Ayesha: Favorites

Aug 2021 Ayesha

Paul Idiaghe

Surely, that sunset is only
his lemon heart falling down

the globe. Love, how you draw the red
from his aorta, smear it

over his center. Surely, this slow sneaking
darkness is only ink spilling to grieve

his beloved—see how metaphors rip that fluff
to constellations; their twinkle would trace

her torso; her treasures; her tales.
& earth would shut its mouth

to listen to his star-studded silence,
would stare as color fades

to soul. Surely the sky is not
so different from me.

this title is a line from Sylvia Plath.

#sky #color #sunset #heart #love #night #ink #constellations #silence #soul

Aug 2021 Ayesha

To My Future Son

Aug 2021 Ayesha

Paul Idiaghe

To My Future Son

Still, you are a muted morning
cradled like a mango—yet

to yellow—in the basket
of my ribcage. May your tongue

have no take from
these tomorrows that taste

of teeth. Dawn where the red ash
stings, fetch your face

from the flames;
if you are fleshed with mine,

flay it off—slowly
you would bleed your own

light. If the night
strips itself of its black dress

and hangs it on your heart,
do not be afraid

to wear it. & When
the weight of your warmth

brings the dust *******
your knees, kiss

me back, & heal,
rise still.

Aug 2021 Ayesha

The Window

Aug 2021 Ayesha

Paul Idiaghe

The Window

you are the hand
hauling back
my cries. my mother’s
mother hardened
from dust.
you are almost
my eyes.

you are not sky
or frozen air.
i suspect
you have no skin.

love is my left
wing smacked
on your pane
that i mistook
for an open door.

i let the nights
do their undoing
of my feathers into light.
maybe this way
you would welcome me.

written after Diane Di Prima’s poem on the same title.

#window #unrequited #love #festers #bird #wing #light #sky #air #skin

Aug 2021 Ayesha

Lil fear 🚩

Aug 2021 Ayesha

Delton Peele

Lil fear 🚩

Hot august night
I stand alone
Basquing in soft moonlight
Upon a mountain high
Emerging from solid granite
That which is too often
taken for granted .... ..
Ice cold pure

Life giving elixir
Undaunted little snow melt  stream trickles
Glistening ......

Into a deep pool
...and
in
Dropping
To one knee ....
I think of Guideons men
Keeping my head up
As my hand dipped in
It was here I actually
Felt my heart stop ...
.      . .     .
I like to fancy my self a mountain
Man..
I'm not
But I'm also not a
CITIY-OT
(Thank you Terry and Twila)
An something for sure
More burdened by gravity
Than me
It
Was
Bi-pedal
Cobble sized stones
Underfoot like
***-gravel
.....
Unrecognizable
Low frequency grunting
20 SECOND STRIDES
MY EYES WENT BLACK
INVOLENTARILY
LIFE ENDING SCARRY
my heart stopped
Instantly
..
Squeezed my chest
To stop me from breathing.
At this level of fear
Every part of you  body
Becomes independently
Gob smucked
At you're stupidities
Ears ringing
Nostrils flared
Dizzy
listing ,
In disbelief completely at what I just heard
Not even a thought
Was brave enough to caught thinking a thought
Branches cracked
.. . ..
Three count them three full strides.
I still feel it ..
To speak of it ...
My skin bumps and tightens .
I actually feel my veins hurt.
Inside my elbows and wrists
That stinging feeling
You get
When someone pulls the hammer
And the barrel touches you're skin.
Fingers on the trigger
And there not stable
I don't care
How Billy bad *** you are
It burns
Like if it was capable
That part of you would abandon ship...
Believe me
4
miles up
jagged trails along cliffs
Un-lit.
The only other way .
......jump...
Ten seconds gone by
Heart goes
Ka-thunk
I swear I could hear it
And the blood
Goes ka..wishhsss
And then stops
As
My whole
Body says
***
Are you serious
Now I am
Serious - lee.
Ish
Considering the jump thing
Ya know if I could maneuver
Like the parachuters.
And fly till I found a soft
Deep river .....an...
Maybe
...
Ridiculous
And then again
Ka thunk ..
Kawishsss
Almost as if it were a swallow
Like ya know my heart
Is goin Gulp
*** are we gonna do
And stopped again
Now my skins crawling away cause I heard it breath .
Im
Not doin this
We
Meaning my body parts and I
Heard something
And as we were
**** clinched
Frozen like a statue of glass
Trying to digest this
And while listening
We succumb
To the paralyzing
Fact .
That.

It ...
Is
Also listening

My face 3 inches off the ground walkin on finger tips
Like the grinch .all the way to my truck .
Like literally  my heart and guts an everything
Huddled together silently.
Shaking
Holdin each other peakin out my back like it was a tail gait.
Even the three or 15 times
I ran my face into a rock or tree
It was without sound
Not one milli second lost in righting my self and catching every rock stick whatever
Placing it quietly at the sound of speed.
Bleeding
...honestly ....
Every injury
Every one
I issued
I O U's
Un locking my truck took centuries.
Finally I yelp as I get in .
Thinkin I'm in the movies and
It's gonna get me..

Dead battery .
Day light emerging
I'm bright eyed
Bloodshot
Covered in sweat .
But bright eyed
Back  packer comes out of the bushes screaming
***.

PLEASE
TELL ME YOU GOT
SOMETHIN
TO. ...

DRINK !
?
I said ya
You ok
He says yah .

Wuuuul no
I m hella hung over and thirsty
I said you didn't hear anything?
He said .. .
WAdda ya mean..

No more smokin *** and camping
Alone

Jul 2021 Ayesha

Torso and Tug

Jul 2021 Ayesha

Paul Idiaghe

Torso and Tug

I never meant to fall

but sunrise greased your chassis.
The crest and fall of your jaw—

the blade and bend of it,
mudslide contouring of it—

dropped me ribless at your feet.

O promising land, crisp field
of flesh, whose fireflies

steered my eyes in the darkness—
your land, where my eyes had strayed—

scaled over eolian caves, the slick
basins of your clavicle, onto
the hexa hillocks clustered
like honeycomb chambers
on your abdomen.

I never meant to fall,

but the cursive lines of you,
I might have trod with loose eyes—

even now, there is a voice
drawing them to strike
at the aquifer beneath your waistline,

voice of vined thirst,
of torso and tug—
with them, I struck and drowned

after ‘Waist and Sway’ by Natalie Diaz

#nataliediaz #torso #queer #lust #desire

Jul 2021 Ayesha

Symphony of Sirens

Jul 2021 Ayesha

Brett

Symphony of Sirens

My only hope today, is that rain can wash
The rusted colored stains of blood away
Dirt; like Earth, caked upon my face
Hides the smile
          Buried down beneath
I sit stranded in the sand
My hell a carousel shore; forever trapped along a beach
The waves here, don’t swell and crash the same
They linger static like a message never read
                 Tell me then; wherein lies the difference
Between a broken heart and being dead
Every touch is cold, the only warmth I’ll ever know
Has been swept away, down the cloudy gray gutter drains
Like little villages lost to hurricanes
          No trace or tracks to lead me back
To the boy I was before
This lonely island lacks a dock
No passing ferries and only planks to walk
A salted sea of crooning souls beneath, call for me to join the deep
This symphony of sirens
Draws me ever close to silence

#songs #music #soul #life #death #alone #love #pain #poetry #art

Jul 2021 Ayesha

I Want To Build A Rocket Ship

Jul 2021 Ayesha

Brett

I Want To Build A Rocket Ship

I want to build a rocket ship, but this full moon blanket,
keeps me tangled up in bed.
Maybe a sun shower ,will birth a rainbow,
and I could build a bridge with that instead.
A walk with the weather, may be what I need,
to clear the clouds above my head.

The soggy sounds of rain, strum the chords,
that sing a song inside my brain.
A violin or guitar riff, to untwist the tornadoes,
my heart’s stuck with.
Who needs the stars, when I’ve got the sun,
to shine for me when bad times come.

My sandy feet always have the waves, to wash away,
the darker shades of cloudy gray.
These lonely lips even have a kiss, and the warm caress,
from her outstretched fingertips.
I want to build a rocket ship, but today,
I’ll just exist.

#earth #home #heart #love #climate #peace #together #flowers #fields #poetry