Aging Ain't Optional - Hello Poetry

Oct 2016

Mary Alexander

Locket

I have a golden locket,
That hangs around my neck,
It's heavy as weighted stone,
And I'm a nervous wreck.
I keep it with me through each day,
And through the passing cold,
I keep it close, next to my heart,
Although it has grown old.
I have this ****** and rusted locket,
Filled with ash and pain,
I don't know why I wear it still,
Don't ask me to explain.

#love #weight #stuck #stone #rust

Oct 2016

phil roberts

WHEN I GO TO SLEEP

When I go to sleep at night
I leave the TV set on
With electric shadows
Flickering around the walls
Not because I fear the dark
Which is a friend of mine
But because silence is a threat
To my drifting vulnerable mind
And the open wounds of old

Silence allows my ghosts
To invade my imminent dreams
Some screaming in rage
As others whimper for love
Creating vivid nightmares
And drenching my very essence
So, when I go to sleep at night
I leave the TV set on

By Phil Roberts

Oct 2016

r

The left fork

Somewhere along the way
I picked up a heavy load
of dead wood, a couple of degrees
east of East Tennessee,
a few bottles uncorked,
problem women, and another
woman, a child, and a mortgage,
all while I wandered down the left fork
of the wrong road like the red silt
in a river that has forgotten
its source, but enjoying the scenery,
the journey, and, of course,
the paths I tended to leave
through the high weeds where I lost
myself and my footprints so loud
I could hear them before I left them
on the ground behind me
like hollow dreams trampled down
beneath the feet that I follow.

Oct 2016

John Edward Smallshaw

Crystal and her *****

Day care for the elderly
and that'll do for me
when I get old.

A gypsy once told me
that good luck
would follow me,
it's not caught up yet

and yet the older I get
the less that I fret
about such things
such as
what
luck brings.

I favour fortune as much
as it favours me,
which by the way is
not a lot and lately
I was wondering what
it ever did for me,

the gypsy knows, but
they always do or don't
you
believe in that.

Oct 2016

Randolph Llewellyn Wilson

Let's 'Do' Coffee Someday ...

I rule the Principality of Randolph and no other
I stand unshackled by political thought and the misdirection of my fathers
I've no tolerance for the panicked Gen X , Y nor Z enlightened , for I
glow vividly in the darkened apparatus of my own tinkering mind as well
I hold a book of Sandburg poetry with my right hand ,
a mattock in the left , the hefty chain of truth around
my neck , a Cherokee rose in a left pocket , a revolver in the right
I am a firm believer in the barbed wire cattle fence , bone chilling
November front porch mornings with black coffee and biscuit
The call of an Iron Bell , the clear ringing notes of mournful Dove , watchful Crow and story filled Whippoorwill* ...

Oct 2016

wordvango

fancy

age can bloom a younger
day a new me a new age
years of seeing might just bring newness
explain the past the future

make today the day I finally am
open my eyes full
that until now have been
half open

fancy that day youth blind
when destiny stares back at you
expect the day your past is longer
and more grand

than your future
you will
understand

Sep 2016

Sjr1000

Desire

I'm a rockin
I'm a rollin
I'm a twisting
I'm a turning

Can't get you out of my mind

It all started so slow
No smoking at the bar
Hendricks and juice
watching the show

You danced on by me
with someone I didn't know

Eye contact
The games between us begun

Now all night long
reliving our moves

Still hallucinating you next to me

Your eyes, they penetrated my skin
Your eyes they
hypnotized my mind
Agitation
Fascination

But of course you left with him

There's a scent in the air
I'm feeling your presence
everywhere

My mind is on fire
My body is too
there is a longing desire

Not ready to forget you

I'm hugging my pillow
my sheets
they are burning

I'm rockin
I'm rollin
I'm twisting
I'm turning

Can't get you out of my mind
I'm not going to even try to.

Sep 2016

Roger Turner - Poet

vinyl dreams

A platter of black plastic
Spinning circles at a speed
That fill the air with music
The inspiration that I need

I close my eyes and listen
To every hiss and pop
I keep the arm retracted
So the music doesn't stop

The little worn out player
With the sweet distorted sound
Takes me back to being younger
It's where memories are found

It's magic made of plastic
Spinning out musical streams
That box that pops and crackles
And fills my vinyl dreams

#dreams #music #nostalgia #vinyl #records #player

Sep 2016

Musfiq us shaleheen

nonstops

'O' this rain
knocking a distinct pain
while I'm sitting in the train
here life uncut
though the glass window shut
everything moving fast, but
I'm locked, fixed
like a rotating disc
repeating the same song
as the rain longing as long
dropping rain drops
on the land of crops
on the pops
nonstops

......

#sad #life #alone #rain

Sep 2016

K Balachandran

Jealousy

On her warm lap the cat sits
smugly without any fuss,
yet she could sense it's little secret
well concealed, just to please her;
the expression of happiness
on it's face is a mere make -believe.
It's fluorescent eyes involuntarily dart
to the cozy corner that beacons it.
To the moonlit end of the courtyard
where her husband sits lost to the world.

She feels cheated yet again.

#cat #jealousy #cheat #exclusion

Sep 2016

Sjr1000

Heartbreaker

gives exquisite attention
speaks with grace
flowing through the room
touching everyone
Groundhog day
six weeks later
telling you your life story
though you might have just met

I tell my son be careful son,
(also reminding this heart of mine,
you'd better not walk that line)

Look in the eyes
there's a white light shinning
focused right on you
feels so good
easy to misjudge what you're seeing
easy to take for granted

The day it's going to come

The white light blinking out
The exquisite attention
somewhere else

(This heart of mine, I put on notice)
I also tell my son,
be careful.