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You know well the verdant bed of aster
       stretched limb along the rolling *****
       tucked between the redwood trunks
Piercing eyes peak back with bared fangs
       melting, molding into tilted neck, curious.
In your mind, anyway, but in reality,
      the fuzzy forest creatures bend their
      backs subdued.
The earth has her muzzle on, for now.
But dragons;
Dragons are real and they like to whisper
in our ears.
Shhh
Don’t tell me how you feel
with crude, blunt words.
Tell me in myth.
Tell me in crashing planets,
                    swarming oceans,
                       sly words cast sideways,
                    heroes rising,
                 secret forests,
               evil lords,
           and wars.
Tell me in myth.
I’ll mimic Matterhorn or the worn ways we window gaze and swipe left
or turn right on the green light of another cliche
If you swear gray is all the shades you’ll
put on lamps to match the grayscale duvet
Then catch me if you cat o’ nine tails
a swallowed whale,
We swear with chapped lips a waterworn promise
Maybe the Amish had it right and we’re a little bit snobbish.
I’ll Jack O’Lantern your etch-a-sketch erotica,
Not much scarier, these days, trick or treat.
Q-tips got your tongue? I’ll Question where you Came From 4 as long i Chan.
You don’t leave the house anymore except for groceries.
Catch me if you cat o’ nine tails
a swallowed whale,
Nineveh won’t wait, it’s time to break bread with danger and death.
I feel a bit obligated to explain the general aim of this poem seeing as how most of the phrases seem nonsensical (and to be honest I didn’t ascribe meaning to them until after I had written them). This started as a flow of consciousness poem, where I was really just playing a word association game with my subconscious. I was inspired (positively) by a poet on HP who has a similar abstract flow to his poems. I wanted to write something unique, out of the ordinary, and in doing so I connected with a combative energy towards laziness and cliche. I should point out that I know cliches exist for a reason, in that they capture common thoughts, feelings, or wisdom in a succinct way, and there is a certain bravery in clearly stating your feelings for all to see. I just get a bit bored by it, it’s not intellectually stimulating. On the flip side, if you hide your feelings behind too many levels of abstraction, it’s possible that neither you nor anyone else will understand what it is you’re saying.

I also have a personal annoyance with poems which are thinly veiled erotica. It’s probably a bit petty, but I’ve seen so many ****** poems on HP. The “etch-a-sketch erotica” line was about that. My exact criticism is levied at erotica which leans towards the dark, grotesque. I have genuinely seen some clever erotica poems, but I generally avoid reading such material for religious reasons.

There’s a final annoyance, other then laziness and cliche, which is political in nature. I wonder if anyone sees it?

Lastly, I haven’t thought of a meaning for “mimic Matterhorn”. I just think it sounds cool.
.
A month of Sundays intrudes darkly
upon a beautiful soft new Spring.
Casting the shadows of confusion,
growing hope for what Summer may bring.



© Pagan Paul (06/04/20)
.

The stars glimmered in the sky
In clusters so high
Moon glowed with an aura golden red
The sea at night calm
Reflected the beauty
Like the mirror does
Blurry and still
The waves, shimmered
The wind so silent
Before the dawn

✨✨
1st Dec ,  5:45  am
The moon and the Arabian Sea
those eyes are scarred
from damaged winds
on pavement singed

rent scenes recite
a diatribe
how do you live

holes dirtied leak
torn shadows sigh
they shelter filth

you cull the heat
until dice turns
to excise rage

with scalpel sharp
reprieve in sight
a poor man's

prize
----
©
At times we see old eyes pass us by, biding their time.  It may be on the street, in a bus or train.
Sometimes we see it in the mirror.  We know we would never do the deed. We seek to rise above injustice, to transform. But the primitive mind wants its moment, if only in mind ©
 Jan 2021 Butch Decatoria
Prevost
Reliving the path your blood has taken
and gathering up
all of time that has past
since it uttered its first beat
it hangs suspended somewhere
for the broken to harbor

but time is always reaching out
tethering itself to what will be
it is painless and pure
freely offering the sutures
that draw our wounds closed....
A poem of healing.
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