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Lucas Stone May 22
she thought we could swim along
easy breezy
not much speed
but at least far away

but then came the tide
tossing me in with a posse
of murky bad blood
who always did what they said
they'd never do

my girlfriend kept reminding me
my promises sink fast
but bob later
more bloated than true

she says my word is buoyant
until someone leans on me
but her disappointment
never drowns
just drifts
closer to mud
smiling like driftwood
posing as my rescue

i think
i need a better life jacket
so i can flotsam away
or maybe
a new girlfriend
who won't jetsam
with a posse of murky bad blood

💭
Mark Toney Oct 2019
St. Simons Island
beached Juicy Fruit gum wrapper. . .
flotsam and jetsam
5/19/2018 - Poetry form: Haiku - I took a photo of a Juicy Fruit gum wrapper surrounded by sea foam bubbles, which I found 2 hours after low tide while walking on St. Simons Island beach on December 4, 2011. The photo was taken with my iPhone 5 or my iPad 4.  I can't remember which :) - Copyright © Mark Toney | Year Posted 2018
annh Sep 2019
Each day is broken
At the zero hour,
Splintering like a derelict,
On the craggy shoreline of the morn;

Flotsam abandoned,
To the oceans of yesterday,
The beach combed for treasure,
To keep for tomorrow.

When you find yourself googling ‘marine+law+salvage’ it’s time to stop poeming for the day. Have obviously been watching too much Poldark!

‘Every day we reconstruct our lives out of the salvage of our yesterdays.’
- James Sallis, Death Will Have Your Eyes
annh Dec 2018
I am drowning,
I am returned.

In the flow,
On the ebbing tide.

I am drowning,
I am returned.

Wrong-shapened and unfamiliar to myself.
Overwhelmed as much by the experience, as by my release from it.
But ready, ever ready, for the next wave.
Which may sink me - what are the chances?
Which may settle me on soft, sun-dried sand further up the line.

What are the chances?
Donna Bella Oct 2014
There so called "flotsam"
I'm standing on millions now
Walking down the alley where I use to lay on the sidewalks
Saw the men who called me "flotsam"
But they didn't recognize me instead they complemented me on this Hermes apparel
I let them talked
Asked them where they work
They work for my company
I decided to leave
But before I left
I turned back around
I told them I'm the man that's so called "flotsam"
By the way you're fired
Donna Bella Oct 2014
They bickered
They called me flotsam
They thought because i was homeless I didnt have the intellect to know
They called me flotsam
Am I worthless like they say
Am I debris to society
Realizing I can never think like that
Because if I did I would be dead
But I'm trying
I'm trying not to be that so called "flotsam"
Bet you I'm smarter then them
But my circumstances are inevitable
The sad life of a so called "flotsam"

— The End —