Seven Thoughts About Privilege

I.
Privilege
can walk down any street
No one
is afraid

II.
Privilege
can shop anywhere
Clerks say hello
Privilege isn't followed

III.
Privilege
walks behind people
who do not
quicken their pace

IV.
Privilege
orders a pizza
It gets delivered
to the door

V.
Privilege
wears a hoodie
People assume
it is just cold

VI.
Privilege
passes on the sidewalk
Women
don't clutch purses tighter

VII.
Privilege
says, "I don't see color"
It doesn't have to.

submitted for dVerse Poets Pub, One-Two-Three-Ten Word!

Black Out Poetry: The Heart

The heart

may be
deceptively
absent

Insidious,

presenting only
 loss

Absent

Alone

Fatal

Its nature-

irregular

tangled masses of

destruction/

response/

destruction/

response

Difficult

deeply buried

ground fresh

Growing

Healing

through time

(perhaps).

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Tuesday Platform (though inspired by a prompt I missed at dVerse Poets Pub about black out poetry!) I used one of my husband's outdated pathology books for this one!

She's Mine

I
am
Mama
Understand
If you hurt my babe
I will tear you into pieces
I would sink an entire ship
to keep the sea safe
for one fry
because
she's 
mine.



Artwork by Judith Clay 
 

submitted for dVerse Poets Pub, Poetics, Judith Clay and
Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Sunday Mini Challenge, Fib Poem

Penny Royalty

photo by Elena Kalis

 
She drowns under

the weight of mistakes,

consequences

Whispers a prayer to Selene,

Mover of tides

Keeper of rhythms

Prostrates herself

before her Queen

She knew the pain of lovers

She prays

to awaken

from nightmarish dreams

Please release

the threads

thin, but binding

Endymion sleeps

She sinks,

a penny in a wishing well.

Lyrics | Fleetwood Mac lyrics - Sisters Of The Moon lyrics


submitted for The Mag, Mag 182 and
Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Out of Standard w/Izy, Blue Moon Special and
dVerse Poets Pub, Meeting the Bar, It's Getting Tight In Here

On Observing a Hummingbird

(AP Photo/Terry Sohl) (2008 AP)

I watch a hummingbird feed

She seems so tiny and frail

She tends perpetual need

Her death assured should she fail

Her beak a threadlike syringe

Her heart drum rolls in her breast

She flits among flowers' fringe

Her wings too nervous to rest

A wisp, she timidly flies

The wind can shift her in flight

Her will, her slightness belies

For few won't fall to her fight

So close to life she must cling

A strength imbues fragile things.

submitted for dVerse Poets Pub, Form For All, Rhyme and Meter

and Poets United, Verse First, Difficulty

Thinking About Hydrangeas

photo by mindlovemisery

“He was more of a father to me

than my own lousy father,” said she

I wondered how bad it really must be

for an eight year-old to say those words

 so casually

Then she said, “Light blue

is my favorite color.”

Just another fact

And I pause to react,

“You really miss your grandfather.”

This is, after all, about grief

Speaking it to give some relief

So she speaks

Her words explode,

bullets searching for a target

Granddad let her spend the night

when Mom and Dad would scream and fight

Now she has nowhere to go

to escape the horror show that plays

itself out when Dad starts to drink

And she thinks he learned it

from his own dad

The cursing, that is,

The alcohol, too

And one time, he choked Mom

til she was almost blue

The dog is scared of him

‘cuz he get a little intense

She tries to make it all make sense when

anyone can see it’s just insane

“Are we going swimming if it starts to rain?” she asks me

And we’re off on something else now

and I remember reading about a flower 

whose color depends on the soil pH

What color will she bloom, growing in hate?

Who will nourish her now or

Is it too late

for this flower to flourish?

for this girl of eight? 

submitted for Prompt 13, Photo Inspiration, at mindlovemisery 

and dVerse Poets Pub, Open Link Night 106

and Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Open Link Monday

Prosthetic Conscience

Are you tired of feeling shame, guilt, and remorse?

Is your superego super annoying?

Are you letting your sense of responsibility 

keep you from doing what you really want to do?

Well, friends, help is on the way!

From the company that brought you “Bubblicious Boobs”

(they’re so round and perky they can be used as an emergency flotation device!)

and pioneered the medical and automotive service 

“Drive-Thru Facelift”

(get your face fixed and your car washed in one simple trip *)

We now bring you “Konstant Konscience,” 

the next wave in psychological enhancement!

Never again will your pesky, low tech conscience bother you 

with its “thou shalts” and “thou shalt nots!”

Konstant Konscience is a lifelike, prosthetic conscience!

You can now have the appearance of a fully developed conscience

without the constant badgering and morality!

In one quick and painless**procedure, 

our bored and certified surgeons***

will remove your old, outdated conscience

and replace it with a new, state of the art 
Konstant Konscience****

Within minutes after your procedure,*****

you will be able to enjoy the life you’ve always wanted to lead

without the nagging burden of contrition 

that has always held you back!

So, call the toll-free******number NOW 

and begin your guilt free life TODAY!!!

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 Let “Konstant Konscience” give you all the gain

and none of the pain!

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* waxing extra

** may involve excruciating pain

*** not actual surgeons but may use surgical instruments

**** Konstant Konscience contains no actual conscience

***** actual recovery times may be up to 2 years and may involve extensive physical rehabilitation

****** calls will be charged at the rate of $9.95/minute

submitted for d'Verse Poets Pub, Just Say What You Don't Mean, Irony 
and napowrimo, Day Four, in which we're prompted to write a poem using a spaceship name from the books of Scottish science fiction writer Iain M. Banks

and Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Out of Standard w/Izy, Film School Drop Out Edition