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There is a spider in my bathroom

She picked an awful spot
at the corner
where the shower meets the floor
and the wall

Location location location

There really is nothing
prey-wise
that goes near there
now that the ant traps are set

still, she has located herself there

built a web
and hangs
waiting for the tremor in the line
that will never come

or will it?

This morning I caught a fly
which is really quite easy
once you realize that they leap up
straight away from whatever they are perched on

just grab the air above their head

Once the fly was in my hand
I looked at the spider
she looked hungry
and since the fly was doomed anyway

I bounced it off the floor into her web

Then, watching the care
and finesse she had
preparing her meal,
I named her Julia
At night
in that in-between
chamber
where sleep meets wakefulness
I listen to the Ancients whisper:
Sun
and Moon
have always been Lovers

And as the darkness
swallows
my consciousness,
I become your mirror
of lucid reflections
leaping
from the shadows of temple walls
I tumble
inside the copper cauldron
that seeps life
into the black hearth's stone.

Your eyes flicker on the surface
of the waters of birth:
dancing flames
that can never be extinguished.

Laughter pearls on my tongue:
Know you not your vapour
cools to gold?

In frankincense bowls
you rise
and I feel your form
conjuring my body from the folds
of water lily petals

Without you
I could be no more than a lotus eater
gazing at the Milky Way
from far beneath the languid tide
I see you there
on your white sand beach,
in your little tight bikini.
Looking like a creamy white treat.

Infidel *****!

Exposed skin
men all ogling your body,
with eyes like hands!

How would you like me
to take off my clothes in front of you!

Touch your body,
and kiss your lips!

Then you would see the effect you Infidel Flaunting Sexuality!

Your curvaceous body,
coated in sweat from the inflamed sun.
My blood boils thinking of you!

I am going to ******* American!
Put my tongue in your mouth,
kiss you!
Like you do in your pervert mind.

Your naughty fantasy
of naked man,
kissing you on a sunny beach,
tropical drink in one hand,
other hand rubbing and probing my body!

Infidel *****!

Laying there,
so ****,
you make me crazy!

Your passion *** will burn
in sinful fires,
and Allah will pass judgement
on your ***!

I will *******, for punishment
to your Infidel Flaunting Sexuality,
*******, glistening,
lips red as the drink you drink.

Infidel *****!
The trees are naked.
They look down on us
like scars.
And I'm ashamed of it.
While children were swallowed up
in angry soil
born in hungry war zones,
I was drawing finger bones.
I was painting your spine like river.
And I'm sorry.
I'm fighting the only way I know how,
because I never learned how to use these fists.
Girls would beat me up on playgrounds,
but now
their wombs have been stripped of their innocence.
Against their heart,
that broke out in tears when they stepped into the clinic.
But at least I'm doing more than just wishing.
At least I'm not sealing our sisters and brothers
in body bags.
I'm trying to leave an impression.
Because I met this girl
who had a voice like hand grenade
and I'm hoping my tongue
is like a shotgun
so I can hold it to the head of the hurricane
and tell it to stop.
I can't hear poems when you're screaming.
But I can feel the hose that you're beating me with.
I can smell the cigarette butts that breathed death into the lungs of brilliant girls.
I can see the scars that were left on the wings of the angels that are now men.
The trees are naked.
They don't like to be cold
so I tried to cover them with blankets of words
but they shrugged them off like snow.
I'm sorry.
I'm doing the best I can.
But I spent too much time scraping the skin
off of clouds with my fingernails.
And I found the place where God left us.
He never told us what to do.
But daddy said to be strong.
Don't cry Johnny.
Be a soldier Johnny.
Fight for what's right.
**** so you won't be killed.
Be a monster.
I knew women who wrapped their
prayers into telescopes
and went stargazing in steeples.
They claimed they could see God.
They said that their sons would return home.
But the only soldiers that come home
remain in caskets.
We're hungry.
And I'm tired.
You look as if you've been weeping like a willow.
I know my fingertips are raw
with words of forgotten anthems.
The trees are naked.
They're tired of mother nature being *****,
she forgot to take the pill
And I forgot what it means to be alive.
So I watched snow falling like ghosts
watched the streetlights turn into halos.
I poemed a river that was shaped like your spine.
I hope this helps.
Don't tell me that prose is useless.
Because that star strangled banner is
just a mark of shame.
We need some rain to clean the blood from our hands.
Need some heartbeats to make our music.
It's hard to read poems that are carved
into the  prison bars
of a birdcage,
full of our sisters and brothers who recite
Bible versus for parole.
We've been reading the lips of Death.
And it's about time we stopped.
I told you to trace my finger prints.
Hug me like you were about to say goodbye.
I'm trying to decide whether or not you were pretty.
Brushing clouds off of the sky.
Go ahead and tell me that there were days
when you loved me.
Tell me my kisses felt like ripples
on a raindrop.
You built me.
Showed me how lightning made things
pretty right before it burned them.
Stripped the crystal from my eyes
and strung them into a chandelier.
I've reset my heartbeat.
And it's been telling me I need to see you again.
Gotta remember what love is.
Take me back to the last time
that we were laughing
and show me that there is more to this life
than what blood gives us.
Hold my brittle bones.
Would you be my friend?
Remember how I built you that tree house?
Thought we would paint each others
futures on the window panes
and skip rocks across our bloodstreams.
Write me a love letter on my granite spine.
I'll trace my pulse onto your ribcage
and tell God that you need someone special.
Let me poem you a swing set
so you can remember why you
were a child.
Give me a reason to hold another girl's hand.
Do you remember what love is?
My slate has been wiped clean
and I've been trying too hard
to lean on these crutches.
Lived in my rubble.
Cut open the belly of the beast
so its anger could plant seeds in my head.
You scraped my poems off of your eyelids.
Didn't I already say I'm sorry?
Buried fireflies in a mason jar and
told you they were my soul.
Painted bluebirds in the sky and
carved tree branches in my neck.
You built me.
Sewed marionette strings to my veins
and showed me the right way to move.
There's no way we can let our past go.
I seem to have lost my way.
Won't you be my friend?
Show me what I've missed.
Show me the right way to hold this broom
so I can sweep up this glass.
Bury this casket
and move through it.
Give me a plane crash.
Tell me there were times
when you couldn't let go.
Back to that place where we
buried our memories in a hope chest
and prayed that time would make it pretty.
You built me.
Made my pupils into runways
and gouged these canyons into my heart.
I ask that you carry my name with you.
Cradle my marble spine.
Spit at the ashes of our love life,
and mold it into a shape that we'll remember.
Everything seems to be prettier when you look back at it.
Do you know why that is?
Do you know why we fell for each other
like children on a playground?
I've been writing down nothing but wishing wells.
Spinning yarn that has too much color
and coughing up words that sound too perfect.
I'm glad we're friends.
Take this loaded gun from my hand
and replace it with a kite string.
Tell me my voice was like a blanket.
I wish I could make this night more colorful.
Paint songbirds on my chest.
And hope we find our way
home.
When they stripped me of the life in my bones
I looked to the stars,
and plucked the moon from its perch
with my lips.
And the rage in their fists
tried to pry it from my skull.
But they cannot win.
They may look down on us with their
hollow eyes that can do nothing but weep,
and their hungry mouths that spit ash.
But I know what hope is.
And They don't.
No matter how many times I am beaten
I swear that the birds that sing in my chest
will always be louder than them.
Tell me what holy is,
and I will tell you of the love in my veins.
Tell me why you hate so much,
and I will tear it apart with my shame.
I will split the night open with my words.
I will sweep up the ashes with my rage.
They cannot win.
Not when your eyes look through me like that.
And while you sew together my wings,
tell me of the love letters that God left
on your windowsill.
Tell me of the fists that left those scars.
When they finally bring me to the gallows,
make sure that the noose is made
from the strings of guitars.
Carve my spine into the heart of a tree.
Spread my ashes over the lips of the sea.
Tell me what holy is.
And I will take you to that river full of sin.
I will write my poetry in the snow with my bones.
Tell me where Gabriel is.
And I will clean the blood from his crippled wings.
I will be an immovable sky.
The mouth of the river that never ceases to sing.
They'll separate us with razor wire,
but a few cuts won't hold me back.
They'll scream at us with their empty taboos.
But the paintings I've got tattooed on my ribs
aren't black and white like their words.
I'm done hiding my heartbeat.
I want to taste the words that come off my tongue,
to paint with the dirt beneath my nails.
Say my obituary was written like a poem.
So that when God greets me at his gates,
he will tell me that I was alive.
That I wasn't empty like Them.
But I'm tired.
And I've walked one too many miles in my
own shoes.
But it's impossible to stop,
when you've got wings flapping in your chest,
and a heart that burns like a lantern.
Remember me like this.
Spouting words from the darkest corners
of my soul.
Words that stick to you like a lover's kiss.
It's a song.
A manifesto.
An epitaph that will stay burned in your eyes
until you blink away the tears.
I'll keep walking if you just carry me
on your back for a few short steps.
A couple of shallow breaths.
Just let me rest.
So that the next words that come out of
my mouth will be “I love you”.
And you'll see that the bruises on my back
are the notes of music.
Tell me what holy is.
So I can tell you why I keep moving.
So I can spread these wings you've built for me,
with the skin I've shed
and my broken bones.
And I'll teach you how to fly too.
Because life has no rhythm
unless you give it a beat.
Tell me what holy is.
And remember
that we
are not.
 Jul 2012 Chris D Aechtner
JL
gleam
 Jul 2012 Chris D Aechtner
JL
they gathered around
thick as the forest
calling her name out in chorus

I don't want any part of this
                           I once thought I loved you
          

\ you  whine and moan
about the big fluffy bed
a mattress of down          
and pillows velvet red

but the girl that i love
sleeps on hay
and she's out working
in the yard every day

You wear a pearl necklace
And great golden dresses
Banners of your name
Hang down like tresses

She grows roses
roses with thorns
her hair is plain
and messy and short

princes with names
I cannot pronounce
battle for your hand
but you only pout

...but she gets five lashes
                                   if the chickens get out

your tower is tall      
         You say too tall for me
your hall are great
                       too great for me
your tables are long
your gilded platters full
but you are still hungry
a lone starving fool

but
the one who I love
She is quiet and sweet
we share a loaf and some broth
on the side of the street
As your great castle glistens like a diamond in the sky
I watch her pick roses with a smile so wide
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