He ate flowers.

this mentally challenged boy
from the countryside
I used to watch him
in the fields
when I visited my grandparents
as a kid
He was like an exotic thing
a wild beast chasing
static pray
They had no chance,
the flowers
he would assault them
with a killer's smile, frothing,
and would grab
and tear and rip them from
the stem and
would eat them

Nobody knew why
and the only explanation given
was that he was insane

then the men and women
who saw him would
scream at him
to stop and he would raise
his head and watch them
like a deer surprised by
headlights
Then he would spit the colorful
froth from his big mouth
and would run home
hopping and leaping like a horse
through the tall grass

He was mostly inoffensive,
this flower eating boy
but they all told me to stay away
from him and would
always chase him away when
he got too close

Time passed and I moved to the
city and went to school there
and stopped visiting the
countryside and its wonders
I got busy
and my busy life drove away the
magic and mystery of childhood

The flower eating boy is now but
a memory
neither good
nor bad
just strange, interesting

He doesn't eat flowers anymore
because he doesn't live in the
countryside anymore
No, from what I've heard
he's in some mental facility and it was
his last flowery meal that sent him there

I don't know,
maybe if they hanged signs with
"Don't wear flowers in your hair!"
around the village and the fields
that little girl would've been saved
and the village would still have its
magic beast.

Boy:      You love me back...
              you do, don’t you?
Girl:      I can’t be so bold,
              neither can I sling a single ‘not’,
              nor hurl to you a hurting bolt.

Boy:      Won’t we meet again by the grace of Luck?
              Won’t these ticks of Luck tock us a tittle knock?
Girl:      My time for you won’t tick that tock,
              nor shall yours be the tickles you sought.

Boy:      Don't let tiny ticks clip love with cutting clicks.
              Every scented rose sure has its piercing ******
              though love's tricks shall, too, mull soul's briny creeks
              for a rainbow glow on your rain swept cheeks.

Girl:      Don't you see we're buffed in baffling bricks
              and Time has caged us in her muffling ribs?

Boy:      But, I guess you know of poems of want,
              lines love-wrought which Defiance sought?
Girl:      That, too, I can tell you not
              whether I can read a single word love wrote.

Boy:      Love’s capriciously wrought in this plot.
              You can’t be of the same selfish sort!
Girl:     .....

Boy:     No, a shimmering story bestowed
             from the gone old days of gold...
Girl:     : ))

Boy:     Why! Shouldn’t smiles bend Time’s knee
             and in glee thus be free?
             Could love only ever be a wee old fantasy?
Girl:   .....

Boy:     We can speak of it not.
             All the same, can deny it not.

             Longingly locked in Luck’s ill-fitting frock!
Girl:   .....

Boy:     My heart is bold; can’t tame it, I fought.
             And, without it, would I be the man I sought?
Girl:   .....

Boy:     With or without you I’m not.
             Blind a barbed knot!
             How I wish I cared not a single jot.
Girl:     That’s a terrible knot.
             You must curl to it not.

Boy:     Yes, no;
             if you here shall ever be not,
             and Time’s silver I sought
             in your hair be forgot,
             I’ll upon thee more love allot.
Girl:     ?!

Boy:     The stars in thine eyes I’ll never be.
             Nor the silver in your hair shall I stay ‘n see.
             But,
             there’s this in me Time is green with envy:
             this deity on the knee who loves loving thee.
             This heart for thee shall heed no decree;
             that which makes this sorry boy you see
             the very divine friend that he will ever be.
Girl:      : ))))))

It's a two coffee day
At least it’s not four
You might stop me at one
But I always want more
I can wake up without
But it helps me to chill
If I skip blessed coffee
Call a doctor - I'm ill

It’s a four coffee day
Life is kicking my ***
If I swim in caffeine
And hope it will pass
Maybe it can balance
The bad with some good
Jittering my way thru
What I could and I should

It's a six coffee day
You're right, that's insane
Might as well save time
And consume through a vein
It's an eight coffee day
Go ahead, book that hearse
I'm too late for saving
I've succumbed to the curse

NCL 2019