Untitled (for David)

image source

I travel the roads
Of you
Tracing well-worn paths
With my fingers
Over your brown skin, your muscles
The territory familiar
Warm, welcoming
Like returning to a favorite seaside haunt
Where the locals know your name
Where you know
the best pizza dive
and the creamiest ice cream
and can say, "Here is the perfect place
to see the sand dunes at sunset."
And you never want to go anywhere else because
You crave
that salt air on your face
that ice cream on your tongue
and your lips on my lips traveling over only you
Because nothing else could ever be
So good.

submitted for May Poetry Challenge, Travel, at Verse in a Nutshell

Mystique

The artist's paradox: 

image source

To capture a moment
To recreate it
     With paintbrush
     Pen
     Pencil
     Camera
Destroys the moment.

Putting a frame around it

means one is no longer

in the moment 

but an observer.

The mystique is gone
for the artist
but is evoked again
in others.

submitted for May Poetry Challenge, Mystique, at Verse in a Nutshell
and Poetry Potluck 36, Sketches, Images, and Impressions, at Jingle Poetry

Blue Pill Blues

image courtesy of Walter Parada

Economy's down

The budget's tight

We have to make some cuts

We'll lay off teachers

Reduce food stamps

Tighten belts we must!

And out health care

It's so wasteful

We can trim some frills

Use generics

Pre-approvals

Just keep our blue pills!

Diabetics

They can manage

Without their injections

But without

Our Viagra

We'll have no erections!

Fingers ache

From arthritis

Hurting to the bone?

We don't care

Meds cost money

We want groins of stone!

Who gives a damn

If some woman

Has another pup?

Birth control

Doesn't matter

If we can't get it up!

So go ahead

Cut our health care

Fix financial ills

But don't you ever

Touch our manhood

Give us our blue pills!

submitted for One Shoot Sunday at One Stop Poetry

and May Poetry Challenge, Healthcare, at Verse in a Nutshell

Help Wanted

image source

Families living in cars
Men sleeping on heating grates
     with newspaper blankets
Weary women begging for quarters
     so their children can eat
Fighting with dogs and rats for scraps of food
Nameless, faceless nobodies
Wandering the land of milk and honey
Stepping in sticky, dried puddles of beer and urine
Looking for streets paved with gold
Dying on streets covered with blood

submitted for May Poetry Challenge, unemployment, at Verse in a Nutshell

The Circus

When the circus came to town

We got tickets for the show

Underneath the big, striped tent

We sat in the top row

We ate some cherry sno cones

And we laughed at a sad clown

But when the acrobats came on

My tears came falling down

How can I explain it

That sometimes little things bring it all back

I'm sorry

I wish I could contain it

But sometimes my thoughts jump a train

Don't worry

It's just that I thought you would be the one

To hold me up if I should stumble

But you were holding someone else

And you just let me fall away and crumble

Now I feel like I am walking

On the high wire all alone without a net

And though I have forgiven you

It's still too soon to say I can forget

So let's just watch the lion tamers

Laugh at all the jugglers and the clown

And maybe I'll forget her name and

All the things you did to bring me down

And maybe I won't cry next time

I see the acrobats

When the circus comes to town

submitted for May Poetry Challenge, Circus, at Verse in a Nutshell

and Thursday Poets Rally, Week 44

I was given this award for Week 44 of the Thursday Poets Rally. Thanks so much!
I would like to nominate Olivia at  http://oliviasmindlymatters.wordpress.com/

for this award next.

http://promisingpoetscafe.wordpress.com/2011/05/22/the-perfect-poet-award-4-rally-week-44/

Bitch

image source

Call me whore

I'm not afraid to explore

My sexuality with him

Or with her

But with you, I defer

Your eyes can undress me

But you'll never possess me

Call me bitch

Yeah, that's rich

'Cause I speak my mind

And I'm not always kind

You can't dismiss me

So you try and dis' me

Call me a cunt

'Cause I won't do what you want

I'm nobody's slave

Don't tell me how to behave

You know you can't tame me

And I won't let you shame me

Think I'm a whore you can buy?

Go on, fool, you just try

This bitch'll bark loud

She is smart and she's proud 
I'm not feelin' contrite

This cunt's got teeth that can bite

submitted for May Poetry Challenge, Power, at Verse in a Nutshell
One Shot Wednesday, week 46, at One Stop Poetry

Record Breaker

image source

When I was a kid, I often would look
Through the pages of the Guinness World Record Book.
I thought that some day I would break one myself
And see my own name in that book on a shelf.
My plans about how to become such a winner
Were always forgotten when Mom called for dinner!

submitted for May Poetry Challenge, Breaking Records, at Verse in a Nutshell

Jasmine Tea

image source

Flowers on the tongue

Warm steam soothes away troubles

Drink in Heaven's scent

submitted for May Poetry Challenge, Liquid, at Verse in a Nutshell

Modesty (Please!)

You may think you're hot

A total hunk

But modesty's best

When you choose a swim trunk

Your body's as bloated

As your big, fat ego

I don't need to see it

In a tight fitting Speedo

So before you go out

To the beach for a dunk

Please show some restraint

And cover your junk!

submitted for May Poetry Challenge, Modesty, at Verse in a Nutshell

Blogger, You Suck!

Due to Blogger's little tantrum, I was unable to post anything for a while. To catch up with the May Challenge, here are my poems for May 12-14, dedicated to Blogger.

Words flow like water

But where do I put them now?

Blogger's down again

No satisfaction

I stare blankly at my screen

Must I use paper?

Relief is in sight

Blogger to be restored soon

With posts vaporized

submitted (late) to May Poetry Challenge at Verse in a Nutshell