all of a sudden passion suddenly

[Guest]

That's not me, but it's a pose
I would do

Sit there in the corner
not minding my own, watching
every day mundane
something
anything that takes me away

Maybe, I'm laughing
painted in blue
brooding, doing what I do

This is dependent on if what is seen
warrants a smile
or a 'whatever' half-grin.

Little Jack Horner sat in the corner
eating curds and whey;
I'm doing the same, but eating time.

 

[DeepAsleep]

Laughter As Salvation

I made peace with my fear
and remembered to laugh,
the way strong men in myths laughed,
laughed into storms,
laughed at enemies,
spitting into Odin's good eye.

"Hurry to meet death!"
"Today is a good day to die."
"Every day is a good day."

Could I stand in the bow of a slim wooden ship,
with snow in my beard and a grin like wolves,
laughing at fate, with faith that bravery is immortality?

Here is a right of passage I can countenance!
To laugh at it, crush it with mirth!

Grab it by the neck, I beg you,
hold tight and laugh!
It may never get better,
But you don't have to let it get worse.

Laugh, you whoresons,
spit in its face and laugh!

Laugh for the hurt
and laugh for the sorrow,
laugh for grief, bastard child!

Laugh, or die a coward.

~~~

 

[Angeline]

More snow?
Could be 20 inches
down east and the mill
stinks all the way
to town and you
washed the car
Saturday, hosing
the other side
of the windshield
while I made faces
at you and spring
seemed to breathe
a little closer to my neck
whispered I could
to my unbuttoned coat
and the air full of maybe
and mudseason jokes
but now it's check
the tire, buy milk
for the coffee bread
for the duration
this ain't MGM baby
this is winter grabbing
the lapels of the landscape
giving it a good icy shake
before it creeps behind
the clouds hiding
from Persephone's
melting gaze.

 

[Angeline]

In the sudden
of winter your name
blew by I got flakey
with memory and brain-freeze
to the night we climbed
up Buckingham Mountain
with newspaper torches
and I bumped into you
and thought you were a bear
because I'm a stupid city girl
so I screamed and you said
Don't be ridiculous. We laughed
until we cried and later
riding back in the van
bouncing down those old
Bucks County roads
with their riverstone houses
and winding walls you looked
at me that way and said you
really liked my dress and I
wish through these modern
snowflakes that fall so
everywhere that even my hair
is turning to winter that then
was now and I wasn't so
young once.

 

[Man Ray]

...but when we parted
your eyes told me you
could not accept the answers
and your arms told me
you didn’t want to
let go.

…but when we parted
my eyes filled with tears
sadly accepting the answers
and my arms felt empty,
my heart didn’t want to
let go.

Our aimless parallels finally
diverged to avoid
something.

Our weaving parallels finally
blown off course by
that horrid `something`

Thoughts of you
drown out my sleep,
wakeful,
I wonder where you are.

Thoughts of you
fill my day and night,
dreaming,
I wonder how you are

 

[Angeline]

You are allowed to take ten
books from the children's section.
If you choose carefully, that's ten
adventures spread over seven
days, each one unfolding in still
hands lifting only to turn a page.

I filled my bike basket with ballet shoes
and a four-story mistake. On Saturdays
I auditioned for a radio show
and repaired a car in a London garage,
but I didn't move, just wrinkled time
with my imagination, peeking
into the life of someone else's words.

Two girls. One freckle-faced, one pale.
Ten books fill each basket like treasure.

Rush!
Black hair streams, legs pump
Raleigh pedals hard through
the Greenwood Cemetary at dusk
because the graven angels look up
with their sightless eyes, rustle
their wings then and whisper
Hurry!

You can hear leaves scrape
on stone and the wind
whooshes through spokes
until you swing out
the Hamilton Avenue
exit and breathe easy.

 

[Maria2394]

rheuminations

i thought
that i did not care
what he thought
i think
i was wrong

 

[flyguy69]

We know things we do not think
we know. Certainties cemented
in the stems of our brains, truths
expressed in the race of sparks
on axon tracks. Intuition
is not God-given, nor
the pervue of women only;
it is knowing without
the words to say why.

 

[champagne1982]

gristle and bone
held tight in my lips
right there
right there
i want to ride that glide
in through the curtains
of fleshy frills
a body of delight

muscle and blood
thrust through my teeth
right here
right here
let me bite down light
nibbles along hot skin
stretched and full
a body of delight.

 

[annaswirls]

like a tree slow growth
not to feel these branches that crawl two cracks above
backwards one step beyond stopped


these branches move from my base
stretch my neck to catch a glimpse of these
extensions of what i am

fleshed out
words expanded like raw marshmellow over flame
dig inside for the white untouched you gotta
eat the charred covers

metaphos

run like excuses o not say
what
is
real


so much easer to blame the tree
taste the sugar
burn finger and tongue on symbolic heat

a coward
dropping petals beneath her toes
instead of walkingthe rough path
covering the stench iof neglect

two dimensional chameleon bent to fly

his tongue flicks laughter

just tel me I am beautiful watch the puff
and morph of color
absorbingt heat
see how they run

 

[annaswirls]

a million examples

of squeaky wheels and baby birds, mouth open widest gets the worm

it is not new

you never see that baby saying
mama take care of the silent ones too
please feed them my share
there is enough for all of us


no
that does not happen

what other options then but to spin my wheels in silence
watch from a distance
waiting for the squeek to subside
I miss my grease.

 

[annaswirls]

the moon holds its darkness
in cupped hands

offering all who pass
to take a taste

 

[Guest]

Over night, sweet water froze
made a black glass hazy mirror
that reveals nothing but gray skies

This I've seen before in dreams
or nightmares, whichever
it's still a winter wasetland
where north end jet streams
blow desolation to the west

Here, I walk barefoot
forgetting numb, leaving
smuged prints of my life
and followed by a reflection
I don't recognize

 

[flyguy69]

Re: beer haiku

The before noon beer
a meditation on hops
the journey begins

mountain road caroms
jest to dream, girl to guardrail
and swerves, four legged

 

[annaswirls]

Re: Re: beer haiku

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Tathagata
The before noon beer
a meditation on hops
the journey begins
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

mountain road caroms
jest to dream, girl to guardrail
and swerves, four legged

mask eyed critter
stares us down
headlights to grin

 

[flyguy69]

Re: Re: Re: beer haiku

Varmint vinyl face
to my ass, blinks and splits
a plastic grin

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Tathagata
The before noon beer
a meditation on hops
the journey begins
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


mask eyed critter
stares us down
headlights to grin

 

[sandj]

A whispered kiss, warm
breath close to my skin
tangled in half-sleep, bed sheets
and your arms. Later, I will wake
with a panic, find the night
not so tender as when we first
put out the light, my eyes fighting
off the afterimage of uneasy dreams
but met by only unformed darkness
and the shadowed reflection in the mirror.

For now, though, I will sleep, soft
in the glow of the wages of our sin.

 

[Angeline]

Collide the night with swallows
of star a gulp of moonlight fell
to jar dawn awake in our bed
of sleep-kissed lashes. It wasn't
your shadow rustling blankets
of light, the day creased in
through the aperture of blink.

I am a tabula rasa in flannel
pants and a black tshirt
denying morning, but I looked
up to the rising sea of your eyes
opening and whispered that I
dreamt the Sun was a lemon
merengue cookie. I ate
the middle, held up its yellow rim
and said oh this is how day
begins sundae sweet. You
laughed and held my hand.

 

[Guest]

'Hey diddle, diddle
the cat and the fiddle'
What'cha got cookin'
in yer middle?

Much more than what
I've got brewin'
hops and beer ferment
but with my hand
nothing comes about
or turns out
mush and malt
useless
concertrated crap
best flushed down

Better off, twice baked
than undone or better for you,
run and move along

because whatever ya got,
it's best not to let him be
a doppelgänger of me

 

[flyguy69]

Valentine

I never knew I needed her
because I did not know
the nature of need
until she showed me

a place behind my brain
I had forgotten, a space
beside my heart I missed
in class. When I learned
to lust no one told me

about that spot
that sets my blood aflame
when raked with nails
or kissed with lipstick
words. The shine of her

exposed the nature
of need and made me blink
in x-ray light, an inside man
revealed.

 

[annaswirls]

we never had labels or borders
formal salutations

no tags on our collar
or sewn into packs


beyond identity
hidden
untuk
until I finally turn to walk away
you call
WAIT


and I turn to see
yourself revealed to me

inside naked
and still
crow bar pried
slip straw strung
what am I to want



wanting to consume you
before the cold covers you back
darkness hdes

and still damn it I want to see more

 

[DeepAsleep]

Today, I am the beating heart
of every wasted Sunday.
I am the angry grief
of moments cast aside.

~D.A.

 

[annaswirls]

canned food drive

corned beef hash
dented can of creamed corn
mama retched upon opening,
puking down over her swelling belly

if that did not set off the family domino puke game
the hash and cream would have done it

pulled from the back of shelves
of kind hearted yups
who cannot remember why
or when these pseudo food products made it into their houses

again thanksgiving comes and they dutifully
search for the least wanted, dust off the top, send in the can
to get a free dance ticket from the student council
except the kids from homeroom 208
whose teacher taught them how to really work the system


buy in bulk the cheapest smack ramen noodles
highest score wins the pizza contest
hair net ladies serving up free food

I saw them in the cafeteria, pig faced gluttons
getting something for next to nothing...

tonight I crunch the dry noodles like dehydrated manna
gas is out again
all I can think about
is pizza
and my mother's puke stained maternity shirt
slushing through the laundromat water

 

[Vampiric_Mirage]

Words fail
As I think of you...
Impressionable, sweet, sincere?

Cynicism gives way
as the phone rings
& hope is reborn

Plans fail
are cast aside
& made again.

Impromptu plans
lead to a beautiful beginning...

 

[annaswirls]

fuck the poetry out of me

there was no black mask nor
nylon face distortion
you stole me wide eyed
face red of wind sting and


anticipation

secret undercover super hero fucker
bound

burlap and twine catch is carry all
feign resistance




this poem goes nowhere
it is not easy to say in a poetic way

the door is unlocked
i am alone
come here fuck me twist flip and
fuck me again

nothing poetric
tatintino wrote this scene
neck snap and thigh slap
fight beauty with fist and cross
fight truth with accented tongue
fight the good with betrayal
fuck and flip and do it again