indulging an appetite
for musical debris

cluttering the desk
in a dismal motel

an epic talent
of grim clarity

overwhelms
the melancholy radio

with pointillist tones
gilding the profound

fragmentation
of ostentatious cadence

virtuosity aside —  his rhythm
is a death-rattle —  his song

a sure swift beheading of both
banality and nonsense

[Hillary Lyon is editor for the small press poetry journals The Laughing Dog, and Veil: Journal of Darker Musings. She holds an MA in Literature from SMU. Her work has appeared recently in Red River Review, From the Depths, and Shot Glass Journal. She lives in Southern Arizona.]