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640 · Sep 2020
Dead Seas, Go Quietly
Carlo C Gomez Sep 2020
In the lull
Of our constricted voice

In the hushing
Of our sullen realm

In the finite
Of our broken hinterlands

A watermark
No, rather

A barrow
A grave

Without inscription
Only handprints

In memoriam
Of the receding surf

Never heard
Never reached
Carlo C Gomez Nov 2019
The next person blasted into orbit
should probably be a janitor,

What with all the piles of trash
and stacks of dishes,

Why there's even
a vacuum in space.
637 · Nov 2019
Minutemen
Carlo C Gomez Nov 2019
Ole ye fast & faithful fighters
Of well-planned strategy,
Thy weapon ready,
And not a moment to waste,
In many ways revolutionary,
A credit to rapid deployment
In the clutch,
Lauded by thy colonies,
Thy wives?
Not so much...
637 · Mar 2020
Murder by Numbers
Carlo C Gomez Mar 2020
When the volcano erupts
they blame the gods,
it's a common theme.

Blood thirst is contagious
as one and all turn to
homicidal maniacs.

Witches, thieves,
philosophers, princesses.
Burn, stab, bludgeon, maim.

See here! The winds
of change bear arms.
Fear and loathing have no friends.

A prima facie they call an act of war.
But cold-blooded ******
is the criminal de facto.

Heathens in chaos
can offer no justification
for unsacred slaughter.

It's methodical
and evil as the Tempter.

A flag to hatred
when they'd given allegiance
upon the heads of their children.

And so, the sins pass from father
to son, mother to daughter.

The acquired taste for blood
will one day claim them too.

These very same kids
will smoke mom and dad
with the same zeal and spite
they butchered the collective royalty.

Listen!
Barbarism begins at home.
636 · Sep 2020
As She Died at the Window
Carlo C Gomez Sep 2020
Wintersun
entered the upstairs library,

In shifts,
heads bowed.

The flickers of remembrance
softly stroked her hair,

Until the dousing of
the final candle

Summoned nightfall
to dance at her funeral party.
Carlo C Gomez Mar 2020
A friend of the Man of Steel,
Lois Lane was full of questions
about identity and the way Niagara Falls,
which Clark Kent was poorly denying.

The life of this reporter
was then full of punch-ups
and helicopter rides gone awry;
strange musings in her head
and fancy flights in the sky;
vacations consumed climbing the Eiffel Tower
and making love in an odd
fluffy bean bag bed.

But she loved the smokes so much more,
she ****** those coffin nails
faster than a speeding bullet.
More powerful than a locomotive,
she puffed away, leaving
Superman’s love in the ashtray.

Our poor hero's heart might have ached
but he still could leap
tall buildings in a single bound.
Lois, on the other hand, was a chainsmoker
and her teeth always brown.

It doesn't take x-ray vision to see
this chimney sweep was
no prize or pageant beauty.
And dare it be said, in true hindsight,
she was even worse for him than Kryptonite.
628 · Nov 2019
The Sky's the Limit
Carlo C Gomez Nov 2019
If told you've reached your ceiling,
Take it to mean
It's time to add another story.
627 · Mar 2020
Make Friends Gluten-Free
Carlo C Gomez Mar 2020
Throw away that dastardly pastry,
don’t eat that muffin or scone,
run from that evil bakery,
leave them well enough alone!

Wheat, barley, rye and oats,
these are our greatest enemies,
remove them from our plates,
so they no longer rumble our tummies!

Let's start a blog, issue a protest,
we'll boycott Panera, Wonder Bread,
the Pillsbury Doughboy,
and have Quaker-Oats seeing red!

There’s no stopping us now,
we’ll bring all grain to its knees,
its high time our irritable bowels
do as they please!
626 · Mar 2020
Along the Nile
Carlo C Gomez Mar 2020
Egyptian contractors are hard to trust
they're into pyramid schemes

King Tut was a whiny baby
who had mummy issues

Cleopatra turned out to be
a lazy queen who sat on her asp
More humor at Shamamama's request!
626 · Feb 2020
Abandoned Shopping Mall
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
Entombed on the outskirts
of hero township
sits a once Arcadian jewel
turned relic

its vast wings spread
as an eagle
but the days of flight
long exhausted

sullen close-down signs and banners
hang minatory from
a fractured glass ceiling
-- a terminal remainder

spots of rain fall thru strewn wreckage
along the counters of a fossilized department store

inchworms journey down
the massive teeth of a frozen
escalator descended from
the empty heavens

creepy crawlers move about
remnants of a food court
in search of morsels

like the droves of
holiday shoppers
that once haunted this place

before betraying it
for the shiny new toy
across the highway
625 · Jun 2020
Cantina Blue
Carlo C Gomez Jun 2020
Alcohol.
And train schedules.
A commuter's tightrope.
The last stop, Hpnotiq.
Where it rains sadness.
Where they're numb
To the moment of inertia.
Preferring instead to
Live on the rim.
622 · Jul 2020
The Long Drought
Carlo C Gomez Jul 2020
She's a meadow

of wilted flowers

once in bloom

but broke too soon

how quickly

the parched ground

devours

its own
621 · Nov 2019
Antony & Cleopatra
Carlo C Gomez Nov 2019
Just your typical
Barn burner:
One last roll
In the hay
That turned out to be
The final straw
Carlo C Gomez Mar 2020
Mary, Mary
Quite contrary
Egressed from the East Indies
A lost child
Grief is a long hallway
With sketches of pain
Adorning the walls
Hope is a drawer
With a hidden key

Bottled-up
Mary Lennox
Jumps rope
Out in the cold
Hopscotching
And exploring
Follows the red robin
Enters the garden
Long forsaken
Befriending life within
Evoking life without
With the one exception
Of herself

Mary had a little plan
"Might I have a bit of earth?"
To plant
And to chant
To sow
And to grow
To return a loved one
To both father and son
To open the secret garden again
And feel the inner workings
Of her heart begin
620 · Feb 2020
Beyond the Eclipse
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
Light from dark
Resurfacing
Rethreading
What befell the Earth
Involves us all

Dark from light
Resonating
Reverberating
What befell us all
Cannot be undone
618 · Sep 2020
The Fading Of A Galaxy
Carlo C Gomez Sep 2020
Her constellations move differently

She no longer controls star systems

Only one remaining cluster
now orbits her

But it is more than enough

For they need and love her as their light-giving empyrean
Title inspired by the poem "Benign" by fellow HP writer Puds: https://hellopoetry.com/poem/4049817/benign/
618 · Nov 2020
Crossing the Chasm
Carlo C Gomez Nov 2020
Right at the contour,

Decorative canyons of dire, descending ornaments,

Occluded with mixed smoke signals.

Those heading to their number beds,

Pray to the analytical gods,

"Dear Lord, bell curve distribution. Please, please, please..."
617 · Mar 2020
Homicidal Muppets
Carlo C Gomez Mar 2020
They prefer the dark corners in a theatre
Places adjacent to a snack bar
But close enough to the exit
Because killers on strings
Always eat on the run

They're sown from a different cloth
Brains made of the same
Course material
As flailing arms and legs
To form one disturbing pattern

They make such good liquidators
For their eyes are dead
Their heart lifeless and unbeaten
Their long fingers perfect
For a bit of good-natured strangulation

Never mind though
We must first tip our hats
To those who truly pull the strings
Hosting kid puppet shows by day
Hiring out cute cuddly fiends after hours
614 · Nov 2019
And the Winner Is...
Carlo C Gomez Nov 2019
Listening to someone talk only
About themselves
Is like a beauty pageant
Without the swimsuit competition
There's no reason to stay tuned in
Carlo C Gomez May 2024
~
Shoreline sorrow
In the light of grey
Deep water, snowy day
As you tuck your children
Safely in bed, remember
Lake Chelan has a reputation of
Never yielding its dead

~
611 · Feb 2020
Sugar for Salt
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
You save
all your sweetness
for one lousy special day each year

But then
hardly notice her
the other remaining 364 days

Tell me truly
how this is supposed
to ever preserve any kind of love
610 · Dec 2019
Right Next Door
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2019
Racism is not a gated community
It lives in every neighborhood
609 · Aug 2020
Atomic Flowers
Carlo C Gomez Aug 2020
April showers
bring with them atomic flowers,
strewn about Elena’s hair,
her forest painted
the colors of Red Square.
Children play in the fun zone
where radiation particles
are active and windblown,
forming flakes on rosy cheeks,
floating down toxic creeks.
The smell of graphite burning in a kiln
makes the nostrils flare,
what’s this metallic taste in the air?

Clouds drift over weddings
and Ferris wheels,
rain falls black and surreal.
Mother goes about her routine
humming dirges like a godless fiend.
36 hours to figure the science,
past time to evacuate
a city in brisk silence.
Brides scream and children cry,
from the fall-out they mummify.
Pripyat’s dying metropolis
they euthanize and lay to rest
in a sarcophagus.

And atop her shallow grave,
deep within the exclusion zone,
sit the sickened stems
and decaying fragrance
of nuclear flora over bone.
Here in the jackal's sanctum,
a capsule car on the lifeless
pleasure wheel
swings like a pendulum,
over a wooded lot with not a soul in sight,
only fresh morbid blooms
that glow in the night.
608 · Oct 2020
Night Hangs Like a Prisoner
Carlo C Gomez Oct 2020
I heard the chimes
of iniquitous wind
rush in upon
familial branches bent
in the middle
it sent the smallest stems
adrift
to spiral
as lost sons and daughters
captured in darkness
and forced to bow before
the lightning strikes
of tyranny
For the Mothers of the Disappeared
607 · May 1
The Rules of Dry Ice
~
It should be stark
and unprovoked,
yet fight to conceal.

It should justify
its intrusion
by layering
new narratives:
each a wonderland,
each a poison.

It should spring
like a cat,
cloud like doubt,
evaporate like
cigarettes at dawn.

It should backlight
truth, fictionalize
history.

It should undo
reality, drift into abyss
with the Lady of Shalott.

It should lead
the march into the sea,
it should die gracefully.

~
605 · Dec 2019
Throw Your Keys in the Bowl
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2019
She's in parties,
He's in options,
Diluted ideologies unite,
Mood rings and **** carpeting,
Time to ride
The swing.

A bit of nerves,
Warm the hands with Jamaican ***,
All the wives then merrily lift
Their skirts in tandem,
Advertising disparate *******,
The color of come-on.

Spin the bottle,
Pass the blindfold,
****-a-hoop and tied-up,
Guess who's lips you kiss next (?)

They had a lovely evening
--Dinner
--Dancing
--And in someone else's pants.

The couple who plays together
Strays together.
Argue it out in the car
Or go home now.

Once the keys are mixed up,
You're game for the ne plus ultra
Of strange bedfellows,
And even stranger inclinations.
603 · Oct 2019
Mona Lisa in Hypersleep
Carlo C Gomez Oct 2019
Reach out and touch
The reflective surface,
Nearly-perfect, infinite.
She's an unbreakable object held
Within stasis,
A long-durational sleeper,
Motionless in her far-off stare.

Time dilation may be absolute,
But there's no denial
Of a sundry smile
And questioning brow.

Glass divides she
From true self,
Kept in the hold
As priceless cargo
That once inspired the likes
Of da Vinci.

Thus Snow White wasn't quite dead
When the trap was sprung,
Her day lay in wait
For a kiss of life:
An event horizon.

Lift the lid
It did,
And with a centuries-old yawn,
She fixed her face upon
Her growing public,
And broke through
Hibernation,
To give birth to a star.
602 · Dec 2019
Bring Us Your Recyclables
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2019
Aliens from outer space,
Annoyingly hovering above,
Invade my trash most Sunday nights.

They're after the recyclables
--cans, paper, plastic,
Whatever they can get their
Spindly grubby hands on.

Whether they plan to use
The stuff to build a doomsday weapon,
Piece of nifty gym equipment,
Or some fancy headdress,
Who's to say?

I just wish
The little buggers would clean up their mess,
Instead of leaving it
For me on Monday morning.
602 · Oct 2020
The Gifted Amnesiac
601 · Jan 2020
Home Interiors Mafia
Carlo C Gomez Jan 2020
How did things ever get so far?
It's curtains for you, Sonny!

Big
Blue
Bedroom curtains
With a ship and anchor pattern

And

Fancy
Frilly
Yellow ones
For your mama's kitchen

It's not personal, Sonny
It's strictly business...
601 · Apr 2020
After the Flood
Carlo C Gomez Apr 2020
They lie dead
scuttled ships
marauders no more
merely firewood
for the pitch black flames

They lie prone
paralyzed senses
forces no longer
only drops
from puddles of ****** mutiny

Captains of real estate
they settled on new worlds
from old buildings
three arks on a maiden voyage:
the Niña
the Pinta
and the Sandinista

Release the collective animal
ruling in symphony
with those heavy waters
now a graveyard

Cleansed mind
falling reign
their kingdom come and go
600 · Feb 2020
Panty Lines, Part II
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
All the talk behind your back
Is about just that
Once again
You've been framed
Too late now
Your secret is out
600 · Jun 17
Zero Is An Even Number
Carlo C Gomez Jun 17
Rings of Headrick
Stabilize the flight
Of a broken equal

In zero atmosphere
I record you remembering to smile
Pixel pleasure
Whether or not
In zip ties

Cloud on the brow
Rain in the ashtray
Storms we all breathe in heavily

An end to camaraderie
By critical distance
By counting back from ten

Zero is an even number
When discord is no longer odd
599 · May 31
Yellowcake
Carlo C Gomez May 31
~
The day was orange
The word is yellow
Out like a light switch
Teeth a steady glow

The projectile's
Crisscross trajectory
Is no kindness

In the catacombs of this mine
Watch it leak
Watch it settle

What remains is
Subterranea, urania
Built to last
A moment to inhale
Before fade to black

~
599 · Feb 2020
Friends With Benefits
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
Penny, Kaiser Permanente
Diana, Blue Shield
Brenda, UnitedHealthcare

But no longer Karen,
She's now unemployed
598 · Dec 2019
How Long is Forever?
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2019
The length of a passing glance
a moment of complete chance
...from one breath
to the next

When fingers entwine
where planets align
...from one breath
to the next

In the measure of a kiss
at the core of coupled bliss
...from one breath
to the next
598 · Sep 2020
Albatross
Carlo C Gomez Sep 2020
There are whispers

Suffocating rumors

Tomorrow's deep pockets are full of sand

We hold power in our hands like water

No containment

Fear must fall in drops and settle into streams

Drink it up

Feel it in your thirst

Feel it tighten 'round your throat
598 · Dec 2019
Space Invaders
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2019
A recent study on excuses
people give for missing work
found a growing trend to be
24-hour alien abduction
597 · Oct 2020
2+2=5
Carlo C Gomez Oct 2020
What is reality?
What is theory?

Sometimes four
Sometimes five

Sometimes both
Of them at once

Control the future
By controlling the past

Listen here, Oceania
War is peace

First, we'll give everything its due
Then say it never happened

Again and again
Until you believe it's true
595 · Mar 2024
Mosquito Joe
Carlo C Gomez Mar 2024
Rarebit fiend

with an insatiable appetite

zapped internally

******* off wi-fi

looking for hideouts

and new gold wings

the brilliant glow

through a transom window

summons him

feeds on the sleeping man

programming him

into a pathogen
593 · Apr 20
By the Numbers
Carlo C Gomez Apr 20
~
I like the number 2,
so much in fact
I like it twice,
as in 22.

Now 2+2 equals 4,
but some say 2+2 equals 5,
It's quite the moral conundrum.

Still 5 is a cardinal, a prime,
why the Pythagoreans
thought of 5
as the marriage
between heaven and earth.

I empathize with 5 though,
for that's a lot of pressure
to put on a single solitary digit.

But I think I like him too,
he's a friend of 10,
which reminds me of
fingers, toes and Bo Derek.

But let's get back to 2,
which supposedly is company,
and 3, you see, is a crowd,
yet odd first and foremost
--Mersenne knew best, I guess.

Which brings me to 1,
small, but positive,
coveted, but united,
a face of multiple identities.

And should any other number
devise against it,
they would have no
success at all
--none, zero.

To be honest,
I think 1 likes 2,
and vice versa,
they're a complimentary couple
--both highly dutiful
and attracted to each other.

After all, it's said, "Someone may overpower
one alone, but two together can take a stand against him."

~
593 · Jul 2020
Days of Abandonment
Carlo C Gomez Jul 2020
Eternal sunset
not quite night
no longer day

Is this how life shall stay?

Orange to red
then pink to gray
the outside elements have gone away

There's a closed sign on tomorrow

Hours continuously rotate
around what's breaking
be it the news or someone's will
Carlo C Gomez Nov 2019
Teach me
the birds and the bee's knees,
and I'll tell you about
the wolf in cheap clothing,
he gets his threads
at deep discount.

Recite me
the letters of the alphabet,
and I'll unleash upon you
questions and vowels,
AEIOU
and sometimes why (?)

Lecture me
on the dangers of fast food,
and I'll give you total recall
of the taco meat,
ring the bell
even-steven.
Learning and teaching should go both ways.
592 · Dec 2024
Melancholic Florals
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2024
~
I felt a funeral
between the timid breaths
of ruination, we plucked
to death the melancholic florals
called time flowers,
translucent growths
with crystal hearts,
gifted them to someone else's children,
placed them around the waist
of everyone else's wives.

When plucked,
that crystal core dissolves,
emitting the light trapped within.
perpetual splendor or
the endless cycles of death?
do the normal rules
of chronology apply?

Look now! here comes
the great unwashed riot,
we live in an age of visual saturation,
where tragedy and beautiful
distractions crowd in on all sides,
clamoring for our attention.

Perhaps the dystopian premise
is part of a fiendish plan,
becoming the backdrop
to a fluttering cornucopia
of florals, each outfit paraded
in the beginning of May,
a blooming display of finery
hiding a complex
network of roots –
sponsorship deals,
brand calculations,
dedicated craftsmanship,
exposure opportunities
– beneath its pretty skirts.

~
589 · Aug 2020
Dazzle Ships
Carlo C Gomez Aug 2020
Captain
Is such an abrasive term
Call me zebra instead
Call me every other weekend
Salute the system
Or form a mutiny
As disciples of Moby ****
Just be sure rank and file
Are futile

Everything now is beautiful

Rainbirds
Caged in your barbed-wire heart
Jaded feather friends
In migration
Tasting shapes
And drawing blood
From artistic wings
As freedom of flyway must
Still belong to the rule

Everything now is beautiful

Hopscotch
On sorted sidewalks
Ride the escalator instead
Up one floor
To the mezzanine
That panders to
The perversions of quiet girls
Innocence outshines
Experience
When the hemisphere is
Short on lifeboats
And late for school

Everything now is beautiful

The missing world
Beneath our feet
Is what the ocean
Tells us about ourselves
"From swerve of shore
To bend of bay"
Check the notes
In the margin
Postcards and maps
Depicting these dazzle ships
And the angry waters
They chart
Are always of
Skinny-dipping
Sea vessels
Her mons and ponds
Face-up
And full frontal

Everything now is beautiful

Dove taking
Swan keeping
We've power against dreams
We've articles of war
So this line is expendable
An anguish languish
Deep deep down
Turning with the wave
Against the sound
Where we sailed on from one love
To find another
As usual

Omnes una manet nox
(One night is awaiting us all)
588 · Nov 2020
Interracial Space Station
Carlo C Gomez Nov 2020
Earth is in orbit.

I can see it in the window.

From the window of this
Conflict-free
Facility.

A crew of
Four souls

In gravitational symphony.

A crew of
Four colors

Ad rem and
Unsegregated.

The vastness of space
Brought us together.

What's the transmission?

"Why can't the world below
Live like this?"
586 · Nov 2019
Burning Cinderella
Carlo C Gomez Nov 2019
The shoe never fit,
But the clock was to blame
For her act of arson,
An unlucky stroke
Of midnight became
This story's carcinogen.
In high dudgeon,
She set fire to the dance,
Killed her fairy godmother,
And skipping to the merry end,
Ignited her way to a life
Of happenstance.
584 · Oct 2019
Pole Dancing
Carlo C Gomez Oct 2019
Defrosting the freezers
  are far from ****
Nonetheless
They're on the rise

Caps are melting
Shelves are falling
Glaciers are passing ships
  in the traffic lane
They're on the move

This is no song & dance
The poles are looking for
  new real estate and
They're coming soon
  to a neighborhood near you
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
A snakepit, a lion’s den,
a second-hand shark cage.
The Big Apple, the Little Rascals,
everything after the Victorian Age.
These things scare me on sight,
but not as much as
Veronica Cartwright.

The Trix Rabbit with a gun,
The Dodgers winning a World Series.
Parallel parking with Mark Hamill,
Sesame Street conspiracy theories.
These things make me shake at night,
but not as much as
Veronica Cartwright.

The White Album, the Black Plague,
toenail clippers, salad bars and Disneyland.
The Richter scale, the Mendoza line,
Any and every last teenage boy band.
These things give me such a fright,
but not as much as
Veronica Cartwright.

Television reruns of H.R. Pufnstuf,
An opened jar of Miracle Whip.
The names of Frank Zappa’s kids,
vacationing on a Carnival cruise ship.
These things horrify me alright,
but still not as much as
Veronica Cartwright.
An older poem.
If you have ever seen the movie 'Alien,' you might understand what I mean.
583 · Mar 2020
Visiting with Uranus
Carlo C Gomez Mar 2020
Yikes!
Due to social distancing
my proctologist
is now scheduling
video appointments
Idea from a text by my wife, Mrs. Timetable.
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