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Oct 2023 · 100
Old Man Cloud
Nathan Oct 2023
After rain, sunlight scatters down
Bright zest of sky
Brushed into blue, a stale old cloud
Remains an IV drip line curled
Like an old man’s frown
The ground knows it doesnt stay
Knows of misted up water, throwing down through shroud
The tree long to see all sorts
Reaching out, growing every day

Old Man’s tears not just morning dew
Tired eyes of deep bruised purple
Not deep enough for the tree
Will he feel too when the rainfall goes?

When the water wisps off
A sun-burn of bark, their scaling skin
Bound in ground, burning in the noonday sun
Save their kind, they drop them to the floor
Their warm grasping shadows droop over
Growing their, same soil all for them to see more
To be dug by squirrel and worm
Hold their station firm
Old Man cloud storms a over a new hill
Thank you for reading
Nathan Jan 2021
Dulcet words, drifting silent through the telephone line.
To descry and practice palmistry, see their heart line.

5:15, waiting, stuck in the post office again.
Checked my phone for attention, clocked out from work's confines.

Work to stave off hunger, stressing, a chore filled weekend.
monotonous, chugging to stay out of the bread lines.

Stuck with that tension, heavy textbooks, and starved checkbooks
We tap their name to call, to consider our repine.

Driving down the sunset laden road, running from home.
The clicks, dings of texts, newfound mistakes breath down my spine.

I gaze through the traffic, road signs, iconographic
Each full up on luck, until the cop provides his fine

So attached to these devices, our lives caught on screens.
Should we take it for granted, just part of His design?


The struggling reach out hands, from the bottom of their heap,
Their system, quite the firm one, no room for our opine.

Some believe their dreams, are in government powerpoints,
others forget dreams, spend time praying on the divine.

How can they keep their comfort, while wishing all that ill,
To die without a purpose, is that what they enshrine?

"Oh Nathan, why bother waiting for nothing to change?",
I scoff, a tear falls, as I reach to hang up the line.
Jan 2021 · 105
Monsoon Season
Nathan Jan 2021
I hear leaves,
As I fall,
Into early autumn.
Clouds softly cover.
The orange sunlight.
Rain begins falling.
We stop growing,
In cold months,
Stuck in ruts.
Those who survive.
Long, cold winter.
Get washed away.
Heavy spring showers.
Drowning in rain,
Washed to sea.
Cycles start anew.
Nathan Jul 2020
Van Gogh walks
Beside a desolate road
Splitting the farmland
Into, the nowhere
He roams

Walking, trotting like a mule
His paintings on his pack
Passing the melancholy
The ebb and flow of the country

As he was behind himself
Trailing as a shadow
The weight on his mind
All to heavy
Stuck outside of it all
Judgement ready
Jul 2020 · 82
Mind Fallen From Grace
Nathan Jul 2020
Fierce are the tears, of a time long past
Man all alike, stuck grasping with strife
As forgetfulness, is our common sin

The ill despise, the wise, neat, and tidy
Their paths all twisted in time
Fierce are the tears, of a time long past

As perhaps, the keys left in lock
The birthday, celebration, chore, left without thought
As forgetfulness, is our common sin

All the pain of tragedy is forgotten
Joy too, gone with those decades
Fierce are the tears, of a time long past

Mindset and mind, all is outgrown in time
They long for its return, but
As forgetfulness, is our common sin

The regret is feared, and flow will their tears
Moments captured in photo, they hold
Fierce are the tears, of a time long past
As forgetfulness, is our common sin.
Jul 2020 · 80
Remembrance
Nathan Jul 2020
I want to go back to the boat launch,
To feel the oil’s heat and the lake’s cool touch.
I want to unpack that old life vest,
And smell the long dried water.
But I want to remember that,
And walk forward.

I want to walk up my grandma’s tall steps,
To see the old paneling,
To decorate that old tree.
I want to be told that it’s too cold
To go out on snow days.

I want to be time for recess,
To play in the dirt; to be told
We can’t play wall-ball one more time.
To run in circles instead,
Where the playground always seemed to be broken.
So I want to remember it,
And move on.

I want to be picked up from practice,
To climb over the fence to get my ball back,
Get my haircut at the mall, or be good
at coin-push again
I want the park to seem far away again
For traffic not to be a thought
I want to remember all of that.

I think I will,
One day when I’m thirty,
A thought or a conversation,
Will bring it all back.
All of those days I am thankful for,
I’d remember the clear memories,
See the faded thoughts,
Half-filled journals might remember too.
Jul 2019 · 145
are we still
Nathan Jul 2019
walking
with your head to the side
your mind somewhere on the outside
wandering

wearing
those clothes you bought to make that hike
those memories are gone like
whispers

wondering
if you will remember those yesterdays
when we made films about the day's
weather
for a friend. don't tell them i'd die
Jul 2019 · 152
deadly choice
Nathan Jul 2019
Staring at the choice
I know I can not make
I know the give and take
I know the pain of a wake
That wave has crashed before
No longer happy

Finding happiness in spending what I don't have
Finding happiness in sleeping time away

Wanting to spend time away
Longing to spend time away

Still away from
What I don't have
All of the things
That the happy people have
What the sad people want
Jul 2019 · 362
spirits
Nathan Jul 2019
the lights that glow
the night
the fights that grow
i wish i had never gone

the pains that stay
that night
the lanes i cant erase
i wish i had never gone

What can I feel
When was the last one?
Did I miss it?
That kiss?
Of the time lost or
The memory

Is it gibberish or the
Sheen of taste left on the plate
The one you never see quite clean
The washer never worked anyways

Does time feel sadness too
Or does he live in his moment
Created
New
Blissful eternity
Yet momentary

Does she miss me in the end?

— The End —