all of a sudden passion suddenly

[Eluard]

Someone should thank Vampiric_Mirage for this lovely note to us all — so I'm going to take it upon myself to do so. Thank you, VM — from all those who post poems in this crazy little bordello. Glad that we have touched you and affected you in some way. Poetry is a powerful thing!

 

[unpredictablebijou]

Absolutely agreed, El. I hadn't gotten round to reading this til just now. How amazingly sweet, VM. You must secretly know how much poets want to think that they have a huge invisible audience who hangs on their every word...

thanks.

bijou

 

[vampiredust]

Kathleen Scott Considers Her Lover

Light doesn't last long
in the alleyway of her mouth,
the cold always cracking
the lamp. A man, armed

with a pack of dogs
and supplies, tried to venture
beyond its last paving
stone. He ploughed through,

seeing only his reflection
on the other side, cracking
with the electricity of some
distant continental drift.

 

[WickedEve]

Kathleen Scott Considers Her Lover

Light doesn't last long
in the alleyway of her mouth,
the cold always cracking
the lamp. A man, armed

with a pack of dogs
and supplies, tried to venture
beyond its last paving
stone. He ploughed through,

seeing only his reflection
on the other side, cracking
with the electricity of some
distant continental drift.

Thumbs up on this one.

 

[vampiredust]

Thanks Evie

 

[vampiredust]

Doors

Doors. Keep all the doors
closed Mother says. Doors
are meant to black out
doors that lead to other doors
that lead to doors within
doors. Avoid turning the knob.
That sound calls the light
from its perch, the cars
from their cages, the children
from their castles...
Keep everything behind doors,
make everything dark. Dark
is always safe. Do not speak,
just listen to the world turning
like the hearts in our ribcages,
wrapped in an unseen darkness.

O how it is beautiful...

 

[Angeline]

Halfway across the universe
an aging star explodes
in a previously unknown
galaxy. I wonder

was it Liz? Fay? Timothy
Leary is already exploded.
It was bright enough
to be seen with naked
eyes. Did you spot the burst?
Do you remember

when she first exploded
on the screen with naked
eyes the color of purple sky,
her curves lush, fine skin
unblemished by the whim
of time.

When the universe was half
its present age, you could still
see her without a telescope.

 

[Guest]

,,,,,,,,,,

 

[WickedEve]

Your words are pimp shooters,
and champagne hustles.
I know of baptisms --
call me drowning girl,
deep in summer rivers for God.

You pause on country roads
so I may capture,
in sunlight,
swan song creatures.

I shoot them
again
and again.

My man,
you understand my need
for still life.
Understand all,
like upturned wrists.

Bandaides,
narrow, beige strips,
striping her leg,
upwards --
we watched the pain,
in movie light.

My vulnerable skin,
silent request.

Speak of D.C. stripper days.
I will tell you about my God.
But let some things be unspoken.

 

[vampiredust]

Fetishes

Fetishes begin young:
on your grandfather's lap,
fashioning his image
into the clay of your mind
so you see every old man
that way. Or snow, cupped
and rolled before its early
death, early behaviour
for a habit of destruction.
Rain is always the last
and most dangerous:
playing when it falls makes
parents put on their carnival
faces, daring you to walk
the tightrope, blind and naked
when you were first born.

 

[vampiredust]

Cusp

The telephone
has started leaking
again, staining
the carpet vinyl black.

Sweeping up
the intestine-long
conversations
almost makes me

forget about the times
I kept words meant
to be said in the vault
of my chest. Sometimes

I hear a dial turning
at night, followed
by a series of clicks.
I often wake breathless.

 

[loststar]

myself

find myself
wine myself
dine myself
please myself
tease myself

know what I want
know what I need
know how to satisfy my own greed

my world explored
my body explored
my mind explored
my spirit explored

Myself implored to find a way
to care for all of who I am today
as ever changing as that may be
I struggle always to find a way to accept me for me

 

[WickedEve]

Inspired by UnderYourSpell's title: Shaving Private Places

like a raw, blue hitchcock,
with sinister strings
harping on in the background,

whenever we meet in private places.
inquisitions,
no indulgences
for indiscretions.
shade-down interiors

wane,
shaving private places
smooth out of sight.

 

[WickedEve]

Lovely sick yellow
suicide-drops from vine
to skirt -- dreadful darling's
cradle cloth. Fine fettle, not --
gummy, ropy rot.

A scratch pie,
baked gloriously
grim.
Slice,
slice.

Piece for her,
for her,
one for him.
Flesh à trois,

church-baby silent,
chilling in the dirt.
Oh, monstrous, yellow pie.

 

[vampiredust]

Waltz

Fritz Lang was wrong
about the soda-bottle
skyscrapers and robot
Maria's. Things to Come

turned out to be things
we already had. Jetson
utopias fizzed out, Will's
mad neon spires dimmed.

Crows did their dervish
whilst we lay in the gutter
watching the hangover
of our broken dreams
perform one last waltz.

 

[unpredictablebijou]

Jesus, Eve. 'lovely sick yellow' is freaky good, in a really bad good way. Made me walk around in little circles for a while.

And Vampire, you've talked about some of my favorite movies in that last one. I try to write about movies a lot and fail terribly. I like what you've done there.

bj

 

[vampiredust]

thanks bj

 

[vampiredust]

Eye Level

Left poised on a branch
of some neuron rooted
in the soil of our minds,
we could never grasp

what created the vistas
displayed in the gallery.
Being children, we were
trained to respond

to what was given on our
plates, not to pick it up
and hurl it straight back.
And when we slept,

we saw the colours inside
our skulls redrawing
our original blueprints to give
us a better prespective

of everything hidden, away
from adulthood and all that
darkness.

 

[vampiredust]

Knife

He couldn't afford to buy
a real Swiss army knife,
so he settled for a cheap
Chinese made copy.
There was no fanciness:
forget the corkscrew
or ruler. Just a worn-down
blade, a hook and Philips
head. Touching its cold
metal reminds me of the times
he used to wrestle with things
he couldn't hold down and break:
Mackerel, knotted fishing line. Me.

 

[tungtied2u]

Once more, with feeling

He tries to escape, tries to break out
Of the pattern of wasted mornings, grey beginnings
Where mist blankets the landscape
And raindrops are squeezed from the air
Like teardrops from a dingy handkerchief

Realizing urgency, trousers are tugged on
Sans under armor, a hooded sweatshirt next
To hide unkempt hair, aid inconspicuousness
Head down to the diner, face buried
In the days options, he eats and loses himself

Hopes for a new home, a new him
Drives streets of iridescent yellows, eyes
Pulsating pinks vibrant and lush,
Which invite entry, suggest certain delights
If he will take the chance and open up

But possibilities only exist in books for him,
They are safe, captured by their binding
He stops to stalk the shelves, for a friend
Sees books she would like, a gift
For an anniversary missed, but not forgotten

One by one, he chooses and scans covers
Each note teases and tempts, begs for more
Moments under his attention, whisper
Dig deeper, read me, feel me, know me
Until it becomes too intimate and intense

He starts to shake, his lips quiver and his heart
Begins to swell, tears well and weep
Drip onto virgin covers, spoil the promise
Held within the pages, in his hands
He abandons the fiction and retreats home

Hammers out the conceit of his reality
For all to observe and admonish the sin
Silly, scared man shaking from syllables
Afraid to read, barely able to write
The lines which sentence him to obscurity

 

[annaswirls]

no no no I cant give you my money
not 30 or 40 or even the prehang up please
of ten, just ten dollars
of course of course I am sorry about the officer
killed in the line on the line for the line of duty
his young wife two year old son thank you
for taking care
ye who think the gold decal on your bumper
will save you from ticket and change

I can't cant cant give your village a goat
not today not today not today

but I am on the board of an equally good cause
you got any spare change?
or how about buying a few tickets to our pancake breakfast
all
you
can
eat
no? not today, thank you thank you for listening

 

[annaswirls]

last year maybe winter, fall? it happened.
brassblinds of silence cold between mind
and fingertips. some wool blanket wrapped tight and itch
held me back,

I cant even say it now
cannot document how you
slammed shut the floodgates of emotional honesty

how it is just too private
how it is none of your business
how it is just too much
to write about
too much to lose
give me a ten year buffer
I will write it from the clouds

 

[vampiredust]

Whitstable

Fallout from the aggregates
piled where the boats
come in coats clothes in grey
snow, nearly disguising
the smell of vinegared whelks
from the fishhouses.
Everything is trying disguise
itself here: from the petrified
teahouse on the high street
passing itself off as an upmarket
cafe to the fishmongers calling
themselves oyster restaurants.
Only the sea bothers to show
everyone its real identity:
A child walking along the glazed
beach, bucket and spade
in tow, ready to pluck out jewels
left behind from the outgoing
surf. Like a collector.

 

[vampiredust]

Who I expected to become

The man asking for change
reminded me of my brother:
Those dreads, the metallic
studs on his nose, the way

his feet moved like treacle
along the road. Perhaps
one day he'll return to us
and then we'll be complete.

(One thing I forgot to mention:
I don't have any brothers)

 

[annaswirls]

it is a sin the greed that follows disaster

$12,000 a body pulled from the flood waters
then they gotta cut the food stamps,
the welfare, the medicaid
who pays?

it goes on like this all morning
south africa iraq indonesia even canada
give the old chicago trick
yet here he goes and goes
using the same scare tactics
he curses
with his own version of fire, brimstone?

show us 20 minutes of fire
best you show us where the water hook ups are
best you courage us up a bit
or you know, we will run too