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You wanted a love like in the movies;
rain drenched white shirts, palms covered
in daisy pollen; I love you more than--
a phone call, long distance, your fingers
curling the telephone wire like you're pulling me
towards you
like a fibre optic pheromone.
Soundtracks of a jazz piano, and old jukebox hits,
flared skirts and Mary Jane shoes, square dancing.

But most of the time, we don't get to choose
the colour of the bedsheets. In this story,
I know you're going to leave me. I can sense
the zoom of your eyes, rolling away from me.
The lighting in the room, like the ones where something
awful is about to happen: a sad, sick orange
like a cheap sunset; the music, or lack thereof,
the way you bite your lip like you're about to
break my heart.

You look to the ground, and I know this is where
the narration will start;

this is the story of the first time
someone broke my heart.  
She's going to look up at me
and say the words,
It's all over-


and in a jump frame
the thunderclap will mask the sound
of my heart shattering, the sob disappearing
into my throat.

You wanted a love like in the movies,
honey,
we all did.

But then the rain came, and the flowers
drowned in their beds.
You left your umbrella by the doorstep,
I hope you don't catch a cold.
I'm not sure why.
 Apr 2018 Laura Slaathaug
r
There was always a great darkness

moving out
like a forest of arrows

So many ships in the past

their bows bearing women
as stalks bear eyes

The burning ships

that drove their bowsprits
between the thighs of dreams

With my ear to the ground
I hear the black prows coming

plowing the night
into water

and when the wind comes up
I can smell the rotting wood

leaving a wake I want to be
left alone with

Night after night

like a sleeping knife
that runs deep through the belly

the tomb ships come.
I am going to Trust Christ, even if it seems hopeless on the earth.
Because Christ went to the Cross for us , so that his People will Live.
I am going to Worship him , even when my Life is upside down now.
Because the Christ our Lord and Master deserves all the Praises here.
I am going to Live Life for him, even though I would rather be with him.
Because this here Life may **** at times, I shall still persevere here.
Allowing him to use me to Minster to those that really needs him too.
I may not always seem like the Perfect child, but I know that he is Perfect.
So I shall obey him, for he knows my Future and everything else as well.
For He Loves us, even when we may not seem to be Love-able to others.
 Apr 2018 Laura Slaathaug
kaycog
with no such warning
Spring hit us like a bar fight
a lot of buildup
 Mar 2018 Laura Slaathaug
Grace
I go outside to escape my self
and the end and the inevitable
and I sit admiring the night sky
until the stars become the scattered
words I’m trying hard to understand
but seem completely unable to.

I look up into that dark blue night
and I wish it was the ocean.
I wish the world was a fading purple
sunset. I wish the world was
the moonstone blue of the sea.

I’m drowning in the night sky instead,
in all this vast intangible vagueness.
There’s no edge, no shore to the sky,
just stars and then stars and then stars.

I want to be on the shore again,
feeling alive, feeling maybe, just maybe
there’s a little hope in the waves that
have always been able to comfort me.

See, the sea is full of lonely moments,
losing moments, shipwrecked moments,
but it is also the place of liminal on the shore
moments, meeting moments, happy, maybe moments.

But here I am, sitting beneath the sky, not the sea.

I came out here to escape yet all I’ve found
is the inevitable in all its dark, vast, uncontainable glory.
I look away because I don’t want to see it.
I look away, because now it’s the end,
I’m not ready to leave.

I gather handfuls of cold to my chest
and take it all back inside with me.
I dream of the ocean. I long for the sea.
Maybe one day I'll write something where I don't go on about the sea. Maybe one day I'll feel at ease with the sky. Maybe one day I'll write a poem that doesn't sound the same as all my others.
Maybe, just maybe
(probably not)
 Mar 2018 Laura Slaathaug
Cné

The cycle of the seasons
once again presents a change.
Greens and blues are now the colors,
as the scene has rearranged.

Crepe Myrtles shed their blossoms
in blizzard, pinks and reds,
And bulbs with care once planted
now emerge from flower beds.

I walk upon a sea of blue
that waves with every breeze.
Bluebonnets on the Texas plains,
a view that's sure to please.

They ripple with the grass
in tempo with the wind.
How lovely to just sway and hear
the message that they send.

It seems as though the world awakens,
stretching with a yawn.
As luscious grass emerges
from the brown muck on my lawn.

Bluebonnets are the official state flower of Texas. The shape of the petals on the flower resembles the bonnet worn by pioneer women to shield them from the sun. Their blooms only last a couple of weeks.

As an extension of Lady Bird Johnson's efforts at highway beautification, she encouraged the planting of these native plants along Texas highways and are now a common sight in the springtime. This time of year, driving along the highways all over the great state of Texas, you will find, car loads of families pulled over to use the sea of blue as back drops for family photos.
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