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Vamika Sinha Aug 2015
Insipid darkness
is no better womb for
thoughts.
Decent thoughts, maybe good
GREAT thoughts.
Thoughts that will flow
like the lava of imported electricity
not-but-should-be circulating in Gaborone's veiny grid.

But who cares?
Well, okay, your mother, now swearing
at the singed-black TV screen
(she's missed her daily soap).

Mother Darkness breeds thinkers.
Tell me, in the scramble for your cellphone flashlight,
did you find your inner Plato?
Ah, no, you surely became
a lightbulb,
humming with the shocks of unwritten words.

It is these minutes of lightless inertia when
it's best to tap your swollen top instead
of lighting a candle.
See, sun rays and tube lights dull the finish of ideas;
corporation-induced darkness provides more suitable conditions.
So you must tap the glass globe on your shoulders
and feel, yes,
feel the grey filament
within, buzzzzzzzz

Electricity.

Edison's 'Eureka!' finally
happening, as all 'Eurekas!' do, in
(literally) colourless mundane.

(Note to self: Write a thank-you email to that pathetic power corporation for your rebirth as a glow)

Thoughts.
Thoughts and thoughts, thoughts,
thoughts.
                 thoughts,
   thoughts,
thoughts and  
                            thoughts,
coming in viscous gallops,
extra voltage baby, thoughts!
Thoughts, thoughts, thoughts,

IDEA.

You are no longer living!
You exist as shards of yes, one GREAT whole,
one...brace-taste the word now...
idea.

You are glimmers of something greater.
You are hot charges of energy your country failed to harness.

Sparked at the flick
of a lazy corporation's switch:
they

cut the power which
cut the flow in the varicose veins of Gaborone which
cut your bedroom's plastic brightness which
cut the bored-contented moment you were wallowing in which
cut your breath (still-half-scared of the dark, you) which
cut the blood flow to your grey matter which
cut the oxygen supply, replaced the fuel with electricity

and then you could think.

Thoughts
and  
thoughts
and

what will you do with them? If
you dare the sun's brilliance,
you might land up as some poor Icarus;
if you wait a half-volt longer,
I'm afraid the fuse will blow, madam and
your mother cannot comprehend these blue-light shocks,
please find a paper and a pen
immediately.

Ah.
So the electricity must, after all,
power something.
And in the crackling dash
to eke out your blow-blaze-brim-burn words
onto something that will last longer
than today's ration of blackness,

the power comes back.

Mind chars into itself.
Snuffed too soon, you pathetic power corporation,
why did you put me out like that?

Your mother turns to you and mutters
'Thank God.'
This poem has a second meaning too, if you bother to think about it. Maybe sit in the darkness to figure it out?
Paula Swanson Jul 2010
Sssttttuhhp....clunk.

Plink..plinkplink...flip, *****, ****, plink.
Donk, donkdonk, plink, doink, ****.
Flipflap..****, plinkplink, doink.
Doink, doinkdoink, whirrrrrr, buzzzzzzzz ****.

"Oh ****".

Sssttttuhhp....clunk.

Plink, doinkbink, flipflap, bink.
Twirrrrrrrrtwirrrrrrrr, twirrrrrrr *****.
flipflap.....clunk

"Oh....Man"!

Sssttttuhhp....clunk.

P­linkplinkboinkdoink...flip...bonk shhhupduuuup.
****, doink, *****, shuuuup.
plink, ploinkploink, **** doink.
booooouuuuupboooooouuuup...*****
flipflap...clunk

"Shoot"­!

Sssttttuhhp....clunk.

plinkplinkplinkplink, doink flipflap, bonk, *****, twirrrrrr.
doink, *****, bonk, wuuuuuup, twirrrrrr, puurrrrrrrr.
plink, ploink, doinkdoink, purrrrrrrr, shuuuuupshuuuup
plinkplinkplink, doink, flip, doink, flip, trrrruuuuurrrrp.

"YES"!  (shakes machine)

TILT!  TILT! TILT!

"NOooooooooo"!
CA Smith Feb 2018
Oh what I would give to throw the alarm clock away
Just you and me, sleep, for an entire day
Because you're my best friend
You know it's true
When I'm in your presence, I never feel blue
Oh, sleep, I share all my dreams with you

A new sight we could see
If only for a minute
But the clock keeps ticking
And soon this slumber will have to finish

Another minute today?
No, maybe an hour, let me hit the snooze, please!
Just a little more slumber to put my mind at ease!

Buzz. Buzz.
Oh life comes calling,
This time I won't pick up the phone
Just you and me, sleep
We'd never be alone

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.
Please not again!
Oh, sleep, why can't you just stay?
I'll ignore my responsibilities,
if only for a day!

Buzzzzzzzz. Buzzzzzzzz.
Our relationship, this alarm always seems to complicate
It's just that, when I'm with you, you always make me late!

Buzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Okay, fine, this time I'll get up
But only because my snooze button,
Has finally had enough
Brycical Jul 2013
(+) vibrations buzzzzzzzz
                    lifting
  mouths        &           spirits

         r              ning
d            ow                      

                    out  ­                the (-)



                                                          ­ i  n   g
matriculating curves t w i s t
              quickly churning
                         bending like   w
                                                      a
       ­                                            t
                                                     e
                                                  r
                                    in a whirlpool
                                        with/ou t    grrrravity
                                                 as we sail on the stream of consciousness
                              to another realm
                                     inside ourselves
                                                    on our rainbow brain boat visiting
                                           tye-dye twilight night skies
                                                giggling wind PLAYING with
                                      our hair beginning to laugh
                                   like cats after discovering chicken it the fridge.
                         We sing Hendrix
                                 Joplin
                          Morrison
                     Floyd
                Lennon
         and Shankar
all the way to the shore
of the island.
Thanks for the word Sarah. :)
Matthew James Jul 2016
There's a quiet tick tick

Tick tock

There's a quiet sound of cars in the distance

The air is warm but there's a slight breeze through the window that is refreshingly cooling

I can feel it on my thigh

I've got one eye closed as I squint at my phone and write this poem

Is it a poem? What is a poem?

I feel like a fake
A plastic poet
Making it up as he goes along
Wanting to write a good poem instead of just writing ...

Anything

What's happening now?

I tried to write a poem about my Dad being a conservative, about coming from a farming family, and about doing things rather than talking about them.

I just rolled over on my couch

I don't always think about what I'm doing
I like to think I'm doing something
Sometimes I'm just trying to do the right thing
Sometimes I'm just trying to be seen to do the right thing
Sometimes I just want to indulge myself in the profits of my labour

Money

I'm skint
I'm not skint
I could be skint if things go a certain way in the near future
I'm scared of being skint
But I don't want to go back to doing the things that I was doing
I don't want to be dragged down again
****** in again
Institutionalised
I don't want to trust people and then get ******* over
I want to be free
To make my own decisions
And walk away if I don't like it

I wonder if Adele will call
I like Adele
She reminded me of my good points again
After Paula
Letting go
It scares me a bit to think whether I actually would have killed myself back then
No matter now - it seems so long ago
When I needed someone to make me feel good
It's inly been about six months
It's not long
I've changed a lot
I hope that it's for the best
At least I don't cry every day I'm without my kids now
At least Adele is my friend
Do I wish she was my girlfriend?
Or do I just like being respected and liked?

I like being liked
I think that's why I write
It's probably why I'm setting up my charity
It's definitely why I post what I'm doing on Facebook

I'm tired now
This poem is getting too long for the 3 mins
Is it a poem?
God knows
I need to sleep ***

Tick

Tock

Buzzzzzzzz...zzz..
JWAnderson Jan 2015
I am her child
I am her child as much as I am her parents,
One mother, one farther, bonded at birth and at death
As the one, the one human being of twine tied wounds
Held in the sun, on the sand, beneath Blue, to blister
Burn, and to blister, to birth, to blister, to bear the burden,
Blistering beloved bees swarm Me and I, and Her and She
Him, and What We Choose to Bee.
Buzz Buzz, Quick as they feast on the flesh of the fair frail fellows of ***
Buzzz, Buzzzzz, Slower as they eat within, create outside the child’s skin
Buzzzzzz Buzzzzzzzz, Ages, Decades, Halftimes past and return between the wickly
Wholesome Hollow Hornet Wasps bites and spits
Spits into the tin can what tender steak meat they bit
Rusted forks and broken shopping charts, twisted from years and weeks
Of Abuse from their School marks at the local Global Coffee shop and Black Soul Café
Ty was the right guy to imply the use of human lye as a Tide Guide to apply to
My o’ My
Inside is now the out, and the out was the inside in waiting.
Beauty and her blossom blooms in form
Laughs and chuckles, hugs and begs for warmth and vice and taboo
Shrinks down and grows up to meet the occasion
Is always loved. Always.
I fly through her smooth metal veins.
Air gushes me to and through, like a letter in a briskly paced postal service fluttering in the wind.
How violent my limbs flail, the whiplash on my head, when I stop and am pushed and pulled through Service Pipe #3498 Liespander Ave. on route to Bus Start #44 on route to Muddy by Water.
Her chuckles boom through her body, vibrates every bit of artificial bone that was once the remains of passive customer both hated and mirrored by Long Striders and Easy Tongues.
I am weak now. I was once the shield that protected her. Held her, Covered her. Away was torn my skin cells to make way for the dynasty of new. Useless and disposable. Old, stupid, but loyal. Loyalty means ****.
*** and *****. Show it, Sell it, Love it.
I grasp to that vital *****, soft and squishy, like my remaining form, only with less keys.
I play a note and walk through those cerebral canyons. My Desires from lonely and sad days are overcome by my awe and disgust in these deep magical valleys.
Somewhere in here, the Queen of Black and Thick controls.
Over perhaps now she controls the queen who controls another.
Like Treadmills in the Pink and Black void.
Metal overcomes again. The grey and Blue strings return to my flesh, knitting through my brass lined wounds, turning me into the weakest book never read.
They pull. I become less strong, less bright, a shadow of who I was. Digression into lust and power.
I am to become a child, a mother, a farther once more.
We all love the youth in control as youth, until we grow old and the youth cast us away the same we casted our old away.
Recurring cycles, Triangles with Triangles,
Fight against the Status Quo to create Your Own. Fair is Fair.
Burn White for Burnt Black. Black and White means nothing. Burning Does.
Repeat and satisfy those who will turn their backs once they out grow you.
Rub and Burn like Rubber on a Very Tall **** that calls the Chicken an ***.
Break free the maze, Shine, open two eyes, not three. Escape. Escape.
The flys are coming around again. Their buzzes echo through these veins very well.
Good metallic acoustics in here. Should spend more time here than what my future upholds for me.
Make that little bit of money. You are nothing in your job. Nothing.
Children, birth your parents right this moment, please and Thank You.
Graff1980 Apr 2019
There she sits in
a cement structure
that is
scarred by the torture
of poverty
and mother nature.

Her deep brown eyes
stare from a
broken glass window,
pondering
the growling
disposition
of her stomach.

Till, it becomes
just some noise
she forgets to hear,
and the feeling
becomes
some numb
buzzzzzzzz
in the back ground
of her exhausting
existence.

She is a still specter,
a powerful presence
in a place I have never seen,
memorialized for my
consumer eyes
by a photographer.

Hopeful humanist,
Howard G. Buffet
presents this
stark truth to me
in a photo reality.

So, all this fluff poetry
is an artistic assumption.
What gumption
I have to put words
to a world that
I have never been to,
seeing the starving children
while I am stuffing
my comfortable face.

She is symbolic of
human beauty and grace
in times of struggle
while I am a product
of comfort, excess, and human waste.

How do these
two extremes
exist
in the same
time?

— The End —