Le Sang d'un Poète

The blood of a poet

is no more precious than

the blood of a child

the blood of a gangbanger

the blood of a survivor

The blood of a poet

is no more profound than

the blood of a mother

the blood of AIDS

the blood of transfusions

The blood of a poet
is not special

It is not art

It is only human

And that is enough.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Words Count With Mama Zen

60 Words

Ashes to forehead
Hand to the fire
Mold your own morals
Whatever's required

Pray to your God
Know that he'll hear
Hate all the others
The ones that you fear

Enter the church
Wearing your sin
Sit near the preacher
Welcomes you in

Spit out old hatreds
Blue, white, and red
They offer love
You shoot them dead.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Words Count with MZ, 

Don't

source

Boy, give me a burger

I don't want that ribeye steak

I need a little sugar, but

don't bake me a whole cake

I'll stain my lips with grape juice

Don't go pouring a French wine

I won't eat no lobster, but

your sausage mighty fine!

I don't need no gourmet dinner

I'm not really in the mood

Boy, you know just what I crave

I'm hungry for fast food!

69 words for Mama Zen's Words Count at Imaginary Garden With Real Toads

October

photo by songs of light

October is a cruel month

She doles out sunlight

like a petulant child forced to share her candy

Too hot to bundle up

Too cool to strip down

October relishes discomfort

She paints flowers and leaves

the color of dirt

just to remind you

that nothing lives forever.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Words Count With MZ, Personification

There Is Beauty In Small Things

There is beauty in small things

if we would stop to see

Pause upon a snowflake

with its fragile symmetry

Cherishing the commonplace

bestows it with sublime

There is beauty in small things

if we would take the time.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Words Count with MZ

True Confessions

Some nights

after the lights are off

 I fall asleep

while my husband talks to me

Sometimes

I wake myself up

and he doesn't even notice

Other times

I start to snore.

-----------------------------------------------------

I ate an entire box of Better Cheddar crackers

in one day

This happened more than once.

-----------------------------------------------------

People say

I'm a good listener

This is true

This is also true:

Sometimes

I pretend to listen

while my mind is elsewhere

I am good at this.

------------------------------------------------------

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Words Count w/Mama Zen

Are You Dreaming?

 Are you dreaming of me?

When you close your eyes,

do you see another time?

 When I lie awake at night, I wonder

Are you dreaming of me?

Do I keep you awake too?

Do you toss in listless non-slumber

on those nights I dream

of you?

Would one last kiss goodbye

Here or there

finally let me sleep

soundly?

 
59 words, submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Words Count w/Mama Zen, An Interview With Nathan Brown

Tweets

You are as deep as
my dog's water bowl
I looked into your eyes
and saw eye
No more.

------------------------------------------------

Lunch today with Mom
I had the Cobb salad
She ate my soul
Left a mess and
no tip
What a bitch.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Words Count with MZ, Twitter Poetry

Jewish Christmas Haiku

Oy vey, it's Christmas!

Let's do a movie and then

We'll get some Chinese!

submitted (late) for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Words Count with MZ,

Kitsune

source

They say that cats have nine lives
I have only one life but
nine tails!
With each year, I gain wisdom,
power,
cunning
Poor kitties!
To die eight times over
To be reborn ignorant and small
Watch me grow older and better!



submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Words Count With MZ, Sleepover Edition 

Kitsune is the Japanese word for fox.  Kitsune are a type of yokai, or spirit, believed to possess supreme intelligence, long life, and magical powers. Kitsune may have as many as nine tails. Generally, a greater number of tails indicates an older and more powerful fox. Some folktales say that a fox will only grow additional tails after it has lived 100 years.

Creepy Jump Rope Songs

One, two, three four

Someone's knocking on the door

Five, six, seven, eight

Pounding hard; don't make him wait

Eight, seven, six, five

Pray to God that you survive

Four, three, two, one

Time is up; he found the gun.

Pretty Penny, age of eight

Tread softly by the garden gate

Plucked a bloom though she'd been warned

Pricked her finger on a thorn

Crimson drops on petals fell

Heaven's milk turned wine of Hell

Sucked the blood so thick and red

Poisoned every word she said.

("Tread softly" is one of the common names of Cnidoscolus aconitifolius, also known as "finger rot" and "mala mujer." The plant has white flowers and is  almost completely covered with sharp spines, which can be irritating and painful to the skin.)

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Words Count With Mama Zen, Eight

Memories and Magic

image from cover of "The Ocean At the End of the Lane"

Go the pond

At the end of the lane

Think of the girl

Remember again

Standing inside

The green fairy ring

Nothing can hurt you

Forget everything

Marble of glass

Soldier of tin

Swallow the ocean

Breath it all in

Fight with the monsters

The sheets from your bed

Nightmares of grown-ups

Take root in your head

Childhood demons

Tore you apart

Banished, but still

Left a hole in your heart.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Words Count With MZ

and mindlovemisery, Prompt 15, Childhood Dreams 

(inspired by Neil Gaimon's new book, The Ocean At the End of the Lane)

Wish You Were Here

 source

 I carry you like my heart

I drink in your laughter

before my morning coffee

I wear your smile

as a cloak on rainy days

You are my own sun

No suitcase is big enough

to hold my love for you,

but as you were packing,

I slipped some in between 

your socks and shirts

to lighten your load.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Words Count with MZ, Vacation

Breathe

source

Naked morning light
weaves a seamless blanket
Thoughts depart
like a passing breeze
I float,
a sylph
no longer tethered
to ground
Breathe in
Breathe out



submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Words Count With MZ
and mindlovemisery, Prompt 5, Wordle Challenge

Spring Unprompted

photo source

April brings clouds,

dreamlike, ethereal, feathery

Gaining height,

intensely jeweled kites lift

May’s newly opened pink quince

Rain showers tease umbrellas

Violets, wisteria  xplode

Yellowweed zydeco.

submitted for 2 prompts from Imaginary Garden With Real Toads:

Words Count With Mama Zen, unprompted 

and 1 to 30, A to Z

Swamp Girl

image by Maria Sibylla Merian (Public Domain)

In the heat and thick of the mangrove swamp

Katie met a man

He was a stranger ‘round these parts

and had an evil plan

He didn’t know but soon found out

To his regretful shame

Don’t mess with a girl from the mangrove swamp

Calls snakes and crocs by name

They bit him bad then drowned him good

He sank into the mud

His body feeds the mangrove trees

The roots will drink his blood.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Words Count w/Mama Zen, Metamorphosis

Full Moon

Full moon
mocks the morning sky
Empty dinner plate
lays on the breakfast table
Night does not end
with the sun
I awoke alone.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Words Count With Mama Zen

The Agent

This room is

where you name stuffed animals

This room is

where you try on Mom’s lipstick

This room is

where you have first kisses

This room is

where you dream of the future

while your first love fucks your best friend.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Words Count With Mama Zen, Houses