all of a sudden passion suddenly

[vampiredust]

The first film I saw
at the cinema was
He-Man. It was the
eighties, that time
when women wore
atomic skirts, puffed
out like mushroom
clouds every time
swarms of wasps
appeared. I watched
the decade sink in '89
as the walls Dad built
started being knocked
down.

 

[vampiredust]

Birdwatching

We sit buried deep
in the hide, watching
the birds feed on the
lake. Everybody knows
their names, but their
just colours to me. Dad

observes them with his
binoculars, slowly twitching
as he holds them. Feathers
start to pop out of his
wax coat, transforming
him into winter. Lips melt

away, forming a plastic
beak. He pecks away at
the air as he tries to call
his children on the lake,
but they're gone and he
can't fly away to reach
them.

 

[vampiredust]

Who Conquers The Conquerors?

A cosmic tapeworm
unfolds in the gut
of a galaxy 30,000
light years away

we feel it exploding,
its x ray shrapnel
sowing seeds in our
guts, growing tumors

that slowly start to
feed. CAT scans map
the conquered territory
before the antibodies

are injected, flooding
the quarantined zones
with patented poison.
Worms die in labs. Nobody
hears them scream but the
stars.

 

[vampiredust]

The Man Who Found Poetry

I once met a man who dug
up bones for a living. He'd
chip away at the layers of
rock people never saw,

exposing the preserved bone.
Sometimes they would crumble
in his hands, other times they
would remain intact. He'd swear

he could hear them sing in their
plastic shrouds, they liked jazz
best and would often mimic the
bands he'd play on the radio.

He would always continue working
in the night, watching the stars
tell their stories as he uncovered
forgotten ones, their words whispering
deep within the bones.

 

[vampiredust]

O/d

Last night you dreamt
you were the minotaur
wondering through the
maze. You were blind

and could only feel its
rough edges scraping
against your body. You
never understood that;

thinking it was about
life. You never looked
deeper at the words
you buried underneath

your skin, releasing them
only when you bled. Only
stopping when you started
to swallow your suicide pills.

 

[sugarmountain]

Her love is not for sale
for promises of fairy tales
and happily ever after endings

she's seen the castles crumble
motes bridged, turrets tumble
when under stern assault

and knights in shining armor
arriving just in the nick of time
she finds soon start to rust

when all seemed lost, she was alone
she found the cost of freedom
was fending for herself

a stronger woman she's become,
no one she depends upon
for her happiness

and if she deigns to grant her favor,
how lucky is the man to savor
her complete womaness

 

[vampiredust]

You wrote poetry on her
body with hot wax, never

stopping to watch it melt
away. You never saw her

words written on the moon
as it turned copper-brown.

 

[RhymeFairy]

You wrote poetry on her
body with hot wax, never

stopping to watch it melt
away. You never saw her

words written on the moon
as it turned copper-brown.

may I watch
as you melt
slowly slide down
till form is forgotten
remains
a shallow puddle
of you ...

 

[RhymeFairy]

I have tried to prize into your
mind. every word dropped
all lines crossed
which path will lead me
to you
my true friend.
which road taken will trail around
and give me a glimpse
of what makes you tick. what
grows inside, flourishing
at a rate that is impossible
to keep up with. you show
unfamiliar routes, trying to shake
me. I map out the rocky terrain
only to turn around
on foreign ground. slow down
take a nap by the brook
time will see me caught up
ready for a new trip
into the world
of your mind ...



just a thought, lol

 

[sugarmountain]

the problem with tools is the craftsman
for tools exist in plentitude,
but masters are extremely rare
so often the product is skewed

but with time and patience
the essence can be wrought
so others can experience
what is being taught

 

[Willows_Tears]

at least they are my stickers
if they come
your big feet stomp down
a path to the creek
dont be disappointed mom
it really was a nice gesture
but I will figure it out
myself

and you say
no
you may not carry them home
they will die
they will die
wait
we can come back
but you let me try anyway
five fat head tadpoles
in my wet hand

good paying attention on the way down, mom

seaweed witch hair
drips
of course they died
lets talk about something else

mom
go to sleep
your writing is going nowhere
stop trying to get inside my head
it is mine

(fast forward 10 years)
you suck

 

[vampiredust]

Walking Through Chinatown 29/05/06

Walking through
crowded squares crammed
with tourists and Chinese
we pass fruit sellers selling
prickly durian fruit, speckled
shells and exotic visions of
places you never want to go.
The My Little Kitty merchandise
in the shop windows sit next
to ancient myths and forgotten
customs, listening to ducks
crinkling on a spit. Underneath
a pagoda rooftop, protestors
are gathered; waiting for the year
of the Dragon, hoping it will set
alight everything we never see.

 

[vampiredust]

she puts her hand
on papa as rain starts
to fall, not wanting
him to be washed away.
i can see stormclouds
appearing over the valleys
in his face, forming new
gulleys as they explode.
He can see clouds in mine
but says nothing.

 

[vampiredust]

Ecotoxicology

look at that book
on the top shelf
isn't it rare
the voice says, syllables
clambering over shoulders
to get a better look. vowels
trample over feet to look
at the cover: a lurid 70's
design once thought to have
been flushed away; now, slowly
seeping through our veins
let alone our minds

 

[TheRainMan]

The Circular Logic of Gambling


I don’t feel very much like myself today.
But really, who else could I be? Logic
as precise as that should be comforting,

you would think, rezipping myself
inside a cocoon
with the irrefutable precision of Euclid,

retying my wingtips onto my feet
before they go mercurial again.
I think it may be best to do something

very normal—walk to the front yard
and rake those neglected leaves,
even misbehave a bit afterward,

telling myself it’s a well-earned reward
for cleaning up the neighborhood
after autumn’s wicked striptrease

when I stroll to the deli for one of those
6-inch thick pastrami-on-ryes
that get cardiologists all agitated—

but who am I kidding—even at food stores
what I really want to see
are the many names of my chaos—

powerball, megamillions, the racing form—
and I’ll feel the feathers fluttering inside
my wrapping, the swelling in my shoes

as the brisket is sliced. How long
did I think I could hide
behind the curtain of random acts of reality,

pretending I’m not wondering
what the expiration date is on promises?
Horses, they put down with damage like mine.

And that’s much easier to deal with
than remembering I haven’t had
a winner since Christ left Cleveland.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Jealousies are round
the memories of Venus
parabolas of birds
the planets are round
because they're jealous
of clouds without orbit
of volatile words.

Jealousies are round
drowned shouts
in the blood of kisses
left unkissed.

Jealousies are round
and my love a polygon
of razor-sharp edges.

 

[OT]

Reprieve's End

return from sun and sand
endure smothering
same
same
same

 

[annaswirls]

but the vinyl has something

I threw away all of our cassette tapes tonight
the mixes Seana made when we went to college
to make sure the new people would know
I was cool even if I might not look so cool
and no point in trying anymore

Cabaret is a hard one to drop
Lisa and me in the two ladies number
sticks in my hand
but it goes but Lisa in black tap pants
looking at me from the dorm room stage
will stay

I threw away all of our cassette tapes
even Micheal Stipe
is at the bottom of a black garbage bag
along with the dreadlocked lip syncers
plastic cracked case cuts my knuckle
blood falls onto songs stolen from the psalter
time to pay

there is no romance in magnetic tape
rolled and straining across the heads and I dont know how it happens
but it sure does not seem as good as magic
there are no fingers in magnetic tape

no diamond needles lowered gently
into her grooves
feel myself sinning in love with the slow
rotation 33 1/3
fingernails trace my senses
skin shiver
solid

 

[Willows_Tears]

another hurricaine season is coming
has it been that long since I have written?
did I tell you
I will be moving to your neighborhood?

lord woman you frighten me
of all that say they want to
I know you will
and I would not tell you no

you on the sofa
wearing nothing but the sunset
and my eyes

you in beaded jewelry
ears neck wrist
I click between teeth
and think about how much he loved you
how his teeth
should have made this trip

 

[Willows_Tears]

but I dont want a cure

I think I answered yes
to about half their questions

 

[vampiredust]

Voodoo For Beginners

Boys on my local estate
used to call me a poof,
expecting me to evaporate
in thin air. I wanted to put
crow bones in their soup

so they would turn black
and turn to ash. The dolls
I made for them would never
work, the clay would always
melt under my heat. I wanted

to be the witch, collecting
their tiny skulls for my collection;
I would wear them around my neck,
a dog collar to be buried in my grave
as I watched the sky burn in my eyes.

 

[vampiredust]

I saw a pigeon being dismantled
by the wind and rain today, its
carcass gnawed away by liquid
teeth; leaving only a bony shell.

 

[flyguy69]

The Lake Trail Home

::

I can offer no greater gift that this
mud, and the stench of fish
washed into a cattail marsh. This cocktail
of sunburned boys and thirst
for manhood. Press your hand
to this bark, see that frayed rope
that swung me limb to limb. Here
I am half-carved in wood, waiting
for your initials.

::

 

[flyguy69]

A Poet's Handbook

::

You’ve heard it before: you’re a flower
with petal-soft lips and dew
on your breath, your pussy

blooming like tulips in the spring.
If I said the sun rises and the rain falls just for
you, you’d say you’ve read that

in a poetry primer or gardening guide
somewhere. Today I am bent
over black dirt, nursing

slender fingers that beckon
the sky closer. I surrender my care
in salty handfuls, for

they’re flowers, and I have no more strength
than the sun and the rain and the sky.

::

 

[flyguy69]

We’ve Got Chemistry; Do You Feel It? Yeah, I Feel It.

::

Impatient to boil, it is absence
that brings my point down. Simmering
prematurely, fidgeting in a vacuum. I miss

the hot lick, the tongue across my belly, the fierce
flame of her. In rare air I gasp
and clench my hands, grasping

for hair, for clasps, for the bottle-necked
flask of our love. In my grip it trembles,
urgent, consuming, volatile.

::