Prevost

Feb 2022

Carlo C Gomez

Have you been to the City of Eternal Sunshine's
navel academy?

Belly buttons in the sun, sparkling and shimmering:
crescent moons like deep wells dug by
the callus hands of Woodspur's
first settlers.

They belong to desert roses, Coachella girls,
where wearing a bikini is not a sin, but a means of survival.

Clothed in eensy triangles, they've walked
with farm workers, reveled with festivals,
and prized the glory of Pueblo Viejo.

One can now better understand how this place
was nearly called Land of the Little Shells.

To the city of Coachella.
Inspired by the poem "Give Me Pretty" by fellow Hello Poetry writer, Bella.

#bikini #navel #tribute #coachella #desert #girl #city #history #california

Feb 2022

Traci Sims

History (political haiku)

Fourteen state-wide ban
One history is valid
Welcome back, Jim Crow.

While I understand that it is wrong to teach that a group of people are "evil" and that the entire country is "flawed" due to this group's "evil nature", some serious questions have to be asked at this point:

1. Why should we blindly champion a history that celebrates near-genocide of one group of people, the enslavement of a second, and the marginalization of a third (Asians not being allowed to build or own housing).
2. Why have we reached a point in our collective history where we are afraid to bravely examine our past and use it as a way to understand our present and move towards a brilliant future?
3 When did "exceptionalism" come to define only one group's dreams and accomplishments and to hell with the rest?

Sorry, I can be silent no longer. And if Hello Poetry bans me, I will shout elsewhere. Let freedom ring!

Feb 2022

Carlo C Gomez

Remain in Absolution

I'm in a room without recovery area:
a room of intermission, a room
of collapse. Where are
the convenient little windows
to release a wicked bird of thought?
The quiet there is monk-like,
rogue, and slightly unpleasant, guilty
of moments spent with shadow.

I want to build a clock
that ticks once a year
—more dark than shark,

my confessional capacity
—time-stretched,
like the heavy intoxicated *******
of the witching hour. And I'll
make soup from the leftover prayers
of the day before, all in hopes
the rooms of me, then so clear,
will one day be faraway suns
in the temple of heaven.

#forgiveness #guilt #past #present #future #absolution #time #relationships

Prevost Jan 2022

Shed the Skin

disjointed

the heart thuds in a distance
that keeps this unreal
the pain and doubt
are too real to breath
to feel

what lays on the other side
is this whole again
a soul that breathes
in morning and night

shed the skin
shed the touch
shed the tears
shed the dreams
shed the fight

#breakups

Prevost Jan 2022

A Poem

I know *** isn’t going to solve this
but some nights it helps
how do pull yourself out of ten years of caring
for a human whom is now killing you
I think they write books about this ****
but I know it is just up to me
I’m sure that at the bottom of this bottle
I will do what I must
and call this a poem…