Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
 
397 · Dec 2019
Snip & Clip
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2019
Help control the predator
population
by having your threat
spayed or neutered
397 · Jan 2020
Surrealistic Pillow
Carlo C Gomez Jan 2020
Pay dirt
Pay phones
Pay the sitter for her time in hell
with the twins
You'll never earn enough
to call long distance
Unless you move to Italy
and live the dream
of making heart-shaped pizzas
Another in response to a poem challenge from Elizabeth Leone Laird. See her poem "Clarity" and take the challenge!
397 · Mar 2020
Yellow Brick Hold
Carlo C Gomez Mar 2020
Get back in your cage, Dorothy
Let nature observe
Let sharks encircle
Let random impulses
Bring toe-curling raptures
Upon your dreamy imprisonment

Tin, this cage
In which you dwell
Straw, this sky
From which it fell
The only road out of your anxiety
Requires swallowing a pill
As big as the heart of a lion

You want so desperately to leave
Just click your heels
And repeat three times
"There's no place like home"
Then floor it
When the light turns yellow
396 · Dec 2019
Never Enough
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2019
Time is always
the first one out the door
in the morning
395 · Feb 2020
Oxygen
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
gravitate to me
enter the flame

breathe deeply
to hold within

what adds color
is life for us

the air we share
a sustenance
394 · Nov 2019
Think Green and Get Out!
Carlo C Gomez Nov 2019
Today she tossed
all her philandering
husband's belongings
into the recycling bin
instead of the trash.

It's simply better
for the environment.
394 · Dec 2019
Legal Matters
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2019
It's not about justice or the truth
but rather, how good the attorney
394 · Apr 2020
Bringing Down the House
Carlo C Gomez Apr 2020
You took down both a lion and a bear. But not Delilah there. She was your glass slipper. Pretty little backstabbing hair clipper. She sold you out to the Philistines. Nonetheless, God allowed you to blindly pull down their temple beams. Oh Samson, strength was both your virtue and vice. In giving away your secret you paid the ultimate price.
393 · Jun 2020
Waiting For the Death Blow
Carlo C Gomez Jun 2020
Blindfolded in the center ring

The crowd wants blood

Everything forgotten
to pandemonium

The bell rings

The round begins

If nothing else
one thing is certain

We're in for the fight
of our lives
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
A little sonder
goes a long way
in understanding you, him, her
--anyone not me;
your hands have their
own feel and peril;
your eyes, their sui generis orbit
with this world (of ours)
spinning on a differing axis;
and returning its sorrow,
its pleasure,
in an unabridged box
named after obscurities,
known only to you (not me);
the frustration of photographing
this amazing moment sets in
when I realize it already exists,
randomly,
vividly,
in every single person I daily see;
and their uniqueness
cannot be annulled.
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is a website and YouTube channel, created by John Koenig, that defines neologisms for emotions that do not have a descriptive term.
392 · Jan 2020
a cappella/algorithm
Carlo C Gomez Jan 2020
Delayed reaction
Bitterweet one-note transaction
Turn a blind eye
Voice it in a lie
From compulsive catalogs
Gift-wrapped by mythomaniac hands
Mixing false theories
With hour-glass sands
Because everyone can
And everyone will
Believe the scientific rulebook
And how the high heavens, they shook
So long as it looks pretty
And speaks in a foreign accent
Join hands in singing the praises
Calculating our own descent
Passively uninvolved?
Problem solved...
In today's world, ignorance is no longer bliss.
392 · Dec 2019
And Justice For None
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2019
In the court of public opinion
There are no mistrials
391 · May 2020
A World Lit Only By Fire
Carlo C Gomez May 2020
Matchsticks
And a little wind

Are

Hearsay
And the coming blasphemy

By the numbers

The sign says
"Open for Business"

Opinions are mixed

As are the numbers

Let's give the world a spin now and see what burns
391 · Mar 2020
Fragile Tendril
Carlo C Gomez Mar 2020
Goodnight,
little darlings.
Off to sleep,
kindred
crestfallen.
Welcome
your dreams
once more.
They can lift
your burdens
by teaching them
how to fly,
and away they shall flutter with just one wish from your heart.
Wherefore, you can bid them
departure,
spending
summer
looking
after
the
butterflies,
wi­nter
lying
dormant,
far from
the quiet
rooms
of home,
where you
comfort
mother
and pray
for father's
imminent
return
.....
....
...
..
.
390 · Jan 2020
Death by Frozen Dinner
Carlo C Gomez Jan 2020
Can't be sodium-free, baby
Not when life is in hyperdrive
And microwave is king
389 · Mar 2020
Me & My Shadow
Carlo C Gomez Mar 2020
Woke up this morning
only to find
my own shadow
has now decided
to practice
social distancing
388 · Dec 2019
The Addiction of Duplicity
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2019
It's no accident
When love is sown
Into a quilt
And wrapped about
Our shoulders
On a cold winter's night
Just like it's no accident
When we toss aside
Such blanketed warmth
When the new dawn
Beckons us to come out
And play

We love only
To betray
388 · Dec 2019
Prick Thy Finger
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2019
I'm cut
Not too deeply
Perhaps a flesh wound
One drop or two
And then all is well
Closing over
Let the healing begin
And I will think of it no more
Goodbye year of the knife
Hello restorative day
386 · Dec 2019
Romance of the Bayonet
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2019
Having long admired
Him from afar,
Something akin to love
Rooted unconditionally,
Aching within her for a day
There'd be no distance
Come between them.

When that time should arrive,
With bated breath,
She opened arms wide
To receive his eternal embrace,
To feel ardent need
Run through her.

And so it was,
And as lagniappe
She bled out
Upon the floor,
Her going smile,
One made of bliss,
In having finally felt
Love's pleasurable sting.
Inspired by the poem "Bayonets Are Not for Kids," by fellow HP writer Mister Truth.
385 · Dec 2019
Stress Factor
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2019
He has a card up his sleeve
A chip on his shoulder
And a monkey on his back
Other than that
Life is a bed of roses
385 · Nov 2019
24-Hour Bug
Carlo C Gomez Nov 2019
You tickled my funny bone

Just when under the rose I believed
myself a casualty

Maybe you're the one for me?

But I'm theory weary

Suspicious of the auspicious

You might bite down too hard

Spill me like grape juice

A septic drink offering destined
for the graveyard

Or worse

You might follow me like a shadow
of doubt

Until at day's end, you tire of each
dubious step I measured out

And then off you will go

Looking for someone new to bake
your cake

I already see tendencies to seal
my fate

But, my viral *****, today was a gas

About tomorrow?

I'll have to pass
Carlo C Gomez Nov 2019
For a minute there I forgot
I lost my mind

Probably a good idea
to make a list

That way, if I should stumble
upon it, I will know it's mine
Carlo C Gomez Jun 2020
I'm trailer trash
And you're the tattered wheels

Run me over
Vilipended shrew

This place is full of
Rabid raccoons
And collect calls

Someone's got to pay

Maybe we can milk
A cash cow
Or plant a money tree
Between grandma
And the shed

A game of miniature golf
Always helps my mind
Get back on par
(More or less)

Then it's back to the bus stop
And be done with you
BLT's continued challenge - to write a poem using the Merriam-Webster word of the day, vilipend.
381 · Feb 2020
Your Television Hates You
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
TGIF is played out.
Shows stream like spawning trout.
No theme music.
No rolling credits.
47 minutes of artificial flavors.
13 minutes of passive aggression.
This is not your father's **** tube.
His had buttons and dials,
silly rabbit ears, and even
the occasional working VCR.
It was a simpler time
for the television.

Today with so much demand,
he too is under enormous stress
and headed for a breakdown.
He just can't keep up
with your binge watching,
the endless hours of "Reality"
that even he knows is fake.
You used to be friends.
Remember?
Cut him some slack
before his screen goes black.
380 · Dec 2019
Quiet Storm
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2019
A little birdy told me
A woman of few words
Is usually the one
Who does the dancing
On someone's grave
380 · Jan 2020
Devour
Carlo C Gomez Jan 2020
We often live our days
In a deep fryer
What doesn't coat and **** us
Could very well eat us alive
379 · Sep 2020
Glacial Drifts
Carlo C Gomez Sep 2020
From top
to bottom

I find this
underneath the ice:

The Earth
is bi-polar
379 · Apr 2020
Outlier
Carlo C Gomez Apr 2020
Waking to detachment
Dressed in fragments
Sorted feet of clay
A step away from heaven

Rather obtuse
A weighted word
Under the tongue
A syllable away from heaven

People that came before
Places that came after
Things we labelled ordinary
And missed a chance at heaven
378 · Mar 2020
The New Math
Carlo C Gomez Mar 2020
They wanted to go, but not today

But how many ways can you split the infinitive?

The wars upon the seashore harbor regrets of their own

Sanguine colors in the sand

They are reminders of blood filled horizons

Nonetheless, the tide that day offered only strangulation

Into the deep they went, never to return

In simpler times, they buried their dead at sea

Now they come to rest precisely where they fall

It's the new math: count on your fingers and toes the number of blows

But how many ways can you split infinity?
Disease is the new war.
378 · Feb 2020
Garderobe
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
Outgoing closet
With a shy hanger
Covering private parts
From open exposure
Sometimes a family
Shares the same space
But not the same views
376 · May 2020
Magic Begins With Blood
Carlo C Gomez May 2020
I steel myself for the familiar
--the dark cylinders
of half-smoked cigarettes,
I can feel it in my lungs.

"Magic begins with blood," you said.
"Don't get stuck on a dream."

That could never be.
I dream of someone new each time.

"For me, I'm your sorrow
calling in your dreams.
For me, I'm your shadow
howling in the streets."

My hands, they close
around the throat,
until that whispered plea
becomes a silent sonnet.

"You'll be happier in your grave."
376 · Feb 2020
Zero-sum
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
Hey there,
my darling Debt,
how is it
what's yours
is not necessarily mine,
yet what's mine
is already yours?
375 · May 2020
Empirical Sand
Carlo C Gomez May 2020
I see waves
and candy-filled holidays
I see beach *****
and florescent seafoam
I see barely clad soccer moms
playing in the surf
with their children
I see Humbert
eyeing the teenage girls
I see the beauty
of an Asian sun
I see bikini ties come undone
I see predilection
and his friend, ignorance
I see the same social distancing
by the color of one's skin
I see newfound paranoia
I see the old pleasure
and pain
I see a broken whole
in a mere afternoon walk
on the shore

Welcome to
the empirical sand

What you see
is what you get
BLT's continued challenge- to write a poem using the Merriam- Webster word of the day, empirical.
375 · Dec 2019
Icehouse
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2019
I hide
In rooms
Cold and spacious

Sleep is a hunter
Triggered
and mendacious

Through cracks
In crevices
Here I am

Studying the arts & architecture
Of historically
Dead mayhem

Affixed and frozen
To the ceiling
Of my head

Where twisted thoughts
Grin signature
Red

I can quote
All sorts
Of useless things

But none so urgent as prayers
In escaping what
My polar opposite brings
"I feel like I'm a snow globe and someone shook me up and now every little piece of me is falling back randomly and nothing is ending up where it used to be." --Amy Reed on her fight with bipolar-disorder.
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
circumference
area
radius
locate where i end
and you begin

protons
and neutrons
inside this atomic nucleus
our energy levels
hover in the clouds

how can't we fall
for the rotation
of this sphere

this densely
structured wonder
of our assembled love
373 · May 2020
4U2BOK
Carlo C Gomez May 2020
Stay inside
Play it safe
There are much greater things to miss than a day at the beach

Beginning with life itself
373 · Jan 2020
Good Morning Solar System
Carlo C Gomez Jan 2020
The Event Horizon takes
Its coffee black

The Milky Way takes
It with cream and sugar
371 · Jan 2020
Use Caution
Carlo C Gomez Jan 2020
Never
sell
your
dreams

...to
the
first
offer
370 · Aug 2020
No Time for Eucatastrophe
Carlo C Gomez Aug 2020
Under
The canopy tree
My shelter
Of light
Pulled me
Into its shadow
And
There
Operosely so
I remembered:

In memorization
Of varied
Maths
And
The columns they path
And
How they became
Feminine
And all about how
She looked and felt
Underwater

She was
Pale
And
Pearl
And diamond light
Off shore
And
Off the shoulder
My boat still afloat
Yet her waves indeed
The sinking of me

But then
In the peril
Of natation
The shiver
And the taste of salt

What entered my heart
Was the same
As filled up my lungs:

Anticipation:

The microcosm of
Pain
Or pleasure
Or both demises
At once
370 · Dec 2019
Living on a Fault Line
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2019
You say you're too tired
To even smile,
These days you fantasize
About naps,
Not me.

Baby has our life in limbo.

I try to help,
But it's always the wrong thing,
The wrong way.
Hey dear, I'm new at this.
Remember?

I miss your touch,
I'm desperate for anything
From you:
The time and attention
You used to give
To my heart,
To my thoughts,
To my *****.

I'm withering on this vine.

But I understand, my love,
There's so much more to this
Than me.
You look equally lost
In your role as a new mother,
And you complain far less.

I love our child,
Just as importantly, I love you.
I may not know how to do
Everything just right,
But you can count on me.
We'll find a way together,
And one day we might even
Find time to sleep.

And sleep together we shall,
Just as it once was,
Albeit much more quietly.
For now a kiss
And game plan will do.

Then let's get to work!
Inspired by the poem "Haiku Father of My Child" by fellow HP writer Nerissa.
370 · Feb 2020
Lookfar
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
River in search of a sea
imprisoned blood
on the killing spree

sea in want of rivers
cold remorseless wind
gives our wave the shivers

look how high the water rises
see how far removed the sun
so blind now to compromises

we remember songs no more
confronting one's darkness
from the farthest shore

in eclipse the river runs fallow
to light a candle
is to cast a shadow
369 · Oct 2020
Compound Fracture
Carlo C Gomez Oct 2020
I've been a combination
of many things:

Window slats
& Roman numerals

Door knobs
& swimming pools

Bulletproof glass
& Magic Wand Massagers

Bird droppings
& ruffled feathers

The beginnings of a migraine
& a burst of birdsong

Alas!
My heart was never into it

Not one could return me
To sinus rhythm
367 · Dec 2019
To My Dearest Equivocator
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2019
The flowers you gave me turned to darts. So I took them in hand and proceeded to throw them at all your other lovers' hearts. Hit them I did, directly in the center. Steady bullseye. But they didn't die. Those wounded hearts turned to a pack of wolves and chased you into the nearest wood. It's there they devoured every last part of you -- your could, would, and should. Eaten up by your own pretty lies. A fitting way to say our final goodbyes. Fallacy was a refreshing pool you employed to hoodwink. And so we'll gladly spread your ashes over this drink.
366 · Jan 2020
The Eternal Question
Carlo C Gomez Jan 2020
Is never longer than forever?
or do they live so close together
they often get each other's mail?
366 · Nov 2019
Ode to Toilet Paper
Carlo C Gomez Nov 2019
You were one-in-a-thousand
my 2-ply friend

But as our time together
nears it's end

There are a few things
I need to say to you

Number one

You were so strong
to take all my crap

Number two

You always rolled
with the punches

And finally

Even though you were
slowly unraveling

You were never harsh or abrasive
but soft & gentle

Emptying yourself
as your time grew flush

How will I ever replace you?
May you now rest, end piece...
365 · Nov 2019
In Other News
Carlo C Gomez Nov 2019
The road not taken
turned out to be
the path of least resistance,
and easy street
the highway of tears.

Who knew?
365 · Oct 2019
Extenuating Circumstances
Carlo C Gomez Oct 2019
When it comes to time,
many of us are fair-weathered friends.

In one brief moment we can save it
then turn right around and **** it.

Still, time is a thief,
so I guess we're even.
364 · Nov 2019
Tit-for-Tat
Carlo C Gomez Nov 2019
The early bird
catches the worm

As the bookworm
catches the early bird special
Carlo C Gomez Jun 2020
Filmed entirely on dislocation
(of time & space)

Strictly facetious & fictitious

Angelo Badalamenti
Julee Cruise
and Kyle MacLachlan
as donut filled with hallucinogens

The taller trees take issue
with certain twin
lumberjack dwarfs

Cue the jazz saxophone
&
tavern cadaver waltz
with Audrey

"I guess it means there's trouble
until the robins come"
because Isabella Rossellini
is crazy naked
on the neighbor's lawn
...again

And Laura Palmer
looks better dead
then she ever did alive

or so sings the nightingale

What more can be expected
from a guy who grew up
with pet sidewalks
and talking paper bags?

In memory of
Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times)
BLT's continued challenge - to write a poem using the Merriam-Webster word of the day, fictitious.
364 · Feb 2020
Unicorn on the Cob
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
If it lives
Man will **** it

If it burns
He'll eat it

If it happens to be
Make believe
He'll then imagine
All the ways he could
**** and eat it

He lives and dreams
Merely to destroy
Next page