International Poetry Writing Month - November Poems ONLY

[wildsweetone]

13. untitled

The swing squeals at dusk
in the salt swathed air
as waves tumble
onto the beach not crashing,
nor lapping, background music
to fun’s scent

on the westerly drift.
Nightfall-waves pound

sand under bare feet
a dumped body on the dunes
gritty sand outside

and in
red pain through unseeing eyes
as numbness controls immunity
to touch, soft or slicing.
Unfelt.

 

[Liar]

XII

that's right, bird flu
blame it on the beady eyed squawkers
make demons out of doves
a chain-gun from a feather

haloween trick and treat terror
in a chicken suit

mad cows, killer bees
a buzz-a-buzz bushfire rumor

when the villain is
right here, right now
yours truly, and you

it's easy to cower in fear
of those who can not speak
but not see
who they tremble
in fear of

it's a foot-in-mouth disease
we'll never cure

 

[annaswirls]

Nov 12

Metronome


A whispered hint from stage right,
the metronome clicks out
heart beats, breath sounds,
and memories of my lover’s movements
but still the words elude me.

Since you have gone,
Dr. V does not bother to ask about the
sexual side effects,
but he still insists on the usual lines:
Do you have trouble concentrating?
Recovering words?

I took a hundred years of piano lessons
and cannot remember the goddamn terms
printed on that metronome.
Forte, no not forte
that’s volume
and staccato, short
Crescendo? No, that’s volume again.
I need speed
speed.

From the back seat
Spenser asks,
Mommy, why is Mozart so sad?
And I tell him, baby
maybe he lost something he really loved.

And he says
I bet he lost his dog
and all I can say is
baby I lost my Latin
and I don’t think
it’s ever coming back.

But it did.
The moment your unfinished prescription
fell and scattered across the bathroom tiles,
they came to me,
Largo! Adagio!
Allegro!

Steam whistled from the kitchen
and I forgot the name of that book
you always wanted to read.

 

[My Erotic Tale]

Little White Fairies

Little White Fairies
flew today

replacing
their warmer brother

the rain

they danced
on the window

clinging

to each other
banding together

landing

feather soft
mounds grew

more

and more
white fairies flew

moving across
the air

so slow...

snow


...( #12 )...​

 

[annaswirls]

Fixation

First thing Nana said
when the patch came off her left eye was
"Why didn't anyone tell me
the slipcover is green!"

Truth was we never had much faith
in Nana's ability to match furniture to wallpaper.
Slip covers were usually bedspreads
with the corners sewn to fit,
extra material doubled and stitched
into arm rests.

Last night my father wrote me.
He had been watching his mother’s hands
while they waited their turn at the doctors office.

Jennifer, I could not help thinking,
her hands have done so many things!
And as he begins to list them,
the flesh fills out her arms
and the veins slide back inside
where they belong
and he has his mother’s hands again.

The list could be the chronicle of any mother’s hands,
thousands of poems write of women's hands
feeling for fever, digging potatoes, pressing pleats,
but still he continues to list
and list and he begs me,
Jennifer I am not a poet
do you think you can write a poem
about her hands?

And I say,
I will try, Dad.
But truth is,
I cannot stop thinking about the day
the patch came off of her eye
and she saw green
where she always thought was blue.


*last two are re-writes, I figure a two for one special should count for something, I am in an editing fix! It rarely happens gotta go for it!

 

[annaswirls]

11.13

the first time she left town

She took a job up route 100
it was not even in our school district,
our Kel scooping ice cream with strangers.

As always she took the turns
too fast on the way home
down the King’s highway
and smashed into the tree.
Hell we were not close enough
to hear the sirens and another
town's ambulance took her in.

But me and her Mom were the ones
who picked the glass
and washed the blood from her hair,
and I slept on her floor
beside the pull out couch
in case needed something.

Me and Jan drove down to the garage
to see the old Honda one last time.
Red curls stuck broken windshield.
The cracks reflected
tiny rainbows onto the dashboard.

So maybe now you see how I felt
at the baby shower when the girls
from work made that questionnaire
to see how well you know Kel,
and I only I got one answer right.

When they cheered the winner
I wanted to stand and say,
It was me, I held her head when she was bleeding
fifteen years ago,
and there was that time long before,
when Abby had pups in Kel’s room
and when she opened her door
one got stuck under, and she killed that pup
she killed him.
Did any of you know that?

Jan hands me her new Realtor’s card and says
if you ever think about moving back up
give me a call, okay?

 

[BooMerengue]

November 13th
#12

Off the cuff - for the first Flippy

I just found out tonight that you've gone missing.
Already I'm expecting just the worst.
Theres things that I would like to tell you first;
my mind goes into high gear reminiscing.

You've always been my favorite baby brother
we had a lot of good times, you and I.
Remember when I opened up your eye?
Whooeeee, I got my ass beat by my mother!

The books we read together in the attic
when everybody else was playing ball
We'd hear them giggling up and down the hall
as we dressed up and played the parts dramatic!

I'm laughing at the time we went out cruising
when whoodoo next door stole his daddy's car.
We thought we had it made we went so far!
Why did we think that we'd escape the bruising?

But then came high school, with it all the garbage
that normal kids go through around that age.
We grew apart, our lives in different stages
how could we know we'd need such extra courage?

Cuz it was bad, I know it, so do you.
Those single gender schools are a bust.
they did their best to scrape away your trust
with you they won, but I bid them adieu.

And thats about the time our closeness ended.
We went our different ways and hid the pain
and blamed ourselves, what did we have to gain?
and those who were at fault we strong defended.

Well they're both gone now, too, by their own hands.
and I have my own exit all planned out
but in my heart theres still a tiny doubt
so I just wait and cling to all my friends.

I don't know yet whats happened to you brother
I really hope my worry's all for nought
but if I get that phone call in the night
I promise you I'll never see another

child suffer in the way that we did.
Thats something I will swear right now to you
no matter what these babies want to do
theres nothing that I ever will forbid.

I love you, Flip, I hope you know I mean it.
When you hear that I hope it makes you smile
and change your mind and stick with us awhile
but if not it won't bother me a bit.​

I will love you always... wherever you are.

 

[wildsweetone]

14. The Beach Visit

When the top layer crunches
castings of churned mud
underfoot, sand hoppers bounce
and race from trampled deaths
to bury their bodies
like worms in dirt

that burrow as they eat. Smothered
in frilled foam
they emerge with zest
as the black sand glitters
with intense heat
to char bare feet
that race from beach towel
to ebbed tide
and back. Cormorants’

yellow crests converge
to steal stones; nests
of brittle battlefields
hold eggs, the future

contained in a high rocky fortress
impregnable by man
yet filmed in sand,
whilst far below
a sand hopper tickles
an errant toe.

 

[My Erotic Tale]

Under wear over head



Under wear over head
"yep"
that's what I meant.

I normally
put them lower

twirling

using an element
to get them hot

ever put on
warm under wear?

but
out went the dryer

so
I hung them higher

next to the socks
that are bleached
pinkish red

hangs my
under wear over head


.....( #13 ).....​

 

[Liar]

XIII

here I sit in the crossfire
of inertia and writer's block
with two minutes left to deadline

killswitch in my hand
midnight on my mind
what's a poor poet to do?
shuffle, rewind
pop another caffeine pill and pull the trigger
to unleash the Tigger
in you

so c'mon, bounce, my precious brain
in the pace of tapped keys
play it again,
pretty please
and just lolly on through

because that's
what Tiggers do

 

[wildsweetone]

15. I’d hammer in the morning.

What is it about the hammer
that every male needs to hold

before he reaches puberty?
The same hammer that youths
grip, use to build their first treasure
chest, then hang on allotted hooks

in the shed. Houses are built
with hammers such as these

and walls are battered
whilst brains are bashed
and clawed, creating holes

in families
and heroes
in gangs that gouge scars
across communities.




(note for me: preachy-ness in there somewhere?)

 

[BooMerengue]

November 14th
#13

Quick Turnaround or
Quick! Turnaround!

Don't talk to me right now
she said, walking down the stairs.
I want to be mad. I never get to.
Its healthy to vent,
to scream and holler
if thats what it takes.
To let the fester boil over
til it hits the burner
with a loud sizzle
and a nasty stink.
If I stomp my foot
and slam a door
whats it gonna hurt?
You? Me? Who cares.
Not me.
I don't care if I hurt me
or someone else- you, even.
Why do I have to keep it all?

ohhh.....

Thats why.

That tear in your eye.
Those slumped shoulders.

Awww, baby.
Grammy's sorry.
I'm not mad at you.
I'm just mad at me.

C'mere. Sit here with me.
Let's watch the puppies
and I'll smoke.
How was your day?
It was that good?!?!

She smiled. Turned.
Sighed.

Hand in hand -- back up
the stairs.

He smiled as he
heard her whisper
"Thank you!"​

 

[Liar]

XIV

XIV weeks I stumbled on bruise mending bender
brawls, beer and banter in full stupor splendor
keep rolling with punches and surf on the fray

XIV years I waited for sharp cracks of thunder
fate to roll in and deliver the wonder
but mud stuck and mood struck in bender dismay

XIV days and counting of lateral motion
a ride on a tide thrust by unforseen notion
to kick start a XIV year freeze frame delay

 

[annaswirls]

To Whom it May Concern,

Please excuse my poet,
annaswirls,
from mandatory poem per day
due to illness.

Oh and one more thing
she can't take gym either.

 

[Guest]

To Whom it May Concern,

Please excuse my poet,
annaswirls,
from mandatory poem per day
due to illness.

Oh and one more thing
she can't take gym either.

Did you learn to forge at an early age too.

 

[annaswirls]

Did you learn to forge at an early age too.

I learned to forge at an early age
but I do not remember
using this skill ever
but I must have...wait
it comes back to me

I skipped school because I needed to study
for an AP bio exam.
Drove to the park
sat in the car and memorized Glycolysis or something
until my mother left
for her afternoon class.

I learned to forge at an early age
but never really how to get my moneys worth

this is not really a poem at all
it is a babble
with
line breaks
like this

 

[wildsweetone]

16. A little different

She’s a little different
a big-eyed stare
with the half-vacant smile
that searches the room
for a friendly face.
Most turn away
to miss her smile falter
none hear her soft sigh
nor her voice
touch notes that will tear
their eyes and speak her soul
to a deaf, uninterested
world. Near-blind
they will not unearth
the gift of love
she wishes to give.

 

[BooMerengue]

November 15th
#15

Requiem

I will sing Requiem for you
not one note but many
intertwined, sparkling,
illuminating your big heart
releasing the you I knew.

I will dance Requiem for you
weaving the steps to
mark your passage
through the night sky
calling the stars
to light your way.

I will taste Requiem for you,
the bitter ash left
from the purifying fires
washed away by your
bloodied tears.

I will touch Requiem for you
every time I touch the face
of the little ones with
your laughing eyes and
lanky gait.

I will smell Requiem for you
in my coffee, beans crushed by
the weight of your grief,
and in the salt air where
we played so long ago.​

 

[Guest]

dinner

Snowberries shine
in the dark undergrowth
of the hedge line
where juncos and towhees dine
and a cat lurks knowing
she could dine well here too
even take a doggy (hiss) bag
back for her new family hiding
in the barn watched over
by a barn owl also thinking
dinner.

Nov 15th

 

[Liar]

XV

pale squares
left
on stripped
sunburnt walls

echo photos
paintings
identity
on a string
of history

a reverb
still rings
of twelve years
not quite ready
to vacant

clings in the air
to block out
the kind of silence
that drowns evertyhing

tangible absense
of tick tock clocks
relays snapping
and the sussurus
of pipes

still the ghosts whisper
maybe, just maybe
long enough
for antother clamor
to take over

 

[My Erotic Tale]

Stones

never
did a stone
have a heart
that lay
on a mountain
of Earth

it never
breathed
a breath of air
since it was formed
at birth

yet,
it has life
in being a rock
a smaller part
of it all

a blanket
of water
over an ocean of stones,
a big
rock ball


.....( # 14 ).....​

 

[My Erotic Tale]

a star so far


a star so far
but reaching anyway

there is magic
in a sparkle
in the night sky

just a dot
in the vastness
thats shines a glimmer
of hope

means
there's more

a star so far


.....( #15 ).....​

 

[annaswirls]

Okay I know this is supposed to be a "poems only" thread, but I hope you forgive me WSO...

We are half way there, and I wanted to stop and throw some encouragement out to:

MET!
Boo!
Tess!
Liar! ​

You guys ROCK and have been an inspiration for me to try to keep up with the pack. I feel rejuveinated by this challenge, I ahd been spending so much time on my site and other creative endeavors that I had not been writing as much. Thank you WSO for making it and to all y'all for writing such awesome poetry in such rapid fire progression!

Okay, the home stretch!

: passing out gatorade:

 

[annaswirls]

okay I know it does not count and I promise to put a real one in here as soon as poss

forty turkeys await their finger holes
to become dancing birds with preschool
finger legs

thank goodness we get to eat the real thing
instead of grimy little snotty digits
but they do, I bet
have a good crunch

mother mother mother
will be back after midnight
after construction paper and glue are put to bed
good night
I might just sleep instead

 

[wildsweetone]

17. A Daisy Day

All I ask
is to feel sun kisses on my face
as I watch clouds weave
the sky, to be rain-replenished
when summer parches the soil
and to be small of limb
that I will not be decapitated.



18. Fake Rose

Over and under
the needle sews
soft cotton strands
stitch a red rose

across stretched cloth
she threads perfect petals
to hang on the wall
next to the kettle.