floating and leaving no trace
my lust is no longer
a trickle
and i feel you against
my palms
straining against/with me
i’m a goddamned train
that refuses to
arrive on time
the schedule is trash
fit to line
bird cages
if we were made of paper
then getting close to me
would cause us both
to burst into flames
ashes are good
touch us gently, please
i wish for bread to fill an angel’s evening
this moment feels charmed
you shared your need like a quiet dance
devote a thousand words to
ask a promise I can never keep
——
for
Specks and Fragments/The Elusive Trope
Magnetic Poetry Saturday Challenge
i have given you
half of my life
i wish for you to
have the remainder
we will listen to wind
chimes in the breeze
watch lizards scurry
across sun-warmed stones
we will find shade
and we will have our peace
huddle closer to me
ask me to tell you
everything’s
going to be all right
i do
though i have doubts
of my own grabbing at my feet
though every step
is made on
shifting tectonic plates
each the size of my heart
each the size of my life
no physical clocks
in the house anymore
only digital trance mediums
monsters that communicate
silently with satellites
no ticking to mark the time
but still
the earth shifts
but still
the earth turns
i huddle closer to you
and tell you
i will be your
earthquake insurance
woman, you haunt me
your wild lips linger
delicious porcelain kisses
color of ocean glass
fever of salt
steel perfume
remember
you were universe two
——
for Elusive Trope
Magnetic Poetry Saturday Challenge
O’ Poets of the Virtual Refrigerator
there were titans once
hecatonchir with fifty heads
and one hundred arms each
if i had one hundred arms
i would never stop
embracing you
if i had one hundred hands
i would want all five hundred fingers
tracing circles on your skin
if i had fifty mouths
fifty pairs of lips
would kiss you
if had had fifty tongues
each would whisper
my love to you
all the titans are gone
and i have only two hands
and one mouth
i hope it is enough
though you deserve
more
i misread the signs
and altogether missed
the portents
slept through the ominous
omens and peculiar
prophecies
the rain of blood
should have been
my first clue
and i suppose the swarms
of frogs and locusts
and locust-frogs
might have hinted that
something
was up
but i was busy
holding your hand
so the end of the world
well
let’s just say
it could wait
what is the meaning of a whisper
purred by a lover?
the message cannot be heard
within the constraints
of normal conversation
consciousness must be forcibly shunned
the message a secret
to both life and death
you will have to step into that
shadow between them
the threshold of here and there
and even then you will only ever
repeat what you have learned
in a whisper
i search the wild place
inside you where you left me
you invited me into your woods
under the pretense of a picnic
i expected sandwiches under
these trees, to serve tea, watch
the sunlight dapple the leaves
but i have become lost inside you
my compass is slag in my hand
stars move about the sky unfixed
where the earth should be hard
it moves like water
caught in some legned or fairy tale
i curse myself for not leaving
a trail of small white stones
and listen in this silence for your voice
——
the secret keeper
Weekly Writing Prompt #35
5 Words: | WOODS | LEGEND | WILD | HARD | SERVE |
the woods still sigh, the owls still weep
in the darkness, dark shadows creep
and thoughts of you still fill my head
the fallen trees run black with mold
the silent leaves no longer gold
a sweet, low song fills me with dread
i left you here cold in the ground
with shuttered eyes, you made no sound
yet there you stand, though you are dead
——
Jane Dougherty Writes
Poetry challenge #23: Nove otto
Happy Early Halloween!
Words and Feathers 