Walk

Today is the first day of the annual Haiku Challenge, hosted by Someone is Special at the blog Few Miles.  It lasts for the month of February. If you like haiku (I know you secretly love it, FB!), please join in!

Day 1 – February 1st – Theme: Freestyle 

Imagined sins scream
He takes to the streets to walk
Nervous, noiseless night

In the Eye

 
"Good Heavens! What do you mean it's UGLY!
Why I do believe it's the most beautiful painting I've ever seen in my life!"

Not Too Subtle

Red Spot II, Wallisy Kandinsky

I want him to notice me

but not to notice, notice me

know what I mean?

just like, notice that I look nice but

not like I'm trying to look nice

so I'm wearing the jeans

(you know the ones?)

that make my butt look nice

and, OH MY GAWD, my hair is a disaster!

I can't believe I let that bitch 

talk me into bangs

it's not even funny but

at least my mom felt sorry for me

and let me get a mani and

it's so cool 

so yeah

I read in Glamour

that brights are in for make-up so

I bought some new stuff if you wanna borrow

and the lip gloss is called like

Cherry Climax or something

and I absolutely love it but

I hope it's not too subtle.

submitted for The Mag, Mag 102

Marked

You say you're wild, boy

but I've broke horses

wilder than you

Soon you'll be eating sugar

outta my hand and

beggin' for more

You say you love the road

but you're gonna love

the sidewalk to my house

and the stairs up to my room

even more

'cause once you're in my bed, boy

you ain't never gonna think of goin'

anywhere else

I am the moon that you sing to

I am the song that you sing

I am the scent on the breeze

that you gotta chase

Even wild things

have their weaknesses

and I know all of yours, boy

You leave my hips bruised

and my lips swollen and aching

But it is you

who have been marked.

photo by Daryl Edelstein

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Weekend Photo Challenge 
and Poetry Pantry #85 at Poets United

Fences

photo by Daryl Edelstein

In the neighborhood where I grew up

we all had chain link fences around our yards

to separate them from our neighbors' yards

But whiffle balls and frisbees

don't respect boundaries

and sometimes the fences had to be climbed

to fetch a stray

and return it to the game

Sitting on top of those fences

with my legs swinging in the air

I could see both sides clearly

They say the grass is always greener

on the other side of the fence but

it always looked the same to me.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Weekend Photo Challenge

Kissing the Ceiling

Kissing the Ceiling - Tamar and Noah (2008) by Fred Muram

I have heard of ghosts

who leave stains on the ceilings of houses when

their inhabitants are not looking

Tonight 

I will be the ghost

I will kiss your white tiled ceiling

and leave a blood red lipstick stain 

Come morning

when you open your eyes and

gaze up

I will be watching

Your smile or

your scowl will decide

whether I stay

for breakfast.

submitted for We Write Poems, Prompt #91, Kissing the Ceiling

My Interview at the Garden

I'm so excited! I feel like a celebrity! Check out my interview at Imaginary Garden With Real Toads. Susie Clevenger aka The Laundry Goddess, was kind enough to consider me interview worthy. Who am I to question her judgment?

The Stars Do Not Decide For Us

source

The stars do not decide for us

They are but flames that burn the night

They do not cast our fate but just

Reflect it back within their light.

Though we may wish upon the stars

The stars do not decide for us

We choose to become what we are

The cure for savage luck is trust.

A shining caracol and thus

Its twists and turns an endless game

The stars do not decide for us

And so our lives are much the same.

While Heaven's reach is far and true

And kneel before her strength we must

What we believe and what we do

The stars do not decide for us.

submitted for Poetic Bloomings, In Form Poet, Quatern

and Rosemary Mint, Monday Melting, Week 3

Dreams of Wisteria

by Margaret Bednar at Art Happens 365

The South rose in her blood like a fever
and northern winters were no anodyne
She needed the heat despite herself
She knew this as she knew her name
as she knew the wisteria blooms
kudzu vines
and long, grey fingers of Spanish moss
She dreamed Southern dreams
followed restless ghosts
sat under bottle trees of cobalt glass
and drank sun tea
She stared at her paleness in the mirror
and knew
that once the warm Gulf waters
run through your veins
you can never really leave.

submitted for Poetry Jam, You Can Go Home Again
and Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Photography Challenge for Sunday

Doodle-y Do!

An attempt at non-word art! I've been watching some videos on painting "doodles," and this is my first attempt. If nothing else, I had a blast making it!

Love Bites

From Boris Hoppek's Tokyo exhibit "Ever"

Am I pleasing to the eyes, love?
Is my skin glistening with
the luster of pearl?
Is my flesh fresh and firm?
And my scent
Is it clean and new?
I wish to be flawless, whole
when I offer myself to you, love
Then you will see
what competent and thorough work you do
when you tear me apart.

submitted for The Mag 101

Sweet Imagism

Nana's dresser
cracked white paint with
gilding rubbed thin
glass bottles of Opi stand
like multicolored soldiers
Inside
the smell of old lady lavender
utilitarian beige bra
and underneath, her stash
hundreds of little pink packets
Sweet n Low

submitted for dVerse Poets Pub, Meeting the Bar, Imagism

Damn These Breaths

underwater sculpture by Jason deCaires Taylor

I will follow you anywhere

I always have

for the sun is warm

only as it reflects in your eyes

and the air fit to breath

only as it blows through your hair

Damn these breaths

I do not want them

I am half alive without you

and waiting on the shores of Acheron

with a mouth of gold

and a ferry schedule

Sweet Eurydice, follow me home

or if not,

I will be content 

to stay forever with you

and I will never

look back.

submitted for The Mag, Mag 100

Hearteater

Love Itself by Tracey Mac

Young hearts you love to collect

Consume them and leave them wrecked

And you have not one regret

Is your own heart content yet?

submitted for Poets United, Midnight Snack, Vice Versa (Consume/Collect  Regret/Content)

Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Tanaga

Dreams of Earth and Heaven

image source

When ink stained twilight descends

I search for you, my divine succubus

Black lace angel

Guardian of my secrets

Wrap me tight in your raven feathers

that I wear the veins in your wings

like those of my own skin

We will fly later

Now is the time

for earthbound delights

The night is dying

and the moon fades in the sky

like milk into morning coffee

Before you leave

Please lay a feather

silken and jet

upon my pillow

and I promise to dream

of heaven.

submitted for dVerse Poets Pub, Open Link Night, Week 27

Choices

License plate on the car ahead reads
"It's a child, not a choice"
And I wonder
Has it really been 38 years since
I was granted the right to
my own body?
And I wonder
why I have to look
over my shoulder
in my rear view mirror
to see who's trailing me
to the clinic
And I wonder
why I have to dodge pamphlets
pushed on me like politician's handshakes
and curses thrown like middle school spitballs
We all make our choices

You say you choose life
so why do you paste a scarlet A
on the doctor's chest like a target
for the snipers to gun him down?
We all make our choices
is what you say
So what do you say
to the man who chooses to rape his daughter?
to the mother who chooses to pretend not to see?
what do you say
to the girl
a child herself
with shame and confusion growing inside her
like a cancer?
Do you choose to call her murderer?
Damn her to hell?
We all make our choices

And what of the child
whose mama chooses
not to feed him today?
Who wears last week's clothes
reeking of urine and
steals money at school?
Does he choose this life?
You cry over the lost tadpoles but
look the other way when the frogs die
in their formaldehyde ponds
another one pinned on the dissection tray
just another day
Go ahead
Slap a bumper sticker on your car
We all make our choices.

submitted for Poets United, Thursday Think Tank, Choices

My Pet Zombie

Although I have no idea what it is supposed to represent, I humbly accepted this Zombie Rabbit Award from Brent Wescott at Building Castles on the Beach.  Do check out Brent's blog. You will find a lively mix of  "stuff about fatherhood, teacherhood, musichood, writerhood, and other kinds of hood." You never know what the day's post may happen to be about, but you can be assured that it will be thought provoking, insightful, intelligent, and well-written. Thank you, Brent.

 In the spirit of Rabbit Zombiehood, I'd like to pass this award on to a few of my favorite blogs:

• darev2005 at Attitude and Pepper Spray who can somehow make working in a prison extremely entertaining
• Bryan M. White at Fabulous Atypical Ramblings of Nuclear Cheese, a group blog filled with utter nonsense, serious philosophical ponderings, crude jokes, silly photos, and just about anything else you can think of
• Fireblossom at Shay's Word Garden who writes the most breathtakingly awesome poetry you'll ever read. She should be famous.

Happy Birthday

source

Frosting roses atop her cake

Closing her eyes, a wish to make

Next year will be for her own sake

This slice she will not eat

Her preferences she will not fake

The roses are too sweet

submitted for

Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Kerry's Wednesday Challenge (a non- clichéd flower poem)

and Poetic Bloomings, In Form Poet, Rime Couee

The Farm

source

source

After a few tense moments, Molly and Jack learn what the American phrase "bought the farm" means.

submitted for Poetry Jam, Laugh in the Face of Everything

The Edge

The Lonely Cry by Ken Simm

I live on the edge

between reality and dreams

Walking the balance beam

here to there

there to here

Where paradigms slam and crash

like hot and cold

into a storm of thoughts

I inhabit the borders

between in and out

Do not try to follow me

for even if you find me

I will remain

solitary.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Sunday Photography Challenge

I, Mouse

Angry Mouse on the Phone by dl norton

Don't underestimate me

I may look unassuming

which is why you

will assume that I

am meek and mild

That

is a mistake

I may be quiet

but I am stealthy

You may not even notice me

watching

waiting

I keep my secrets

to myself

I can subsist on

crumbs

I am stubborn

persistent

I will destroy your house

piece by piece

I will disrupt your sleep

scritch by scritch

I will steal your food

and your sanity

By the time you catch me

there will be dozens more

to take my place

Don't underestimate me.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Fireblossom Fridays, The Animal Inside

Deadly Games

Lady of midnight

A flick of your jet lashes

and they come running

Black patent vamp

What do you promise

behind your ivory gauze curtain?

Long lithe legs

obsidian silk stockings tied

in lover's knots

around their bodies

Lost in ecstasy

they look up and catch

a quick glance

Crimson lipsticked smile

hungry blood red tongue

But I know who you really are

I've seen your scarlet mark

Your time is up

You may be a ravenous beauty

 but I'm one deadly bitch.

photo of black widow spider (now deceased) in our basement

submitted for Poetry Jam, Color Your Life

Down To the River

 River, Marina Moevs, 2005

You can give your sins to Jesus

You can wash them in the river

You can throw them in the ocean

But don't bring them to me

You can tell it on the mountain

You can tell in confession

You can tell it to a five buck whore

But I don't wanna hear it any more

Jesus may have died for your sins

but I'm not breakin' another nail

God may be callin' you home

but I'm lockin' the doors.

submitted for The Mag, Magpie Tales 98

      

Just Drive

How can you be so close
yet seem so far away?
When did you stop listening to
the things I try to say?
You say that you still love me and
I want to think it's true
But do you know me any more
and do I know you?

The longer silence lingers
harder to utter the words
But why say anything
when you're not heard?
And so another night
with words unspoken, thoughts unsaid
Starting to get numb now
to the hurt

How is it two people
who'd complete each other's thoughts
Now can't look each other in the eyes?
And why is it that even though
you say that I was right
I end up being the one who
always cries?

Where did we veer off the road?
Why didn't we see the curve?
Stupid thinking that we had arrived
Now we're stumbing
in the dark
Trying to find our way
Are we just too broken now
to drive?

for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Open Link Monday

Little Celebrations

photo of leaf by  Mark Kerstetter

The New Year came creeping in

like the dog into our  bed

I smiled and moved over to make room

No fanfare needed

Every day

little celebrations

submitted for dVerse Poet Pub, Poetics, Endings and Beginnings

Poets United, The Poetry Pantry

Sunday Scribblings, #300, New