"bys" poems
They call me Ghetto.
They call me
gunfights and drive-bys,
pregnant teens.
They call me Poverty,
and concrete winter walls
splashed with blood-red
graffiti.
They call me
junior-high druggies
and gang-banging muchachos.
They call me Mexico
like it’s a ***** word.
They call me Ghetto.
But haven’t they seen through
the white-washed walls
of the
“American Dream”?
Don’t they know hurt
and suffering,
imperfections
and neglect,
as well?
So call me Mexico;
call me Poverty;
call me Ghetto.
I am
run-down yards
filled with laughing brown children,
small apartments
bursting with the scent
of tamales,
mingled with joy and the chatter of relatives.
I am home-made tortillas
at Thanksgiving
and wrinkled hands pounding masa
at Christmas.
I am friendly smiles
and shouted jokes
followed by roaring
laughter.
I am the lilting syllables
of a beautiful
culture.
I am comfort.
They call me Ghetto
and so I am.
Sep 8, 2014
Sep 8, 2014 at 10:44 PM UTC
God, what have you done?
Leaving me to hang from the rafters of the sky
Waving at passer-bys who have expressions like nuns
Like the recording of ours hearts on vinyl
My mind spins and your voice is the needle
Every time you open your mouth the song skipped
I thought it was a coincidence
Thus, it unfolded before me like a sin
There's cracks of lies on your inner thighs
A sculpture of perfection weathered because of decision
A girl with a cigarette to her lips is a sign of such
Underlying problems covered by much;
Covered by smoke;
And covered by lust...
Yet, her lips continue to lock to easiest solution
Maybe it be the illusion of fake religion;
Praying to the bottle, and praising to a man;
and still shes left behind smothered in her hands
Her tears drip just like oceans meet the sands
Who are you to break every bone in my body? she asks
as shes strips away from the cloths of who used to be somebody
Now, her mind seems dry
Withered and unable to make another lie
So, God help her to lift of her hands, wipe of the tears, and find another man
Oct 5, 2013
Oct 5, 2013 at 3:41 PM UTC
My worst fear realized
Beyond scared & paralyzed
the moment I recognized
the signs in the fading eyes
of a lover as she re-lives the lies
& cries herself to sleep with sorrowful lullabies
Ones only heard by the clouds and the stars they pass by in the night skies
The ones just as lonely and as distant as a sunrise
on the moons romanticized dark sides
mingling with the anticipated replies to the backlog of "why's"
that don't even bother with fly-bys
Somewhere out past where hope dies
Where both love and hate are lobotomized
then cannibalized
even weaponized
for passion triggered crimes
leaving no one surprised
Where the only allies one finds
arrive in disguise
as the best of times
as the worst of times
building up to a multitude of inevitable good-byes
How was I to vocalize
a mess of this size
when I don't have the ability to visualize
even loosing such a prize...
©2024
Feb 21, 2024
Feb 21, 2024 at 12:06 AM UTC
They say
It all will be okay-you're beautiful
As if those words can draw the line
Between bravery and slavery
And clear my back of scars
Left by the lash of sacrifice.
Every choice I have made
Has been a step away
From love, from freedom, from home.
For in this maze of concrete and steel
I must be alone, and always composed -
There is always someone watching
So I keep a steel rod in my spine
And walk towards the end of the city
Pretending I cannot feel passer-bys stare
Sizing me up
Feigning deafness to the murmurs of my pronounced bones and sharp features
All I am is a hanger for clothes
A display, a game, a gamble
They want it to pay off
So they tell me it will all be okay
Because I am beautiful
Aug 23, 2013
Aug 23, 2013 at 11:06 PM UTC
When things go south
Travel
When it doesn't all fit
Travel
When colours get dull
Travel
When monotony overflows
Travel
Travel
Because there is no use staying
You are a passenger
You have always been
Travel
Because you must one day go
So why not set out in your today too?
Travel
Because life is fleeting and time ain't still
Because as your soul grows weary
It needs freshness instilled !
Travel
Because there is no one good time to go
Because you can always get out and let it all flow
Travel my friend, don't waste quietly in thy hermit cove
For there is a great lot you aught still to see
And there is a great lot your soul daily does sought
Travel
.. needn't pack away, keep thy baggage at bay
For you are not leaving.. hands-full !
Nor your gold, neither valor shall you take back
Travel
Let the air of those gone-bys rinse through as you soak their yonder sighs;
Travel, as the sights of the bygone monumental leaves you mesmerized !
Travel
Don't despair, the show goes on without you dear,
Travel anyway .. and often. and you shall soon find thy home awfully near !
Apr 22, 2020
Apr 22, 2020 at 4:17 PM UTC
We've got sounds, we've got city.
It's really coming down but I can't see it.
Airplanes? Apollo or just another meteor?
Weekend Thunder Wind on Friday morning.
I can carry the thick. I can carry the idle.
But my sea legs don't kick in while I'm standing on dry soil.
If it's going to be Red Dawn, I'd like to at the very least
Have a chance to put my boots on. But if it's not Construction or the chill Of Winter, it might just be the Weekend Thunder Wind doing fly-bys on a Friday morning.
All night hungry burning sweet grass, California sage, and listening to the wind talks of the Navajo. She's asleep at my back, but the gusts are 21 miles per hour and chasing after all the gales. Another slamming, shaking crash from the Weekend Thunder Wind acting spoiled on a Friday morning.
Dogs they **** inside the house.
The shingles are getting gone.
The tuning of the A-string is brutally wrong and off.
I can hear T. Rex's dancing and having ******
Or maybe it's just the Weekend Thunder Wind waking up one day too early.
I've been haunted thrice and seen my guts ooze out
Its hellacious and abhorrent.
But there's 17 more hours to hang out with
The Weekend Thunder Wind while we get coffee and The Chicago Quarterly.
If the Spring weather will be arriving soon.
Let's wear our Ray Ban's and fly kites this afternoon.
Feb 19, 2016
Feb 19, 2016 at 8:09 AM UTC
Sitting in my bathroom sink contemplating late 20's
I hear my heart filled with responsbility
Giggles as barbies splash by
The smiles make me reach for the sky
Then the realness hits
The dream was never thick
I awake standing in black shoveling fries, asking if I can add anything else to that
The passer bys say, "atleast you have your beauty"
Beauty doesn't pay the bills unless you put it up for bid
I could say **** this and quietly move aside
Instead I'll swallow my pride
Tell myself a lie,
"One day I will hold my head high"
For now I smell the salt as I continue to shovel fries
Jan 21, 2017
Jan 21, 2017 at 2:07 PM UTC
There once was a Beatle and a Bird
Who enjoyed a cup of tea every hour of the 3rd
At whome, passer bys would exclaim “Absurd!”
“These two could never give what the other deserves”
But still the Beatle and the Bird
Remained ever so undeterred
Nov 12, 2010
Nov 12, 2010 at 7:46 AM UTC
Hush now Baby, don't you cry.
Momma's gonna sing you a lullaby.
Daddy's gonna stay up all through the night
To keep those Creepies from creepin' in.
Easy Darlin', rest your head.
We'll check the closet, and under the bed.
The front door's bein' guarded by our old hound dog Jed
To keep the Creepies from creepin' in.
(When I was small I wasn't too tall at all,
In fact I was a tadpole like you...
My Dad and Mom stayed up all night long
To keep the Creepies from creepin' into my room)
So hush now Baby, close your eyes.
Mommy's gonna' sing you some sweet by-and-bys.
And I'll be right here, next to your side
To keep the Creepies from creepin' in.
Jan 30, 2011
Jan 30, 2011 at 2:59 PM UTC
I woke up, and my ears were ringing like the Tell-Tale heart.
Ring, ring, ringing like microphone headphones,
the screeching dog whistle in a bitch's bad dreams.
My scream-teen dreams
of Slime Time Lives gone by
drive-bys gettin' high,
drank all the way to drunk
and stayed up,
still alive.
A hangover hunger, eat that screaming meat
till my warm puffy eyes well up with sleep,
wait to wake up and repeat.
Though I breathe easy
I need pleasing,
a fortune in fulfillment and still aches
of incompletion.
Mi hermano dice siempre,
The poor search for food,
the rich search for an appetite.
Mar 28, 2013
Mar 28, 2013 at 8:42 PM UTC
outside ourselves:
in the few, brief moments,
staying inside the outer edge
of this webbing we've woven
for the the sake of this game
that's created in itself.
for the spider,
as he calms the tension
across his line
as the wind blows,
swaying him sideways.
driven practically by survival
hopeless in a world made by others
he's getting caught-up in his own web;
he's never seen,
but not seeing through just his lenses
that cover the top of his head.
over, calmed now,
the tension's applied tenderly.
the treacherous passing of past
passer-bys past his masterwork,
the unluck ones
only eaten, digested,
and then forgotten.
horrifically in complete sync
with the idealism
that had dulled
every subjective idea he'd had,
the spider found what he'd needed;
some calming peace and serenity.
Jul 13, 2013
Jul 13, 2013 at 1:23 PM UTC
We shall dance
In the darkness,
When the moon is low in its brilliance
Allow our shadow less graces to advance
Amongst out figureless traces
Embrace what time won’t allow
Soon, we will dissolve into pleasures of romance
Tired from our mysterious ritual of instances.
Breathe your seducing treasures upon my
Sweet gracious fortitude of chaos
Torment my mind with limited words of affections
While I tease your persona with restricted symphonies of
Lyrical versus
Shall we remain wordless?
Dark roses fill our lungs
Singing mindless praises
Into the sweet alluring air of seduction
With no introduction
Mend back my broken art
As I repair your broken heart.
We struggle under our weight of
Hushed passions in rushed fashions
Fearing the passer bys will acknowledge our
Unorthodox orchestration of tempered frustrations.
I float on volcanoes
He wallows in nucleus graces
Featureless faces express a thousand rhetorical Bases
Words unknown to the English language…
Enveloped in bliss, sealed by your kiss
I miss the earth’s stable grounds
Waiting to depart from Venus,
The goddess of love calls my name
I ignore her, blue, holding my breath
In vain…
Quickly. Quickly
Swiftly. Swiftly
We paradise
Jun 24, 2010
Jun 24, 2010 at 7:03 AM UTC
Don't wait for the right boy
He does not exist.
Fairy tales are not reality.
There is no waking up
From this nightmare.
No falling asleep to
Sink into a dream.
She wonders how
Many apologies
She will have to make up for.
How many good bys
She will have to say.
She wonders if
The man she
Marries
Will have the
Right words
To patch the holes
In her
Fragile
Daughters
Fragile heart.
Aug 21, 2012
Aug 21, 2012 at 8:34 PM UTC
glossily white attitude, princess and rainbow goon
how i'm feeling you, don't have to lie, last night
we were blasting off, flying, watching our city
when i woke up, you were laughing, you are lifestyle
i'm your drug, like beat and melody, djset and rapz
we are totally white like the meetings of escada
24/7 way of life, the pulse of days flashing past
look, my name is tizzop, look, how i'm splashing
this waterfall is soaking you, powerful pressure
jason is stuck to the mirrors, drive-bys and k.o.
100.000, 00 $, spent on a party night
you can start hating me, you better go skating
i am excessively ray ban and i love to fill mouths
enuff talking, let's go, for sure, 3:05 am
mercedes maybach and chauffeur, life is easy
i deal with twelve souls, soon to be trippled
all the kids are trippin', pearly white nights like frippin
i am writing on snowwhite cliffs, ocean full of glowing fishs
i got the magical pillow, you may fall in love with me
always hitting the center, mansions for your longing
Sep 2, 2020
Sep 2, 2020 at 6:12 PM UTC
People have strong feelings about nonsense.
Unaware of the by-products
of fervent tenet.
The ardent flames burn hotter than
any dogmas of faith.
They are swathe in this magma.
Burning all those near,
churning deep-rooted fear.
Making it crystal clear for some,
but foggy glass for others.
Colourful grey matter yet mindlessly
They clutch on too much
to the senseless crux of the matter.
Somethings may be in flux
Places and faces among other things
but the same truth endures.
Those whose eyes are blinded
by creed, ensure that only casualties
and tragedies will arise
from their fallacious activities.
When will these attitudes changes?
A question I can not answer with any certitude.
Only hope a solution will come post-haste
as we are faced with too many ghosts.
Passer-bys erased simple because
people have strong feelings about nonsense.
Jan 8, 2015
Jan 8, 2015 at 6:17 PM UTC
Dying dreams exchanged for
Fairy dust and a doting Daddy,
Dollars, drive-bys, euphoric highs:
Glassy eyes and a hazy mind
Just hellos - no goodbyes
No lies of stardom and
Starving on the street for a
Script or a role that never *******
Followed through, none of that,
No work, only play.
Days wasted are over
And sitting pretty is easy
When there’s coke and
Crime and corruption
But you’re still the rose
Growing in the play-pen,
It’s lonely when they go
The house is all to know,
Porcelain doll with her
Nose so white: do you ever
dream of flight?
Mar 2, 2016
Mar 2, 2016 at 3:23 PM UTC
Plant a seed
Watch it grow
Delicate petals unfold
Untouched beauty
So pristine
Yet so alone
Bathe in the sunlight
Soak up the rays
Grow ever more beautiful
With each passing day
Passer-bys walk on through
Caress your petals
Fawn over you
“How beautiful you look”
Your color so vibrant
You extend into the sky
Reaching so high
But the clouds gather
Their color darkens
Drops flow
Your beauty is marred
No longer untouched
You’ve been ruined for all
Jan 10, 2013
Jan 10, 2013 at 10:37 AM UTC
We spent three months of our lives
Together almost everyday
In some formation
We formed our own family
Dysfunctional in all the usual ways
We're all young
And still in love with the world
But terrified of our own lives
It was a perfect mix
We spent car rides together
Squealing and singing, dancing and shouting
Watching flamingoes sleep on lake shores
And llamas grazing by the roadside
We saw condors swooping overhead
As we climbed what felt like mountains
Compared to us
Sleeping underneath more stars
Than we had imagined were in the sky
We got lost and found our ways back
We got happy, waiting on lay-bys
We got up
At 4am, awoken by the sound of
Out of tune harmonicas
And your shouting
We fell asleep
To the sound of each other's heavy breathing
Exhausted but satisfied
Now we're apart
But from our own bonds
Woven like siblings,
Like friends,
Some of us like lovers
And all we have left
Are the photos we took together
And the memories
That I hope will last my lifetime
Jun 8, 2015
Jun 8, 2015 at 9:10 AM UTC
In the tiny hours os the morning
Long before the sun casts its
Pre-dawn gray and the east
Begins to light
You feel the oneness of us all
You hurt for the people who
Really are brothers and sisters
The people and families of Boston
And Newtown
And the people and families, victims
Of random, meaningless gun violence
Every **** day
The kids lost every day in drive-bys
And the men and women who
Try so hard to hold it all together
The families on the ramen noodles and
Baloney and peanut butter plans with
Hamburger Helper for a treat
The men and women scared of
Losing home--not just a **** house
Don't you know, the only home
Their kids ever knew
And you hurt in the tiny hours
For your people who no longer
Can make the ends meet
And you know a much bigger
Struggle calls
Our people are sick of hurtin and losin
While those who really can
Make things happen
Sleep through the night
Without a thought to us
Lots and lots to do
Woody said it right in a different
But same kind of time
This land belongs to you and me
Aug 6, 2013
Aug 6, 2013 at 10:25 PM UTC
I wanted to give you the world,
Unfortunately it wasn’t in a college student’s budget.
So I gave you the next best thing,
I made you my world.
Gave you the keys,
And I threw away any locks.
I let you free roam and play around my heart,
and I prayed you wouldn’t play GTA 5.
I may have a big heart,
but it can only take so many drive-bys.
Once you hit five stars,
All I could do is spray and pray for my feelings.
When you finally said goodbye,
Everything hurt exponentially.
So I tried to find the locks,
Before the damage could be done.
But they disappeared the first time I looked into your eyes,
Eyes that completely changed my perspective.
Once I opened up everything to you,
Now I can't go back to heart lock down.
My world has transformed,
For better or for worse only time can decide.
Jun 21, 2020
Jun 21, 2020 at 2:02 PM UTC
I toss and turn,
I sleep no more.
Yawns widened,
my eyes drip
the tired cries.
Wrists crack,
body exhausted from
staying still for so long.
All the sheep inside my head,
could never amount to all of
those bottles on the wall.
There were days that I learned
how to sit still.
These days moved fast,
yet slow.
Time told me to be on
his side, so counted
all the steps it took
me to get into this bed.
Death metal blasted
from passer-bys
on slick roads.
Sign reads,
"Drive Slow."
Shocked to see a shadow,
too soon sunken in velour.
Jan 11, 2014
Jan 11, 2014 at 2:32 AM UTC
Words have lost their meaning,
Now that you have stopped speaking,
They fall limpless and lifeless,
Upon the cold stone floor,
Where once you stood,
Only to be trodden on by passer-bys,
Afraid to stop, afraid to love.
My ears do not wish to hear them fall,
Do not want to listen to the dull thud upon the ground,
All they long for are words of love from you,
Mingled with the rise and fall of your breast
And the gentle beating of your heart.
But my heart does not wish to be loved anymore
And with walls of Jericho I protect him
And still I wish that you would come
With trumpets heralding the love I want to feel
But the walls still stand and the bricks do not tremble
And since you are not there the trumpets are still.
Sep 13, 2020
Sep 13, 2020 at 9:04 PM UTC
neon skies and walk- bys how hard to remember thise faces. forgotten people, and they leave ni traces. How unfair we dont have the ability to carry ourselves and all of them. how cruel we can fall too far buf onlt fly so high. And if we try to hard we are plucked right out the sky. How sad to see someone fight so hard for their wings to simply die. But it wont stop you from trying. You'll still keep others feom dying. You'll wipe their teara when your friends are crying. Youll shine brighter than the sun so when they see the dark they know where to run. How kind you are to be the one, who knows when a smile-chain has begun. If i could be greater and better and grand, Id help you out. Someday- Ill give you a hand.
Aug 31, 2016
Aug 31, 2016 at 3:20 PM UTC