Posts for June 29, 2022 (page 2)

Category
Poem

Through Street

faded graffiti 
covers the walls of my heart
abandoned alley


Category
Poem

Truly Alive

Sure, your heart pumping

Or your lungs breathing

Let’s you know you’re alive

But everyone has that,

What makes you feel truly alive?

For me, it’s laughing until you pee

Eating ice cream in dead winter

Driving with the windows all

The way down at night

Singing to strangers as I drive down the street

Hugging for longer than needed

Exploring every mountain and every lake

Holding someone’s hand and

Feeling every wrinkle and callus

Not planning too much of the future…

 

What about you?


Category
Poem

Patience

Waiting for a bloom,
unfolding velvet white whorl, swirl,
ambrosial essence,

waiting to be entranced
by effusive sweetness,

I coax, plead for
a blossom,
intoxication. 


Category
Poem

Cinquain for the Beech and the Katsura

Cut down

               growing too bold

cracked brick     lifted flagstone

             trees conspire to swallow

     my mother’s home until the last

                  today.


Category
Poem

a brief introduction to flawed friendship

-for a.m.l.

you say you could write a how-to
guide for me: sulking—upset,
not expressing why; hands
crossed, laying tightly on their lap—
needs to pee; is being short—hungry;
& you go on & on

i order strawberry ice cream; you were rushed—
go get the one you really wanted, just remove the nuts

i picture you, legs crossed,
face down on the bed, asleep,
half-melted ice cream (cheesecake or
peanut butter) on the table nearby,
& a home shopping network still playing
on the t.v. (it’s your comfort show)

months pass between us, but i see you again,
& wasn’t it just yesterday when we saw that sunset, sang that song?

sometimes, there isn’t much left to say,
so we just talk, nonsense, really, &
the grief flows from our lips: i think this is
just a one-way
; oh, he has red hair, & your hair’s
redder today, too; isn’t there always a car there?;
let’s take the long-way, i like this drive

you run your hand just above my arm;
i just like feeling your goosebumps

how did we even get here? when it feels
like it’s always been like this, that we’ve
always burped & farted & gagged & laughed
& screamed—made silly noises & said silly names—
we haven’t always been children, but i think we’ll die 
& become the same patch of moss on the creek bank

you begged to come up to my room;
you wanted me to be safe—i had scissors

&, despite time, i ask myself:
how do you still love me
after all that? i swore at you,
up & down the streets of manhattan,
threatening to injure myself, leaving
you in tears

you regulate well now, & it’s just not you, you say,
i know you too well to be fooled by our hurt


Category
Poem

CAPTIVITY

Benzodiazepines for relief,
clarity in all things disparity,
I posit my early twilight
after annihilation of gray matter
as though this avatar of mine matters
more than other forms of matter
damnable hubris of ego.

Consciousness defends
arrangements of the moment,
swimming upstream toward cosmic fission,
salmon chasing eternity in small sips,
squint into magnificence of infinity for a glimpse,
squirt roe in mounds of English rows

fulfill biological purposes
for you other dying fish to read over,
breed their own ideas in turn as if anyone cared,
and I can’t stand to read other poetry,
other poets comforting other floaters
as the River cackles at how the dying tackle
meaning in carcasses caressed in rotting current
over and over
and over and over,
how will you curry favor 

as you disregard
Her,
me,
to think you’re something unique?

Category
Poem

American Sentence- Old Man

All I really want is for Jeff Bridges to make me some scrambled eggs. 


Category
Poem

Lines

Are we romantic?
We’re certainly fluttering

each time we disturb each other’s hair,
finding a chance to dictate
a care for our company;
yet we’re so obviously complicated.
I’m combing through reasons why
we are not an item
and I’m not sure if they matter.
We stand in vibrations underwater
and reminisce about how much
we loved the grouper
floating around with her aquarium friends
and you cry into my shoulder
as you remember your friends gone away.
As I write this you walk in the room
and my brain smiles because of your voice
but I’m not sure.
Are we romantic?

Category
Poem

fixing fried green tomatoes in the air fryer

I know,
they’re not like mamaw used to make
or like mine, when I mixed
the requisite bacon grease
with the spirit of my ancestors, and
they’re not like the ones at that
new shiny food truck downtown
or thick-sliced restaurant ones
on the ‘whistle stop’ burgers
they’re just adequate, tangy,
with that sight crunch from
the cornmeal coating,
a throwback to days gone by
and all I know is that we,
and probably mamaw if she were here,
call it pretty tasty


Category
Poem

Red Rover

Red Rover 

Red Rover

send him over 

will we regret our decisions 

our barrier  weaker than expected 

the weight of a man 

stepping on my neck 

compared to 

the velocity of this boys body 

breaking my wrist 

I strength my grip 

he falls back 

Red Rover 

Red Rover 

This isn’t over