Down to the Brass Tacks of It ...

Feb 2017

Ali Qureshi

I Am

By discovering
who I am not
I found out
who I really am
I am the search
and the answer
I am the ups
and the downs
I am me
and you
I am less
and more
I am one
and all
I am and I am not.
I am no longer me.
No! I am,
no more.

*© Ali Qureshi

#poem #feelings #poetry #poet #life

Feb 2017

wordvango

another hit

dollars don't blush
around this time of night
rhymes don't work at twelve
midnight
science is all street
and biology and urges talk
the arithmetic is quaint and simple
twenty here for that
adds up to
another hit
I been taking notes
except in English
class

Feb 2017

Christian Bixler

Haiku no. 3

Spirit, yearning so
waves, the cherry blossom hangs
so high; so my love.

Perfect Love, the highest ideal, hangs above me, forever unattainable; yet I strive, and in doing so I am filled with awareness, and through this, peace. And so I am content in my striving, though it may bring me to tears, at times. For I am doing my best. And that is enough.

#love #peace #joy #contentedness #unattainable

Feb 2017

Lori Jones McCaffery

BETRAYAL

The years are liars and they don't keep their word:
They promised me maturity,
But all I got was soft places where I should be firm.
They swore me wisdom,
But all I found was a different kind of foolishness.
They said I'd have new insights
But all I saw was how I miss the flowers of youth.

The years are untrue and make vows they don't intend to keep
They promised me contentment,
But all I received was a slower paced restlessness.
They told me I'd find fulfillment,
But all I've discovered is a bigger yearning.
They assured me these years would be golden,
But I can see through the veneer to the green beneath.

And I curse the days and weeks and years
For they lied to me and then ran away.
vvv

#discontent #aging

Feb 2017

ultra violet remarkeyable

Anti-Valentines Day

thoughts from february fourteenth;

No one else alone, just me. Hence the word alone.
Only my dreams to send a rose to.

NO, no thank you. Love is not for me.
I'm perfectly fine being with myself.

#alone #okay #no #valentines #bye

Feb 2017

r

Shanghaied

Here I am

by the sea

Shanghaied

from the mountains

a long ways

from loving

let the record read

I'm ****** if I don't

and ****** if I do

and let the moon

hide in my boot.

And ****** if I know. :)

Feb 2017

Lori Jones McCaffery

SOMEBODY TELL ME

How many ways are there to hate
To loathe, despise, and vilify.
How many fantasies can you build
Where evil returns to those who birthed it.

How many kinds are there of hate.
Cold as an ice floe or burning hot.
Sharper than a scalpel blade, or
Duller than a breaking heart.

How do you work with so much hate.
Build a stair and climb above it
Or fabricate a prison cell
That robs you of the sun.

How do you learn to swallow hate
And **** it out the other end
Without it tearing up your guts
And leaving you a *******.

How do you spell the names of hate
In blood or bile on ***** walls -
Or glitter on the seaside sand
While waiting for the tide to ebb.

How do you give back so much hate -
Fed Ex will not deliver it.
A carrier pigeon could not fly
With such a heavy parcel.

How do you juggle such mountains of hate
And not miss a catch and be buried.
How do you drop it at the edge of the road
And travel on unburdened.

Please, somebody, tell me.
ljm

Do you think I hated that new supervisor enough? He didn't last long, or I'd be in jail or living on the street in a box.

#hatred #venting #jobhate

Feb 2017

Lori Jones McCaffery

DOMINOES

Displayed in a forever line of serpentines
Stretching over many days and weeks and years,
The dominoes stand upright in the dusk;
Each a careful distance from the next,
All skillfully and artfully arranged.

A prideful eye surveys the intricate design
That wonders at the craftsmanship involved
And blesses luck that gifted steady hands
And a non-ending stack of pieces -
Hoping that an earthquake does not come.

Who will have the honor of the push
That starts the clicking trail of doom
That ends with helter-skelter rubble
On the floor or mortuary slab
As dominoes become a life all lived.

Will it be anger like a piercing knife
Or some organic instrument
That weakens the well organized
Assemblage of a life and makes it fall
Like a domino nudged out of line.

Frustration or depression, which will it be
That starts the tiles to falling
And once moving with no hope to stop.
Will it it be by accident or force of will-
I need to add a few more at the end

I can’t afford to buy another box.
ljm

#living #trepidation #homeostasis

Feb 2017

Sonja Benskin Mesher

.. deleted ..

should have gone deleted. you went and liked it, commented.

now is done, we are as exposed.

we are responding to the prompts.

reportage. write again, tomorrow.

we are witness.

nothing is as it seems. there are enough disturbances in the world,

without another. stay under glass.

though it is a secret, we have none

sbm.