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I've got the children to tend
The clothes to mend
The floor to mop
The food to shop
Then the chicken to fry
The baby to dry
I got company to feed
The garden to ****
I've got shirts to press
The tots to dress
The can to be cut
I gotta clean up this hut
Then see about the sick
And the cotton to pick.

Shine on me, sunshine
Rain on me, rain
Fall softly, dewdrops
And cool my brow again.

Storm, ******* from here
With your fiercest wind
Let me float across the sky
'Til I can rest again.

Fall gently, snowflakes
Cover me with white
Cold icy kisses and
Let me rest tonight.

Sun, rain, curving sky
Mountain, oceans, leaf and stone
Star shine, moon glow
You're all that I can call my own.
At 4 am
He tried to talk about the stars
For some reason, you told him it's because he's never ****** before
And we all acted like that was okay

After he stumbled his best away from us
I told you how wrong you were
Then you asked if I could 'maybe help him out a little'
I haven't told you just how wrong that was

Waiting, standing, or sawying on the porch
We were joined by the others
To move on upstairs

Light it, smoke it, pass it, drink it
Now count them
Two, three, four, one after another
The bodies that dropped and rest where they fell
Producing a sweet slumbering silence
That I tried to take advantage of

But no, the guest bedroom is open
And you're awake
And you're drunk
And you smile at me crooked
I know very well your twisted pursuit
I know I'm not taking advantage of anything

We finish.

Back across the hall
To where your brother, among the others, slept
And I hoped he was dreaming about the sky
Or the conversation I would have liked to have with him about it

Almost 8 in the morning
Time for me to leave
But you had to lose your keys
And wake your brother to take me

In his truck, in the mirror
I examined myself
And said I looked like ****
He didn't even laugh
Instead, he told me that I never could

I lit a cigarette
Wondering
How he could say that
Not wondering
Why you never have.

We pass the construction, the apartments, and reach the house
I hugged him
'You're better than us.'

It's 10 pm the next night
And I hope he still wants to talk about the stars.
I've heard that my eyes are endless.
Pools to drown in...
And that my legs are thick, and soft,
And warm like home.
It's been said that I
Play with poetry like
Finger paints.
And that my laugh is a ferris wheel,
Or honestly.
And apparently, I'm just too cute.
Apparently, it's just too hard not to love me.
If they saw what I see (the truth), the poem would read:
Green blue glass
Mirrors
Pale and stocky
Stumps
Open on a
Clumsy girl.
So my dear dear homework we must go our separate ways,
I was loyal all winter,
but I can no longer see you every night
and I cant bear wasting my time in this newly found sunlight
month after tedious month you’ve expected my full attention
week after week you demand that I “do you”
and that I “do you good”
even on my off nights, when I’m tired,
overwhelmed or stressed
you want it.
and so my dear dear homework this is why I must break this relationship off
it’s not healthy
you’re suffocating me
isolating me from my friends and family
and don’t start with the “they never liked me” line
because they said the opposite all the time.
Go back to living in my teachers desk drawer
if there’s even room there anymore.
Maybe I’ll think back on you some rainy spring day
but while the suns out and the grills cooking
I can’t stand to even see you today.
 May 2011 Emma Zanzibar
Perig3e
Your walk was pure poetry,
you my teacher,
I your student.
"Parlez vous francais?"
"Non"
You were a total rousse, I presumed.
You'll never know how much I wanted to learn.
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Powder of ashes like snowfall in winter

The air and army withered in a splinter

Smoky-grey flaky leaves dead and forgotten

Each cobblestone tinted and tainted

Things of dishearten

I stand in the middle of a big large road

With ashen embers resting on my lashes

My coat and tote limp from the bashes

People lay, some far away and some grey,

The death spell cast on all the bay

I feel a tug in my heart,

Shocked at the sight

Cursed fates for a deadly plight

I stand alone, guilty for having survived

No goodbyes or funerals to leave me teary-eyed

The carpet of carcasses in front of me lay

Left me with loud realization of a lonesome foray

I wished I were blamed for their unjustified departure

Or for my survival inexplicable in any form of literature

The sky now looks a faded rotten orange

With the embers settled like a thick mat on the ground

Suddenly the sound of tip tap made me jump

From my lost thoughts.

My coat and tote comes back to life

I feel a tug and around my calf a hug

The most innocent eyes looked up at me

And said, “Mommy, I want to go home please…”
Sleepy Green Eyes, rest your head,
Slip softly into dream,
Walk amoung the painted clouds,
See their golden gleam...

Sleepy Green Eyes, night has come,
Laisser votre jour va,
Your lover and the silver moon
Guard you from afar...

Sleepy Green Eyes, drift away,
Dance, or swim, or soar,
A melody, a drug, a dream,
Une berceuse pour vous mon coeur
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