ORLA - Hello Poetry

ORLA Dec 2013

Crazy

She danced in the dark grass on white frozen feet
And she twirled with her skinny arms wide
She stared at the sky and imagined it full of the
Demons she carried inside

She took off her nightgown and let down her hair
As she waltzed with the ghosts of her past
She fell on her back, all spread-eagled and bare
For she knew that this night was her last

Oh, if they saw her, they’d say “Crazy”
Oh, if they saw her, they’d cry “Mad”

She watched constellations do cartwheels above
Felt the tilt of earth as it spun
And from outer space came a cold rush of black wind
As she circled an invisible sun

Oh, if they saw her, they’d say “Crazy”
Oh, if they saw her, they’d cry “Mad”

And she knew that the stars got as lonely as she
And she wondered if planets could cry
And she realized she was as alone on the earth
As they were in the sky

Oh, if they saw her, they’d say “Crazy”
Oh, if they saw her, they’d cry “Mad”

ORLA Dec 2013

Please Don't Send Me Letters

City lights make me forget
Your window’s yellow glow
And the face that I miss most is drowned
In faces I don’t know

They all seem so happy here
I can be happy too

Please don’t send me letters, sir
They remind me of my pain
It tells me that through all the changes
I remained the same

The footsteps of a million people
Hide the missing sound
Of your uneven amble next to
Mine, upon the ground

No one round here gives a ****
Seems I’m still giving two

So please don’t send me letters, sir
They’re full of ghosts, you see
That taunt me with the cold hard truth
That you have gone
And the city moves on
And I’m still stuck as me.

To be set to a melody at a later date

ORLA May 2013

End Act Two

A velvet curtain call concluded,
A cheering audience cried,
The critics published long reviews
Predicting Broadway's newest pride.
The cast was given high acclaim
While, standing to the side,
The playwright could not understand
Why it seemed a friend had died.

ORLA Mar 2013

Nature Walk

I stood by the river today
And wondered what it was saying
In its cool, babbling whisper
And I wondered also
If the river was listening to me
And wondering what I was saying
In my harsh, cobbled tones
When I asked it what it meant

ORLA Mar 2013

Worse For Asking

Serpents may be wise,
But they rarely give good advice.

ORLA Mar 2013

Just A Cartoon

In her cartoon world in shades of pastel browns and reds,
Little orphaned Ann Marie skips through twisted nightmare scenes
On corroded tape on VHS or a flimsy plastic five buck DVD.
Come home, come home to my heart
Kneeling on pale, cartoon knees and singing sweetly of secret dreams,
A haunted melody forgotten by all but a few jaded '90s college kids,
Ann Marie wishes on stars in dingy cellars on days she cannot go outside.
When you come home, we'll never be apart
Trapped in her B-quality version of immortality, Ann Marie repeats her lines
While the girl behind the microphone drops dead in a puddle of blood.

For the nameless actress who played the orphan Ann Marie in the '90s cartoon "All Dogs Go To Heaven". I just found out her father murdered her when she was ten. Maybe she'd have been better off without the parents she was searching for throughout the film.

ORLA Mar 2013

For The Love Of Literature

On the days that I see you,
The poetry flows,
And on days that I don't,
Words won't even rhyme.
So you see, it's important
To the future of prose
That I see you as often
As you have the time.