John Stevens: Favorites

Jun 2018 John Stevens

b e mccomb

your car doesn't have
a cd player
which is a little unsettling
but i don't really mind

your hands remind
me of my dad's

i want to wear dresses
play taylor swift
spray myself in
citrusy perfume
and paint my eyelids
a shimmery pink

when i'm with you
i feel safe

i'm not convinced
that soulmates exist
but i am convinced that
we pick up people on
our way through life
and some of them just fit

some people are habit
can't remember a
time without them
and some people are the future
what could be instead of
what's always been

you're art in the foam on a cortado
you're a peach drenched in
heavy cream and limoncello
old overshirts and amaretto

you're champagne
and i'm the idiot
who intentionally
calls it "sham-pag-nee"

you can see through the
espresso stains on my
hands and arms right
down to freckles over scars

even if i slap myself to wipe
the pleasant look off my face
at the end of the day
you'll still think i'm cute

and when you say things
like that i start to feel all
gooey and underbaked
like a fallen cake with
cinnamon buttercream
melting down the sides
perfectly and
unabashedly flawed

i am selfish and afraid
and you don't seem to mind

so here's a toast to
letting someone new
into my life for
the first time
to allowing myself
to be vulnerable
and happy even if it
might be a mistake

because goodness knows
you're sweeter and softer
than i ever dreamed
someone could be

copyright 5/13/18 b. e. mccomb

#crush #spring #happy #coffee #champagne #pink

Jun 2018 John Stevens

between afghans

Jun 2018 John Stevens

b e mccomb

between afghans

the process of crocheting an
afghan is about just that
the process

you make an afghan looking
forward to the nights you will
curl up under it and relishing
the way it fits over your
legs when it's halfway finished

or thinking and hoping
how much someone you love
will love and appreciate
your gift of time and callouses

weaving a container for whatever
emotions you need contained

i realized this that first winter
deep in february when i began
my long nights of scrap yarn
desperately trying to piece
something together out of
the not knowing why
i told myself that this was it
the sum total of my works
the item they would fold up and
place on the table next to the jar
of my ashes come september
and it was done by march

a slow and roundabout way
of pushing myself through
the suicidal smog
smeared through my mind

my friends had blankets wrapped
around them that bright morning
of the anniversary we all cried together
my tears falling on my afghan

i made them each an afghan
plus a few more
always pushing myself
to look forward

lost count of how
much yarn i used
how many stitches
passed through my hands

but by the time the next
march came around i
had made or charted
out five more

to fill the void
clawing at my insides

spent a year making
myself another
in tight ripples of
time and television

and now
my fingers
slow
and stop

seven afghans
in two years
is an accomplishment
that might send the
head of even the
highest caliber of
grandma spinning

i have no more afghans
left in me to make

so instead i crawl
down into bed
two i made
two from friends
and one from
my mother

and lie
head pounding
eyes puffy
void of energy
in the space
between my afghans

copyright 4/20/18 b. e. mccomb

#afghan #crochet #knit #craft #yarn #depression #suicide #friends

Jun 2018 John Stevens

Life

Jun 2018 John Stevens

Salmabanu Hatim

Life

If LIFE was so beautiful,
Full of bliss,
We would not have CRIED,
first thing after BIRTH.

Jun 2018 John Stevens

Best Creation

Jun 2018 John Stevens

Salmabanu Hatim

Best Creation

I had put on weight,
I enjoyed life,
I was optimist,
I was my children's number one,
My husband had not left me,
Though my beauty was receding.
Didn't have time for beauty parlours,
I decided to sum up myself in the mirror,
Looked at my curves,
None at all,
Looked at my face,
Slight traces of beauty left.
Needed a face lift,
Smile still **** and beautiful,
Hair, high time I went to a good hairstylist.
I turned this way and that way,
I was no more stylish,
I was fading.
Tears welled up in my eyes,
I heard a chorus from behind me,
"BEST CREATION FROM GOD"
My three children and husband
gathered around me for a family hug,
We love you as you are,
Nothing More Nothing Less.

#mirror #reflection #beauty #fading #husband

Jun 2018 John Stevens

No Matter What

Jun 2018 John Stevens

Salmabanu Hatim

No Matter What

Don't expect me  to accept
            DEFEAT.
Sow me among the deadliest
             WEEDS.
And no matter what it takes I will
              BLOOM.
I will turn out to be not the best
               BUT OUTSTANDING.

Jun 2018 John Stevens

yours and mine

Jun 2018 John Stevens

echo

yours and mine

heart to mind
these conversations
hardest kind

head to heart
lost in translation
speaking blind

soul to God
these conversations
yours and mine

Jun 2018 John Stevens

Her Solitary Man... dedicated to Evanthia Bilionis

Jun 2018 John Stevens

Deborah Brooks Langford

Her Solitary Man... dedicated to Evanthia Bilionis

She hears the heavy tread of his shoes,
carrying the weight of his mighty
shoulders,
is her sad and trodden Solitary Man~

Hurt by life’s emotions
she has traveled so far
found love once -
with this Solitary man~

One more journey
to seek his vision
and love
she looks for her
Solitary man~

But she knows the answers
already given to her lonely heart
as she travels his roads
her heart looks for him
to return to her arms
her Solitary man~

it is only a matter of time
till her solitary man
finds his way
to her bleeding heart
crushed at the sight
of Her Lonely Solitary Man~

Is it to late?
the love that once has been
is now down a lonely path
trodden with tears
to her Soliatry Man~

Debbie Brooks.. @ October 27th 2016
https://soundcloud.com/evanthiabilionis69/solitary-man-evanthia-bilionis?utmsource=soundcloud&utm;campaign=share&utm;_medium=facebook

https://soundcloud.com/evanthiabilionis69/solitary-man-evanthia-bilionis?utm_source=soundcloud&utm;_campaign=share&utm;_medium=facebook

#love #man #solitary #song

Jun 2018 John Stevens

Let Me Tell You

Jun 2018 John Stevens

Deborah Brooks Langford

Let Me Tell You

Let me tell you what I remember
hot stormy nights in my south land
running barefoot through the field
hearing mom call us out the back door
momma cooking fried chicken
drinking sweet ice tea..

Trying to be quiet not seen
with tears of desperation just staying alive
dreaming of kisses from the boy next door.
Listening to the beatles on my transistor radio
and Johnny Be Good and so many others
waiting for Daddy to come back from the war...

Trying to find clothes to fit me
from the clothes the church laid at our doorstep
being poor as a church mouse
eating grits for breakfast the third week in a row
finding my two little sisters in the cubbard eating dried jello
out of the box to fill their hungry souls....

Dreading going to my uncles, he was such a pervert
wishing my daddy would come home and beat his ***
believing no one would believe us, we hid our hurt and shame
crying to God or anyone that would listen
love was never very fitting in those days......

Growing up to be people with problems rising as tall as the celing
just wanting to hide and float away..
Christmas would come with nothing under the tree
or maybe a pair of socks and we would cry with joy
mom would make us a cake for one birthday
with money she made from the blood of her hands
with eight kids we looked like we were starving
so many of us had hollow looks as we could not stand...

Yes life came and it went.. some died and ran to find peace
it took a lifetime of wants to find the way at least
with millions of tears that fled down the hillside of time
we all take what we can get but finally learn to give
with little laughter in between...

Learned to live with butterflies and hearts
with little ones like us gives us a another start.
Life turns us around one day at a time
then one day you look in the mirror and cry'
what in the hell happend I use to be young
now I look like the northern sun
with wrinkles and weathered with time
hair so white, maybe just maybe I pray
it's the wrong time...

One day I will be gone from this world
God has promised a life with him
in gold and jewels of heavenly sent.
I have been blessed these many years.
but It sure will be nice to be in glory with Him..

Debbie..@ 2016

#love #tears #hurt #family #spiritual #sane #hearts