all of a sudden passion suddenly

[clutching_calliope]

Cryptograms

.....

 

[Tzara]

Bimodal

My mood swings
like a saloon door, hung
on a squeaky hinge.

 

[clutching_calliope]

Sudoku Coffeespots

.....

 

[annaswirls]

we have fire ants in our yard
they have moved bbeyond exotic guest
something to say to the easterners to show
things are different now
see
lzards and road runnershomemade tortillas made in front of our eyes
in the middle of the HEB
but it has lost the sparkle of novelty

I want to run barefoot again
these fucking ants own me

 

[vampiredust]

Conkers

Gravity traps hang from branches,
waiting to fall and capture tendons
buried deep under coffee coloured
sod.

This is a gamblers game, not much
to win but a lot to lose. Stare at
your body - you may not have it
for much longer

when everything starts shaking
and all you can see is the earth
slipping off your fingers.

 

[annaswirls]

color by numbewrs

he always answers
yes I only want the truth
but that is a lie
he only wants the right truth
the kind that fills in the fantasy outline he has drawn

again I spill over again

paint dripped foot prints
walk away

 

[vampiredust]

Waiting for the Messiah

Watch the lanterns first, a group
of tissue paper bedouins burning
as they float along the river.
Bow and say nothing. We are only

guests here. Notice women
wrapped in lilac coloured linen
holding wreaths of smoke flowers,
do not hold your breath. Choking

is not allowed here. Take your time
and wait for the air to clear. Smile
politely. Follow rules even if you
don't know what they are exactly.

Ignore the stars tonight. Just face
the west and kneel. Your god won't
appear in the usual place. Trust me,
I have heard him say this. Just wait.

 

[vampiredust]

Rain

Spilt gravity drags rain down drains,
survivors tugging at invisible rope.
Some wait on roadsides, forming

a cliff of concentric circles. They
will die later, soaked up by clouds,
exploding when reborn.

Irony rules here. Period.

 

[flyguy69]

Taking the Dock Out

:::::

 

[vampiredust]

Split

this poem into segments
and enjoy each stanza
one-by-one. The first
will taste of narrative,

telling you how I cut open
the sky when I was a boy
with a flat packed aeroplane
my Mother bought me.

That will be followed by my
favourite: the second.
A zen like review of how
leaves float like feathers,

caught in gravity traps.
Then there's the third:
a voodoo curse involving
a gecko spread out on a

gypsy's chest. That's not
important as the fourth:
a metaphor about love
/god/Buddha/whatever

you interpret the whole
poem as.

 

[clutching_calliope]

Buffering

.....

 

[Maria2394]

learning how

she is learning
how to blacken her spirit
by stealing smiles and never
returning them, the favor
of eye contact in a crowd
the upturn of the edge
of the mouth in an almost
grin, she has lost it, her compassion
yet again, and this time
she is determined to not miss it

 

[vampiredust]

Fishing for Eels

Father spins the earth counter clockwise,
shoulders heaving as he launches the rig

into the river. A discus thrower dressed
in whaleskin. This is his moment. Landing

with a plop, it sinks to the bottom. Eels
scramble from their underwater caverns,

rushing for the bait. It is my turn next
but my legs are not ready and my back

has not been broken by the earth enough.

 

[cherries_on_snow]

If you pull a dandilion out in hard clay,
even spraying it in a fine stream
of water running down the length of the immediate
root, you will always leave
the tip at least, maybe more.
Maybe as much as half. This is why
I asked the Dene woman what her people did
(yes I was that stupid)
to get rid of dandilions. Of course, later
I thought of the fact that they probably wouldn't have tried
or cared about lawns if they had them, or would have eaten
the dandilions, like the leaves I eat in my mixed green salad
every night. She saved my pride
by taking me to mean her recent people
and she chewed her bannok.

She asked if I had any motor oil, because that had worked
for her mother, advising
me to drip only a drop or three
into the tap root hole.

 

[vampiredust]

After

just one beer
you opened up and spoke
to her as if you were looking
in a mirror. Every syllable

extinguished the flames
in the restaurant as you
said the word fuck over and over
again, admitting to nothing

but your homosexuality,
golden as the honey coloured beer
but tasting bitter as her words
scraping through your brain

 

[vampiredust]

Meaning

God smiled at me from a billboard
as the subway rattled past things
I would forget: pregant women
with steel-capped frowns, dogs

tethered to second hand clouds,
old men leering over yesterday's
drunks, students debating over
the size of their iPod. Perhaps

these were clues to a bigger
picture or maybe they were just
images to be collected and filed
away. Not art for arts sake

but shells to be polished every
now and then before being thrown
back into the sea.

 

[cherries_on_snow]

Castaways

What Mary Anne knew
I finally do, but it took
long years away

no recent anticipations
tingling on still dark
stages, light stalagtites
threatening premature exposure
but that never happens
not here
no missed cues

the bodice's picked up
from the dressing room floor
and folded away, and globe
lights around the mirror's
long cooled

what has melted is glamour
peeled away like a cosmetic
mask from my skin
softer for its long protection
but now it can
breathe

 

[annaswirls]

Nana is ready to go
follow her knees and teeth and soprano voice lowered to a strained whisper as she recites to us that poem
she learned in 5th grade
the one about the old lady,
that "somebody's mother after all"
alone on the corner of a busy street
and who in that one room school could have ever imagined
it would be them, the only quiet thing on the busy street
and when did she stop being the child,
and start being the woman dying asking god to bless that child!
his parent's pride and job

Nana is ready to go.
Follow the five pounds she shed this month
even her new teeth are too big for her mouth
Only my father holds her hand,
encourages her, Eat Mom, Eat.
The rest of us know
she is following her knees and teeth and soprano
and anyone who knew her as a child
they are all long gone gone, we pause to reconsider but it is not an exaggeration,
there is no one --
even the words have left her

 

[Tzara]

Venetian Courtship

The first one chooses gold. He gets blistered.
Silver's not as bad, yet doesn't win her.

With only lead comes her lace and riches—
low IQ and stomach pain the symptoms.

 

[vampiredust]

It comes in fifteen shades of blue

Enamel jellyfish hang from the ceiling,
some dressed in a lead petticoat, others
wearing embroidered stained glass flowers.

We need one in blue. Not periwinkle blue,
cliched sky blue or any shades found
in paint booklets. Just blue. Eyes stare

at the ceiling. That colour doesn't exist,
not here or anywhere. I look into his eyes -

blue

oh

he says

 

[Angeline]

Autism

Blue is not vacant
not when the sky holds
layers of light igneous
cobalt cyan navy your eyes
shade fear and retreat
spark flames of recognition
I say I might hug you
and chase his expressionless
sky that holds a universe
teeming with unspoken worlds
of sense, the longing to break
twilight and please
meet the earth I might
connect some days when
his blue is bright,
he smiles when I say

I might give you A NOOGIE,
toss my blue-black mop
to a wild pitch and monster
stagger after his tentative laugh
until he parts my hair, asks me

Am I scared?

No you're just alone
in blues that can't sing
loud enough for anyone
to know it's you and
I'm behind the strands
I've tried to knit
you a web
of safety I might
touch you
today.

 

[RhymeFairy]

Blue is not vacant
not when the sky holds
layers of light igneous
cobalt cyan navy your eyes
shade fear and retreat
spark flames of recognition
I say I might hug you
and chase his expressionless
sky that holds a universe
teeming with unspoken worlds
of sense, the longing to break
twilight and please
meet the earth I might
connect some days when
his blue is bright,
he smiles when I say

I might give you A NOOGIE,
toss my blue-black mop
to a wild pitch and monster
stagger after his tentative laugh
until he parts my hair, asks me

Am I scared?

No you're just alone
in blues that can't sing
loud enough for anyone
to know it's you and
I'm behind the strands
I've tried to knit
you a web
of safety I might
touch you
today.

Excellent. Very touching.

You bring the reader into your world and share not only the hard times but a new world filled with nothing but love. Awesome feeling in that ...

 

[Angeline]

Excellent. Very touching.

You bring the reader into your world and share not only the hard times but a new world filled with nothing but love. Awesome feeling in that ...

Thank you RF.

It's about a teenaged boy I work with--he's a beautiful, gentle soul. So smart and so lost in his disability. Sometimes he lets me see him.

 

[TheRainMan]

Thank you RF.

It's about a teenaged boy I work with--he's a beautiful, gentle soul. So smart and so lost in his disability. Sometimes he lets me see him.

a rare day off for you?

. . . i miss your writing.

 

[Angeline]

a rare day off for you?

. . . i miss your writing.

Nope. I have to leave in about 20 minutes for a 12-hour shift.

And thank you dear man--I miss my writing, too, but I'm starting to figure out how to fit it in the schedule.