Duck: Favorites

Nov 2012 Duck

Stephanie Dunsmore

I got old,
And I did it by accident
The world moves on
While I stay stagnant

Why can’t I feed myself?
Clothe myself, walk myself?
Yet I can fall myself.
Choke myself, lose myself, **** myself.

This isn’t my home. This isn’t my bed.
But I stay here. I sleep here. Until I am dead.
Strangers take care of me. They feed me strange pills.
But I have to do what they say, I have to lay still.

I share a shower with everyone else here
As well as a dining room, laundry room, and all the same fears.
There’s a fight down the hall. Dementia caused it.
Out of no where they stop. Dementia solved it.

Families in and out, staff the same.
Is it because of my age or environment that I’m going insane?
How long do I have left? That, I don’t know
What I do know, is that I'll never be able to go home.

I got old,
And I did it by accident
The world moves on
While I stay stagnant

I work at a Healthcare Facility which inspired me to write this.

Nov 2012 Duck

If I Lived in Paradise

Nov 2012 Duck

Leila Kauhola

If I Lived in Paradise

If I lived in paradise
I would spend all of my days
letting the sun soak me into its rays.
I would swim under waterfalls
and into caves
I would play on the beach
and collect shells all day.
If I lived in paradise
I would build castles in the sand
and I would find you
and we would hold hands.
We would surf and hang
and chill with our friends
our family would be there too to lend us a hand.
We would all barbecue
and watch the sun go down.
Thankful to be living in paradise and not in some busy town.
We would all laugh and
tell stories and
drink beer until
it was time to go home.
And then me and you would be happy to be alone
we would go to the shore and let
the water soak between our toes and tell each other secrets that nobody knows.
We would begin to count the thousands of stars
and feel so lucky that this love is ours.
I would wonder,
How did I get so lucky to come to this place?
I wonder this as I gently touch your face.
You lean in and kiss me
and suddenly it's clear.
My paradise lies in you
and I begin to tear.
Not of sadness but because of joy
for I finally realized
that you are the boy
I gave my heart to
and so my days spent in paradise
is a life spent with you.

Nov 2012 Duck

Warmth (the good, comfy kind)

Nov 2012 Duck

Samuel

Warmth (the good, comfy kind)

And, best of all
                 neither you
                        nor I
        have the slightest
    desire to move

Nov 2012 Duck

Why do I let you do this to me?

Nov 2012 Duck

Warda Kashif

Why do I let you do this to me?

It's your sweet boyish laugh filled with all the glee of the universe
It's your devilish stare revealing the thoughts I want to observe.
It's the way you make me feel, so silly and jolly, my face split in two with delight
It's the comfort and warmth of your body I long for so badly alone in bed at night
It's the serenity of the atmoshpere around us that makes me miss the dreamy world we exist in together.
It's how you allow me to drop the weight from my shoulders and freely float, flying further.

This is what keeps me from walking away.
This is what makes me weak.
Chokes my soul to know you are making another feel this way.
Why do I let you do this to me?

You tell me I don't deserve this pain; that you made a big mistake.
You tell me you regret all that you did.
You tell me it just wasn't the right time or place.
You tell me sorry for the words you never said.
You tell me everything will be okay
And you tell me you miss me everyday.

This is what keeps me from moving on.
This is what makes me weak.
And so I tell myself to be strong.
Why do I let you do this to me?

You have your faults and I have mine.
I am sure as time continues I'll be just fine.

Nov 2012 Duck

Antiresolution

Nov 2012 Duck

Natalie N Johnson

Antiresolution

I have words to say
I want to speak,
to tell you that I--.

Did you catch that?

My muted voice
is screaming through
the pattern of my footsteps and--.

Listen; a poem of gaits.

My heart moves my tongue and
my soul pushes the air
out my lungs to formulate these words: --.

The sound carries to the eyes of the listener
who hears my body move and
sees my mouth speak but not--.

I want my words touched, my movement read, my dance heard, my voice seen.

I--.

Nov 2012 Duck

I drank the rain

Nov 2012 Duck

Natalie N Johnson

I drank the rain

I walked through the damp grass,
across the grimy pavement that shone,
coffee mug in hand.
the drops fell in
and I drank the rain

And my body expanded
because it contained the sky
on my tongue, down my throat
in my core, in my soul
I drank the rain

My mind was a cloud pattern
my arms were the wind
my eyes turned to hail
my fingernails dripped off my hands,
they turned to rain.

My eyelashes were the snow
on my autumn sky face
And my feet sank into the soil
nurturing the grass
As i sweat out the rain

I puddled on the ground,
reflected the emerging sun
I condensed to rejoin the sky
and formed a cloud of my own
and began again, to rain

Nov 2012 Duck

breathe the trees

Nov 2012 Duck

Natalie N Johnson

breathe the trees

If I could breathe the trees
I'd exhale color

And my lungs would be full of Fall,
My chest would Rise with roots and sap.

I'd breathe them out, they'd take it back
We transform into each other.

I'd be Daphne as my
Skin turned to bark

And join the display
of orange red yellow brown

A laurel tree amongst mighty pines
a nymph before the gods

If l could breathe the trees
I'd exhale color