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Carlo C Gomez Nov 2023
~
Or migrated pod
       Or fleeing refugee
            Or corban
                  Or carbon dioxide
                       Or yubitsume
                            Or van Gogh's ear
                                 Or black Friday
                                      Or lazy evening at the carnival

                    (Tomorrow has already started)

Or free range
     Or gated community
          Or breast exam
               Or storage crisis
                    Or fallen leaves
                         Or germ warfare
                              Or temporary file
                                   Or permanent wave
                                        Or thigh gap
                                             Or physiognomy
                                                  Or soap made of heroes
                                                       Or multiplanetary living
                                                    
(There's a floating graveyard between this world and the next)

Or logical fallacy
     Or irrational number
          Or elementary analysis
               Or college guess
                    Or cardiopulmonary resuscitation
                         Or extrasensory perception
                              Or ten fingers and toes
                                   Or a dozen eggs

                  (They say there's strength in numbers)

Or fifth floor, corner room
     Or high as a kite
          Or bellwether
               Or mingled with bells
                    Or police sirens
                         Or loitering around in silent films
                              Or rule of thirds
                                   Or tombs of second-hand kings
                                        Or face in the rain
                                             Or pareidolia

(Otherwise, at first light you might be smiling...)

~
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
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
Gumballs
from Jules Verne's
mental dispenser
got blown out
of proportion
and popped
his internal clock
now there's never
enough hours in the day
so before global unrest
bursts his bubble
he'd better stop
chewing on ideas
and actually
come up with
a solution
that will stick
I'm just being silly here and not attacking poor Mr. Jules Verne.
Carlo C Gomez Oct 2019
When did you become
A somnambulist, my dear?
Where the disconnect?
About the time your ache
For outlying places began to moon-wake?
I get the sense
You knew long before me
Our days of limerance had culminated.
As if something remote
Had stolen you away.
Do you remember the twinkle
Of twilight in each other's arms
Or was this phosphene?
What then was love? Cafuné?
It's no matter.
The sweet smell of rain
In the air now tells me
Something's brewing, and
You won't be happy
Until what was "us" has been
Washed away.
Carlo C Gomez Mar 2020
She lived on
the outskirts of sanity,
took up jogging
to outrun the rush
of other voices,
burned a sick day
organizing her own criticisms,
shaved her legs and edges
for practice sake,
trimmed her disorders
as "normal" girls do,
bought a fancy dress
to envy but never wear,
made marks on the calendar
to believe she had places to be,
like the local
coffee shop,
where they serve
a favorite flavor,
somewhat stable,
somewhat frenzy.
Inspired by the poem title "Outskirts," by fellow HP writer Amanda.
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.
Carlo C Gomez Jan 11
Earth comes out of its greenroom

I bend at the window
looking through the glass
down upon its vastness

something out there is wrong

the future's not what it used to be
a shadow tells me

I feel mysterious today
a stranger to myself
I don't recognize my voice

objects outlive us
but we are more than an accident of stars
someday we will be infinite
breaking into the distance

by serene velocity
by delicate transitions

bringing us closer
to a renewed interest in happiness
Carlo C Gomez Jan 2024
~
Are we all the same distance apart?
Are we nocturnal
because we buy into
rhythmic disturbance,
trying to find a memory
in a dark room?

In shadow of advancing myth,
there's evidence of hunters
in the glowlight,
with wings outstretched,
solitary and contrite,
we cut the night,
we cut the night.

From sticks to bitterness,
we cut the night,
we cut the night.

~
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
Carlo C Gomez Mar 2023
She egresses from a pool of blue and straight into the colorless, Californian dregs of summer.

Each passing plane reminding her how stuck she is.

The question remains whether some people are doomed to just survive, a yearning for freedom following them around, until they learn to numb themselves to such aspirations.

Faraway trains pass by.

The sound in their whistles knowing the events she will litigate with herself for years to come until it empties the contents of her soul.
Carlo C Gomez Jan 2020
incubator
technological mother
wi-fi our blood vessels
to your eternal link
make us passionate machines
symbiotic connections
programming a love
continuously on update
in lieu of heartbreak
in lieu of heartbreak
in lieu of heartbreak
in lieu of...
fail
buffering
abort
retry
error
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
So here I am
out on a raft
just me and my anxieties
trying hard to get
away from a vessel
taking on so much water
I think I see Jack and Rose
swimming towards us
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
for a woman
all too often
it's not about
the reputation
that precedes her
but rather unfairly
like a stalker
it's what follows
closely behind her
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
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
There's a thin line
between simple
fashion faux pas
and the sin of visibility

She'd rather go commando
than be found out
hark! 'tis her own sisters
who will roast her alive
A quiet
young woman
in a library
reading books
with diagrams
of bomb shelters
and *** positions

She's thinking
of her future
Carlo C Gomez Mar 2023
a desire to erase,
to stay away forever.

an opportunity to transfigure,
to sit on the floor and wait for storms.

a line to cross, a lion at dusk,
a catastrophist.

a pen filled with acid,
a book of theories full of holes.

once this begins, there are only endings.
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2022
undecipherable loss
  • [it's steeper near the roses]

attenuation
  • [the mystery in the trees
  and the mistral sound of your breathing]

dreams of perfection: floral dress summer
  • [the apnea and the scream]

a touch of labyrinth to this world
  • [in the fair and harmless light]

imagine somewhere close by
  • [imagine him waving as you say goodbye]
for Jasmine
Carlo C Gomez Feb 20
~
Maternal midnight

Metallic lakeside

Freon heart, fayence mind

Eyelids of iron ore

Influence feet into the water

Into an embargo bay

Clear and innocuous, innocuously blind

Hills like white elephants on a polar plateau

Mosquitos on her mouth

Drink the blood of encryption

Change the tone of her voice

They pass behind the blue vein

Become infinite particles of her

~
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2023
~
Solandis

Solandis

Colonizing the past so we can dream the future

~
Stellify

Stellify

Heaven's at the bottom of this glass

~
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
I can only throw the ball once

When playing fetch with my dog

Otherwise he gets a complex

Thinking he didn't do it right

The first time
Carlo C Gomez Jul 2023
A summer of twigs
And disposable cameras
But the skin was shy
And others were watching

So we shifted these walls
And dimmed the lights
To a thousand unclosed eyes
And passed through in eclipse
Of future rhapsody
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2020
~
Moonlit angels keep turning the wheels of the universe

In conversations with God, they placed the Sun precisely in the centre

Alarum and escapement keep the gear train moving forth:

Astronomical clock, armillary sphere, lunar phases in sidereal time

All patterns of evidence -- releasing our impulses, advancing our hands

~
Carlo C Gomez Mar 2020
Spiderwebs &
Multi-track suggestions

Dust particles &
Wind blown hair

Insinuations &
The purely insouciant

Falstaffian predicaments &
Gentle persuasions

Baby's first laugh &
Their tiny handprints

Rain splashes &
Naive wishes

Far-off sorrows &
The disquietude from home

Flickers in unrevealed ardor &
Waltzing turns of euphoria

The shy confessions in dark &
The open nakedness of light

Echoes of the hunger in her voice &
The piano's affecting final note

toujours l'amour l'amour...
Carlo C Gomez Nov 2019
Having to eat our own words
should give us food for thought.
Carlo C Gomez Nov 2019
Why should I pay you
A penny for your thoughts,
When you're clearly dying
To give your two cents worth?
Carlo C Gomez Jan 2020
There's a sigalert
on the conveyor belt,
now we'll all be late for work.
How can anything
I spend half my life on
be free?
Little by little
I'm moving away from me.
Next year
They're adding a fast lane.
No solution there,
just ******* in more butane.
Carlo C Gomez May 2020
Don't just settle
For being someone's
Flavor of the month

Learn what it takes
To make love stick
Carlo C Gomez Nov 2024
~
Unusual and cloudless

This slippery world

Today is still contagious

Here is heat, here is rain

Here is love, regardless

Shadows in the scaffolding

Look like a broken alphabet

The sun in its anger

Just won't set

Life and how to do it

Perfectly absent

~
Carlo C Gomez Aug 2024
It always happens
with the sunset for him;
marital love
at sixes and nines

Memories are now
missing parasols;
canticles of bliss
--emotional screening devices

Chimneys smoke
as a way of laying claim to serendipity;
it's a marriage of conveyance

And their daughters lie in empty fields;
early to the party,
seeking the sun
like a lover

Across his chin
sit scars of the crusade
--the first pain to linger,
the last kiss to haunt

The evocation of his betrothed:
mending her gown
and how she wore the forest
on their wedding day,
but peeled it all off
at his request
that one singular evening

To be naked and shiver;
to be naked and shiver
at the anticipation in his arms

The master of the house
now enters the secret chamber;
and in the throes
of glory-light, he adores
his wife in the carnal means
she likes best
Carlo C Gomez Jul 2022
What on Earth
took you? Do we dare land?

A lark of descension. An aborted beginning.
Moon trills.

Captain is dead
at the controls.
Mother gives birth in the airlock.

Trouble in the passageways.
A struggle to name it.
A drink before eclipse.
All that's wrong with the world
sounds like harmonium in the (wishing) well.

First flight over Hölderlin's Archipelago,
creating new and stranger versions
in the sandclouds.
So this is
Tharsis Rise?
Life without a trace.

Non-terrestrial Martian field.
Halcyon flowering seas. A rock with no trees,
no urban hopes.

Yet, the whole universe inside
wants to be touched.
I love you in zero gravity,
pushing tender buttons.
*** as solution.
Moon trills.

A kiss of atmosphere.
This alien womb.
Those android embargoes.
Our children are born echoes of astronauts.
Lunar schedules
their first words.

There's a lightspeed sensibility
to this type of marriage and parenting:
no leaving the hub,
no exit procedure.

The Sol they sing
is a harm hymn,
moon trills,
subject to the ladder and the weight of breath
this outside Earth.

But I love you in the veil of a twilight moon.

We're monuments
burned into moments.
Moments without a beyond.
Carlo C Gomez Jun 2021
his hobbies include
                          invisible girls
                     bubble wrapped
              shielding their eyes from the sun
                        up the side of his mountain
holding fast to the cable
                                  and the eventual terror of drawing
                     paper moons
                         framed a bit too
                                                   insular
                                                   binocular
                                                   funicular
                                                   vermicular
                         these out of sightlines
                                    opaque and cobwebbed
                               screening off
                       his ***** little secrets
Carlo C Gomez Mar 15
~
I'm an exit wound
I'm a numinous obstacle
I'm about to make landfall
I'm about to break free

I'm a nerve ender
A fascinator
A purifier
A world populator
And I'm about to break through

I'm the push and pull
I'm a counter argument
I'm dissonance resistance
I'm viral replication
I'm about to break out

I'm a singularity
I'm a spark
I'm the perfect detonator
To mind and heart
And I'm about to break up

I'm a simulacra
I'm an oscillation
Made of breath only
I'm a living, moving imprint
Of what no longer is
Yet somehow seems to be

~
Carlo C Gomez Aug 2021
~
Memphis
and the King,
plagued up
to his neck
in denial,

turning remote
controls
into staffs,
staffs into snakes,
jackals,
and hounds,

shaking the sistrum,
singing gospels
full of mystery
to a god,
a girl,
and state of mind
he will never solve,

asking skies
of transulent
orange,
from the far corners
of his world,
for pharmacopia,

then granting
Moses
his freedom
in exchange
for a box
of hot glazed
doughnuts,

and always
his little
wild petunia,
painted face
and percolating
body,
skin smooth
as the eastern Delta,

her weighted down heart,
his tyranny,

his self-destructive tongue,
her asp

~
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 Jun 2021
~
I hold still,

let him finish stabbing me

                                                 — I count six,

let him believe me dead,

he moves on to Cecelia.

--

It does not go as well for her

as she continues to writhe and scream

and carry on,

not well at all
                                             
               ­                              — I count eight,

                                                                nine,

                                                                ten...

~
Carlo C Gomez Mar 2021
I remember her
in old
photographs

she'd been
daydreaming
all her life
in her under-age
world

spinning
like a top
eternity
in her head
but recklessness
on her tongue

crusading for
******* summers
in Europe
and all that comes
splendidly hither

when laid down
by the embers
in the groves
close to
the congenial sea

I rightly recall
before the page
turning

electric particles
shooting off
as fireworks
in each of her
copper eyes

and how destiny's
curtain fell
with such
suddenness
that morning of
the thin blue line
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2023
~
She stands on the roof of the world, a ship in a bottle. She likes to wave at passing boats, inviting 120 volts to raise their sails.

Words unbosomed -- her attempt of blotting out the sun and those bloodletting habits.

Her eyelids say, "Only the disquieting muses have time for me." So she writes like an umbrella, shading reality; remembering pluck and luck stories about bumblebees, lovingly wrapped in Tiffany-blue ribbon and paper.

Father used to solve her every contemplation. Now indecisiveness in what she asks. Now indecisiveness in arbitrary tasks.

And she and her negative capability are the last two awake at a slumber party, giving commonplace words the allure of secrecy.

You see, she is only harmless when she sleeps.

~
Carlo C Gomez Jul 2020
~
Sailing off
To discover destiny
To find fate
Following the blood trail
Of the combatant moon
Until arriving upon
The carnage of
What was once
The new world

~
Carlo C Gomez Aug 2021
~
Jara sang undaunted,
Fet-Mats, turned to stone, dug deep,

—as if a silent prayer in Latin,

—as if the sacredness of wedding vows,

—demonstrative
as a water lily.

There's a perpetually simple elegance
to what water fallen words
kept in a tinderbox stir,

—bless the soft spoken
and the loud cry.

—bless the dead poet
and the buried miner.

—bless the nouns and verbs
of a crescent bride
about to receive her husband
inside of her.

~
Carlo C Gomez May 2020
It's a small world
for some girls. They live

in shadow
of the Himalayas,
and other assorted mountainous
peaks. They daydream

of being followed
by the camera eye,
adored for the top heavy
weight they carry with
a grinning bounce. They want

to be a cruise ship,
stacked to the deck.
They want to be
fashioned with torpedoes,
a bombshell to
reckon with. And so they lie

on a table
to become a sculpture in plastic
for a renowned
architect. A mad scientist
in his own right,
experimenting with his creations
on fragile psyches, banking

on insecurities,
giving them a deflated hope
that what God didn't
bless them with,
his derangement will.

It's a mind game.

A mantra to "she who sends up gifts":
if you feel as good as you look,
all is well.

There's no harm in that, right?
Let's ask Pandora...
For individuals considering breast augmentation surgery, take note of the following statement from the FDA:

“Breast implants are not lifetime devices; the longer you have your implants, the more likely it will be for you to have them removed.”

Millions of women worldwide have developed symptoms after implantation in the 50 years they have been on the market.

These symptoms have been coined “breast implant illness.” From minor irritations to greater health challenges, research supports that in some individuals, both saline-filled and silicone-filled breast implants can cause significant adverse health effects, leading us to question if breast implants are safe. In addition, implants have been found to increase the risk of certain types of cancer.
Carlo C Gomez May 2024
~
Bangle jangle
Strings of Mitra beads
Ankle-length sheath

Suzanna Hoffs
Painted lips
Shifting hips

Testing the poisons
Of her dance steps
Directly into the camera

~
Carlo C Gomez Apr 2023
Today, my train of thought
Is a bit off track.
It's a dark and confusing smokestack.
You see, questions abound.
So buckle in as I go to town.

Which cider you on?
Apple or hard?
If a tree falls on a copier
And no one is around to see it,
Does it make a forest?
I'm rooting for yes; but quite unsure.

How many coins can a fountain hold?
I wish I knew.
Is Paul dead or the walrus?
Is Paul dead AND the walrus?
Coo coo ca choo.

What's the beef about red meat?
It fills but kills? It sells but fells?
Who knows!
The proof is in the pudding.
All other desserts are unsubstantiated,
I suppose.

If peanut butter leaves Los Angeles
Traveling east at 100 miles per hour,
And jelly leaves New York
Traveling west twice as fast,
Will they become a sandwich when they meet?
What a treat if they did.

Maybe one day these
Universal questions will be solved.
But for now, I'm quite dizzy
From all the lunacy involved.

Catch you later...
Carlo C Gomez Jun 2020
Sun-rimmed
& splendorous
this afternoon of us
barefoot in the grass
...
Noontide escapade
& pageantry
the mural on the wall of your heart
says you agree
...
Loving outside of ourselves
constructs the nook
I feel what you feel
Sehnsucht
...
There's an au fait air
between this man & wife
bound in codex
this breath of life
Sehnsucht [ˈzānˌzo͝oKHt] : yearning; wistful longing.
Carlo C Gomez Apr 2024
~
It's all about
to become reimagined
along a foreign coast

Embattled shorelines
an archer on the beach
girl in a sling
facing the other way
playground martyrs

Random acts
of senseless violence
the warm taste of human failure

~
Carlo C Gomez Dec 2019
For her day at the beach
She chose big time
Fun in the sun
And wore dental floss

Not real safe for the top heavy
Too strong a frolic
And she might well crash
Upon the shore like a tsunami

But that was the least
Of her problems this day
For when she bent over
You could see all the way
Down to Florida
Carlo C Gomez Mar 2024
soap and water
          dishes
          laundry
          or shower

brick from mortar
boys against girls

urban velvet smog
city vapors clog

this train -- there is a line
        beginners
        quitters

this parking lot -- there is a line
        shoppers
        influencers

open bar pharmacy, bottled water

                  no pity
                  no guarantees

dragon chasers
chin music
        
          lapsed short term memory loss

opening mail for grandmother
                the obituaries
                that ****** fly

a discussion among men
about a woman's voice
           come sit and listen

one last cigarette couple
walking home through the park
               driving alone in the dark
                             on the heels of
                             a reflection
                             of Christ
                             or an hourglass
                             in remission

them or not them
       just arrived
       just married
too many stairs
not enough elevators
worry about it later

them, definitely them
sharing beds
      under the leotard
      under the candlelight

a helping hand
finely manicured fingers
one stationary
        then two in missionary

word upon words need aspirin
            orchestrate
            headache
                            pillow is the threshold
                            tomorrow...soap and water
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
A wicked stem
With which to stir the drink

I love it when
You poison me

Makes our time together
A bit more fun

Not having to guess
When it will end
Carlo C Gomez Mar 2020
Kept in a box
Back of the closet
Remnants of time
Curios of place
Before she was
Someone's mother

London Bridge
Houseboat
Out on the water
Fun with inner tube
Pink lipstick
Little black bikini
Games afoot
Cocktail in hand
Sunny smile
Saucy wink
Natural grace
Hair let down
Playful air
Provocative pose
Naked as a Jaybird
Happy as a Lark
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
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