#fences
The fences are on fire
Can’t you feel it?
The bonfire in your nostrils
Time standing by your side,
Whispering “quickly, love” and,
In the distance, lips part and quake
They—you—(what difference will it make?)
Tremble like a lake of sulfur,
A lake of liquified lavender
But darker—wine, yes, wine in its cellar
Can’t you feel it?
The ashes pasting themselves over the moon
The midnight sun, the falling stars at noon
Time grabs your hand this time,
“No more waiting, my love” or maybe
It was “No more hating, my love”
You clench your free hand
You bite your lip
You drench you drench you drench
Your body in acid in courage in rage
Can’t you feel it?
The fences are on fire
And love’s coming for you
Nov 1, 2024
Nov 1, 2024 at 5:00 PM UTC
Puppyhead leapt,
up
from bed,
to the door she raced.
special high pitched bark
reserved for the fox.
learned did I,
the hard way,
not to open the door.
not to let puppyhead
go racing out,
full speed ahead,
out into the night.
wild and free,
and right straight
after
yet another
wild life.
so we watch,
from behind
closed door,
peering out into
the dark of the night.
shadow moving around,
surveilling the ground,
a white tipped tail
barely visible as past it moves.
mean feel I,
for not opening
that door.
puppyhead barks,
ooks up at my head,
then out to that yard.
"Why can't I be out there
now,
alone with that fox?"
learned I,
the hard way,
puppyhead won't
back down.
neither will the
wild nocturnal creatures,
who visit our den,
during the very dark,
the dark,
of the middle of the night.
so I creep silently
up the stairs,
every so quietly,
so puppyhead
won't hear,
won't want to follow,
won't want to come,
out here with me instead.
open a door,
do I,
a door to a deck.
alone stand I
peering down into the dark,
the dark of the night.
hearing that fox
moving about,
creeping along fence line,
finding a place,
a place of
escape.
almost free,
to continue to roam
through this night,
this dark,
& beautiful night.
she leaps in one
graceful arc,
up and over
high gate.
pads off she goes,
into this night,
roaming along
this solitary creature,
taking such free flight
on this magical night.
May 13, 2022
May 13, 2022 at 11:36 PM UTC
I look at your fences
and your flimsy nests.
The wind comes in and breaks them.
You rebuild, the bear comes in and breaks them.
Yet you still rebuild.
Dec 1, 2020
Dec 1, 2020 at 12:05 PM UTC
in the predawn fog
a faint outline of fences
could be observed
Jun 20, 2020
Jun 20, 2020 at 7:56 AM UTC
Not Elves, Exactly
by Michael R. Burch
(after Robert Frost's "Mending Wall")
Something there is that likes a wall,
that likes it spiked and likes it tall,
that likes its pikes’ sharp rows of teeth
and doesn’t mind its victims’ grief
(wherever they come from, far or wide)
as long as they fall on the other side.
Keywords/Tags: Robert Frost, mending, wall, fences, good, neighbors, southern, border, spikes, pikes, barbed, wire, electrical
Mar 25, 2020
Mar 25, 2020 at 12:18 AM UTC
Shaking
Taking in breaths
Through the bottom of my feet
Aching
In all the places that I landed
Mind overtaken
By all the possibilities
Of things that could've come
Sep 27, 2019
Sep 27, 2019 at 12:59 AM UTC
The dreams roll through my
mind as it hovers over the edge
of rest. A constant feeling of feeling
everything at once.
I cry as the clouds cover my eyes
and I fall into a land where I am
revealed.
Dripping down my cheeks comes
the blood of reopened scars
slashed wide in fear of existence.
I walk through tunnels into green
fields of hope and sun and reflection.
Fences unbury themselves; capturing
my thoughts again.
As they ascend the small child grabs my hand
and vomits on my face.
I wake up.
Mar 29, 2019
Mar 29, 2019 at 9:20 AM UTC
i have spent far too much of my life
building towering walls with no arches, without windows
without any view to the outside world.
i would much rather have liked it if i would have built fences instead.
fences are moveable.
you can push the rows and rows of wire or wood a foot to the north
or a foot to the south
or make a curve in the line.
fences don't block everything out,
they don't keep everything in,
and they don't hurt as much when they fall.
walls, on the other hand,
crash
and burn
and take months and months to rebuild.
fences?
fences can be put up in a day or two
depending on how difficult you want it to be to get in/get out;
fences can be taken down in a day or two
depending on how easy you want it to be to get out/get in.
Jan 10, 2019
Jan 10, 2019 at 5:29 PM UTC
He said I had the curliest hair
the sweetest smile
the warmest eyes and
the kindest soul
All was good and well until he said:
No matter how much he tried,
he couldn’t jump the fence around my heart.
Mar 1, 2018
Mar 1, 2018 at 12:50 PM UTC
He is bald
Plain to my eyes
Sublime in local geniality
The garden he claims
Taimed in distress
Of the coming winter
I fear the tears
Sudden regret
For his' long forgotten trials
Forced to steep so low
Forward but below
Entrenched in sweet tasting anguish
His' body hard and unmotivated
The Sculpture of obsession
Must be completed with stubborn muscle
I seem to torment him
My love becoming
A betrayal of our lust
Battles commence
Volcanic eruptions
Shake the house of ruin
He never seems to trust me
My compassionate actions
Bring forth pork chops
The meal
Is shared
Beside each other
Without Sight
We fight against
White picket fences
Feb 6, 2018
Feb 6, 2018 at 7:20 AM UTC
[You can hear the air moving the
l e a v e s of the
p a l m t r e e s.
Last rays of sun and it’s June 3]
We walk on a white-washed street and
Forget Me Not flowers on the fences screaming this is your new world.
You are that world, your eyes are Portofino in the middle of a neighborhood of coins.
We are walking and you stop because you look at a window of someone, while I was (I was) fixing the shouts of light on your temple, living the new world.
[All my cracks filled with water]
It’s warm pleasant, we walk, seeing life taking and not just wishing,
-^^^-
we have excelled
in the plastic world.
I stood by the ho^use with the most beautiful garden, I touched bird in paradise and you say that it’s [our garden]
Apr 25, 2017
Apr 25, 2017 at 11:24 AM UTC
The barbed wire in my chest
Pokes and prods with each halting breath
Nothing is easy anymore
With it sitting there
Unwinding slowly
It rakes its claws against my insides
Around my bones
Into my lungs
Any sudden movement
Any risk
Any chance
Digs it only deeper
There is no room for error in this body of mine
I am a walking keep out fence
Mar 16, 2017
Mar 16, 2017 at 6:25 PM UTC
you tried to drown your fears in sunshine but the red thread in the corner of your oversized sweater caught on the moon's crescent instead and the rose petals that you were keeping up your sleeves fell out and onto the garden of peonies your best friend was growing on her front lawn, its not nice to constantly be running from forest green comfort but the only other option is staying where the gold is and thats something you never learned to do, yet
maps have followed you recklessly
on the roads that you've ripped through and eventually you'll find yourself climbing taller fences to be back where the purple of the last February evening wrapped your impulsive body tight, though you'll never be found how you were last left
Mar 1, 2017
Mar 1, 2017 at 1:03 AM UTC
Dying animals trapped in barbed wire
Man-made men all flailing to conspire
To cross the sea of destiny for hope
to design their own form of misanthrope
Building fences of ignorance and tears
for the respect of their own group of peers
Creating borders to destroy their own wealth
to hasten the decline of their own health
Living animals limitless and free
with untold abundance and scarcity
Roaming the planet to frolic and breed
to the farthest reaches spreading their seed
Happy with total harmony and peace
with no concept of coverings or fleece
Communicating only by their senses
unless of course they start building fences
Jul 16, 2016
Jul 16, 2016 at 12:50 AM UTC
Your borders
are mending fences
And false fiction
is the elevated
runoff of the headwaters
of your dreams
And the people black framed
in the cages
of the eternal moment's collapse
Will gather generating
candle light wisdom
of those
who deny existence
Sep 13, 2015
Sep 13, 2015 at 2:50 AM UTC
And we all shine on.
The thorn of love that is invisible to strangers.
Here comes the husband’s attitude again. Pass with Care.
Here comes the husband’s paycheck again. Pass with Care.
And here we have the husband’s mistress again. And she passed with care.
Now, we have this baby girl. One more piece for the puzzle-family:
“And you know I ain’t never want no half nothing in my family.
My whole family is half. Everybody got different fathers and mothers.”
Sacrifice, Mama. Ain’t that what it’s all about?
Rose. Rose. The one who is already risen.
When you banished him from your bed, did he contort his frame
and slug his way toward the door,
continued down the hallway
and down the stairs
to leech away the ghost of that emotion that Tallahassee-big-hipped-girl gave him?
Give your daughter, now, the hungry fatigue that you had to acquire. Pass with care.
And now you stand with this goblet in your arms.
Goblet of light. Golden flower in your heart and in your brain. This baby girl --
Breather of the goodness in the world.
Aug 19, 2012
Aug 19, 2012 at 2:38 AM UTC
We build our own cages.
We construct fences around our souls.
We scribble on the walls.
We believe this makes us free.
The world can terrify.
But there is nothing worse
than not experiencing life
for the fear of hurting.
Oct 25, 2014
Oct 25, 2014 at 7:56 PM UTC
You see right through me
Yet you refuse to see me
You look right at me
But you do not understand me
You go around me, you go through me
But you do not examine me
I am just in your way
I am just a barrier
You do not see what I am because you insist on seeing what I am not
You avoid me at all costs because its an inconvenience to you
I am in your own head
your own heart even
Yet you refuse to accept me
you go further
further than wood and nails
you reach for the brick and mortar
you build me stronger
without even acknowledging me
you dance around the surface of my being
you cover me up
you break me down
throw me out
But you rebuild me again
different materials
same understanding
same meaning
same hidden emotions and thoughts
this time
you cannot see through me
but you still do not see me
Oct 15, 2014
Oct 15, 2014 at 4:36 AM UTC
the promise that her tenderness has no fences
made her linger on my mind
like a rough bottle of fine wine
and as the evening rolled back daylights clutter of thoughts in my head
that smile she flashed me came back to kiss my heart
it came with such delight sparking in her sweet eyes
that i just felt myself drowning in the moment with such wanton joys
made me illustrious by her soft-spoken side
made me happy to be alive...
once the sullen girl in baggy sweat pants and pink slippers
dragging a bag full of noisesome beatnik romances
she has grown to love freedoms road
cast aside such tin-plated gods and rough-house boys
that a pretty boy isn't a man if he wont make a stand
found herself holding a wishing well coin
and a map showing paradises shores
and came down to find me again....
sitting in a coffee house full of lost voices
full of magazine honeys chilling before the big break finds em
listening to the sounds of heartbreak in glasses chatter
and waiting for a road that made sense to me
when she walked back into my life
like a rough bottle of fine wine
like a candlelight evening with true loves joys
i will be here forever know that now
florida moon-surfing
holding her in my arms
breathing the magic that is her
exploring her romances
Sep 12, 2014
Sep 12, 2014 at 6:07 PM UTC
Building new fences
Panels become barriers
Guarding raw senses
Jun 12, 2014
Jun 12, 2014 at 6:58 AM UTC
I’m minded today we have a choice
to make our mark and raise our voice
but there are those, it’s very funny
who’d tell you how they’d spend your money.
All over Europe pundits gather
getting themselves in quite a lather
giving opinions on issues political
trying to make them sound so critical.
Skeletons found in many a cupboard
the found out grimace, some have blubbered
and later when all votes are counted
disappointment follows campaigns mounted.
In Germany too they’ll do their thing
as seats stay put or make a swing
France and Italy, Ireland too
votes for Europe are quite a to-do.
Votes are counted on Sunday of course
and Dimbleby brothers roll out in force
the great Swingometer comes into play
as seats are won across the UK.
After all the dust has settled
new MEPs all keen and mettled
all take their seats with po-faced pride
personal pleasure they try to hide.
And so to business for some it’s new
there are many and various things to do
like getting claims in for their expenses
the sitting places – the search for fences.
Alliances to make are the next big thing
who’ll vote with you on anything
but represent those who for you voted
or you’ll be out next time, I hope that’s noted.
©Joe Wilson – The European Elections 2014
May 23, 2014
May 23, 2014 at 1:12 PM UTC