Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
 
581 · Dec 2019
The Poseidon Adventure
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2019
A Byzantine world upside down
capsized

Survival
starts by praying for time

Then climbing over everyone
and everything

Going top to bottom, blow to blow
with a common fear:

Self-doubt

We struggle with life
as much as we struggle with death

Where will we be
when the water rises?

With heart in our hands
or with hands at our throat?

Hail the lifeboat, captain
one of us is about to break through the hull
580 · Mar 2024
Kathy Bates Motel
Carlo C Gomez Mar 2024
Not this neck of the woods again.
They say Annie Wilkes found you
and brought you here.

You know the face,
but not the name.

Leaving so soon?
You just checked in.

Death is not a parallel move.
Neither is living at the
Love will terrace apartments.

Eye of the needle and thread.
If wolf is at the door,
Guess who's in bed?
Butcher, baker, candlestick maker?
Or is it simply Norman?
579 · Mar 2020
Upon Reflection
Carlo C Gomez Mar 2020
My mirror
Is driving me up the wall

It's sick and tired
Of it always being about me
578 · Mar 2020
Blood Falls
Carlo C Gomez Mar 2020
Sad reflections from
donated dreams.
Charity's
fallen embers.
Like a high UV index
they burn right into
your skin.
Freckling
your thoughts with a bit of compromise.

Close your eyes
to the possibility
inertia
has made itself at home.
You'll feel it, feel it
right to the bone.
But you crossed that bridge
long ago.
In the time of
tranquil misgivings.
You gave consent to
sin by offering up
your sons and daughters.
Drowning them
in the shallow end of dissipated water.

Sing hymns
all you like.
Piety
is not for sale.
And the angel light
that hits the wall
is not in the shape of Mary.
Evil always figures into
these things.
Don't you know? Heat rises. Blood falls.

So burn your prayers
on a stick. Roast them
in the campfire. You'll never turn
to God until you lie
dying. Broken and heaving.
Asking for forgiveness.
Which a man of cloth
will grant.
Such a charmed life to leave.

Only it's a cheat.
A spoonful
of circumvention.
Making you feel
warm and clever
as you bleed out. Regrettably,
your vacuous heart
sailed off on the Greta Garbo
and mortgaged
your future for such marquee.
Banking on the
here and now.
From this there can be no redemption.
Carlo C Gomez Jan 2020
My wife doesn't know
Which is worse:

That this comes in only two sizes

Or that it's reusable!
This is an actual type of women's ******.
576 · Oct 2019
Teeter-totter
Carlo C Gomez Oct 2019
We tend to see yesterday as an excuse
and tomorrow as an inspiration
to do better.
576 · Dec 2019
Garbage Time
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2019
Sanitation workers
Like to talk trash
575 · Nov 2019
Days of Wine & Roses
Carlo C Gomez Nov 2019
How often we drank
to our health
and discussed trips
to far-away places
like Florence
but the closest we ever got to Italy
was Olive Garden

And then there was the state
of the union

We made love
the same way we made money:
tax free and under the table
neither ever worked out for us

Once our intentions got caught
under the wheels
of complacency, it crushed
everything in its path
including the balter
of our offspring
571 · Sep 2020
Resurrection Man
Carlo C Gomez Sep 2020
A lasting kiss
spoils the poison apple

A smile of obligation
and it's off to the chapel

A tale of sexes and sevens
around the campfire

Years of bitter indifference
collapse in on the walls
of desire

Happily ever after
Is a magical kingdom crime

Abiding commitment
On the other hand
Is an attainable climb
571 · Jan 2020
Cruise Ship
Carlo C Gomez Jan 2020
Pirates of pleasure

In foreign waters

Access to excess

The fingers linger

On a perfect rounded bottom

In a conga line

Lust is a bust

This is no love boat

It's headed for dry dock

As a floating hospital

Swimming the high seas

With some unknown disease
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
Never hit a girl. Plain and simple.

It's rude to call her names.
So don't.

No looking up her dress
or down her shirt like some pervert.

Quit staring. She's not a piece of candy.

Definitely, no touching,
unless you ask first AND she says "yes."

Finally, NO means "100% stop! Get away from me! And don't try it again!!!"

Any questions?
570 · Dec 2019
Ripley
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2019
You had a gut feeling
right out of your catnap, didn’t you?
An SOS from a UFO?
Who had ever heard
of something so preposterous?

The Captain was a company man,
which is a nice way to say
'corporate puppet.'
His equally duped thrill-seeking buddy
got caught with egg on his face,
before giving birth to one ugly baby.

Did anyone help clean up
the petrified chick,
or post a stupid sign
on the Captain's forehead?
Levity was in short supply this far out,
apparently reason was too,
this explains how a game of hide and seek
morphed into ten little indians.

But surprise, surprise!
Science guy was a skin job.
How sad, how sad!
All your fellow employees
came to a sticky end.
Only your nine-lived four-legged
friend somehow held out.

Sandwiched neatly between
a rock and a hard place,
you revised the game plan,
‘twas time to punch your ticket
for the last wagon out of town
and strip down to your skivvies.
Hey, whatever floats your boat!

Only to your chagrin
you discovered a ****** in close quarters,
trying to hitch a nightmare of an Uber ride.
No damsel in distress here,
vexed over his ****** advances
you joined the #MeToo movement,
then ignited the overgrown termite
and made him eat your dust,
until a crushed soda can
on its way to the recycling center.
Not bad for a warrant officer!
570 · Jan 2020
To Bee, or Not to Bee
Carlo C Gomez Jan 2020
Okay honey
Let's spell pollinate
With a bit of math
Anther + stigma = fertilization
Let's pollinate for a spell
Under the quilt
Then over the river
And through the woods
Without any cover we go
Making babies in summertime
May we reap
What we sow
570 · Jan 2020
Long Play
Carlo C Gomez Jan 2020
Vinyl is so final
It can quickly turn the table
And just for the record
The surface is scratched
About half way down your back
In disdain we repeat the refrain
But I fear this time next year
The goodnight kiss we'll skip
I cannot say for certain
When we lost our groove
Broken but never spoken
We wear it on our sleeve
569 · Mar 17
From the Outskirts
Carlo C Gomez Mar 17
~
I'm coming to you,
Oh purlieu blue,
No more walls of Berlin
Shall stand between us,
Your name is a link to happiness,
Just the very thought of you
Reaches beyond the tide
And gives life to children,
Our children.

~
568 · Dec 2019
In Its Own Time
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2019
Time is the wrinkle
On my otherwise nice life
It keeps secrets
It places blame
It determines value
It comes with cost
It measures war
It holds out for love
It reminds me
To pick up the kids
From school at noon
Reel me in, tune me out
I'm at its every beck and call
566 · Nov 2019
Speakeasy
Carlo C Gomez Nov 2019
Words are tricky like pillows,
They can just as easily
Provide comfort
As start a fight.
565 · Jul 2020
Career Opportunities #2
Carlo C Gomez Jul 2020
Success in today's
Business world
Often comes with consequences

Like finding out
The little people
You stepped on to get
To the top
Were your own children
Carlo C Gomez Jul 2020
You're only pretty
If you wear this
            have this
            are this

You're only cool
If you smoke this
            drink this
            own this

You need it NOW
            Before it's gone!

A new and improved you

                  (Until we tell you otherwise)
Carlo C Gomez May 2020
The big man upstairs
Once and for all
Disabused me of the notion
That he was in fact
God himself

And just my landlord
Living on the top floor
Yelling at me
Through the wall
That my rent is overdue
BLT's new challenge- to write a poem using the Merriam- Webster word of the day, disabuse.
564 · Dec 2019
Godiva
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2019
Roger of Wendover
wrote of your audacity,
a chronicle, a fable in lore,
whereupon your face was softened
for the Coventry poor.

Tyranny of taxation,
a sovereign's oppression,
one husband's aggravation,
and so he gave to you
but one condition.

After the butterflies,
before the sunlit emprise,
no mask to disguise,
not a thing to prevent
prying eyes.

Only your decree
could now protect your
ladyship's modesty,
keep your name from
this sordid tale of infamy,
yet, what did Tom see?

It shan't be denied, it rests
indelibly in Flowers of History,
alas! along cobbled streets,
all of them you defied,
thus with head held high,
you rode in all your glory.
561 · Apr 17
The Gotham Ellipse
Carlo C Gomez Apr 17
~
Where there used to be trees,
but is now a causeway
under the Lord's nose,
reside a constant tourist and his wife
who have all they ever wanted,
light and lure.

They swim in a pool
on the dangling homestar,
overlooking metal decay,
she pinches his cheek,
he smacks her bottom,
summer in Gotham
is now upon them,
gifting different things:
he sees mystery lights endeavor,
she sees herself a dragonfly
on the lure.

Monday thru Friday
they like to ride
the elevator of their love,
up and down it goes along a focal point,
out of him and into her,
when the door closes
they come together,
when the door opens
it lets in the tide of loneliness
and they begin to push buttons.

They dislike home
and its constant secrets,
what she wears is for him,
but less is more,
he invades her often,
but she's become a empty field,
theirs is Neptune's bedroom,
if they don't find
a reason to make love,
they will stay up all night
until irritable frozen creatures.

Invictus interruptus,
with the luck of the draw
they play dangerous days:
a game of blindfolds
and snowmobiles,
a game of hammers
and nails.

The plane of their lust
hunts the morning light
on gloomy Sunday,
the rain wets their hair,
the sidewalk creates a song:
electric skylark,
they dance out of focus,
he grasps her hips,
she makes a beautiful sound,
caught by magic,
trapped by photographic memory
and numbered doors.

Light and lure.
All anomalies.

Sublimation will not return
until the day of the focal point,
in the city where they have
all they ever wanted,
yet here they have nothing
more than microcosm,
the rest is distraction.

Maybe they should
remain a constant.

Maybe he should
just hold her.

Maybe she should
just let herself be held.

~
Carlo C Gomez Jan 2020
Why so inquisitive little guy?
You threw your own feces at Miley Cyrus.
Ate a whole bar of soap.
Even carried Ebola virus.

While nosing around you got
zapped by a high voltage fence.
Stole a bunch of bananas from the dollar store.
But got probation cause it was your first offense.

You once smoked a pack of cigarettes
with Salvador Dali.
Then twice stated he spoke English
like a dumb tamale.

You ran your rental car off a cliff
in Malibu just for kicks.
Bought a case of Gorilla glue just to sniff.

Hanging out with Maury Povich
you copped a feel on Connie Chung.
Spent a complete summer strung out
in North Korea with Kim Jong-un.

You got caught peeking through the hole
in the wall of the girls' locker room.
Pleaded no contest when
the monkey business hit the courtroom.
Then told all in your sorted
memoirs, nom de plume.

You're a lazy obstinate chimp
who's too curious for his own good.
I'd say a future trip to the vet to get neutered
is a sure likelihood.
Carlo C Gomez Aug 2020
Marie Antionette
preferred pie over cake,
and briefs over thongs.

A fervour for fashion,
But not a fan of
The Flour War,
nor her ghastly wrongs.

Poufs and panache?
Imprimatur, for sure.
"That's entertainment,"
said the brochure.

Affair of
the diamond necklace,
such a coup.

A material girl,
how about you?

Now remember,
how comely the rose
when she was so rich and red.

But also the onus
to how she lost
her pretty little head.
558 · Nov 2019
Light of Day
Carlo C Gomez Nov 2019
Room and pillar
Let me be your guiding shaft
Atmospheric pressure
Let me be your natural draft

Atticus Finch
Let me be your inner last laugh
Cold determiner
Let me be your unsuspecting half

The sign in the window says
Closed until the light of day

Broken bone
Let me be your sling and marrow
Agitated Polaire
Let me be your tight-laced narrow

Confounded Plath
Let me be your children's tomorrow
Germ warfare
Let me be your biological sorrow

The word on the street is
Nothing's gonna change until the light of day

Open minefield
Let me be your measured step
***** mother
Let me be your usual suspect

Unwanted child
Let me be the tears when you last wept
Unwanted immigrant
Let me be the ground where you last slept

The writing on the wall signals
Critical times until the light of day

lumière du jour
Chérie
558 · May 2020
Piano in an Empty Room
Carlo C Gomez May 2020
Desolate
Unyielding notes
Accumulate
Silhouetting umbra
Breaking through
Architectural shadow
Flickers of bloom & bounty
From a sleeping
Satiated bride
Reposed upon
The chaise longue
Softly interlacing
The accidentals
With a final grace note
Before absolute stillness
Reprises
Carlo C Gomez Nov 2019
Don't bother to knock, she's
not taking any visitors today
--something has to give.

You wanted her
in your picture, didn't you?
But the names they assigned her
were uncommonly harsh.

They hung their hats
on her *** appeal, then
threw her to the dogs
when she no longer looked the part.

She never did overcome
her shyness, preferring to
swallow small silent friends
instead, and for this
she was crucified.

Pin-up or shut-in,
it's no wonder she chose to
sleep it off.

She may have bared
her body, but never her soul.
558 · Mar 2020
The Wasp Factory
Carlo C Gomez Mar 2020
Reusing old graves

Some of your own blood

Nectar of your soul

To build this nest

This stinging canister

An assembly line of skeletal remains and burning wings

Pushing little armies on the left

Pulling little armies on the right

To march themselves out of existence

Life is a pesticide

Kills the flowers

Kills the connections

Keeps you working overtime

Just to hold on to a place where you can shuffle off this mortal coil
554 · Jan 2020
Last Dance
Carlo C Gomez Jan 2020
Red dress confessions
on a black dress
kind of evening
slip one off
slip the other over your shoulders
make sure your
eyeshadow and knickers
match your intentions
otherwise we might never
get the opportunity
to have this last dance
to our song
before outside forces
separate
you and I
forevermore
553 · Feb 2020
You've Got Mail
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
Ever since I moved to a different time period, I get the strangest mail.

Letters commissioning Michelangelo
to paint the Sistine Chapel.

Elizabeth Bennet's missive to her aunt
promising pony cart rides at Pemberley.

Long lost IRS tax forms belonging to Abbott and Costello.

Leonardo Da Vinci’s Job Application to the Duke of Milan.

Even Grace Bedell's charming correspondence to Abraham Lincoln, suggesting he grow a beard.

I should have known something was up once I discovered Karl Malone was my mailman.
One of these letter writers is fictional. Know which one?
552 · Apr 2020
Me Talk Pretty One Day
Carlo C Gomez Apr 2020
There'll be a bouquet
Of finely scented words
Rolling off me tongue

Me love for you
Will then shine
Like the sun

You and I, me muffin
Shall find that
Happiness is a warm bun
552 · Jun 2020
Heading Home
Carlo C Gomez Jun 2020
The morning shore
Is in place
And it will lift
And separate
Smiling wide
As the high tide
Reaches places
Meant to be unattainable

I am ready for
Sensory overload
Your thoughts resting
On my shoulder
Your smile wide
As giftedly so
You pull my strings
And head for home
Carlo C Gomez Apr 2020
Life In A Glass House
has me In Limbo,
Climbing Up The Walls.

There's A Wolf At The Door,
and I'm afraid he'll blow
this House Of Cards down on me.

"There, There,"
black-eyed angels said to me,
"you need to be Optimistic."

Hey, I'm a Worrywort,
I Might Be Wrong,
but 2 + 2 = 5.

Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box
Down Is the New Up,
this virus thing deserves a Ful Stop!
All song titles are by Radiohead.

In response to BLT's poem "Talk Talk Tribute." The challenge is to construct a poem using song titles from one band or musical artist.
551 · Apr 2020
A Teaspoon of Earth & Sea
Carlo C Gomez Apr 2020
The lilt of your sea
Is a mystery to me,
The form of your lips
A vast calligraphy.

The shape and stem
Of your new world,
Impregnated with maudlin and marrow,
And how it curled, instead of set.

You are remarkably
Cloud-hidden,
Less an end to everything,
More a furtive wellspring.

O sweet custodian of paradise,
Please measure out your turn of phrase
In the language of light,
As we enter into the uncreated night.
549 · Dec 2019
Taking on Water
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2019
Boy saves girl
Girl so grateful she spits
Boy draws girl
Girl humps boy silly
Boy calls girl stupid
Then becomes popsicle
Goodbye King of the world
Girl blows whistle
Steals necklace
Gives everyone the finger
But at least her
Heart will go on
Or some malarkey

Oh, yeah!
Somewhere in there
A boat sinks...
546 · Feb 2020
A Life in Shards
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
Glass divides us

Forever in pane

This reflection
looking back at me
is shaped like
the blinking vast mosaics
in reverse of you

Once removed

Twice over lightly

The shallow end
of an image immersed
less than we

Yet at an unfathomable depth

Breathing through
what love remained

Before those pretty
little pieces
should be taken by the wind
545 · Jan 2020
Slug
Carlo C Gomez Jan 2020
All play and no work
Makes Jack a La-Z-Boy
544 · Mar 2020
Staccato
Carlo C Gomez Mar 2020
Hear the drumming?

On point
Off note

No tea
No sympathy

Battle drum
Stratagem

Clouded
Shroud

A waving flag
A wavering comfort

Peacefully
Pierced

Sharp pain
Dull wound

Pretty house with a white picket fence and dethorned rose garden, the bread crumbs lead to selfish tendencies

Detach
Separate

"Cut the kids in half"

Part for daddy
Part for mommy

Let them cry themselves to sleep
The drums shall stop

Divided worlds
United cruelty

Bedtime
Bedlam

Rush of blood
Knives out

The drumming never stops
Sudden isolation swallows them whole...
542 · Nov 2019
Maid of Orleans
Carlo C Gomez Nov 2019
Her passion was life
Her agony was divine
Her choice was death
Joan of Arc (1412-1431)
541 · Mar 29
Bikini Ski Boat
Carlo C Gomez Mar 29
~
This forbidden city
walks on water,
keeps all the undesirables at bay,
it's always a balancing act.

Oh, blighted court
of Catherine the Great,
thy friends are having a hard time,
but horsing around, no less.

Enlightened by summer drugs,
and busting out of
their tops and castles,
thongs on thy feet,
and thongs on thy bottoms,
this zenith and this nadir
come in colorful collages,
everything else is a flash of flesh.

Sped along by
frequent bloodletting,
there's a revolution in
thy teenage mind,
a looking for the hidden
and interested motives,
but no one can live
their life on the skis.

Rulership of heart is far
from recreation,
but you raised
a smile to sin,
until all we could do was
shake our heads and laugh.

~
From the 'Checklist Before Commencing on a Dream.'

https://hellopoetry.com/poem/4793791/checklist-before-commencing-on-a-dream/
541 · Feb 2020
Canned Goods
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
I think too many people
equate love with
passionate fireworks,
and while love can certainly
produce this,
it in itself is not love.

Love is more than
a feeling or a fancy,
it is a principle,
a preserver,
a law that governs action
and behavior.

To put it simply,
it's a can of Spam
in the back of the cupboard
that remains good
long after everything
around it has come and gone.
541 · May 30
The Enigma Machine
Carlo C Gomez May 30
•###•

•the•message•is•so•phantom•

•strangled•
•during•the•thir­d•act•

•illuminated•
•letters•are•the•ciphertext•

•and•they•glo­w•
•in•your•eyes•
•Bletchley•Park•

•Turing•
•worked•it•out•with•­
•Delilah•

•they•killed•for•less•
•died•for•even•more•

•###•
539 · Aug 2020
A Sort of Homecoming
Carlo C Gomez Aug 2020
The homesick frost
in your voice

A reminder to those
days of ice

Lavender sun
against crisp cloudless skies

Skating about the pond
until the numbing end of daylight

Then always inside
to find residing warmth

Catching your unclothed
silhouette

Glowing
beside the fire

Sitting indelicately
roasting marshmallows

Waiting so
pressingly

Glowing
waiting

For familiar kisses
to dwell upon you
539 · Feb 2020
What's Eating the Consumer?
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
Never forget that TV commercials
are the offspring of Dracula.

Connect the dots...

They have a lot at stake,
shrouding their true intentions in
darkness.

The primary reason they exist
is to get you to buy into them,
to stick your neck out,
to believe they have your
best interest at heart.

They don't.
They could care less
who you are or
what you and yours really need.
So long as you allow them to
hammer more nails into your coffin.

They want your blood.
They want your money.

Plain and
Simple...

And they will stop at nothing
to **** it out of you.
535 · Feb 2024
28 November 1979
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2024
Dear wide, comforting
McMurdo Sound.
The beautiful nowhere.
Perennial comforts high above.

Here is cold Ross Dependency.
Here is Erebus.
Surface landmarks:
hawk moth mirage
--malevolent trick
of the polar light.

Orphans of the sky.
First impressions in the snow.
Mountain tomb, angels sing.
Coffins full of ice.

They say the smell of kerosene
never leaves you,
and that on a clear day you can
still see the debris.
534 · Apr 4
Echo, Bravo
~
Dweller on the threshold
It's now coming back
Earth moon transit
Losing contact

Heading for the door
Fuzz and timbre
Surrender in my hand
A final act of war

My last words travel far
Closer to the speed of sound
No time to bury
Mixed flags in the ground

The phantom facing me
Is no recovery
There are a thousand of me
And each one is disappointed

~
534 · Jan 2020
Holy Piñata
533 · Nov 2019
The Whether Man
Carlo C Gomez Nov 2019
"A little water clears us of this deed."
We wait and we wonder
If he will show.
He trended too soon, perhaps.
A sinus rhythm about to plateau.
"I have a score to settle,"
He said with his last dying breath.
Nevermind the hearsay,
We witnessed with our own eyes,
He dripped like blood.
And now we'll sleepwalk
With Lady Macbeth,
Looking over our shoulder
For any sound of his return.
A time of iniquity,
Reckoners by proxy.
Put them to bed,
Now they are dreams
Descending into madness.
If we **** our conscience, it will always come back to haunt us
530 · Nov 2019
He Was Very Fond of Money
Carlo C Gomez Nov 2019
You can't take it with you,
But many die trying.
528 · Mar 2020
Foggy City Orphan
Carlo C Gomez Mar 2020
The most welcomed dreams,
they float no matter
what the consensus.

A bit pinched by Oliver Twist
campaigns, maybe,
but they vote for helium.

For to laugh is to shine,
and to shine is to supernova,
yet, still fit inside the head.

The hours, they are
a cascade of melting candles
burning a hole in the floor.

The only words spoken,
"My Very Educated Mother
Just Served Us Nine Pies."

But how can that be?
We're now one short.
Oh, bucolic heavens!

I grew tired of wandering
and returned to reality
in the angry haze of another
orphaned satellite.
When interrupted dreams are lost to us, drifting out of our reach, never to return. Forever orphaned from our minds.
Next page