Stay near, but watch your step.
I am old in weeks, yet strong in numbers.
You and I aren't that different.
I have veins, and skin. I am rooted,
as a ship in the harbor, to where I
plan on staying. It's been hard lately...
Many friends have made the long trip
down. Sometimes, meeting death near home,
sometimes the gusts of fate carry friends,
like Franklin, far out of sight. I feel like
I'm near my end. I look down and smile,
on a calm autumn evening,
as I snap and fall free to the reunion pile below.
Dec 29, 2021
Dec 29, 2021 at 10:42 PM UTC
I can't believe this is happening...
What reason can come from this?
I cannot marry her...
My bride has betrayed me.
She has milked this secret for long enough...
It didn't slip out, it barged into the field:
A runaway horse, bucking and snorting.
How could she...
She was my life...My healer...
Now, bruised with heart bleeding,
I confront her by getting in my car
and leave the venue.
She doesn't need me. She has Dave.
She'll be fine.
Dec 29, 2021
Dec 29, 2021 at 10:34 PM UTC
Home is in the middle.
In my youth, I climbed the trees there,
I walked and played with my finest friends.
Weary with the weight of my kin,
the trees sway in the open breeze.
Almost as to sing me
home.
Recently, I took my love home.
In the clear of night,
on our backs - gazing into the
deeps of stars and nothings.
Looking at everything.
A tear runs down past my ear,
and I realize...
I was never home
until now.
Dec 29, 2021
Dec 29, 2021 at 10:25 PM UTC
I. Standing on the peak of a tsunami wave,
all I can think is
that I'm dreaming.
II. I was three-legged,
like a stool,
sitting atop my dream.
III. I fell from the sky into
an ocean vortex
which, dreaming, was simple.
IV. I saw my love, who died last year.
She and I are together as I dream.
V. My dream paints a ****** mess,
and the heaven I do not know.
I cannot say what is more beautiful...
VI. Sitting in a log cabin by the frozen lake,
a bird flew in and sat on my knee.
I asked him his name. "Dream," he said.
VII. In the wheat field,
I stand with all of my family.
All family is all I have ever
dreamed of.
VIII. She told him his accent
was dreamy.
I have heard her with his accent
in my dream.
IX. I woke up refreshed,
and my dream fluttered away
with the flock
of my neighbors'.
X. When I realize I'm in a dream
I'm horrified with pleasure,
and corrupted by fantasy.
XI. I was sitting on the beach,
and I thought my hero was
walking my way.
I got up and ran to her,
but she was my childhood friend...
XII. I don't feel fear.
I must be asleep...
XIII. I lay next to the woman I love,
holding her hand, sleeping.
I awaken from my nap
as she phones me from Italy.
Dec 29, 2021
Dec 29, 2021 at 10:14 PM UTC
In high school, I didn't
have much luck with girls;
but I always have been
brave. One day, a friend
suggested I ask this
jewish girl out - that is -
to be my girlfriend. She
was cute and athletic,
and I had courage. I
simply walked up to her,
and asked.
I don't remember thinking
much of it - I just walked up
and opened my mouth.
Something I don't
understand about girls
is how they sometimes
already know what's coming.
She gave me a reassuring
countenance, and I went back
to being alone.
I had a lot to learn
about wooing.
She said no.
I just wish I didn't
trip and fall down
right before
I asked her.
Dec 29, 2021
Dec 29, 2021 at 9:42 PM UTC
Next to sorghum cane
I dance with my love
and look up.
The autumnal breeze
Pushes her into my chest a little.
We giggle softly.
Our eyes sway romantically in unison,
and I remember
what's happening above us.
I point up.
She looks
and I feel her heart flutter.
The midnight sky
is blanketed in comets
with fire tails
igniting the River of Heaven.
And, when she turns around for another embrace,
for a second
she can't find me.
But, that's only because
I'm in the dirt and leaves
on one knee.
Dec 29, 2021
Dec 29, 2021 at 9:23 PM UTC
Tecumseh's
obsolete
who once
pillaged and bent iron
railroad tracks
and scorched onetwothreefourfive citiesforfreedomsake
Jesus
must have been in that army
and all i need to know is
why you didn't run to the sea
Mister Sherman
Dec 28, 2021
Dec 28, 2021 at 7:21 PM UTC
I wait for my colleague at the cinema.
He and I just met at the office on Monday.
I brought up Guys and Dolls, and
he said he saw it on the big stage.
I knew I had a friend.
I think he's finishing his work
on the Miller account.
They tend to procrastinate
their governmantal dues.
It has been sixteen years
since my last trip to the cinema.
My father, Colonel Jim Stanley
of the United States Air Force,
died towards the end of
The Pirates of Penzance...
In the years since I got married,
and Molly has been good
for my healing.
Recently, though, we have
been strapped for cash.
Infants will do that.
Jim might pay, but that's if
he's nicer than I realize.
Just because a man likes a
good musical doesn't mean
he can cover the show.
He is a hard worker, though.
In what little I've seen,
he is fierce and deliberate
behind the desk.
Jim is going places
(while im strapped to the ground,)
but at least tonight he is coming to see
South Pacific with me.
Maybe the cinema will be kinder
to me than the last film.
The father died in a plane crash
and his son, Jim Jr., was devastated.
Dec 28, 2021
Dec 28, 2021 at 7:14 PM UTC
Water-winds encircle me
(and I do not have control
over Hurricane Despair
as it rips apart my soul...)
Is this all I have left now?
(as I crumble to the floor
that I used to call "foundation")
Is The Son beyond the shore?
Looking up beyond this chaos
(to a sphere beyond the haze),
a vessel broken in the darkness
feels the lights of Heaven's gaze.
And a holy voice (descending
through Despair's eye to my soul)
speaks to me in veneration:
"Master your fate. Captain your soul!"
Dec 28, 2021
Dec 28, 2021 at 6:53 PM UTC
Cougars. Hawks.
Purple. Red.
Tonight is the last night we meet.
With two seconds left, I stand
on the freethrow line.
The game is in my hands.
Miss one, and we lose.
At seventeen, my blood furnace
churns relentlessly with fear.
The student body-
heavier than I ever imagined-
is on my shoulders,
like a torture harness.
I feel one mile under water, and
my head is about to implode from
the pressure.
The ball is in my hands now.
Looking at it, my fingers are quaking
and my wrist becomes stiff.
(Remember the routine...)
The first goes in,
and I hear the building explode.
My ears are ringing, as if a grenade
went off under the basket.
Okay...One more...
Time moves like a horse in quicksand,
if the quicksand were cement.
Here's the ball again...
The gym is silent.
(Bend the knees, snap the wrist...)
All I hear is the ball
as I spin it in my hands.
I bounce it, and shoot.
Miss...
All happiness drains from my body.
I feel the emotional sludge
seeping into my bloodstream.
I can barely walk...
My legs feel dead, or sick, or both.
This was my night to be a hero,
but that basketball stabbed me in the chest.
I collapse psychologically.
I just crushed the hopes of hundreds...
Tormented, I stare at the rim,
fifteen feet from a victory I will never win...
Dec 28, 2021
Dec 28, 2021 at 6:39 PM UTC