Bardo

Apr 2023

Donall Dempsey

SISTER HAMLET

Oh, I still remember
your Hamlet
(the best production I ever saw)

you home from school
wrapping yourself in the crimson curtain
of our living room

& stabbing yourself
in the arras
& crying: “ a rat...a rat! ”

& how something or other was rotten
& bringing the curtain down
upon your dying

annoying our mother
critical of your over-heated performance
she sending us(like a bad review)scampering

I will remember
your Shakespeare
to my dying day

your eyes wild
your hair flying
and how

with an entire
cast of you
you acted it out

to my open and gasping
mouth drinking you in
with my thirsty mind

Shakespeare come
startlingly alive me peppered
with beauty & spittle

oh, sister Hamlet
I still live in the wonder
of your telling

Apr 2023

Marshal Gebbie

The Fly hath Landed

The demon fly hath landed now intent upon it's task
**** Demon in its valedictory explorations grasp.
Embedded deep in kidneys, to cause me some concern.
A painful path to endgame and a Hellish lesson learned.

I pause a moment, think it out, it's one way or the other
I lost a mate the other day and last month, lost another.
Seems it is the season for the cataclysmic time
I'd rather it be elsewhere but I fear this one... is mine.

I've run a rough and winding track these rugged years of yore
Pulled the Dragons tail in jest and sought, yet, for more.
Rafted mighty rivers and flew the heavens high
And lifted my perception winging vaulting, clear blue sky.

I've known the velvet touch of love, the softness of her lips
The crash of waves on sandy shore caressing fingertips.
The swelling joy of childbirth, the pledge of mothers milk
And rock like bonds of marriage binding all within its ilk.

With thoughts a million miles away I've trudged this country lane
Pondered why, with voids approach, it engenders me no pain?
Wondering why it matters that the children shed a tear
When saddened, glancing passing eyes, are never really near.

Regret I'll never get to see my grove of rhodos bloom
Or sip the soothing whisky as I tap my toe in tune.
Or launch into the crazy surf and splash out to the rock
Nor lie in sun on baking sand admiring talent flock.

Meat pies with sauce at football with a cold beer in the hand
And the repartee with kindred minds in poetry unplanned,
That flash of inspirations' alliteration sprung
Brings the joy to mind of comradeship in Shakespeare's realm, unsung.

.....And then there's all that's left undone, the words, now, left unsaid
The notes of tragic violin hang in the air...unbled
And you there with the swimming eyes, what do I say to you?
It's all been grand, I kiss your hand....Adieu , my friend.... Adieu!

M.
Foxglove, Taranaki
New Zealand
20 October 2020

Apr 2023

Maddy

My body and My Life

Whatever your religious thoughts are
They are respected and understood
As well as your feelings
Please see other side for a moment
If your life is at stake
If you have survived an attack and I speak from my experience only
where my body and life were forever changed
Years of therapy and dealing with Depression was the price and telling my beloved what happened before we embarked to what will be 43 year old marriage this autumn
Wanted children but a ****** took that from me at fourteen
If you acted first and thought better later
If your partner was not prepared for the situation after the fact
If you are not ready financially emotionally ,or whatever the reason
My body, my life, my choice
The medication and right to choice is not a states or judges decision
As for Florida and other states that have banned the choice

There are no words just tears

C@rainbowchaser2023

Apr 2023

Anais Vionet

empty skies

This morning’s sunrise was a tacky and artificial affair.
The sun was played by a weak, 12-watt, refrigerator bulb
that looked wet and heavy as it struggled uphill like a drunk.
The horizon reminded me of a cheap, runny theatrical illusion,
the clouds were old cotton ***** glued to cardboard silhouettes,
the birds sagged like dead puppets from uneven coat hanger wires.

I don’t miss you. Everything’s fine. I hardly noticed you were gone, actually.
Things here are a laugh and a half. We’re doing fun girl things. Anna got new shoes.
I’m hardened by years of inescapable, solitary, covid lockdown. I’m immune to despair.
So go off, interview for that new, far-flung PhD life. Go fawn over Elon Musk for all I care.
I’m definitely not in my room eating spoons of peanut butter and crying to Tom Waits songs.

BLT Marriam Webster word of the day challenge: Fawn: to court favor by groveling or flattery.

#interviewing #careers #artificial #missing #longing

Apr 2023

Frances E McClelland

Daydreams

Watching the sky turn misty and gray,
my thoughts wandering to worlds away;
Where the indigo sky streaked with sunlight,
sends me back to my years of eternal daylight.

As a child of summer the world was mine,
the ocean swirled with colors divine;
The soft, warm sand touched my soul,
and the seagulls perched on the rocks would call.

Swept into a daydream that filled my heart,
with family and friends who have since departed;
My parents packed sandwiches for us to munch,
and the chocolate bars--how much fun to crunch !

Wading in the foam at the edge of the shore,
was bliss to me right down to the core;
Now dad and mom are shadows and clouds,
and my friends have moved away from town.

But I'll never forget those days of delight,
which ended in a sunset so colorful and bright;
The rain now caresses the old maple tree,
as my daydreams are floating out to the sea.

Apr 2023

Donall Dempsey

STRAPHANGING

STRAPHANGING

Yikes! Von Eycks's
The Arnolfini Marriage
gets on the tube.

Circle Line....either it or
someone very like Vladimir Putin
and Vladimir Putin in drag

at the next stop
Grant's American Gothic
jumps through the door

just as it closes
they straphang
looking every inch of themselves

paint dripping from a graze
above an eyebrow
it's very unnerving

sharing a carriage
with great works of art
come alive

I really want to see
who gets on next
Van Gogh without an ear

but this is my stop
and work beckons
I get off but

nobody gets on
not even
a quick sketch

I mind
"...the Gap!"
almost trip over myself

the Arnolfini Marriage
and American Gothic
are discussing do they need

a ticket and what is money
they stare at me as if
"We know where you live sunny Jim!"

"Don't you dare tell!"
they yell
silently

the Putin look-alive
draws a finger
across a throat

the American Gothic
draws a zipper across a mouth
I give a frightened nod

the doors close
and somewhere
in a gallery

their empty frames
stare at
the dumbfounded tourists

Apr 2023

Little Bear

🌼❤️✨️💕🌼❤️✨️💕

all I needed was a softer heart
i needed a kinder hand
a more gentle love

all i needed were forehead kisses
i needed kinder words
a more loving love

i needed to know
i could trust you
i needed to know
I could rely on you

i needed to feel you
softly wipe away my tears
and not to have been
the reason for them

all I needed was a trustworthy path
i needed you to lead the way
and not make me walk blindly
into nothingness

i would have walked
to the ends of the earth
with you

with forever in my heart
with always in my mind
your hand holding mine
never letting go

all I will ever need is kindness
i only ever wanted love

all that i crave
is soft and gentle
in a world of
stick and stones
that so easily
break my bones

maybe iwas just asking too much
maybe i was too much
maybe i didn't deserve love
maybe i deserved nothing