Harvest Moon

image by gunel akhundlu

The moon is a bride

Ivory laced, she beckons

Autumn, her lover

Brings bouquets of red and gold

Leaves her at the altar, cold

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Harvest Moon and Tanka
and Poets United, Poetry Pantry 168

Absolution

For this Sunday's prompt, mindlovemisery asks us to choose a song from the decade of our birth and then write a poem inspired by the song. I grew up listening to my parents' original Broadway recording of HAIR (1968) and always loved this song. As a child, I'm sure I didn't understand the meaning entirely, but it moved me nonetheless.

This is the 1979 version by Cheryl Barnes from the movie. I think it's even better than the original.

You brought home strays

Tended to their wounds

Helped them heal

and loved them all the more for biting you

You forgave your father

for hitting you

You forgave your mother

for not stopping him

You forgave your sister

for leaving

You forgave your friends

for being traitors

You took every hurt

and made it a medal

to pin on your heart

But you could never absolve me

from loving you.

submitted for mindlovemisery, Prompt 4, Music and
Poets United, Poetry Pantry 150 and
Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Open Link Monday

Pay the Price

source

 In revenge and in love woman is more barbarous than man. -Friedrich Nietzsche

When I saw that number on your phone bill

You best bet that I dialed it to see

When I heard her voice pick up and answer

I knew that you had not been true to me

Don't believe I sat around and pouted

Don't believe I cried for very long

Revenge was on my mind, boy, don't you doubt it

'Cause I don't take too well to bein' wronged

You'll pay the price

'Cause you can't leave me

You'll pay the price

'Cause I'm all you know

You'll pay the price

When you deceive me

You'll pay it twice

'Cause you can't let go

You begged me not to pack my bags and leave you

You told me that I just misunderstood

You said you were just friends and made excuses

I shook my head and thought, "Oh, this is good."

You fell upon your knees and said you loved me

You pleaded with me for another chance

I watched you as you stammered and dissembled

Tried winning with your charm and your romance

But you'll pay the price

'Cause you can't leave me

You'll pay the price

'Cause I'm all you know

You'll pay the price

When you deceive me

You'll pay it twice

'Cause you can't let go

This all was a mistake, you tried to tell me

You hoped that we could put it in the past

You swore it was the last time that you'd call her

This may be a mistake, but it's your last

You'll pay the price

'Cause you can't leave me

You'll pay the price

'Cause I'm all you know

You'll pay the price 

You best believe me

You'll pay it twice

'Cause you can't let go.

submitted for Poetry Pantry 145 at Poets United

Hollow

"The Hollow Men" by T.S. Eliot, image source

 A hollow man

With hollow eyes

No one hears

His hollow cries

Though it still beats

His heart is dead

His hollow veins

Have all been bled

His hollow chest

 Just cannot hold

The warmth for love

He’s vacant, cold

His hollow mind

Tries to erase

That he has nothing

To embrace

His hollow fists

Clutch empty air

But he can’t really

Seem to care

His hollow head

Holds just one thought

His hollow life

Has come to naught

And as he takes

A hollow breath

Alone he dies

A hollow death.

submitted for Poetry Pantry, 140, at Poets United

Summer Girls

source

Do you remember when summer was summer?

Crazy with June we ran

Sticky fingers syrupy with popsicle drips

And tongues stained in shades of fake fruits

Daisy chain days

Crabapple happy

Hands clapping to silly sing-song rhymes

Trees climbed high to find

The perfect perch for our bird light bodies

Rainy days

Dancing in the drops that hit the hot street

And vanished with a sizzle

Shady days

Lying in the warm grass laughing

Daydreaming of the boys we loved

And loving the girls we were

When summer was summer.

submitted for Poetry Pantry 136 at Poets United

 

Baby Girl

Baby girl,

the black dog is at your heels

I can see it so clearly

The more you run,

the bigger it gets

I know you want to hide

but it will find you

The cur has followed our family down

Generations

Some have heard only its growl in the distance

Others have been devoured whole,

their bones spit on the ground

as a warning

You must face the dark, baby girl

Though your pulse thumps

Thumps thumps

like a rabbit heart

and your muscles are spring loaded
for flight

I try to take your hand

You swat me away, spitting

“Don’t touch me! You’re not helping!”

The rejection stings

Memories flood me like venom

All the times I couldn’t help you

Like when you emerged from the bay 

covered with jellyfish

Their stringy tentacles stinging and burning 
your beautiful skin

You screamed

Your father and I grabbed and flung

those hurtful creatures from you

but you never trusted the water again

and I felt I had betrayed you

Betrayed you

with my defective DNA 
that makes your eyes ache

and your temples throb with the relentless pounding

Pounding  pounding

Your own brain the enemy

You grow tired of fighting your own body

Why can’t it be easy?

It’s always so damn hard

And now I see you going down

for the third time

You push away 
anyone who gets close enough

to try to help you float

You’re angry

You’re scared

I wish I could just hold you

and make the demons go away, baby girl

The pain vanish

with a band aid and a kiss

I have no magic now
This is all I can offer:

I will face the dark with you

Stare down that mad black dog

that’s barking so loudly

you can barely hear yourself think

Baby girl, I can hear you

I’ve always heard 

even your quietest cry

like a siren in the night

And even though I can’t make your tears stop

I can give you my shoulder 
to cry on.

submitted for Poetry Pantry #129 at Poets United
and Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Open Link Monday

Lana

Your voice floats on the air

like the heat

of a Georgia summer

You are Spanish moss

Wisteria

You are night sweat

Your memory clings to me and I

become lost

in all that is you

I want to lay my cheek

on the pillow of your lips

I want to feel your breath

on my neck like a warm zephyr

I want to swim in the mysteries

of your eyes

and never rise for air.

submitted for Poetry Pantry 126 at Poets United and

Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Open Link Monday