Some people wake up and shower into their day.
Other people eat breakfast to sooth stomach.
While still others mount
their horse of challengers
to ride moment.

Me, I write
scribing thoughts destined for page
Thoughts,
as poet within revs up
motor of heartbeats
to celebrate day.

Did you hear the tale of the writer who contracted writer's block?
He had a slight blockage in his pen's ink stock.

Hence words wouldn't flow onto the parchment.
Where he had expressed his non involvement.

underneath strewn Fall
scholar sticks and poetry,
lay at ease, most glad.

on the canvas
i drew her
across, around
within, without
in all colour and shade
of great cities
and their country.

her eyes as London
and the cheeks as Tanzania;
her palms as Athens
and the shoulders all
Himalaya -

every bone or edge in
wonderful chromatic.

the canvas changed and bled,
as did i but
by year’s end, the mosaic,
worldly woman was now
rested there in full.

stood in blank
dark
mossy room
covered in art and age
i called upon her name

but alas
i could no longer remember.

The crew of ****** all hide their own secret loneliness. At every port the deserted dance halls beckon, and there they dance with familiar ghosts. At twelve midnight sharp the spirits disappear along with the tuxedoed band and the music dies leaving red white and blue tinsel, miniature plastic flags, and balloons that glide and bounce to a solitary, prolonged note.
The sailors cease spinning and their arms drop to their sides. They drown in bottles of *** in search of solace. They rarely find barely a taste. And so, in frustration they fight and draw first and last bloods. Now, in scuffed shoes and torn clothes, with damaged pride, they stagger arm in arm back to ship.
The water laps and licks it’s tongue like a cat at cream and the crew whisper breath rings in the chilly air.
Master Chief Petty matron mother waits on deck, rolling pin in hand, kicking backsides into cabins.
The ship bobs and dips in rhythm to sailors heaving snoring chests, and there they sleep, fly catching open mouthed, hugging their pillows in desert island dreams.

Copyright Marc Hawkins 2009