30 Poems in 30 Days

[wildsweetone]

88 and 89

88
Saturday 19th May 2007
Gin O'Clock

When the sun goes over the yardarm,
when shadows lengthen and the land sighs
with late afternoon's breath,
when their voices take on that happy
hour tone,
and the walls creak
in arched pleasure,
then the last strike of Autumn
will steal gold from the sky
and night will descend before dreams.




Sunday 20th May, 2007

89

::

leaves float
red, orange, yellow sailboats
on the river

 

[AChild]

3-3

On the line, close to the breaking
time is no the enemy of art
or me

put away perfection
just to practice good

 

[vampiredust]

15

Journeys

Rivers widen upstream,
feeding moonlight
through slatted miles
of riverbeds. Currents

stomp along the incline,
feeling its geography
rattling as the horizon
dissapears. Rushing

water tap their sticks
to feel the depth. Gravel
banks become auditoriums
for the visitors,

the sound of stones
casting into the river
drifting all the way up,
all the way up.

 

[loserstyx]

8-1

She moans in ecstasy as she presses my body into hers.
Flailing incoherently to squeeze that last drop of joy from the day.
In her all I care about is being somewhere else in my head.

"Why is it like this...so damned disappointing,
it's all I ever looked forward to and now I don't even want it."
I say to the ghost in my head.

My body takes the initiative and decides to end my mind's torment,
and for a moment it doesn't matter how much I despise this woman
for not being able to accept me for who I am, the world turns white.

She curls up next to me, ready for me to hold her in my arms,
like a dog waiting for his treat after performing some trick.
I put my arms around her, there's worse places I could be.

 

[darkerdreamer]

4-30

Mend the bellows of my accordion
so that it might howl for appreciation again.
I learned a lot from that detested instrument,
such as,
"The more you are hated, the louder you must be."

If that really is true,
call me Bagpipe Mccordion.

 

[AChild]

3-4

Season
change with out the reason
tossed like the
laundry mat
dryer focal point

the dreams are the same
every stream of smoke you look
who is happy at the level
everything is a far off star

OR

is it just me
life can't be like a
breakfast of champions
i don't believe

feeling too alone at bedtime
anyway
just hope tonight theres
no more family weirdness

 

[vampiredust]

16

Waking

The calf tongued woman
with Down's syndrome
swallowed nettle-sharp

screams of a toddler tied
down in his pushchair.
The rest of us choked,

feeling sharp syllables
digging into our throats,
wanting to wake and see

her face, her cool.

 

[loserstyx]

8-2

The lights fade
the curtain falls
my eyes close
3 months
6 days
15 hours
this is what I've been waiting for.

 

[vampiredust]

17

Leaving (But never going)

The trains umbilical cord
trails along like a toy dog,
each length of wire on its

roof wagging gently.
Blouses wave, suitcases
remain soldier-steady.

Pulling into the platform
doesn't mean the banishing
of memories for all parties

concerned. Rather, it stays
in the places we hope it does,
fogging up the windows

of our skulls, waiting for a
new hand to wipe it clean.

 

[loserstyx]

8-3

Taking the day off today
to be with friends in this first life.
No poetry could quite hold
my attention as a good story told in person.
So tonight tales will be weaved,
and the fire will burn low.
Until finally the sun begins to wake
and we take the last drags of our cigarettes,
ready to play our parts in this new day.

 

[vampiredust]

18

The Shaping of Memory

Why is it that memory retains
its shape long after the first
pressing into a suitable host?
Say, for example, a honeycomb
after being drenched in sunlight,
the mark from a wet glass
on a table, the sound of your breath
against the receiver; the telephone's
click running through my head,
just in case it forgets and slips.

 

[loserstyx]

8-4

As the opening bars begin to play
my hand reaches into my pocket
of it's own volition
and I pull a packet of red and white
naturally smooth, additive free,
Winston reds loose.
As these lines hum in my head
I have recovered a cigarette from it's resting place
and placed it in my lips.
I bring the fire closer, pulling in the deleterious gloom,
and releasing a haze from my lungs.
My eyes close in satisfaction from the fire
sitting on my blue white-stripped couch
in my thinking man pose.
I discharge a plume and sit back.
Watching the smoke slowly dissipate
like a phantom silver screen, I imagine
I can see a vague silhouette of you
twisting this way and that in the deranged
swing dance of the smoke.

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

it's a start and a long way to go...but I'll get it done sometime.

 

[vampiredust]

19

Photoshop Junkies Unite

Splice the chimpanzee head
with Angelina Jolie's body.
Her Majesty with Darwin.
Cut and paste shall be our
motto. The world is our
clipboard. We'll cut and paste
to the grave.

 

[loserstyx]

8-5

The Rain Begins

As She leaves it starts to rain

She had gentle eyes
What color were they?
Her hair pulled down to her neck in that bleach blonde dryness
What glowing shade does it truly reflect?
Her body was graceful
But was she clumsy?

The abyss inside me wants to know
But my fear kept her sitting there
And when she walked away it was all I could say

"goodbye"

Then she got into her white Toyota Tercel
Backed out right next to me as if to say

"You missed your chance"

And as she shifts into first and pulls away
All I am is a fading reflection standing in the rain

 

[vampiredust]

20

Currency

We met at dawn. Offered
each other bodily matter
under the watchful eye
of cloud cattle and sun

lit muscles of the city
slowly waking. A shuck
of cars yawn. Hands
slip into bones, muscle,

to retrieve the respective
parts of the transactions,
wrapping it in brown paper
and string. At home,

these new additions
are fitted carefully. We
listen to their cries late
at night, feel our empty

bodies. Nobody wanders
why those spaces still
speak to us, each word
still adding more weight.

 

[loserstyx]

8-6

late again tomorrow
at least that is my prediction

it won't be on purpose
but that's how they'll take it

because working in this shitty place
is supposed to be important

and I'm supposed to bust my ass twice as hard
for half the pay

Work double the hours
in half the time

It's only been six months
but it feels like twelve

so I'm going to find some where else
and work there

where I'll bust my ass twice as hard
and make half the pay

but at least it will be something new

 

[vampiredust]

21

William Blake Considers Marriage Counselling

Unquote God. Quote
Hell, Marriage. Heaven,

unquote, never existed.
Put the rest in brackets,

underline its bad grammar.
Don't debate over semantics

or meaning. It should be clear
from the text.

 

[loserstyx]

8-7

Last Request
Just one more day is all I ask
until the sun glows it's last dying rays with us
lying on the beach hand in hand
in that knowing embrace, you listen to my heart,
eyes closed in satisfaction; we drift down into our dreams.

 

[vampiredust]

22

There are fox prints
over the blank page

of my computer screen.
Something has emerged

from the shadow of my
clock to tread in the white

landscape waiting to drain.
I am not sure what will be

found there - perhaps a bark
and the scuttling of a pack

of dogs chasing sunlight away,
its fox colours dripping orange

on the loneliness of my page.

 

[loserstyx]

8-8

My predictions were unfounded
these two days I have arrived at the appointed time

worn down by nights of heated flailing
insomnia has joined in the fun

so I'm here and still have my income
but that is no consolation to my wanderlust

I've been here too long
and need to move on

so this next week pray to all your gods
to God, Allah, and Snuffleupagus for you 2d

that I may move on from here into the inferno
of casting pieces of metal from primal ore

to leave this old and start that new

 

[darkerdreamer]

5-1

Memento Box

I'm throwing you away.

Your Funky Bunch cassette
no longer fills the funk quotient enough
to avoid the dumpster.

The symbolic key necklace
is nothing but rust and regret by now,
hasn't seen the sun in a year.

The prom poster has torn,
like that old pinstripe number,
and those cap-tipped shoes are scuffed.

They don't shine anymore,
or maybe it's me that lost the glimmer.

We tango on a photograph's edge,
waltz between the lines of this paper,
swing to the big band music in my head,
and ballroom dance on the sunset.

I'm throwing out your hand-me-down steps, too.

 

[vampiredust]

23

The Weight of Darkness

The blackened windows
of her lungs were inkwells
for confessional writing,
the hand by the hospital
bedside reading each word.
My breath weighed
the darkness of syllables
and vowels before they
slipped into the line breaks
of life. I offered to carry
some in my breath, to feel
their weight making up
for those I lost.

 

[loserstyx]

8-9

And the day has been wasted
thought I would get up today and do something
but by that time all the banks were closed
so there went all the money
and there went all the ideas
so kick start my imagination
to take me away from this stagnancy
and all I can imagine is her death
damn I'm fucked up.

 

[vampiredust]

24

To Every Window

Forgotten windows shift
under the earth's soft fur,
each another eye to places
hidden under beds,

inside closets, chests,
mothballing bodies.
Eyes quietly turn in their
orbits at night, churning

attached memories. Some
drift upwards to be picked
up, thrown away. Bodies
cry themselves to sleep

after every act, wanting
the cold dampness
of their touch, that coldness
of longing, of memory.

 

[loserstyx]

8-10

She's coming back in a few days
and the funny thing is I don't even want to see her.
These last few nights spent alone in my bed,
where she used to dance in my head,
have been somewhat a disappointment.
When I begin to imagine; all I see is her casket
at the front of the church.
I walk toward it and I open the top
revealing what I never wanted to see.
There she is, in that blue aqua and navy striped dress
that I love to see her in.
Her makeup is pristine and it seems as though she is only slumbering.
I try to shake her awake, but she does not respond.
The tears begin to flow from my eyes uninhibited and I hold her
close to me trying to will life back into her.
I don't know maybe this is the last step in my journey with her,
and now I will go on to live my life as if she had died.
I don't want that, but maybe it's what I'll have to take.