I was once a pedestrian on Fayetteville
Highway , on a midnight jaunt down a dark
byway
With the North Star to reconnoiter my
trail
Struggling to get home fast
Destined to catch hell
Puppy love reared the head of Medusa
as the band played My Sharona
My date made it hard to think -
as I primped in front of the sink
The weight of a psychotic heart was a heavy load so I made a break for the open road
Wet grass doused my white jeans , my silk shirt reflected
moon beams , a killdeer chuckled at my quandary
Yet better to be alone than sorry*...

It was said that this year, our new year would be delayed by one second.  
And it wasn't until that one second when I paid mind to my breathing and my beating. They didn't match up.  
My head and my heart, they didn't match up.  My heart was bursting at the seams, but my head, well it was my head.  
It's 2017 and I can't help but feel as if I was just born, lost, yet full of wonder.
I can't help but just feel.

Yes, it is the new year.  But that one second felt so familiar.

My classmate Martha walked our school’s
halls for thirteen years, few students

talked to her because she drooled,
walked like a puppet, and had

greasy hair; there are  poems
I can not finish.

Plant a deep,
and budding seed,
to take away the endless writing need,
show the others,
end the angry jealous greed,
& take away an ugly ****,
to do a little poetic deed,

As you hope in a prolific tree,
in it's rooted ink,
to be set so free,
stretching to the sky,
to show a light for all to see,

Get down & pray on bended knee,
the God's above have heard the plea,
as they hand you a compelling key,
and no,
there is no guarantee,

As I will always remember thee,

I hope that you who let me be,

I hope you too,
remember me.

Cherie Nolan © 2016

She runs from the garden with a tomato worm in her palm
leaving behind a doll, chocolate milk, and banana.

Behind her and thousands of feet above, a green-black
anvil cloud muscles in  from the southwest, close to home;

far from her mind.