floating and leaving no trace
hollow man
with bones so fragile
that you break
–you shatter
under the weight of what if
why not–when–why–why
hollow man
your shoulders sprout wings
leather hard
paper thin
too fragile to beat–to lift
to bear empty weight
hollow man
every breath a strain
a rattle
a wheezing
crushing an empty chamber
that once held a heart
hollow man
you struggle although
failure is
a small sleep
and even a hollow man
can see the sunrise
—–
pick through the rubble
look for the bits
worth keeping
a memory here
there a memento
are those the same thing?
muscle memory takes over
takes control
until the fibers
strained like spaghetti
in a colander
collapse, useless and quivering
look in the cup you made
of your hands
and drink the past
no official trill
announces the final day
of winter-just buds
RonovanWrites Weekly Haiku Poetry Prompt
Challenge 81 Trill&Final
silence steals
between all our words
–like a sponge
it expands
filling up the space between
what we say and don’t
quieting even
the slow sounds of our breathing
–where to rest our eyes
our lives are made of silence
we don’t look at each other
our hearts drum drum drum
beating beneath the silence
a silent rhythm
—–
(shadorma, tanka, haiku)
bedside, the dog growls
my eyes fly open, ready
–awakened from sleep
we removed our skins
and thought we would see
our true selves
but without our skins
we were invisible to
each other
either what was inside
was too hard too see
or nothing held up our skins
except an effort of will
he had the feet of a snake
and the wings of a hare
like many desert creatures
carried a pack of brambles
on his back to capture
the morning’s moisture
i asked
–old man, why do you toil
setting stone upon stone
every day when the crows
steal them at night
and carry them to the ocean
where they drop them in
sea?
he placed yet another boulder
upon the pile
dust covered his face
his hands were those of a coyote
he laughed
–to bring water to the desert
the sun
was too wet
i wish
we
we did nothing at all
all we could do
we did not like
something
on the mat
tricks
tricks
no mind
fear
—–
I didn’t post the original, but I will tell you that it is from a very popular children’s book, the first line of which is “The sun did not shine.”
coyote pauses
waiting for headlights to pass
–slips into darkness
i am full
i contain multitudes
does it matter if what i say
contradicts
what i said before
i didn’t say that
very well
do i contradict myself
it’s one of the multitudes
at fault
a singular wit
mouthing off
i’m sure
one word out of line
and the train jumps the track
o captain!
these contradictions
are hard to take
harder still
to reconcile
with the crowd in my mouth
and you thought
keeping my wisdom teeth
would put my incisors
out of alignment
what about all those souls
—–
By a weird coincidence, my Zen a Day calendar had this quote by Walt Whitman today, which is what I thought of when I saw Jane’s Challenge:
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
–Walt Whitman
Jane Dougherty Writes
Poetry challenge #14: Take a favourite line
