writing live

[Winter_Fare]

#8

Floating up to my neck
In over my head
Til the edges of me
Become ill defined

And the whole of my mind
Is conjoined to the sea
I'm awake and I'm dead
An infinite speck

Mortality wrecked
And it's just like you said
Ride the wave and be free
Then erase and rewind

 

[Lyricalli]

9

Savoring plump, green olives
briny as tears
and I suddenly slip into reveries
about groves and sunnd afternoons
the warmth of your voice
salt on your lips

It seems impossible
that one day I may not long
at least a little
for those moments
when we belonged only to one another
somwhere between right and wrong
the unique freedom found in that bond
solid as the ground under my feet
yet delicate
disappearing into the air
a sigh after a kiss

I struggle sometimes to put words
on this figurative paper
and wonder if I'm even a writer
if you're not reading them
as nonsensical as that is
it plays on repeat in my head
with the songs, the ones that end up in heavy rotation
when I need something
to break the silence
in the hollow

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

# 4 1/7/22

Sisters and Strangers

As a child
I often wondered
how it must have felt when
I came along in the midst
of singular turmoil,
as if she’d remember.

Perhaps, quite unconsciously,
she resented this usurper,
the dilution of her mother’s
total absorption,
a bald, squalling doll-thing.

Growing up to love-hate,
a complicated rivalry where she
always won, leaving me seething
and deflated. Now,
a million miles divide us
and we correspond coolly.

 

[champagne1982]

#7 January 7. 2022

I don't know why I started this,
my guts a re churning still
I hope my brain produces better\
than my digestion.

When you start to type, howerver
nonsensical it seems something
anything happens

A chronicle of a lucid dream
while lying saking with fever
and ague, only pausing
to drag your aches from a sour
bed full of fever sweat
and self. I'm so glad it's mostly done

 

[butters]

#11

thermometer fell last night
around 10 degrees F with freezing rain
not heavy
just enough to coat and lace
each upper branch and serried twig

after yesterday's solid greys, winter's sun
skies daubed in uncompromised blue
grass and shrub rendered
in a child's unblended paintbox-hues
snow's all gone

looking for the yellow cats
out back to the south
still-sleepy eyes fly open wide
unexpected joy bursting my chest
stealing breath:
there, transformed, the hill–
foot to crest ablaze with crystal lights–
a frozen tsunami of pinpoint white-fire
sets my whole being alight

yellow cat nudges my leg
purrs to remind me breakfast

 

[Piscator]

sans nombre 2

Words fail me

Words fail me
illogic sickens our world
as we’re caught in the
dystopic distemper
of our times.

The ice cube’s melting
the waters rising,
yet our house burning
as an ill wind blows
nobody no good
and that puff of LA breeze
only spreads the stench
of viral victims.

Our future discounted
by doubting Thomas deniers
prophets of false truths
doubling down on
discounted discredited lies
whilst the cryptocurrency
of insurrection warps
once patriotic minds.

Words fail me.

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

# 5 1/8/22

Dolphins

I saw a dolphin’s song today
on paper.

Clicks and squeaks became dots
and streaks, the whistles and
purrs were lines and blurs,
signature trills and jokey squawks,
a conversational paradox.

Smiling at secrets they find,
silver slicing through
the calm with playful
leaps before our bow
and in the widening wake.

Beneath the pristine waves
they play with our discarded
garbage or find floating fronds
of seaweed to juggle with,
intelligent games a child
might concoct.

They’re bright, perhaps wise,
self-aware aliens who just want
to be friends with our kinder side
and yet we slaughter them in
torturous ways like so many
sardines.

 

[cascadiabound]

21 1/8/2022

Black cat, fort cat
Bold green eyes, unflinching
Prowling the perimeter
Sleeping in the blankets
Or curled in the laundry basket
So many hiding places

Black cat, lost cat
Where did she go?
Dark forest consumed her
Prey of coyote or cougar?
Days, weeks, months elapsed
Little black cat gone gone gone

Black cat, miracle cat
More than two years gone
Where has she been?
Chip tag returns her
Will she stay now?
Or wander again?
A cat called hope

 

[Winter_Fare]

#9

I can't walk the path you laid
We never fit here
Through the chrome picture frame
Steps you took a world away
Light hearted and free
Might have been in fairy land
Karst hills
And thin soil
Sheep country
You the stray lamb
Lost yourself on a train
Fields only half forgotten
Ontil the ghost of them
Caught up with you
Caught you up
And stole you away from me

 

[Winter_Fare]

#10

You see my whimsy
Dragging me
From a to b
Sargasso sea adhd

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

#6 1/9/22

Don’t Cry for Me

He cannot see
how well he plays,
how much he is adored.
What black monster
steals his satisfaction,
leaving him
empty
after every ovation?

Smoke hangs blue
yet through the haze
he shines,
touching his guitar
like a lover.

I adore him
and in this moment
the crowd stands as one.
In slow choreography
the band raise their guitars
over their heads like sleepy dancers,
setting them down reverently
to rest for a short break.

He leans in languid.
“Excuse me babe,
gotta take a leak.”
leaving warm wetness on my lips.
Smiling, I watch him go,
high fives all the way.

Five, then ten minutes pass,
there is restless grumbling.
Grinning lopsided, Shaggy says
“he’s out there tokin’ I bet.”
and they go to fetch him.

Stumbling back
faces grey and stricken.
“Call 911, he don’t look good,
needles still in him.”

While we wait
I kneel on the cold tiles,
numb. I cradle him
in my aching arms
and cry for us both.

“Don’t cry for me, babe”
I know he’d say.
“I made my bed…..”

 

[cascadiabound]

22 1/9/2022

Deschutes, Chehalis, Nisqually
Newaukum, Skokomish
Skookumchuck and Snoqualmie
Rising waters, king tide flood
Overtopping roads, dams
Supply chain stoppage
North south – flooded highway
East west – fathoms of snow
Anxiety rising with the water
Trapped by conditions
Layers of isolation
There is a flood of virus
Overtopping our community
A flood of waters
A firestorm of infection
Where can I drown my sorrows?

 

[Winter_Fare]

Edit, keep forgetting to number them (DOH)
#11

I have to laugh at the graph
Undulating to new heights
To collective oohs and ahs
Scoffs and taunts
Like a tightrope walker
Breaking records

Masking is something I always do
Mopping brows
Or buying cornflakes
Cloth on the face
Sanitised rage
Traumatized
I see his
Relatives that drove all night
For the last hour of his life
Prayerbook in a ziplock bag
Tears hot in their eyes
Double gloved
Visor steamed
Sobbing

Everyone dies, it's true
True blue, even you
Look at you with your chin up high
Look me in the eye call me sheeple.
I have to laugh
Or I'd cry

 

[cascadiabound]

23 1/10/2022

Mansplaining Annesplaining
a meeting run off the rails
while numbers too many obscure realities
and the rationale hides intentions
Assurance every possible scenario
has been taken well into account
behind the document they call
the dead Sea Scrolls
(how can so blithely offend?)
Every moment irks more
for over two hours’
invitations to participate obviated
by public chiding to not participate
via chat
since when is a zoom chat message to all
a side conversation?
The power these elected now weild
makes them fixated on
funds they can now demand
regardless of the ability to pay
or the hardship it will cause

Mansplaining Annesplaining
do you not see
lacking transparency
will undo the good will of
your neighbors and friends
The imagined urgency of this or that
does not comport,
should not compute
but this fiefdom of seven
will override all
but an impossible to attain
majority
How dare you bury the lead
dramatic changes ahead
how powerless we are
to oppose your will
Might as well
just write the check

 

[Winter_Fare]

#12

Is this a cliche?
Well...
If you have to ask...
Does it mean anything?

I have found
That when it hurts
Just right
It's like a friendly hand
On the arm
Stopping me from walking impatiently into traffic.

My body has no words for worry
In the moment
When it hurts
Just right
My tight fist opens
Letting go of
Bunched up sorrows
Shrinking them
Expanding me

I float
In a cut out moment
Like a lifesaving raft
Or a bubble of air
Until I'm ready to swim again.

 

[cascadiabound]

24 1/11/2022

Simple gold band
A steady companion over 62 years
Circle of love, never broken
Encompassed and safe
Within the promises kept
Decade after decade
State after state
Through school and parenthood
Work, volunteerism, travel and play
The passing of generations
Always
Simple gold band
Adorning her hand
Until her mind went wandering
Lost in the fog
Neural pathways disrupted
Where is home?
What is happening tomorrow
Are you my Joe?
Simple gold band
A most precious thing
Hidden from herself and all others
Surely for safekeeping
Is anything safe
In dementia land?
Where sequestering items
Is a compulsion
Simple gold band
Perhaps you will emerge
From between the couch cushions
Or the potted fern
In any case
Too late now
The band is missing
From her hand
In eternal rest

 

[Piscator]

sans nombre 3

Fumbling in the Dark

Alone together
in the dim amber light
behind the locked door
heavy metal cranked
to the max, your
hair smells of smoke.

Your velvet cock
pulses in my
mouth and your
cum tastes sweeter
than maple syrup.

 

[Winter_Fare]

#13

Are they an outward sign of an inward grace
Or a wish that lifts the soul
Or a solemn pledge of sanctity
That makes a person whole
Or a patchwork map of collective fears
And chains to tie us down
Or a tiny room with a narrow view
That makes a person cruel

 

[HarryHill]

..
Twenty Fake Pushups

Clowning w/the dog,
holding hands n scratching,
furry smiles, mine and hers;
where you been so long?

Stage Right

See the idea icon,
floating through bare limbs,
descending to strike the man on his doggy knees.

It had all been planned and forgotten,
septuagenarian pros and cons,
begin.
Legs straighten boot camp straight,
hands take the old man's weight,
half stroking slow and steady.
he never counted nor did I,
but there must have been at least 20,
before a plan was made then and there
to continue at some unnamed date,
a plan for the last frost,
at last the ground to break,
and a hundred other projects
that jolted him awake.
...

 

[29wordsforsnow]

The Total Truth, translated, Timely Told

For science and art it was a sad day when this bloke
his parents called Aristotle the second spoke
We, the Flat-Tirers, found
The Wheel does not go round!
From my perspective, I hope it was a joke.

 

[29wordsforsnow]

Another Anticipated Alliteration

A Statement from the Circular Congress:
Ya all have heard about the Evolution
how, for this guy, it all became such a mess
so tragic, poor lad, so here's my solution
the topic at hand from now on be known as
Rrrrotation!

 

[29wordsforsnow]

And there
in the second
most dark corner
sipping some heady
juice, straw, lips
eye-catchingly
circulating.
It's
Temptation!

 

[Winter_Fare]

#14

We watch the sunset
Clouds streak a cinnamon sky
Fading to rose gold

 

[Piscator]

sans nombre 4

Unanswered Questions

Why does a google of immobile
yield the name of an Italian soccer player
and only when I ask for the meaning does
“not capable of movement or of being moved”
show up and why doesn’t this move me?

And if immortal gods mate incestuously
as seems to be their wont, are
their offspring imimmortal or
just mortal and can two negatives
really ever make a positive?

 

[Lyricalli]

10

Winter-cold and sunny
rolled the windows down
pretending it was spring
needed the sting
of frosty air on my face
cranked the radio to 1988
probably a little louder
my ears are older now
as nice a day as you'd find
for a funeral in January
but driving away
I didn't want to think
about loss
or death
or the gifts and tricks of time
I just wanted to sing too loud
and bounce to beats
the way I did at eigteen
when today was so far into the future
I couldn't begin to imagine
its possibility