all of a sudden passion suddenly

[todski28]

The emptiness is heavy
I though I knew what self-isolated was
having long practiced a form of distancing
most never understood
the cast cut squares of concrete
interspersed with cobblestone
a hodgepodge mismatch
that you only notice on the vacancy of the street

my mind wandering through aimless memories
as the crackle of black clouds
form an opaque view of the sky
casting colossal shadows

I find shelter in the cafe
sit in the smoking section
light my cancer and inhale it’s sickly sweet
order coffe black as midnight and bitter
as the wind now cutting across the bare sidewalk
from the blonde dime a dozen waitress who stares through me
as if I’m cheap lace

I think of her beneath the ministrations of her lover
a cliche of disappointment and the sting
of loneliness as she’s left to clean up the mess
leaking from between her thighs

And I wonder if this is my muse
immortalised in print
this vacuous thing
that hints at the erotic
But is left to wipe up
after I’ve used her with reckless abandon

cheap pressed flowers so dry now they crumble
as if dust upon your lips

 

[AmericanTrash]

Poem for Salvador

Deliver me
one vegetarian burger one salad one
watermelon cooler one rootbeer

Salvador delivered but not drinks
called the restaurant but no answer
called Salvador because in virus times
deliverers call and drop at the door, leaving
interaction on the stoop

an hour later Salvador returned with not two but
three watermelon cooler gingerale and rootbeer

none of these essential but
Salvador is

 

[todski28]

“…how ready they themselves are at bottom
to make one pay; how they crave to be hangmen. Nietzsche

Cruelty is a humans last great past time
where they hide behind the piety of their
fidelity to human kind
they shuffle behind their masks of virtue
the corruption of decay
the word justice in their mouths as an adders strike
as fuel to the dumpster fire

The will of the weak as capricious
as a witch hunt in modern times
zombies sit lifeless thinking they’re
doing the work of that which they call god
via lines of text on a screen

I eat my hypocrisy with a shovel

 

[AmericanTrash]

Shovels

In films there are plenty of shovels
graveside and in garages.

Also shoveling is easy in films
even after montage, even 4 feet,
shallow relative to graves

makes one grateful for diggers.
One in this case is me. The plan
was to bury the cat in the land behind

the apartment I plan to live in until I can't.
So I would know where she was. But
the super hasn't loved me recently

demands for hot water and knowing
well who knows? Really who knows
why one takes joy from pain

so I don't know why he promised
then hung up on me when it was time.

Lacking a shovel, lacking the key to the yard,
I kept her in the bathtub as she cooled and leaked
until the crematorium could send a man to collect
her stiff corpse.

She is back now, I suppose. There is a box. There
on the high shelf is a cherrywood box
emblazed with her name.

Now the question: what to do with ash?
Keep her ashes here or set to wind?
And where? Where she began or
here in the city of her end?

 

[Piscator]

Ships Safely at Sea

A tsunami may pass a ship at sea
with barely a ripple as it races to
shore, where ships safe at anchor
may be lifted and tossed aground
by its tumultuous wave.

So too the coronavirus wave will
pass thorough many with naught
but a mild headache, muscle pain
and a sore throat which quickly
subsides.

But an unlucky few are swept
under, overwhelmed in a
cascade of failing organs
from which they never
recover.

I pray that you may be
among the many and
not the
few.

 

[todski28]

insanity tastes like all the junk food I never needed
fills my mouth with the last draw of the last cigarette
followed by the last drops of bourbon in my glass
until all that was left of me was base
was gutter low
there again I never was a class act
like all the other degenerate renegade poets
boozing
womanising
smoking lung-fulls of carcinogens
whilst fighting like the earless ally car
you’re sure has rabies
because the fucking thing will go anything

some days I wonder if it was worth trading
those freedoms to be another
worker in the cog that keeps us going
it’ was fun on the outskirts picking of the stragglers and strays
rutting in the night
screams laid bare

a stone cold killer
hunting for that one meal
that might finally satiate
those things inside that most people
don’t dare look at

I make my bed
clawing at the hardened ground
padding round in circles
I lie down with my demons

 

[todski28]

There are few people in life
that see the person
behind the curtain

we’re all the great OZ
in our own way,
a small man or woman
pulling the levers
of our own misguided portrayal

 

[Piscator]

Time police

The time police were at my door
they said my time was done
and what’s done can’t be
undone so they were
here to do it.

But I outsmarted them
wasn’t hard after all
they were cops
not detectives.​

I caught a quantum
quark that like to bark
rode it into the
continummmm.

But I excuse myself
and nothing ever comes of
small excusions into forbidden places
for I wass on a roll of
sssevenssss and sssssturnssssss
till sssssssnake eyes sssssssstruck
and blew it al to Slytherine.​

And Potter was potted
in a Grecian urn along
with Keats’s ashes​

.

 

[champagne1982]

Closed

locked in shut out
locked down shut up
shut up
shut up those voices that declaim
that all the protesters want
is a brief moment of fame

shut up all those lies
because I cannot disguise
the colour of my skin
the same as I can't hide
the multitude of sin
buried amidst a white bread culture
and inured in my bones
like Christ in the scriptures

don't forgive me for my ignorance
but please excuse the fear
borne from not understanding
this anger right here

this anger that burns the same red in my veins
as the blood pooling in the street
this anger that pierces the night in screams
and changes to nightmares all the hopeful dreams
of people kneeling in the streets
in demonstration that while you may choke one man
you will not strangle the voices that condemn
the hatred shown to the world by that action

eight minutes and forty-six seconds
describes lifetimes in its brevity.

 

[todski28]

blood shot eyes peer
at ponderous propaganda
a flood
a glut
as if the sin of greed is now the
screen we can't peel our eyes away from

a deluge of misinformed people
mouthing out the repetitions of their
non-elected soothsayers
who deem that piss is rain

the madness of crowds
is palpable
as we run our mouths repeating
the inane repeat
of the next viral video
but it's ok because it's 97% peaceful
so was the night my mother had her face broken open
by her lovers temper tantrum
that evening was 99% peaceful
until he shattered her jaw...
but all I remember is the peaceful night
and the family dinner....


there are parasites nesting in the mind
idea pathogens kneeling in the streets
reciting the rhetoric of the next religion
unquestioning in the faith of what it is we see
unquestioning of the editing that made a narrative
that fits the pattern we've mapped onto our world view
lenses so focused in that every hammer sees a nail

the sense making we use has lost its fucking mind
and I fear I may have too
lost it
or let it off the leash to roam in insanities
crystal clear lucidity
eat my fill of dogma
so I can regurgitate it
bird like to feed the masses

 

[4degrees]

For weeks, he's kept
In what feels like a
Far off, dark corner
Where no one he knows
Ever visits
It's dark and everything
Is sore
As days graduated
Into weeks, the machines
Got louder
It doesn't matter now
That you never
got your phone charger
You can't talk with
The mask
And you don't have the
Breath, anyway.
We all just wait,
Because what else can i do
The isolation i know,
Is even worse than
The soon- likely outcome

My dad succumbing
In such a fucked up way

Like so many others

And then i wonder
If my siblings will
Even tell my mom when
he's passed-
Or if she'll know
Before anyone else

 

[29wordsforsnow]

Very sad to hear
about the loss you have to bear,
my sincere condolences

 

[Piscator]

Our old dog, Xena, and I were up early, the legacy of age, I guess. As we started our walk, the air was crisp and still, the sky just beginning to show its blue with a faint orange tinge along the eastern horizon and Venus bright, untwinkling, above. No airplanes, an unexpected benefit of the pandemic.

As we crossed the bridge, the dark waters of the creek contrasted with the white snow covered fields. I headed up the hill to take in the view but Xena waited below investigating new smells. Two worlds one visual the other olfactory. The realization that all this happens every morning only intensifies the wonder.

 

[oneblueye]

hey ...

Pandemic Blues

ya try to run, ya try to hide
ya try to love--, but you dead inside.
Whoa! Pandemic blues!
Don't know--, just what--, you gonna do.
And its the ONLY COLOR you see!
Cuz everywhere is covid 19.


Potus said it was fake, said it wouldn't last
now its a been a year, still can't see through this mask.
Whoa! Pandemic blues!
Don't know--, just what--, you gonna do.
What you gonna do baby.
And its the ONLY COLOR you see!
Cuz everywhere is covid 19.

Everyone has the cure, if you got enough cash.
Now lets check out yo T.P.
All the rest of your stash.
PANDEMIC BLUES!!!
Just don't know--, what you gonna do!
And it the ONLY COLOR you see
Cuz everywhere is covid 19.

 

[Piscator]

I make the bed

I make the bed, even though
I will be its only occupant
tonight, or perhaps this aft
if this headache persists.

Smoothing, stretching, the sheets
taut, tucking in the hospital corners
which always come undone
on my side – the curse of tallness?
Fluffing the pillows and duvet
just in case you come back to
share my body while it’s warm.

 

[annaswirls]

he said
"its not discussed"
so I suppose
I will have to put it here

 

[annaswirls]

the chemicals
flush out the memory
of we wouldnt go back again

first man slapped my face
i smiled
finally someone to take
the pain
into his own hands
and out of mine

 

[annaswirls]

hes a vegetarian
but the turkey
doesn't seem to mind

 

[Lyricalli]

Once would never be enough
third time not a charm
opened up to the same pain
truth is, I'd do it again
without question

 

[annaswirls]

I said sorry sorry sorry
Im a little manic and my filter is off

 

[Angeline]

Fuck filters.
I want an unfiltered Camel,
straight up nasty like Grandma
smoked, hanging over the soup pot,
cigarette jittering in the corner
of her bright red lips, jittering
at Great Uncle Izzy, that delightful
n'er do well, in one of her numberless
harangues about off-track betting,
the small potatoes life in Passaic
New Jersey, stench of the Raritan
Canal, all the while ashes raining
into dinner.

Ah the prosaic
world of Rose in Passaic,
circa 1962.

 

[Neonurotic]

She likes jalapenos in her
nachos but it makes her
after-movie old-fashioned
way too spicy
So hold the peppers
before you hold me dear

As a cold milk bath
will make me short,
fizzle out our date night

 

[annaswirls]

I want to go to sleep
hide away
delete it all
I want to feel the same thing
for 2 hours

I want teeth on my neck

a cold front on my shoulder

I want
to not
to not
to not

 

[annaswirls]

J chased me here
when he told me no
D chased me here
when he told me yes
A chased me here
when he noticed
JT chased me here
when he ddn't

thank god a hollow tree
to tuck these letters in

 

[annaswirls]

my beautiful dreamers
you angel,
you back door man
with a smoke and a snack
crash on the couch
I will try to help
with the chores
before morning
just want to sleep
and not sleep