all of a sudden passion suddenly

[tungtied2u]

No Escape

Can you not feel the fear
the tear
a temporal rift
ripping you apart
from head to heart
screams and sobs
riding on waves
from thousands of miles away
so many dreams
so many futures
snuffed out
slaughtered
a herd of horrified faces
huddled in disbelief
seeking comfort
in one last long hug
praying that in the end
some God will hear them
and end this madness
even as the inferno
consumed them

 

[Liar]

Nonononono. Forget the shrubbery. This is what I get for being a smartass and referencing a line from Mony Python's Holy Grail.

I'll just send em to ya cause I like you and reading your poems these last months have been gift enough. On the other hand, if I'm ever in your neck of the planet I'll take a sailboat ride. Deal?

Deal.

And just for the fuck of it, here's a shrubbery poem.


with sharpened steel we steered our steps in dawn
towards a rhododendron and a shrub
one towered like an afro on the lawn
the kind that in a crowd go bump and rub

the other hung right under like a beard
a santa mask in green and brown and pink
it didn't smell as nice at it appeared
up close you said "by god those flowers stink!"

so snip and snap, the rhododendron fell
the afro bush we levelled then, as well

 

[Angeline]

Brain death
occurs after 9 hours
of wanna buy a dell
which eventually feels like
wanna buy a duck
a dell duck a duck dell
duck in a deli or maybe
a soupcon of pate
which in the deli
is actually chopped liver
heavy on the schmaltz
unlike this low-schmaltz
poem which is too tired
to cut the mustard
or horseradish as the case
may be

 

[Angeline]

Truely I never imagined that
exercise of words exchanged,
repeating days, weeks could fly
right past seasons, and then
you were there in the airport.
Stupid me walking right past,
with no eyes just heart. Sleepy;
everything began with that kiss,
eyes locked. I love the way you
touch my mouth with yours. Soft.
My god I melted because I knew
all your words had once fallen
neatly into my soul so far away.

 

[annaswirls]

photographic illusion gold coated glow


time is
not
linear and yet here I am
I cannot break these words
from this goddamn margin

insert one beautiful image
three metaphors
fu
no cursing

if it must be ugly make it beautiful first


if I open my darkness will you illuminate it
or step inside and show
me
your own

time is not linear
yet we beg beg beg beg
and believe that if we

yes

me to
stay in line stay line inline stay!
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,itwill all be so much better then

hup hup hup

gimmegimme something ot fill this frame injustice towards
yes them too who not?

it I had a tab bar it will stomp uis down to the other side

return is all I can do

come save me you know how to make me shine
down the depths of blackpoint set somewhere half way to hell

silence of whispers are preferred

don;t ask

just dont ask em to stop pretending
me

 

[Liar]

things she can do with eggs

1.
catch
rescue from impact
after a fatal
two stair plunge

toss back
to balcony
to laugh at my
shell crushing
runny hands

2.
suckle
the yolk
and only the yolk
from a needle
pierced hole

4.
then sometimes
swallow
without a sound

or giggle
sputter
dribble from chin
when I toss her
a 'you really suck'
and a grin

never minding at all
how I stare
jealous
at the yellow
smearing where and what
I wish she'd let me smear
one day

5.
an omelette
that could inspire
spontaneous proposals

 

[Angeline]

Someday
at the Library Hotel
I'll show you a balcony
and the stone lion view
across the avenue.
They've seen everything,
but don't crack a fang.

The junkie jugglers
and chessmen
in Washington Square
will barely notice us
though we'll fly into Manhattan singing
the George Washington Bridge song.

I'll feed you pistachio gelato,
and jazz will dawn at sunset
in St Peters. I'll light a candle
for Prez and Papa Jo,
my swing saint guardian gates.

Gershwin's ghost will smile
on us from an invisible
all-night coffee shop
in Tin Pan Alley.
Books will whisper goodnight
from the snuggery of their shelves.

Sweet dreams, you timeless lovers,
drooping wide-eyed, fallen
into the blare of night's sleepy beat.

 

[Angeline]

I thought it was a joke
driving to work just another
day but the radio announcer
sounded real and when I got
there no one believed me

We turned on a tv and I thought
how will I get to my kids I have
never been so scared because
there was no answer at the school
I kept calling and there was no
answer so I left and I drove fast

ninety mph on I95 and it was chaos
at the school parents frantic
children crying but I was relieved
my babies were safe there was one
girl in my daughter's class whose dad
piloted one of the planes but
we knew that later we went home

I made lunch I didn't turn on the tv
I tried to act normal but we lived
so close to New York City so many
friends worked there my friend's
son walked down 70 flights of steps
but he didn't make it and I remember

offering him gum in my office when he
was a little boy for months afterward
my daughter thought every plane
was going to hit the house she cried
every time she heard a plane cheap oil
isn't worth the price of that much fear
in a child's face not here or anywhere

I think the Statue of Liberty must
have cried too every time she heard
a plane fly over New York Harbor
because this is not what America
was supposed to be it doesn't matter
what your politics are this is not
what freedom is supposed to mean

in between the flags and campaign
promises who remembers what
America is supposed to be is anyone
left who remembers that we are a nation
of immigrants that loss is loss that their
children are scared by the sound
of planes overhead, too?

 

[annaswirls]

nephew, 2yrs

daddy,
are
there
people
in
there?

 

[annaswirls]

i did not ask you
to torch torch my darkness
I just asked you
to join
me
there








dont try to illuminate
dont hold me close
comfort massage
make love...

dont you see
the darkness is what I crave
give me give
me give me
some of yours

my black is fading grey
fill me with your ink

~


it
is
free
if you have it to give
if not
then what

 

[Liar]

anniversaries

they gathered as usual
flags in hand
candles
banderoles
black ties, veils
composed
dignified as always
and another day

three years
or thirty?
no matter
when morning
brought mourning
bleeding dots

intersected
on a star map
of who we make
ourselves to be

year after year

passerbys
distant from disaster
cocked their head in wonder
of their slogans
and a strange old man
on placards

a not so familiar face
for this ever so familiar day
any more

but he and she
in the enigmatic crowd
step away for a while
kneel on concrete
to light an extra candle

they lost their father
sniped from history
on Santiago stonesteps
today

they lost their mother
to crumbling steel
on a New York morning
today

they lost their faith
somewhere on the way
and dug it out
as we go
from the fray

 

[Angeline]

just resting quietly
next thing you know
it's July 4th exploding
in breath and giggle
sharp exhalation time
to go to the fair full
of batik governor speak
and kids bouncing

jazz funks from the stage
and our bench sits
under the bluest eye
cloudless time to go
dance into the laze
of midafternoon pop
gun boinks small boy
smiles when johnny
strikes up the band

 

[Guest]

Swing, baby

A favorite pastime is shopping for
couture vintage garb,
rhinestone estate bijoux,
among techno-urban rags
at Isadora's Antique Clothing.

Here she finds something
to wear at Savoy Swing Club.

Modeling in a 3-way view
she spins around wearing an
over-sized '40s style, lilac dress,
Suzie Q thick-heeled shoes.
A torn hem line drags,
but still it's "a true find!"

Smartly grinning, I agree,
watching her do a Lindy Hop.

Laughing, she points out
that the front sags
as much as the middle bags.
Although we both know,
she'll grow in and out of it
within nine months.

 

[The Mutt]

Lit by alley shadows, clandestine lovers
wear trenchcoats of epic romance
and steal kisses hot
as bargain ice
on Friday
night.

 

[Guest]

An alluring muse,
half clothed in Victoria's Secret,
laying about, inspiring
even though the enigma
has already been revealed.

It's the beauty of Grace;
of what she holds within.

 

[Syndra Lynn]

no joy

Where is Joy?
she has left this life
and me crying in the dark

she flew in the night
her sins to erase
no Joy, no Joy

my empty spirit
hollow rings
no comfort ever now can fill

the Joy of my life
is beyond reach forever more
no Joy, no Joy

don’t leave me here to eat
my heart out
alone in the chocolate dark

why could you not see
my love would not break you
nor dessert you, only lift you

nothing left to do
but wallow among
3 lined strophes

poorly written
sad little lines with
no Joy


did I ever know Joy?

 

[Angeline]

I keep hoping
you will see the light
of reason, swallow
the bitter lump
that took up residence
in your throat long before
I ever met you.

I might as well hope
for the apple tree
that graces my one window
to laugh and grow oranges.

I keep hoping
you will see the truth
is that I never
hated you, but that I couldn't
survive under your cold reign
anymore.

Remember how you used to hug me?
The harried face you gave me?
The perfunctory arm, and always
the criticism. Everything felt wrong,
but I'm happy, you'd say. We're happy.
Look around you. Everyone else
is divorced. We're not. We must
be happy.

I keep hoping
that you will reach
inside yourself
and remember the heart
you claimed was mine
and remember that once,
twice we made something
right.

I keep hoping
that you'll let who
we made retain something
of the grace and wonder
we knew at their conception.

They don't deserve
to see me turn to bone
in a puddle of your vitriol.

I keep hoping, telling
myself to move forward,
always believing that all
we need is love, but maybe
I should hope to finally
grow up instead, even
if giving up who I am
is hopeless.

I might as well hope
for winter to board a jet
for Abu Dhabi, and leave
me swimming in the stream
of another summer.

 

[Guest]

 

[annaswirls]

everyone out of the house 8 hours
new opened door

something stinks

what is it?

the cat?
the laundry?
the potty training accidents of 2 small boys?

maybe the basil.

walk room to room search for the sorce

it is everywhere

maybe
it is me


hmmmm

 

[Liar]

autumn,
when you go
from appriciation
of what's on display
to affection
for what's hidden beneath

autumn,
when you take
two blankets
to a picnic

autumn,
when a chill struck
sinus soaked nose
is as irrisistable
as once
all sweat soaked
sun struck skin

 

[Randi Grail]

Amendment II

A...well, regality:
My Lisa (a necessary being)

to be seductively
for a free stare

the right of the people
to keep their arms bare

shall not
nevah evah
be infringed

 

[DeepAsleep]

the moon is a big, fat liar,
hanging there with its grin
half cocked - the man in the moon
is gonna fuckin eat me,
that's why he smiles -
and the sweat slicking my back while
i drive smells a little bit like
the same fear that's dilating my pupils
so that all i can see is light.
i can taste the cornflakes i ate
in the back of my throat every time
my stomach clenches at the thought
of going home alone.
deep breaths in slowly then shuddering
out get me from cramp to cramp with
eyes glued to headlights that aren't mine.
the radio is off because songs mean
nothing right now but useless
hope, random noise, unneccesary memory.
if i could cry, if i could understand..
if i knew how to fight circumstance with
silly little ditties about your hips under the
covers, or your small perfect tits with the
pretty red nipples.
if i knew all this i wouldn't feel this way -
streetlights wouldn't be accusations and
headlights wouldn't be recriminations
and i wouldn't have a headache and
all this fucking light wouldn't be drowning
me in pulsing shattered veins rubbing
up against each other arthritically in
my goddam eyeballs until i feel
like my face is going to explode and
i want to claw at the liars under
my eyelids
call them out, screaming,
so that i could have something to fight,
so that i could grind them under my
bootheel and never ever
have to see you again or read
this melodramatic bullshit i'm calling
poetry for lack of a better put-down.

but i'm not a maniac and i don't want
to clean up that much of a mess.
and we all know how i overreact to my
emotions, right? pin 'em to my shirt like
a big ol' "Hi, My Name Is: I Can't Understand
You" sticker, the kind you get at AA that
i never put my real name on, freehanding
something stupid or putting down "Distance"
like in that song intro.
maybe i should just fall off the wagon again.
'do i look like i fell off the hayrick yesterday?'
'no.'
'good, 'cause i did.'

~D.A.

 

[Guest]

Damn it

You can spit, yowl, and claw
all you want, asshole
but you're going to get a bath

Like it or not

I'm thinking that
although I'm much more wary
as the howling, growling
mass of blond tabby fur
could tear me a new one
with one swipe of his bear-like paw

Sure I'm tough wearing
a welding apron
and double-thick rubber gloves
pulled up to my elbows
but he's tougher

Hiding under that ordinary household
timid, blanket kneader
is a dandered, ass licking
curtain shreader

(I'm not sure what's nicer
the front end or the back)

It's not my fault he has tricky paws
and curiosity to match
getting into cubboards
knocking down maple syrup
to sweeten up his Meow Mix

No it's not, but I'm sure as hell
gonna pay to for it, aren't I?
Yep, I know it's his revenge
payback for the ole' snip-snip

 

[echoes_s]

matted hair of homeless,
stuttered ticks, stenched minds,
muttered pleas

restless roaming threatens,
moaned seas of shadow tears,
tide silent

mounting wave
upon wave, riddled rocks,
stolid crags

relentless boxes,
papered warmth, ladled damp
from dew and frost

come the seasons
frozen humidity
humility cried last night

a rusted oil can
spitting fire roared heat,
lent broken reprieve

a covert hearth,
full girth, stuffed chair
soothing ease

 

[echoes_s]

Your voice whispers quiet
whirling wisps of wonder
as i hide
still fleeing through forests
of mossy green
swamped leaves
barked trees
to be found bound to my knees
in front of You

Your strength gnarled
command swallowing
my demur
mind enslaved as i heave
a fight against
what cannot be seen
a tug of war between
freedom
and being set free

A safe haven of
locked doors, silence
an emblazoned battle flares
You on the other side
penetrating defenses cemented
beyond my growth of years
i cry a soft whimper
not knowing whether
it be in victory or in defeat