all of a sudden passion suddenly

[vampiredust]

Soap Dispenser

Its sculptor's hands
must have been blown off
after its birth: the solitary
plastic neck cradling
a spent missile top. Push
the head down and you
can listen to it mourning,
the tongue's slow clicks
sucking on the last
of its prayers, frozen
like childhood.

 

[tungtied2u]

Do not
read this. It is not seasonal.
Not jolly. Yes, it is warm.
Too warm. Setting records again.

It's hard to celebrate
the beginning of the end. As I see it,
we've blown it. The Christmas candle
shedding less light each year.

Sorry, parents. Pray for them.
Pray for us. 50 years max,
if they make it. Mine will be retiring.
bHo. Ho. Ho. Who am I kidding ?

I was co-opted. Bought out,
brought down, forced to eke out
an existence, shelter, food, clothing
other considerations an extravagance.

I see them grown, capable, excited
but do not understand. How can they be
unaware of the implications? They revel,
perhaps they know. All too well.

The bomb is ticking, as once it ticked
for me, for my generation.
There was no tomorrow, yet somehow it was,
is. Tomorrow keeps happening,

despite our every effort to obliterate it.
Another day breaks, shatters around us
a cacophony of misery and maybes,
but also colors and quests. Waiting

for us. Another chance
to change where we are going. Summon strength,
focus on the future for it begins now.
Reinvent yourself and the world.

 

[subcake242]

glad we talked today
in our unusal way.
yeah, we're stange,
aren't you glad?

when I die
and they display my remains
want old folks and young -
not naming names -
to recall good mom,
nice enough gal
but want you to stand there
and smile in that odd way
as you taste memories
and swallow secrets.

That is gorgeous.

 

[vampiredust]

Sayings from the Old Country

The chatterbox of coins
falling into their plastic
gourd reminded me
of that day I witnessed

when I stopped to listen
to the clock rhythm
of boots clapping paving
stones, oblivious

to clouds swooping,
releasing rain in accordion
movements. Their actions
were like a diary I had lost,

turning up at the back
of the sofa; pages yellowed
like cider, each scribbled
thought digesting in a wasp

above my head, circling
like a bastard halo.

 

[ElmerGlew]

.

.....

 

[vampiredust]

My Evil Twin


He likes to skip ahead
when I walk, whistling

to karaoke rain. Steals
yellow pennies from old

women's eyes, murals
for future saints. I once

borrowed his reflection
in exchange for mine.

Still hasn't returned it,
the bastard.

 

[vampiredust]

Sayings (1)

Books are meant
to be read, not
thrown in the fire
like your dead
father's ashes.

 

[The Mutt]

stare at the stars
one thing is clear
the only thing smaller than man
is god

 

[Liar]

Intertextuality

Every nook and cranny
of this poem is a word
I sucked from someone
else's tongue. We spin
the same wheels over
and over, just tack on
shiny new rims in Pimp
My Poem style, but all
store bought glamour,
however fly that ice.
Every bell and whistle
sang the same old tune
before, in sonnets and
prose, juice ads and
newscasts, soaked into
grey matter. And still
we try to be inventors,
argonauts of concepts
never spoken of before,
or poets even, posing
smug before our scrap
yard assemblies like
parents to snowflakes.

 

[vampiredust]

Guy Fawkes Reinvented

Hoarded copies of Playboy
and cases of Jack Daniels
were thrown onto the fire

when he was sentenced
to the stake. A gathered
crowd watched the atlas

of his body shrink to just
an island with the flames.
I thought I saw the priest

retrieve his ticking heart
in the morning, just to see
whether its light was there.

 

[vampiredust]

Three Kings

Christian and Muslim children
swapped faiths on the last day
of school, a pair of Somalians
carrying metallic red crowns

when I passed them on the way
to the cash machine. The local
pub was dressed up as a Christmas
card. Photocopiers and PC's

in the nearby Home Office
flickered like Christmas tree lights.
I watched the building's glass gills
breathe in the cold air, returning

it to a trio of homeless men selling
their wares. The stars moved a little
closer that night, I think.

 

[ElmerGlew]

.....

 

[vampiredust]

........

 

[vampiredust]

Shave

Based on a photo by Sarah Kirwan

Five rolls of toilet paper
on a shelf listen to him
confess. Their tongues
have already been pulled

out. He doesn't want
to know their response.
A woman fell down once
but he never helped her.

Perfumed shaving cream
stings his face like the inquisition.
His disembodied reflection
persists in speaking,

not noticing the bottom
half of his body has been
left behind in another
apartment in Brooklyn.

 

[ohhh_livia]

and it came to pass
that the dove could not fly
quite as high
as most had hoped, or prayed

and there was smoke
and fire and metal, screaming
there is no peace
there is no peace

 

[vampiredust]

Rain

Rain deconstructs
itself. A baby's cry
lies at the centre

of the exposed
wrapper. Memories
crystallise around

its edges. They fall,
opening like snowflakes.
We wait each evening

to catch them, hoping
they might release
some memory we forgot

or wanted to leave
behind.

 

[vampiredust]

Leaving

Watching her pack
reminds me of how I've always
lived my life in boxes,
moving whenever the rent
money dried up.

Putting my hands
in the coat pockets never
produced the rain
I wanted to wash it away.
I felt only drought

and heat on my hands.
Remember, I never asked
for this, only for memories.

 

[tungtied2u]

words meanings madden me
suck me down into a sewer of self
where I sit illuminated in stripes
of light, a grating glare marking me
a defeated denizen of the depths

 

[ohhh_livia]

weight, symmetrical

it is ironic, is it not
that two heavy pails
are a lighter load than one

 

[RhymeFairy]

I missed the words,
his words. Waking me
from sleep, lightly kissing,
feeling me snuggle down
breathing in his letters,
paragraphs in text
in time, illuminating
our future ...



...

 

[RhymeFairy]

coerced crooning catches wind
whipping along his supple spine
traveling down, tingling thighs.
sting, cry out
for more
more, hurtful words welcomed
as pleading
turns to whispered words
of encouragement
for a job, well done

 

[vampiredust]

Sangatte

The Kurdish man slept
underneath boxes
of roses before ending
up here. They reminded
him of his wife's hips,
alien and mysterious
like the Caucus. Only
the Vietnamese tried
to dig tunnels out. A pair
of Albanians laughed
like Macaws when they
failed. The fading redshift
of the guards' lit cigarettes
imitated their dreams.
A gypsy once caught it
before letting it shape
the memories in her chest.

 

[ohhh_livia]

.......

 

[champagne1982]

I cannot write with codiene racing
through my skull and dancing
behind my eyes, where embarassed,
it sees me watching the samba roll
of hips then pulls my eyelids down
to shutter away this performance
pain killer committing murder
through subduing heated blood.
Codiene as murderess.
Dance, butcher. Dance.

 

[vampiredust]

Gales

Gales batter the city
like a child trying
to remove the squeak
from its favourite

toy. Skyscrapers,
patients on a surgeon's
table, wait for the 5
4 3 2 1. Glass numbs

before the blackout.
Terrified blackbirds
watch from the safety
of hollowed out oaks.

Hands ease out
the cities' noise, slippery
like a calf. Its heart
bleats Morse, revealing

the hidden trembles
of a pair of fox cubs,
faces pressed against
the security of earth.