not sure how many words

[Angeline]

He tastes like butter
and cinnamon.

Cranberry nut crumb
in the corner of his mouth
a just dessert.

I drink the shadow
of his sleeping face,
count eyelashes
instead of sheep.

He stirs, murmurs,
night shifts to peace.
I measure my breath

to his, listen
to our duet
and fall again.

 

[wildsweetone]

.
.
.

Watch the wind
as it races along the road
and hides in the frangipani

leaves, its anger tossing
the greenery back and forth
bending the trunk

until it creaks
in pain and scrapes
the garden seat.
.
.
.

 

[champagne1982]

This Song

Touch me and make my heart
dance a two-step cha Cha cha
skip against the xylophone
of my bones. Then tell
me, again, that you can't dance

with that jazzy down beat
hidden behind the metallic
twang of strings pulled
tight over that bridge
of heartwood, there
because it is so strong.

I don't believe you
when you tell me how
the rhythm is all wrong
since you hold the baton
and count each measure.

I love this song. It floats
each sound, each note
built to glide
into your mind and show
you that this song
is sung -- for you.

 

[champagne1982]

Evening View

The sky hangs just above
the clouds as they swoop
down in front of the wind
and leave pieces
of themselves in hollows

The sun falls beneath
the canopy of misty
cotton and sets fire
to the tips of firs
standing on the horizon

Just raise your head
to look above the
cloud quilt and see
a silvered moon
face smiling down
on the infant watcher.

 

[champagne1982]

Yes Licks

We were so innocent
tremulous smiles wet
on first kiss lips

it was like I'd never
tasted sugar until your tongue
met mine and melted

candy floss and sponge toffee
don't let it end before my heart
learns to handle the rush

of adrenaline and oxygen
sent out through my mind
to answer your whisper.

 

[champagne1982]

Something Better

Here on the shoals of nothing
I have lost the power
to be one with my thoughts
my mind drifts without a sure
hand on the tiller and my ideas
seem lost in the doldrums

Pull me up into the glare
of a strange noontide
mottled with brilliance
as the calm surface swells
and recedes with each breath
Gaia takes in her somnolent rest.

Can I find contented stillness
when I know that time and tide
are turning pages of history
reading without learning
lessons taught beyond school
by the sages of experience?

How I long for a breeze
to catch the main and billow
the sheets with a freshened
air blowing us beyond
the treacherous reef beneath
our keel and forward
to something, anything at all.

 

[wildsweetone]

Something Better

Here on the shoals of nothing
I have lost the power
to be one with my thoughts
my mind drifts without a sure
hand on the tiller and my ideas
seem lost in the doldrums

Pull me up into the glare
of a strange noontide
mottled with brilliance
as the calm surface swells
and recedes with each breath
Gaia takes in her somnolent rest.

Can I find contented stillness
when I know that time and tide
are turning pages of history
reading without learning
lessons taught beyond school
by the sages of experience?

How I long for a breeze
to catch the main and billow
the sheets with a freshened
air blowing us beyond
the treacherous reef beneath
our keel and forward
to something, anything at all.

i just want to say Carrie, you have great skill at extended metaphor.

 

[Guest]

 

[eagleyez]

The ground finally
Softens underfoot,
The smell of mud
And the brush fires
Combine
To quicken my step.

I prattle about-
Shaking off the lethargy
Of Winter's long reach,
Cherry top and
Crabapple
And Poplar shine as it

Tis the season to
Muster awake
All the dreams
Hidden across
Mind maps

The grass feeds
Photosynthesis
and the Hummer's
stand still, peering in at
a circular miralce-

He's still in there.

Doing a dance
to Banjo and Mandolin-
Her voice and her smile,
symphonic lifting the drear
And children click memory cameras

Neverending.

 

[Guest]

 

[champagne1982]

As From A Dream

The frosty gentleman worker,
stable on his scaffold;
legs planted, shoulders
square, paints in monochrome.
Snow twists through the air
to land and stick on walls.

Beneath this white layer
of his industry, hibernating
lives wait out the storm
quiet and sleeping;
warm and alive with dreams
and heart beats to thaw
and colour the image
as we wake.

 

[Guest]

 

[eagleyez]

happy anniversary

2 years
airport
scarves
walk to the lovebaron
drive to RJ,s
up the musty stairs
it was a pad
breadbaker
wine rack
your fur
on my shoulder
forever
promises
lull
me
into dreamland.

 

[champagne1982]

They may have found the missing link.

Ancient Ancestor

You tie us to the murky
past when minds were pure
instinct unable to make
the great leap forward
and take us to the moon.

I wonder at the harsh
realities that drove
you onward to explore
a different clime
a strange world.

Wanderlust dust
coating feet better
suited to searching
discoveries unthought
of not so long ere you.

Savanna and colder nights
spurs to launch you
on the path that brought
me to where I am now
tied to the distant past
and no memory for lessons
taught me in the womb.

 

[Angeline]

happy anniversary

2 years
airport
scarves
walk to the lovebaron
drive to RJ,s
up the musty stairs
it was a pad
breadbaker
wine rack
your fur
on my shoulder
forever
promises
lull
me
into dreamland.

miles farther down the track
we don't hear the train pass
as close anymore. i don't sleep
under the willow tree's sway
nor smell the bread baking at 4 am,
but the sky hasn't changed
from its muted impression gray
where blues have fallen
onto the bed to blanket us
in familiarity. i watch you sleep
and think i've known every
expression of you, tears
or nervous smile, you're up,
i'm down we switch sides
like good team players i am
safe in your harbor, arms
and patchouli skin are home
now, linked to any view
from one window we stand
together and the years roll
with the river.​

 

[Guest]

Against all odds
when days seemed bleak
love has a way of beating
the odds and sods
who say neigh
I watched it grow through
asphalt and hard times
a stubborn succour
that bloomed in the bitter
Maine winter and stood tall
in the wilting heat
winning two hearts
winding them in basil
and vines among veggies
and flowers in that
place where it's all good
dozing through baseball
tapping out poems
to the rhythm of the river
and the years.

Congrats.

 

[Angeline]

Against all odds
when days seemed bleak
love has a way of beating
the odds and sods
who say neigh
I watched it grow through
asphalt and hard times
a stubborn succour
that bloomed in the bitter
Maine winter and stood tall
in the wilting heat
winning two hearts
winding them in basil
and vines among veggies
and flowers in that
place where it's all good
dozing through baseball
tapping out poems
to the rhythm of the river
and the years.

Congrats.

PoeTess.

it was basketball--he did tell you it was basketball, right?

 

[eagleyez]

Im a liar,
A thief,
Fall down clown,
Pedal steel
Broken wheel,

Lost in cane fields
Ground down
To Molasses,
I dont know what to do,

Lucky to be alive
I suppose,
Sometimes
The shotgun
Needs a shell,

I dont sleep
Too well.

6 sting rests
Next door to the 12,
Trying to come up for air
Fallen into your well,

Im a liar,
Im a cheat,
Tears mirror
How fast my heart
Can beat.

Im beat,
Everybody gets what they deserve,
Carousel
To ride
Or burn.

 

[Guest]

 

[eagleyez]

Words to a song,
Old six fits
On my lap
Where it sits-

Sing today,
Spring Sun
Doors wide open
Shirt undone.

Blueside sprung
Happy to see you
Such a chord
It feels like nineteen and ten,
Lucky to be alive
Now as in then.

Wingin
Wingin
Swoop,
Where the river does
Bend.

 

[champagne1982]

There I was
dangling, like the grapes
you say I should eat
my Euro genes
twisting my blood
into something that thrives
on concords and barley.

Now, come here and sample
this designer beer
I know you like your hops
brewed and fermented
until the bubbles burst
and all the toasty malt
flavour bursts upon
tastebuds and dances
on your tongue.

Me? I'll peel these grapes
until I'm left with translucent
balls of sugar gleaming
in the light like my teeth
do when I take a bite.

It always leads to this sweet
intoxication, you and I
in a langorous loll
kissing, wobbly on legs
until it's safe to fall into bed.

 

[champagne1982]

RSVP

I'm having a hard time staying positive
right now. I know I'll surface soon
but at the moment, I see the black
invitation, Repondez, s'il vous plait.

It's not so bad.
I've been fixed before
when I was broken worse
than the indications
now. I just don't want
this fear to linger.

So, I'll chew up this grey negativity
and turn a light on to light
my way to the top where I'll read
the insignificant black card and reply,
«je ne serai pas présent.»

 

[eagleyez]

she dreams-
wisps of stars
evidenced like slow rain
hidden and shrouded behind this
grey grey morning.

i walk floors
counting raindrops
and a get busy inclination-
silent construction-
edifice of stimulants
shoulders loose
and painless.

she dreams
and i decipher
her monologue-
riprap cobbled
buttons-
in hues of the gift
i wrap her in blankets
and stretch to the hidden sun
in its majesty.

 

[wildsweetone]

he's there,
not three minutes
down the road
and yet
out of sight. blinded
to the gift
that knocks outside
his front door,
deaf to morning's
tui singing
between beaks full
of nectared dew.
he misses it all
as he sits with eyes
only for the screen
that brings a one
dimension world
into his house
each
day.

 

[DeepAsleep]

diesel day,
the clouds given up,
laid in the hands of the sky.
seem to float
backs to us,
these days bent double

nothing, new

exhaust, night
eighty three degrees
humidtalking in bed
things to never say at dinner

fogiris eyes sloe stares

&

nightsweats

unbrushed smokerstooth moon broken poker chip

diesel day bent
double exhaust night
fog

spoken hours
volumes, silence
birds, five am
crickets, chirping
night, morning, fog

day's worth, another

double bent diesel exhaust night, day, fog

~R