‘Jupiter Whiplash’
Zeus is a wildlife and landscape photographer whose work reflects a lifelong admiration for nature’s beauty. Drawn to the vibrant glow of sunsets and the untamed spirit of the outdoors, they capture images that blend technical skill with a natural sense of wonder. Their photography invites viewers to slow down and experience the world with fresh eyes.
Jupiter Whiplash
Seeing in the mirror
what the mirror put there—
or chose to see—splits this round.
They have looked, uninterrupted,
and seen: it is not a study of life.
No roads lead from mere observation
to the astral plane.
No astringing the balance of firmament.
For tyrant or martyr,
it’s fanatical cosmic dishevelment.
Has what I’ve said been meant or said?
It has.
No ransomed pleasure of leaning in closer;
it will sit where it lands.
A mental—can I have a hand thing.
Some would claim the universe a prison cell.
It’s no clam-bake.
To surmise whale tears
is to live astride a sad sea.
Most begin again, but spastically—
like wet dogs let it fly.
The shank of truth rips jagged to the bone,
buried in backyards unseen, unheard—of or from.
A form best swallowed quickly,
out in this grove of verities
none had considered.
The whole town afflicted.
Or nearly.
Tender and insouciant by turns, you’ll hear
a silence so contrary to the—thwap
of things snapping back into place.
All our past times sped to frenzy,
withholding spheres deemed globules
of single dimension,
pleasant as loathing.
A young man bends down at every shining curiosity,
re-erects to find an old man
has only picked up a gum wrapper.
Who will visit,
and who will wait till the viewing,
since all are so anxious?
It’s more backdoor vagabondism now.
An old white-haired wind.
No more umff.
The supply ships resample dead newspapers
for the latest on the coming torrent.
Even survival rages
around the white-picket fence—
in the doghouse of compromise.
Gregory O’Neill lives in Washington state and writes, in hope, that readers may feel less alone in their ambiguity, more whole in their partial truths. His poetry appears or is forthcoming in, Cathexis NW Press, Closed Eye Open, Half And One, and Relief Quarterly & others.
