30 Poems in 30 Days

[butters]

one



his mind computes
playing cat's cradle with theory
bathing in the random noise of neurons firing
an interstellar solar flare that
lights his eyes
renders us invisible
except as statistics on a screen
devoid of messy interactions
and, for the most part, unnoticed
like the stains on his shirt
the hole in his sock
the coffee rings and empty cups

 

[Remec]

5-7 Palsy

It was just a shake

The ambient rhythm within
the room was enough to make
me start grooving. Couldn't
place the source--song, singer,
maybe it was just a jingle from
some particularly clever
mindworm off the television or
radio--until I realized everything
was muted by headphones and
the remote.

silent pulses from active electronics
can be mildly irritating, but at least
it wasn't strobe lights.

okay, and a stumble

Main reason I avoid cheap bars and
dance halls unless really motivated. The
slightly watered down drinks, and more
heavily watered down conversations, were
not a huge draw, true, but knowing I would
be writhing beneath phantom karaoke for
hours later weighed the scale down hard.

Can you tell St. Vitus you want to sit
this one out?

~~~~

 

[Micahb2]

I can hear Little Jet
fighting the hornets
at the end of the drive.

They have taken nest in
the mailbox. We've just moved in.
There are dozens of white envelopes

Scattered across the front lawn.
The drive slopes down to the north.
Blue air, blue light, blue fields, blue smoke.

Before you left, you tucked
a strand behind your ear. Fish hook.
As you ducked through the door.

I like it here, too. This way of doing things.
A "hipness" where humor has no core
and that boy moves out of the piano.

 

[RedButterflySlut]

Four: First Lust

The darkened club vibrated, bloated in tension-
Men strutted around like peacocks,
Girls fluttered like butterflies,
A complicated waltz of self importance and lies.
A rockstar badboy caught my eye,
Piercing eyes rested on me with intent to consume,
New to making men fall to lust, I was flattered,
A fish pretending to fly
He didn't sense my innocence.
I played dress up femme fatale,
Back pushed against the wall,
His fingers taught my body the definition of release,
We danced together in stranger's sheets,
Pale hands meant for a guitar gripped my hips hard,
Our ragged breath became one as he moved inside me,
We collapsed together in ecstasy.
That night he hadn't even learned my name,
For two years we continued our night time game,
Until one day he left, quickly as he came.

 

[Micahb2]

I light upon you.
We light out

Through the traffic cones.

Bookmarks, Entitlement, Desklamps
My hands flash lightning over you
through me.

Our recursive nature continues to enfold itself.
With the lights out and rain coming down
I tap the lip of the cup, check the time.

Tonight, I will throw back the covers, whisper
"Shhh...don't move..."

 

[PandoraGlitters]

Eleven

tomorrow it is almost May
sunrise chimes May days
on long rays

our eyelids flutter
warmly kissed
faces raise

face the promises
of sun . . . . . . moon
May . . . . . . . June

 

[Remec]

5-8 Another view

Big hairy arachnid
saw something so splendid
that he had to go see what it was;
It was dressed all in frills,
and topped off with curls,
but it fled in a tizzy just because.

~~~~

 

[butters]

two


the scraped canvas tells a story all its own
of imprints left
clogged pores that never breathe again
left-handed sweeps of anger or disgust
ridges
smears
that remain to skew perspective
despite being dressed anew
that throw odd shadows
no matter how good the light



------------------------------------








thanks to tzara's comment for the inspiration.


two - 2


the scraped canvas tells a story all its own
of imprints left
clogged pores that never breathe again
left-handed sweeps of anger or disgust
ridges
smears
remain to skew perspective
(despite being dressed anew)
to throw odd shadows
no matter how good the light

 

[butters]

three


dusty highway dreams
make for parched thoughts
that crave incessant heavy rain
where a throat may open
channel a flood
wash the self away

 

[butters]

four


finest grains of dust
settle on mirrored plane
without murmur

no breath of sound
disturbs the non-sentient state

somewhere from within
a bubble rises
to ripple empty skies

 

[butters]

five



keep your eye on the feather
so soft
so white

don't let your sight
fall between its scarce-formed ladders
to the mud beneath

or lift beyond
to the torn and the ravaged
open-beaked misery

keep your eye on the feather

 

[butters]

six


sleep dances
somewhere on the sodium horizon
partnered by night and the soft drawl of passing traffic
it's no sweep
yet there's a beauty to the wetly gleaming tiles and watchful windows
the sympathetic beat of falling rain













(edited to remove the word 'chimney' before 'sweep' - hoping the association between chimney sweeps dancing on rooftops doesn't get lost.)

 

[PandoraGlitters]

Trying on 31/32
honest Levis worn
after his first wife died,
I notice the ashes
of his second in clear glass
and cork atop their pine dresser.
Across the room Pete Fornatale
spun years of Saturdays;
his happiness trembled
in well tended branches.

 

[RedButterflySlut]

Five: Collapsing Star Singularity

When I first saw him,
He reminded me of a troll
The one that kept the Billy Goat's Gruff from greener land,
Giant hands, giant head, bright orange shirt,
And a wicked smile that could stop any girl's heart.

We became fast friends.
My best memories are with him-
We built a gun of cartridges and pipes,
Had our first drink together
Laughed, studied together,
Graduated, sang, danced, blacked out, everything as one.
He held my hand when the world got too scary,
I held his, when he had his first heartbreak.
The folly of youth promised us the universe,
So confident we would burn brightest in the sky
But luck has more to do than strength of star dust.

We drank too much,
Tried too hard, fell too low.
Like always, we tried to comfort each other
But the job got harder every year.
The first night our lips met,
Fireflies danced on a grass carpet,
The wind in the trees whispered fanciful things-
A romantic scene set for the wrong couple,
There was nothing sweet when he held me down.
My hearts didn't flutter, only the nagging sense
That we were becoming
Something
Dark

That night I learned 'no' can mean nothing
And in my heart, I believed my body was his right to take.

 

[PandoraGlitters]

Thirteen

coffee enriches the bowl
cup set aside atop
nightstand
night stands aside

we shuffle prepositions
beside becoming atop becoming under
becoming within

one planet with its own gravity
drawing meteors and space
junk into orbit

the planet of Us burns glorious
reheating the coffee with our lips

 

[Remec]

5-9 Idle Thought

They were paving in front of
Armstrong's today, but I didn't care
since the scent of wet concrete was
overwhelmed by the taste of a new
caramel apple. I usually prefer fresh ones,
the really bright yellow kind that
crunch just so with every bite and
fill each corner of my mouth with
a savory sweetness somewhere
between red and green, but I made do.
The way Bobby makes do without
Sarah's company since she didn't come
home for Spring Break this year.
I watched him kiss her Skype image while
across the room listening to some
wannabe on Idol and wondered if
the rough patches on my fingers
and palm were remnants of caramel
or concrete or something else entirely.
~~~~~

 

[RedButterflySlut]

Six: Lover for a Night

-A year passed in the darkened club,
I learned to take my drinks strong and hard,
And to avoid boys that promised me softness.-

I talked with everyone,
Let them violate my mouth,
But not my heart,
I didn't spread my legs again
Until him.
Halfway between slut and school girl,
I danced like a leaf in the wind, shaking, spiraling,
Swaying, hips gyrating,
Confident I could have any man I wanted.
I felt eyes dark as coal watch me move,
Wolfish, hungry, and scared.
Wicked, I giggled at his hesitance,
I could replace him
Surely as the sun would rise again.

It took him three months for him to wave,
Five more for him to talk to me,
Four, he invited me home.
Flattered by his long term fascination I agreed
We drank orange and vodka drinks,
Talked of space and time,
The tiny workings of atoms and
Why the grass is greener on the other side.
To my surprise, we where perfectly aligned,
From freckles to fetishes and back again.
But the months had passed so long,
He had already made plans to further his life,
In sadness he showed me a one way plane ticket to England.
The minutes seemed to freeze, as if some kind god
Stopped time just so we could gaze into each other's eyes,
And feast on the majesty of feeling a completed soul

After a perfect night of passion, we parted,
Jaded I questioned the story he gave,
But
Every word was true.

 

[Micahb2]

In case we meet tonight - two
starlings in flight - We will talk - Of
things drawn by chalk - Of the cliffs
were we once sprang enlocked.

 

[Micahb2]

The shadows on the dashboard
At the end of the holler
Are not resting easy.

Like a waiting bird dog
This moment wants off
The leash.

It's not easy. I think,
Tapping the steering wheel
Dialing through these days

Listening for a hailing frequency
When in fact Listening is what's
very near and frequent.

 

[butters]

seven


seven toes
a magic number
no shoes required
for pink-pads and ice-pick claws
her skills outnumbering
her lesser toed compatriots
all possessed of pink, rough tongues
a love of cream
and all of them innumerate

 

[Remec]

5-10

Brain pulses in an
overly vibrant echo of
the shouting in my
veins, Nothing helps
appease it, no amount
of napping or capsules
by the palmful. Perhaps
I shall explode.
~~~~

 

[PandoraGlitters]

Fourteen

flashes of dream waking
clings to cream walls

we were sepiatone
walking along the tongues
of surf in Mexico

blued by water
rendered vivid by sound
entering or retreating
just like the tide

this was a moment shared
but the sharers were cropped
out of the picture just
naked feet on sand

scalloping the edge
we giggled at the lick
of surf

finally tumbled into the t bird
which daddy drove home

 

[RedButterflySlut]

Seven: First Monogamy

His hair shined like silk,
Puddled across our naked bodies,
I found the sharpness of his jawline lovely.
The way he said my name made me forget
To be careful.
He marveled at the small of my back,
Delicate touches memorized my curves,
As if to consume, his tongue worked over me with a desperation
I had never known before.
Over and over again
Like his hardness inside of me,
He made me promise to be only his.
So I did.
At twenty four, I had my first lover all to myself,
I was happy, but incomplete
Like drinking water to fill hunger,
It wasn't enough.
He was too distracted, too distant,
One of us was playing make-believe,
But I wasn't sure who.
I had grown accustomed to blaming myself,
With tears and regret, I ended our attempt at
Vanilla life.
Three weeks later, I found out
I had been the other girl.
Every word of his single-woman-love was a lie
He was living with his pregnant girlfriend,
I was the mistress.
If I had tasted monogamy before, would I have seen the signs?

Doubtful.
I am-
Forever bitter,
Forever naive,
Forever growing.

 

[davenobody]

Nobody by Davefx

I'm feeling down, a little more then usual today
So if my door is closed, don't knock
Just go the fuck away

Besides, what can you do about a love that's been cursed
How would you cheer up a man at his worst
Do you know how it feels to have such an ache
Damn you, come in if you must
Just stop all the pounding
Quit your knocking for Christ's sake . . .

Nobody was there, just a broken branch swinging in the wind
Looks like loneliness will be my only companion again tonight
To hear someone knock upon my door
I wish, I wish with all my might

 

[smart_and_sexytxgirl]

1-1 To be filled

To be filled

A wonderful weight settled upon me:
I could not see, but I knew it was he.

Spread-eagled I await--
Eager to meet my fate.

One touch from him
Overflows my brim

I am lost--
again.