matt reads "To the Accused":



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Matt confesses: "There are two types of pain: physical as well as emotional. I thought it might be interesting to examine the turmoil going through the mind of this particular victim."

Voiceover artist and commercial copy writer MATT FORREST ESENWINE has had several poems published in various independent collections around the U.S., including The Henniker Review, Metamorphosis, the Tall Grass Writers Guild's "Seasons of Change," Assisi: Journal of Arts & Letters, and the Licking River Review, among others. In 2012, his poem, "Apple-Picking," was nominated by the Young Adult Review Network (YARN) for a Pushcart Prize. Matt lives in Warner, New Hampshire, and is currently working on several children's book manuscripts.

Day 23: Radio, Rhythm and Rhyme

Poet and voice actor Matt Forrest Esenwine interviews me on Day 23 of 30 Days of The 5-2.

Matt Forrest Esenwine

FLIGHT

Sweat pours from my brow
stings through ragged skin
and bone
pooling in the cracks

Blood and lymph; warm death
a bastard’s cocktail
round of shots

anyone left?

Listen to the sun
evaporating life
while
tenacious life
clings.


Matt reads "Flight":



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Matt confesses: "I wanted to write a poem about 'flight,' but didn't want to use the obvious images: birds, planes, sky, etc. I thought of 'flight' as leaving the scene of something terrible—a crime, a battle—and that 'flight' being stopped, somehow. The aggressor is now the victim."

MATT FORREST ESENWINE, a voiceover artist and commercial copy writer, spent more than twenty-five years in radio, writing and producing numerous award-winning commercials, before stepping into the realm of professional voiceover work in 2003. He has had several poems published in various independent collections around the country, and one of them, "Apple-Picking," was nominated last year by the Young Adult Review Network (YARN) for a Pushcart Prize. Matt is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI).

Day 9: Thinking With My Skin; Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme

Bill Cameron returns to discuss "The NRA's Modest Proposal", and poet/voice actor Matt Forrest Esenwine interviews me on Day 9 of 30 Days of The 5-2.