bitter black moon
boils shadows and
ships hot red diamonds
worship is an apparatus
a tongue, a whisper
——
for
Elusive Trope
Magnetic Poetry Saturday Challenge
Oracle on the (Virtual) Refrigerator
nice (20160715)
so many dead
so easy to pretend they sleep
they feel no pain
suffer no longer
at the hands
of any reality
or any nightmare wrought
by human hands
but sleep they do not
for the sleeping do not howl
do not ask why
do not fill up the earth
with their bones
the sea with their ashes
what prayers
will reach
which god first
——
response to
The Daily Post
Daily Prompt: Nightmare
and the world as it is
my feet on the roof, off the ground (20160714)
Marc Chagall [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
lemon
night sky floating
decapitated head
sing and i’ll dance right off this roof
and down
your song
doesn’t interest the cat at all
but my love dances too
past earth’s long curve
to me
——
for
Jane Dougherty Writes
Poetry challenge #39: Sleep walking
inferno (20160713)
every time you told a lie
a devil got its wings
black holes ripped open
space and time warped
and somewhere someone
flipped the switch
on the atomic football
or maybe that’s just me
crushed by the weight
of falsity
but the pitchforks
really hurt
revenant (20160712)
i saw a revenant
working at starbucks
of course, he still had
to smile–it’s the law
he looked over the tops
of everyone’s heads
not like he was above
pulling espresso
more like he was dead
and that whatever spirit
that once played guest (or geist)
had fled and left him
with just the smile
and lights out eyes
——
the coldness of the moon (20160711)
the feelings appear
like a sudden moon
shining in the night sky
darkness ripped away all at once
but the stars are so small
and so very far away
far away from me
far away from each other
i will own this sadness
though it’s not authentic
this melancholy that turns
like a record in a jukebox
that spreads its roots
like a tree growing
from my chest, bursting through
bones and sinew
i will carry it
because letting go is cowardice
and facing it is cowardice
and writing this is cowardice
—–
for
the secret keeper
Weekly Writing Prompt #45
OWN | TURN | SHINE | TREE | STAR
a long time ago (20160710)
my pulse dances in your veins
no small victory for me
knowing that i once moved you to wonder
to see more than obscuring clouds
more than the blinding sun in the sky
mukashimukashi, i saw the heavens part
and though the angels were not visible
i felt their eyes upon me, reducing
my organs to ashes
i hold them out to you now
——
for
the secret keeper
Weekly Writing Prompt #44
MOVE | SMALL | WONDER | DANCE | PART
look (20160709)
my ugly language
a symphony
like an enormous moaning ache
mother dream skins me
crushes me smooth
a shadow’s sweat
my tongue whispers still
watch
——
dusk and rabbit (20160708)
rabbit on the grass
the sunset makes your long ears
glow as the air cools
midnight snack and repercussions (20160707)
i slip out of bed
tiptoe to the kitchen
through
midnight house darkness
meatloaf
awaits me
in the fridge
in its own congealed juices
it needs companions
brown bread
mayo and salt
eaten cold
eaten silently
eaten quickly
it settles happily
in the gut
but in that house void of lights
except for charging phones
the loaf delivers
hours of indigestion and
nightmares on chipped, bleeding hooves
until breakfast
——
Words and Feathers 