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 Sep 2019 Marsha Singh
L B
House feels damp
in between
seasons of life
where I try to start a fire
Sky tonight was an amethyst fan
on a ruby line
the sun an ember
rolling golden years  
down the Hills of Scranton
to the city's lights
Across the town
toward that bend in the river

a driving dusk
Driving to the Hill section at sunset to pick up milk and eggs.
The depth of that which drives us
Is seldom fraught with ease
Instead compounds complexion
Which is rarely well perceived.
Portrays us in confusion,
A cluttered disarray
Of mindset scattered to the wind,
Directionless portrayed.

Pray recall the last full thought
That scampered through your head
And recollect diversions flung
Which intercepted thread,
Which spun direction left then right
Amidst, you will recall,
After interminable interruptions,
You then forgot it all.

Consider complications
Which daily intercede
The politics, the pressures,
The poisoned air you breathe.
Consider now the battering
Your reeling mind must take
As constant advertising seeks
To bleed the cash you make.

The ranting in the household
That total lack of thanks
And obsessive competition
Hurled within the workplace ranks.
Caustic interventions thrown,
This madness on the road
And the constant expectation
That you must always shoulder load.

Ah! For a moments peace
Where tranquil thoughts might float,
Where the evening light descends to gold
And tensions flee, remote,
Where a maidens hand caressing brow
Cause toes, in sweet delight,
To curl in mindless ecstasy
As day retreats to night.

M.
24th Sept. 2019
Place your hand upon my chest.
It reminds me how it feels when it's mended.
Then use it to cradle your head while you rest.
The worst of it, like the day, has ended.
I now view my mortality as a foe.
And I think I can win.
I know. I know.
The title is as long as the poem...
Whisper it.

Like fingers tracing cotton.
Whisper the gentle scratches of pen on paper. Percussive poetry to punctuate the moments. All written down and tucked in pockets to be read and recited.
Read and forgotten.

But still that single look lingers on.
From across the ceramic mug, hot with sweet tea and fortune telling leaves.
Framed by late morning light.
Wrapped in billows of steam.

I was too young to know then what I know now.

We write our own future.
maybe you have too many lights in your fingers
and too much dirt under your nails
so now miraculously you can play guitar
without chords you know…
and songs without hearts
you chose.
not all poems have a choice
but every verse has
a noise.

maybe you have too many atoms
and that’s what’s wrong with you
trying to be Nothing-

maybe that explains the pearls in your head
and the long braids in your
ending.
Distant phantoms that shake my bones and make me wonder at potential.
And potential energy.
As if the things that once were, now  drive the things that are.
Like windmills waving spiral arms
as mad as

GIANTS.

The words that play on the back of my eyelids, seldom make it to my mouth.
And if they do, they hide behind my lips. Begging to be read, like braille.
There was no quiet desperation
in the riotous years of youth,
the grasping search for love and truth.
No, in those days there was no patience
for the faintest scent of dull
routine or rut.  It's just with age
that comfort's found in gilded cage,
no fires to set, and belly full.

Should a technicolor sunrise
strike a quickened spark of phoenix
from the ash of youthful pyres,
hopeful drops for jaded eyes
which, once refreshed, will then be fixed
upon millennial birds of fire.
Grist for the mill, Wisdom.
A gorgeous sunrise
makes me glad for this lifetime,
strikes me stone grateful.
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