Philip Kobylarz: California Poets Part 9, Five Poems

Philip Kobylarz

December 22nd, 2025

California Poets: Part IX

Philip Kobylarz

Five Poems

mirrors, smoked

As a mirror image, simplicity strikes a curios tone. Illusion, that key-note speech, is more so

a trompe l'oeil of what

it attempts to not be. A name writ under successive coats of paint on a door. Baby juniper burgeoning

in a terra-cotta pot, planted

with seashells, sea bones. Bet the inverse on the roulette wheel to win what is assured:

money lost.

scattershot

Drinking to revitalize the humors is a funny way of putting it. Like crusts of bread

birds end flight for.

deceptivism

As good as pie, that's how they remembered it. Whether or not so isn't much in the cards.

Bespeaking of old tires

in need of a good changing, the necessary is overlooked in favor of a need to drive. Hell

breaks loose aiming

for a destination. Not getting there, or the traveling, but in the afterflight.

Author Bio:

Philip Kobylarz is an itinerant teacher of the language arts and writer of fiction, poetry, book reviews, and essays. He has worked as a journalist, a film critic, a veterinarian's assistant, a deliverer of furniture, and an ascetic. He has volunteered at the Union City Historical Museum. His work appears in such publications as Paris Review, Poetry, The Best American Poetry series, Massachusetts Review, and Lalitamba. He also published a collection poetry entitled rues and a collection of short stories entitled Now Leaving Nowheresville. He spends his time in the East Bay, Huntington Beach, and in the monastery in which he lives with his cat KatdawgRocket 99, his dog Chibi, and any woman who is able to temporarily love him.