Posts for June 23, 2024 (page 3)

Category
Poem

sit With me and rock awhile

the rain fell quickly this evening
just after you would’ve come to the porch
flowers danced as drops landed on petals
leaves of our Chinese maple hissed
it’s so big now, and I remember how
when we moved in you could see over it
to the side street across the way
now past the roof it blocks our view
so we pretend we’re in the country
instead of a subdivision on the outskirts
our neighbors wave in between the tree
and the gap still there for our walkway
it’s ideal really, not too closed in
certainly not open open enough that
everyone can glimpse our personal space
it affords us the time to bond between
that imaginary home place inside a door
and the unknown world outside beyond
screens we put up to separate them
it’s, in truth, a compromise
thats not as bad as it sounds
when the rain hisses and the lights go out


Registration photo of l. jōnz for the LexPoMo 2024 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Among the mad?

some of us
do go
mad

even after
the booze
& the laughs

the music
& the lights

the prayers
& the meds

all in a world 
that seems

to condemn
anything
real

it surprises me
many more
of us

don’t admit
we are
mad

too

 


Registration photo of Sam Arthurs for the LexPoMo 2024 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Lightning Bugs

Rising from the earth
Moving through trees
A thousand flickering
Stars that we can hold
In our hands 


Registration photo of Amy Le Ann Richardson for the LexPoMo 2024 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

When It Feels Like Satire

Maybe I should’ve listened at the bee sting
between my toes yesterday evening

before bats were summoned to fly
low rings around my head

while I duck in fear and shame.
Before I crouch down,

then belly crawl across the hardwood floor.
Before I stare in awe on the other

side of the glass watching their wing
beats while they circle like a mobile

looking for a way out.
Before I begin to wonder if

I know anything at all.


Category
Poem

let her?

there are illusive monsters in
the gloom, nails and teeth,
lurking, menacing, tracing
the curve of my hip,

the soles of my feet,
shh, don’t tell,
figments that fade in the light,
morning, gasp awake shaking, cursing
the vampire that sucks away
my viscous, slippery
nightm   memories?   nightmares
 
no one gives credence to horrors
in the bed
 
ghastly thing I am
 
today, I dreamed instead,
and the vampire let me hoard
the substance, a voice, mine,
pleading,
nails and teeth retreating,
the advent of noon-day light’s
kind eyes
 
a certain memory
 
at night
and so the shapeshifter has a full face,
half cruel, half gleaming
 
but things don’t have voices like that
ghastly thing I am
 
for if compelled, how can I cry wolf?
gravity is no one-sided force
she still pulls I draw her in
and I ached the bed
was dim I didn’t
see didn’t I
let her?

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Category
Poem

3-Part Haiku (Place of Worship)

I don’t give in vain
I hope God understands that
Includes tithes and dues

Because when I see
The house the Lord built turn folks
Away at the doors

You will have to prove
That this rock is a safe place
For all who seek rest


Registration photo of D'Rose for the LexPoMo 2024 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

The Places I am From

I am from a parochial school background, 9 years in elementary and 4 years in high school,
I am from living in small places and spaces that forced us to be close; going out to dinner every Saturday night for no special reason and seeing a double feature at San Francisco’s famed Fox Theatre,
I am from saving spare change in a large jug so we could shake hands with Mickey and Minnie Mouse,
I am from garlic and basicilica, raviolis and pasta and homegrown pomodoros with handmade meatballs every Thursday night,
I am from Hail Marys and Our Fathers, Good Acts of Contrition and Stations of the Cross,
I am from gotta go to work, get two jobs if you hav’ta, we all had to do it, remember tell the truth, do your best and keep your nose clean, 
I am from a tiny island of olives and lemons in the Mediterranean; and German dairy farmers and mason carpenters from the Emerald Isle,
I am from deep family roots with a sangue mio credo never to be severed no matter what!
I am from a gift of gab, garrulous laughter, a fightin’ spirit and why don’t you eat’a sumpathin’!
I am from a world of Peggy Lee’s Fever and Dean Martin’s When the Moon hits your eye likea Big Pizza Pie that’s AMORE!
I am from football pools, flying wingtips, white socks to fight athlete’s feet and pink boxes full of hot cross buns,
I am from blue ribbon elephant garlic, eggplant parmigana, frittata and sweet French smoothered in Challenge butter,
I am from are you going to write fiction or non-fiction?
I am from simple folks, post toasties and milk in MJB coffee and boxes of red vine licorice,
I am from you can do anything you put your mind to and remember we’ll always love you no matter what!


Registration photo of Emily Brown for the LexPoMo 2024 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Writing the Blank Page

The ink of a cheap gel pen smears across the
page as I furiously attempt to capture what
those before me have. The words they wrote
captivated me into believing that I also could
create literary beauty in minutes. The letters
from two lines ago continue to smear into
complete nonsense, yet the story flows into
my brain and onto the page too fast to stop.


Registration photo of Conundrum for the LexPoMo 2024 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Lesson From My Garden II

What starts off as a seed, becomes a seedling, with little starter leaves.  Then, it gets it’s true leaves.  With fruit-bearing plants, such as tomatoes, okra and cucumbers, once they begin to flower, the blooms become fruit.  

As a mother, it reminds me of my children, my seedlings, which became flowers and bloomed and are HEAVY with fruit.  From the flower, which is me, I bear GOOD FRUIT!  If I CONTINUE to consistently water and tend to MYSELF like I do these plants, I will CONTINUE to produce GOOD, LIFE-SUSTAINING fruit!  


Registration photo of Victoria Woolf Bailey for the LexPoMo 2024 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

American Sentence – Clouds

Clouds of dark memory threaten to storm, with each new drop, long-gone rain.