30 Poems in 30 Days

[Micahb2]

The shadows of Prime numbers
are the silhouette you throw
when we meet on the street.

You pattern yourself after a
rational that is irreducible
down to the handling of

A fine-lined cup of tea.
The Osprey across the street
in the trees with the scarves
look past us
to fields that surround this little town.

I field gestures and throw home. Mornings
catch that green pearl that is your eye.

 

[PandoraGlitters]

Four

The universe is simplified
by evens and odds, and somewhat
less simplified by rock paper scissors and
somewhat less simplified by my mama said
you are the very best one so I pick . . .

feet follow shoulders
pushed by the heart
for it is a muscle
after all

there are many cars
parking almost lightless
(occasional zippos)
ending with the green
dodge demon I once
reported stolen when actually
I just drove it to the store then walked home

legs need the stretch of song
at least seven blocks
long along the river or if not
traffic for the roar
of disinterest which feels
after awhile
like safety.

 

[Remec]

5-1 Starting Over

All about schedule,
waking,
eating,
working,
talking

Even if you're not
taking 12 steps, it
becomes the norm.
Sort of.

I don't do lists.
I rush everywhere,
going up and down stairs
two--maybe three--at once.

28 days?

One lunar cycle isn't going to
roll back decades of misdoing.

~~~~

 

[PandoraGlitters]

Five

morning toasts
backsides as we mingle
flex on spread

you are cinnamon
I swirl with sugar
unapologetic for

sweet teeth muttering
Matins over belly
and hip

 

[Micahb2]

You

When the harbor plays out and
I am walking past the lake
(one toe in, one toe out)

The pocket I pat
Where the message is contained,
offers up not a clue

Not to what it reads
or where I am to go.

At night, sometimes we touch in our sleep.

This is me singing through static,
pulling a piano out of the ice.

 

[Remec]

5-2 Doubt

The creaking of my window
speaks more of the house's age
than of the skill the replacements
were installed with. They're firm.
No leaks that I've noticed.

If only the rest of the house felt
so secure.

~~~~

 

[davenobody]

Ode to a cotton swab by davefx

I stuck a Q-tip up my nose just to see what I might find
Mother wasn't at home just then
She's quite the meddling kind
and I shouldn't do what I like to do
Mom said she read somewhere that it would make me go blind
Any way, I poked around and probed around and felt around a bit
Then with a mighty push I shoved in hard
just to see if it would fit
All of a sudden, my life flashed, my brain screamed
and blood flowed from my nose like cheap draft beer
The pain was so great that my balls shriveled
and I shrieked like a little queen
Just before crossing over to meet with grandma
it was mothers voice I could hear
"How many times have I told you to blow your nose, you twit
Q-tips are made for your ear".
Post mortim footnote
Some time after my funeral
After my plot has sprouted new grass
I'd like to see the look on moms face
When she finds the bottle brush
I used to use to swab out my ass

let me know what you think??? thanks, davefx

 

[Micahb2]

Let my gaze fix you
and that horn?

It beckons me , too.

(Tonight, the horses' yellow backs
move through the brush. Bypassing headlights)

I'm going to go to the street
Wave as you pass by.

I can hear you at night
as the lines snap in the wind.

I make a note.

 

[PandoraGlitters]

Six

This time you are born
only a few inches above
my lap

the air appearing with you
still rises from your new
skin condensing into beads
of rain which fall
from your fingertips

whenever you pull clouds
from your pockets

even when you stuff them back
your shoes squeak a little

easy to forgive this in the shower
of positive ions which compel
me to sing

 

[Remec]

5-3 Outline

Intro line...bearing a suitable hook to
draw in the reader and enrapture them
withaseriesofenjambedandintertwiningimages

breaking

now and then

for dramatic and/or emotional effect

Or merely to add in some additional commentary
(hidden or distanced by parenthetical statements--
whether enclosed by actual parentheses, or just
separated by punctuation) that leads up to

Conclusion.
~~~~

 

[PandoraGlitters]

Seven

Even if you are made of manure
and you mostly are
you can only stink a little.

You don't sink into my skin
any more than the 14 thousand arrows
of poverty, disease, woman hating
graffiti, which all, for me, get wiped out
wiped clean by the respectful
hellos and bashful smiles
of the people I have admired or helped
ages 5 to 50 so try

try to hurt me. You are only
going to wind up compost
in this garden, anyway.

 

[Micahb2]

Where I come from there
are Haystacks as large as
Bells
"Wringing out their golden braids?"

No, no, you're thinking of
Handmaidens.
We don't have any of those.

There is, though,
a girl (hair tied up, brown wristband)
who we have all been secret admirers of.

She knows we know.
We like her. She flys by.

 

[Micahb2]

A clear glass table top, a
typewriter that whickers away.
You press that...then that, and...

Eb maj 7.

The mantle is not level,
the clock tilts, dragons breath in shorelines
Mass hippity-hop.

Brilliant principles change the light bulbs.
Love or bust or guts.

 

[RedButterflySlut]

One: First Kiss

She walked uneven, one shoulder held high the other low-
Like the weight of the world forced it down.
She ran faster than the rest of our class,
Her dark brunette ponytail swung like a hypnotist's watch,
And I was mesmerized.

It wasn't long before we became friends,
I learned she loved violet candy,
She understood my obsession with the piano-
We tried each other's passions,
Tasted everything with devotion
For two years, we where never apart.
She was not a delicate girl,
but the first kiss reminded me of flowers
I melted into her violet world.
There's an illusion that two girls will always be soft,
But her heart had been darkened before me
The bruises she left on my arms shined purple and yellow,
And my lack of faith ruined her religion.

She's engaged now to a quiet, boring man
But even now
All it takes is the sight of that damned wrapper
The smell of violets, like poison, consumes me
I miss the sound of her voice, and her uneven walk.
I think of her sweet kisses and bitter bruises,
And long for them again.

 

[Remec]

5-4 Running Late

Piercing cry breaks through
and the world is a blur as
it's too cold getting up,
too bright taking a piss,
dressing without time to
match socks (let alone shirt
to pants) or grab proper
breaKfast. Feel like I'm chasing
rabbits again.
~~~

 

[PandoraGlitters]

Eight

as long as there have been paths
and feet as long as there have been
choices for anything

cave one cave two
fruit green fruit blue

as long as long is
sister and sister

chose to stand or fall to give
or take to lend or bury

my sister may flirt or fail or flail or fetch
carry smother simper
as she will until we all are sick but never
will I fault her if my love
kisses her

for if he kisses her

he was never my love

 

[RedButterflySlut]

Two: First Time

Springtime infected my veins with restlessness,
A tick tick ticking of curiosity numbed my caution
My innocence burned, I wanted it to be released,
So I picked a boy to take it.
He was quiet and sweet,
A beautiful loser.
He played video games instead of drinking games,
My friends made fun of him, called him names.
I had more social graces in my little pinky
Than he would have in his lifetime.
Our first kiss was in the rain,
The skies poured down, soaked us in celluloid poetry.
When I became worldly
The room smelled of cinnamon and blood,
Blinding pain spread my legs apart,
And my curiosity was sated.
He clung to me like I could end his unhappiness,
But
I made no secret to him the nature of our bodies meeting,
No matter how much he loved me, I would not stay,
Just a boat floating down stream, going to bigger things.
Six years my senior, he still believed he could win my heart-
But like the springtime rain that covered our first kiss,
I left as quickly as I came.

 

[Remec]

5-5 Spilled Wax

toppled,
long dangling strand
defies gravity
until it,
finally,
drops

~~~~

 

[Micahb2]

Roam and Spy

The white ocean flatlines in
the room on the odd-numbered
side of the hall.

Tumblers keep spilling, the Comber
remained folded, steepled in his bed.
The nurses kept their shakers moving
up and down the quay.

Another overtone added to a series
of concentric circles that are shouldering
their way back to the white foam at the
foot of these cliffs.

 

[PandoraGlitters]

Nine

poets so many poets so many voices
with their tongues and yet it is the swift
green light of yes I hear more than dust more than
musty you mustn'ts so in that way
we are sympatico

I need an orchard and a hammock
more than a night out more than
the library more than even
a total loser being elected in the Republican
primary I need too much

but ask nothing because I fear
obligation even being liked
or disliked is an obligation

so when I say I like you please
understand this means I have reserved
a buttonhole for your string and if you
have one for me too then that
IS something
worth writing about

 

[Micahb2]

St. Louis, 3 AM: the bus station is no
different than being in the hold of a ship.
My listing imagination tanks.

You and I are in the City of Astronomers.
No day is declared until the stars are shot and located at night
Then a mark will be set down where we are.

We spent the afternoon watching the sea pour back into the bay.
Year follows year. What dresses so
ostentatiously?

I catch you in a room full of curtains.
You are a series of locks and pulleys,
A voice calling upstairs.

 

[RedButterflySlut]

Three: First Ring

He was the most beautiful boy I'd ever seen,
Black hair, oval eyes, one blue, one green,
When he sang the world turned back time,
Anachronism boy, unfit for modern city lights or aged country grime.
Under a shaded tree he would read to me,
I'd sketch his form until it was a perfected dream,
Infatuated with each other's every fantasy,
What could it be besides romantic ecstasy?
Convinced of our folly we found a place to share,
As long as we had each other, it didn't matter where.
Just eighteen, stumbling through life,
For a month we ate nothing but rice,
But our bellies were filled with closeness.
Never apart, like twins with mimicked childishness
He bought me a ring, sung me an engagement song,
But our love wasn't meant to last long.

Love without passion isn't enough.
Something was missing in our dyadic bond,
Our bodies rarely touched, our fights became too rough.
He became obsessed with glitz and glitter, hid dark hair dyed frizzy blond,
Drank every night, the whiskey ruined his angelic voice,
And I was too afraid,
Drugs- drinking- violence- I just wasn't tough enough to withstand the vice,
I broke my vow that I'd follow him into any dark masquerade,
Naive promises. Naive hearts.
An accident crushed the delicate ring,
Frantically we scrambled to collect the parts,
But the illusion was done.
I wrote one last song for him to sing,
He held me tight in his arms, we watched a Buffy rerun,
But it was time to go, we had new worlds to discover.

I still visit him, he's become my brother by love,
A mistaken bond, never meant to be my lover,
But I will adore him forever.

 

[Remec]

5-6

Eyes still adjust to
the new light of midday,
but ears and nose confirm
that summer has
finally
arrived.

~~~~

 

[PandoraGlitters]

Ten

paramedics punched the hole
in my mother's neck

she spoke fifteen more
years of praises and curses
and prayers through it

morning light filled
the hole my stepfather punched
in the wall before he left

mother covered it with the oil wells
of Wyandotte short term
fix until

my father's friend
bought the sedated split level
cured the walls

mother punched the holes
in her arm, hand, foot
finally thigh
but she was so much more

we couldn't see it
for the haze

 

[butters]

dora, that piece makes me shiver.