Posts for June 15, 2025 (page 6)

Registration photo of A. G. Vanover for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Daddy Issues

How to reconcile
and wrestle into submission
the warring feelings
that he did the best he could
and he deserves grace
versus
I deserved more
so much more.
Turning a holiday that is celebratory of me
my sacrifices
blood, sweat, tears
into something bittersweet
lemon and one Splenda
in my tea.
I want to whip up a dust storm
a tornado tearing across the grassland
headed straight for him
but I can’t muster much more than malaise.
It’s not worth it
when I could turn that into determination
to break the fucking cycle.
Give those three little ones
what I always longed for
what they will always have
a present and consistent dad.


Category
Poem

Intuition

Look at the leader, 
oh, they don’t know either. 
What to do 
or what to say ; 
I’ll make something up 
if no one knows the way.

I won’t wait for someone else to guess.
I’d rather work through my own mess
than to blindly follow someone at best. 
I’d rather fail myself 
than listen to someone else 
who doesn’t know what they’re talking about. 

We all live with no map,
but I trust my judgement 
over someone else’s crap. 
There’s something inside of me 
that trusts myself over thee,
and it creates a wicked peace. 
On my own I will stand tall
or I won’t stand at all. 


Registration photo of Mary Potts for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Not Thinking About It

I am not thinking about it,
Nope, not thinking about today.
Not picturing the chair you’d sit,
Or how you’d beg us just to stay.

Nope, I won’t think about the days
When you’d rush me from here to there,
And not all the sayings you’d say,
Or how you’d tried to fix my hair. 

No, I’m not in the space for this,
Busy-body myself I will
All levels of thoughts I dismiss
Verifying, yep, I’m unhealed.

So, Happy Father’s Day to you!
And Happy Father’s Day to me!
The good ones, as we know, are few
And the best of them all just leave


Registration photo of Diana Worthington for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Despite Father’s Day

My father has a new family
has had, for years
The last we spoke, no joke
could undo the tears
of what it takes,  truth be told
to grow, learn,  and time so bold
The last words I said to him,  before
I stopped holding the floor, for
the small man that was my father

“You’re wrong about me
about everything
You can’t bully me anymore
I’m not your clone
I’m not your punching bag
As far as I’m concerned
I’m not even your kid
thanks, Goodbye”

I left
and I can’t remember now
what that man’s parting shot was
guess it doesn’t matter
I found a garden to grow in
Despite Father’s day
In spite of how it ought to be
This is how it is


Registration photo of Gwyneth Stewart for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Sandal Season

At last my feet can go about undressed,
save for a few modest straps
and a cushion under my soles. 

Toes, newly liberated, breathe free,
wiggle, flaunt their new paint job,
no longer stifled by socks and shoes.

My feet revel in no longer being cold,
love that they’re  not locked inside
woolen socks, fleece lined slippers.

Through their delight runs a thread
of nostalgia for the days when nothing
came between them and the dew-wet grass. 


Registration photo of Amanda Jatta for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

untitled

The night was humid

and my hair stuck to my neck
in damp clumps and curls.
There were no lightnin bugs 
on the way home,
but the moon hang low in the sky
and fog spilled across the fields,
like a sea that goes nowhere.

Registration photo of Philip 'Cimex' Corley for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

A Conservative’s Lament

A concert
of car horns on constant blast,
impassioned speakers,
and crowds of hundreds
casting voices into ethers–
ask me
anytime over the last several years
where a random June Saturday
in 2025 would find me,
it wouldn’t be here,
present, if not loudly decrying
a conservative president
in sometimes rain,
sometimes blazing sun.

Quiet, because I’m not yet deaf to
the conservative echoes 
laced throughout my upbringing,
which always more closely resembled
traditional Christian values.

Quiet, because I don’t come angry
but sorrowful
that what I once took pride in
now stands as a mockery
of democracy.

Quiet, because I’m still
not wholly convinced
that I’ll be accepted
if I share my whole truth,
though the Christian values
more accurately on display here,
even from those who don’t ascribe
do strengthen a human connection.

Then somebody nearby pulls out a camera.
I try to slink away but they ask
if they can take a picture.
In a split second, I have to discern
who I want to be to the world
who himself might need
a little more coaxing into comfort
given the places he is coming from.
But I didn’t attend this rally out of sheer curiosity.

It’s the natural next step
in a pilgrimage I believe
everybody should make:
to render mute the echoes that form us
and give rise to our own voices.

That picture may never leave a stranger’s phone.
Likewise, my singing
may never reach the concert,
but at least today,
I’m standing on the stage.


Registration photo of Ani for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

writing todays poem just to get it done

one day the words will come back

and the urge to write them

but for now i rest

i remember writing poetry

in the midst of chaos

standing room only beats drilled

above my head and all I could do

was trace the lines of each letter

from light to light

and now I sit in quiet rooms

and finally enjoy the silence

without much to say anymore

i just let the music play


Registration photo of Eric Willis for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

The Words

they come two quickly
sometimes
so that the edge of the pen
under [my] fingers
misses an item or too
requiring editing,
addition,
the respelling of terms like
to,
two,
or too
in this urgent need
to [tell] this page
of black lines
and bare, white space
something.
Something important.
Right now.
Today.


Registration photo of Patrick Miles for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

father’s day for a narcissist

the last time i talked to you 
was right before the election 
and you couldn’t say a bad word 
about him 

i should’ve known better 
than to try to reconnect 
i just wanted a relationship 
with my father 
and i know life 
is so fragile 

we used to be 
a family 
of four 
but now nick’s dead
mom’s carrying bus tubs 
at 2 AM 
but with someone who treats her well
i’m struggling to eat in new york 
and you’re with your other family 
or your new one 

you act like the phone only works 
one way 
because you know 
deep down 
i hate your guts 

in high school 
i’d watch noam chomsky interviews 
over the sound of fox news 
radiating through the air 
like a bomb 

i’d dream of disproving 
all your views with my 
perfectly worded responses 
i thought if only you could see 
it as i do 
you would understand 
where i’m coming from 

i should’ve learned then 
you didn’t have any interest
in seeing 
another side 

your gambling addiction 
isn’t all that different 
than your son’s addiction was 
but you didn’t let that keep you 
from holding it against him 

he was bi and you used to argue 
that gay marriage was a slippery slope 
because then people would try to marry 
animals

the last time i talked to you 
it had been a year since i had bet 
and you still made it about your lost 
bets from the day 

i told you 
you taught me 
how to lose money 
how not to treat a woman 
and how not to raise a family 
you said “yeah patrick 
that’s mature” 

i got tired of concealing 
the truth to protect 
your feelings
when you didn’t care about protecting 
anyone else’s 

i never heard you tell mom happy mother’s day 
because you said she wasn’t your mom 
so i can’t wish you happy father’s day
and ignore it all 
just so we can talk about sports
for a few minutes 
and you can make me feel bad
about where i’m at in life 

the other day i heard that the way 
you deal with a narcissist 
is to make them 

insignificant

so i’ll treat this as any other day 
i’ll think of you 

and say nothing at all