Pigeon Superstition

source

You tell me that you love me

But you run so hot and cold

You hug me then you shove me

I just can't get a hold

You swear to God you need me

And then you walk away

You never wanna see me

Then you're beggin' me to stay

You're random with affection

I just can't seem to score

It's pigeon superstition

Keeps me pecking for more

You say that I'm so special

That no one else will do

But then I find your texts

with all the girls you wanna screw

You plead with me to keep you

You need me by your side

But I can't help from feelin'

I'm being taken for ride

You love me then ignore me

It's paradise or hell

It's pigeon superstition

and it's workin' so well

I love you and I hate you

You got me in a rage

It's pigeon superstition

and I'm stuck in the cage.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, The Tuesday Platform  and a very belated
Pigeon Superstition

Trespass

image by Banksy

I finally got you out of my life

Now stop trespassing in my mind!

You trample through my thoughts

like some pesky kid

who cuts through the neighbor's yard

back and forth from school every day

No matter how many times

I chase you away

You always come back

and always with

that stupid smirk!

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Flash 55 Plus

Scarecrow

artwork by Eoin MacLochlainn

You let loose your crows

to pluck the grains from my splintered heart

I stand in the field

cracked and open

Bones escaping skin

Blood colored earth

red clay beneath my collapsed form

A broken scarecrow

Plucked too clean

to even crawl away

I tried to protect what was mine

But your talons were razors

against my flesh

Your beak too acute

Go on and scatter the seeds

of my trust

Your garden will grow to be

such an attractive quilt of lies.

submitted for Sunday Whirl, Wordle 206

Forget Me Not

Wild Violets for Mother's Day
painting by artist Paul Wolber

Pink carnations at the prom

White lilies for the wedding

Roses on the five tier cake

The petals on their bedding

Honeysuckle in the yard

A garland on her head

Daisies in the garden with

the tulips bright and red

Perfume scented lavender

with just a touch of clove

Tucked within her diary

Saved mementos of her love

Violets pressed between the pages

from another life

Faded into memories

when she became a wife.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Bits of Inspiration, Floral Explosion

Beneath the Violets

source

Although he should have know he would get caught

His boundless arrogance encouraged him

He couldn't understand how he got got

Male vanity so often makes wits dim

Desirous of both the sun and shade

Well, you know how that greedy story goes

His rendezvous deep in a forest glade

He thought it secret but we know talk flows

They both confronted him with all his lies

Dried tears upon their faces cold as stone

Where trust no longer flourishes, love dies

For all his sins, he never could atone

He's buried in their yard beneath the lawn

The violets now grow brighter since he's gone.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Sunday Challenge, Bout Rimes

So Sweet

Super Powers by Howard Finster

I've got a devil on one shoulder

and another on the other

Baby, I try to be good

but it's so so hard

with these devils of mine

jabbering all the time

One whispers in my ear

for me to do wrong

and the other one, Lordy
it cheers it on

I listen for an angel

but she's been gone 

gone a long long time, baby

and I don't believe 

she's ever coming back
home

All of my sin
must've drove her away

just like you say I'm doing to you

I know you speak the truth, baby

but the devils got me tied

up in lies

But, baby, if you could love a devil

just a little 

I could take the heat, 'cause

Heaven knows,

burnt sugar is so sweet.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, What's Your Vision?

Half-Hearted

source

I tried to get you off my mind

You came to me in dreams instead

Awakened with you in my head

Convinced that I was not that kind

I told myself that I'd forget

Despite the years, I haven't yet

Afraid of feelings I might find

Avoided what I knew I knew

As I grew older, they grew too

Too far along to push rewind

A silly crush that wouldn't last

was relegated to the past

I wonder what I left behind

The passion I could never show

The part of me I'll never know.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Play It Again Toads #5, Kerry's Sunday Form Challenge, Constanza

Wanna Play?

Toril "Wanna Play"

You beckon

I come

Yes, I know better

and still, I come

You are a thief

a deceiver

You will always hurt me

and still, I come

When you look at me

with those pleading eyes

and that beguiling smile

I can't resist

Time and time again

I come

Trusting your words

more than my own knowledge

Such foolishness!

Still, I come

By the time I see

the glint in your eyes

it is too late

Your alabaster teeth flash and

encircle my neck

like a string of pearls.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Artistic Interpretations with Margaret, Art With Toril

Kite

source

I am a kite

My bones are weightless

I wear my flesh

like stretched silk

No blood runs

through my veins

Just insert a string

in the empty circle 

of my navel

I will fly

like a ghost

And you, fearless one,

will hear

the howl of the March wind

as it names my pain.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Flash 55 Plus and
The Sunday Whirl, Wordle 201

Hush

Hush now
You've had your chance to speak
Now it's my turn
I know what you did
I can see through
things more substantial than you, honey
Don't "Wait, baby, baby" me
I'm so not in the mood
You made me a promise
You broke that promise
'Nuff said
Now it's time to pay, lamb
Did you really think you were so clever
that I wouldn't catch you?
Or maybe you thought I was so lovestruck
that I'd forgive you?
Well, you were wrong
I'm not forgiving by nature
You should have known what I was
when you remarked on my eyes-
so chatoyant, you said
and how I purr when you stroke me
Well, you know what they say
about messing with the cat, cupcake
Don't worry
It will be relatively painless
and quick
if you don't struggle
You won't hear me coming
You won't see me
And when it's done
perhaps I'll present your broken body
to the next one who thinks
they can love me.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Sunday Mini Challenge, Promising
and Magpie Tales, Mag 258

Hoarfrost

It was the end of summer

that first time

We should have known

that something would grow

Everything was wild and

unrestrained

Death came

with the last of autumn's foliage

The maple leaves on the ground

red as blood

I raked them into piles

with a fury, desperate

to bring order to turmoil

It must have been December

when I noticed

my heart, covered in hoarfrost

like white mold

on a bruised strawberry,

untouchable and

spoiled.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, FB Friday, Winter

Sonnet For a Nightingale

source

I thought I heard the nightingale again

But it was only wind under the eave

I doubt that this cruel night will ever end

Should morning come, will it bring a reprieve?

You didn't leave a message, didn't phone

Your absence rings so loudly I can't hear

The night's the hardest time to be alone

But if I must, be kind and make that clear

If blinded to reality, deceit

may force a nightingale to sing all day

But hear the bitterness within the sweet

Its sorrow the false notes do not allay

You keep me in the dark with silent lies

I sing for you through tears and blinded eyes.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Bits of Inspiration, Nightingale

A Grain of Truth

photo by glitterdarkstar

You pour lies into my waiting cup

I drink them greedily

like an addict

They go down

smooth and warm

They feed

a lack

I know they devour

as they fill

Leave a bigger hole

in my soul

This is how I exist:

empty fullness

full emptiness

Craving more

You always oblige

I hate you

I want more.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Sunday Challenge, In Other Words

Put On Those Rose Colored Glasses

source

Hey, baby, don't be like that

When I told you there was no one else,

I wasn't really lying

You see,

I meant that there was no one else

worth mentioning,

No one else

worth getting you all upset about

See?

And it's over anyway, so

let's just forget all about it, ok?
Aw, honey

don't be like that

You know you're my girl

and "I gotta work late"

sounds so much prettier than

"I'd rather pull out all my teeth with your tweezers

than watch "Dancing With the Stars" again!"

I mean, do you really want me to say,

"I'd rather be shot through the face with bullets than have you kiss me"? or

"Your meandering hands feel like spiders crawling all over my skin"?

Yeah, I say, "Plant one here, baby!" and I smile

even though it hurts

C'mon, sweetie

don't go changing the locks again

I bought you some roses 

Naw, I didn't buy her any

She doesn't even like roses, 

and yours cost me way more!

Let's just go to bed, huh?

I'll pretend your dismal thrusting gets me off

just like I always do

I'm done with her

It's all about you now, baby

Wild horses couldn't drag me away, just like the song

I love you, baby

You believe me, right?

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, You Could Have Done Better, Out of Standard

and The Sunday Whirl, Wordle 177

Whale Hips

Whales have hipbones

though they no longer walk on land

The remnant of a past life

lingers

well beyond its usefulness

Perhaps this is analogous

to the love I still feel for you

and the hurt 

that

I haven't seen you

or talked to you

in decades

The past

imprints itself on the present

Vestigial feelings

Meaningless and wasted

Saved like an old sweater that no longer fits

but was once was so soft and warm

that you just can't give it up.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Obscuring the Truth With Facts, Out of Standard

Feline

You sneak up behind me
A cat after prey
Soft and silent
as night swallows day
You sedate with your purr
Rub your body on mine
Make me believe
You're a creature benign
Crystal green eyes
Reflect my desire
Give nothing away
of what will transpire
I reach out to touch
Pull back bloody and scratched
You walk away
Smug and detached.

Submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, FB Friday, The Art of Guido Vedovato

Here is the link to the painting that inspired the poem

The Leaves Have Eyes

The leaves have eyes

You think no one sees what you do

You are wrong

The leaves are thousands of silent witnesses

They write my story in bark etchings

that you can't decode

The roots remember everything

When you say that I best be careful or

you'll bury me in the ground where no one

will find me, I just smile

The trees will know

They're waiting for me.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, FB Friday: Seraphine Louis

Seabird

Alex Alemany

I gaze outside the window at the shore

I watch the water kiss the dock below

The language of the swells tells me there's more

than you or I could ever hope to know

A seabird hovers just within my reach

She seems to understand my restless need

These bars of your cold cage I long to breach

Your unrelenting claims I cannot heed

I'd offer you my heart to keep the peace

but you've no love for sentimental things

Your endless expectations never cease

You want me as your trophy, without wings

You say you love me but it is not so

It never will be, so now I must go.

submitted for Photo Prompt #7, "The Dove" at mindlovemisery's menagerie

You, Double

Source

What are words worth

when we wield them as weapons?

We whale on one another,

whisper wicked wishes

We're wretched wrecks

Why?

We were wonderful once

Weeks waxed and waned without worry,

warm and willing

Where are we now?

Waiting, weary

Welcoming winter.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Open Link Monday

Lessons on Lying

I was never really his friend
I hated his orangy hair and luminous pale face
his omnipresent cardigan,
the color of burnt cinnamon
But he came from a good family
I mean, from money
and I was not at all rich or romantic or polished
so I pretended to love him
The sex and all?
How I hated that stuff!
Kissing his spongy lips
was like diving face first into a container of raspberry Jello
But my philosophy was
to do whatever it took to escape
Little did I know
that he was waiting to escape too
and he did-
from his family
and from the dark alley of my dissemblance
When you least expect it,
someone grows up
and gets it right
I doubt if I ever will.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Next Stop Wonderland, in which we are asked to randomly open 3 books 3 times each, pick words that catch our attention, and use them in a poem. My 3 books were The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Catcher In the Rye, and the Orchid Thief.