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Kara Rose Trojan Dec 2014
Were you alive when the
bricks began to crumble
beneath our hand-held, picket line
across the parking lot in front of some
school that no one bothered to name?

Our exhaustion-mumbled whispers
skipping across lips dropping to the street
that tapered ladders on gargantuan gadflies as the summer heat
etched the tear lines into mud tracks against
our ruddied faces.

Cohorts torn into flip stands
layered toward standing political sores --
tell me how to cross my t’s and fill in scantron circles before
the suits step over brown-bag lunches
to stretch the yawning yellow tape over the students’ lockers.

We were strung up the flag pole, almost posted as decapitated heads for the public.
The political analysts call this “The biggest school closing in decades.”

Under teeming hammer-strikes :
glasses shred to paper-splinters
before a young boy’s diploma
crying white chalk bricks
from university’s doors instead on to
prison yard orange jumpsuits.

Can we call this a school improvement project
or can we call this the Same Salem Witch Hunt
As unwashed teachers and students alike deck the sidewalks like
Either Christmas decorations on Michigan Avenue or
Inmates on the gallows platform

I’m completely unable to read the television marquee that told the neighborhood that City Hall was too stuffed with paperwork to defend the mothers and invisible fathers.

I’m completely unable to write out of respect for these children’s already-carved in stone pathway to the gutter, graveyard, and/or prisons.

In the first wink of dawn
We will all scatter
To our respective positions
Carved out in concrete before the
barricades fall
to flood the street.
Talarah Shepherd Apr 2014
Too much rain for a good day
She dreams the door won't open
There's the scrape of metal again
And the face of a stranger pokes at happiness
Enough to evoke a bright smile from the dead
She's a ***** just as all of us

Her familiar gesture calling in
Sober drones who use her and run
Sarah's familiar gesture calling
Friendly, friendly, always
Dreaming of closings
Kurt Carman Jan 2016
Snow-day 1959

Monday, 6:00AM clock radio trips,
And WTRY Sounds off one of those top 40 hits.
I half hear the School Closings for Monday 12/12,
Sitting straight up in bed.....Was that Greenport Elementary do tell?

"Here are those school closings one more time kiddies"........
"Hudson HS Closed".... Oh Please God let me hear my city.
"Greenport Elementary...Closed" my Hands Raised Victorious..
I think I can hear Mrs Healy's entire 3rd grade class celebrating gloriously!

Just as I settle in for an uninterrupted, relaxing snow day in my room,
I hear my Mom yell, "young man come get this dust mop and broom"
"Oh snap"! "what shall I do with these dearest mother" I inquire
"Clean that pig sty you call a bedroom or your gonna feel some hellfire!"

Seeing that there we were only 10 days before Christmas
I decide Its to my advantage not to put up a fuss.
So clean I do.....pulling dust bunnies and underwear from beneath my bed
A miss matched sock and a couple bugs that were dead.

And to my surprise I find that fake dog **** I been looking for,
Time for a stealth mission to Mom's special bedroom behind that closed door.
Doing my best army crawl I make my way to Ma's special place
And put that rubbery dog **** on that bedspread made of lace.

"Hey Ma come quick the dog crapped on your lacy bedspread"!
I don't think Ma hit one step climbing those stairs she was seein' red!
And with a gasp she began to rub that dogs nose in the mess,
I'm like Mom it's just fake dog **** relax and don't stress"!
We both had a good laugh that day at our little corner house on Janis Street and Ten Broeck Avenue in Greenport USA. I miss you so much mom.

Looking for you in distant galaxy.
Mary Ann Osgood Jun 2010
From lip to lip your secrets transfer,
sincerely, I am sorry for kissing so much.
Love is sitting somewhere behind my teeth,
cordially waiting, legs crossed and hands folded.
Your friend reached down my throat.
Respectfully, it didn't even feel good.

Thank you for the blame and pointed fingers.
Take care to clip your nails where I don't dream and
write soon of some excellent ****** endeavors, for
my best regards are long gone, along with
yours.
I miss you when we hate each other.

Wishing the best of every moment is childish,
thinking of you is even more so. But somehow we
always seem to sleep in each other's arms.
Each line begins with a letter closing: From, sincerely, love, cordially, your friend, respectfully. Thank you, take care, write soon, my best regards, yours, I miss you. Wishing the best, thinking of you, always.
SJ Stine Oct 2010
The air is cleared,
status set.
You told me exactly what I knew I would hear,
what I needed to hear.
Friends,
I can do that.
I have before,
I can again.
I will admit it's going to ache for a bit,
but I can still do passing waves,
quick hugs,
and friendly smiles.
I guess I can finally start accepting
all the reasons everyone said
you were so wrong for me.
I don't need your issues,
I have my own.
I will still be a shoulder to lean on,
a ear to listen,
a mouth to speak words of encouragement.
I will still come over every weekend
for drinks and music.
I will still be there to watch you disappear in to your misery
as you pour more alcohol down your throat.
But I do owe you a thank you,
you have given me the inspiration to write again,
to create again.
You have introduced me to many talents,
and quite a few good times.
And I could never thank you enough
for showing me what your poison does to people.
And why I will never touch it again.
At least not like you do.
So it may not be the normal thing to do,
but thank you.
I know you will always be a true friend,
and I can only offer you the same in return.
Gary Nov 2016
Dear life,
Let these closings of long battles
And roads of new exploration be my new path for a new serene normalcy.
May these paths lead to answers,
Answers of who I am.
It's been so long since I've been the real me it hurts to a pain staking degree.
Trying to remember what once was me.
Nothings normal, all I once knew is now forgotten and gone.
You cannot expect to accomplish a new road in life, without having the knowledge of how to overcome its new and demanding challenges.  Simply its obstacles are to great to exceed without knowledge. And even scarier to face. Not knowing the unknowing being thrown to survive in the Lions den.
As a writer I write,  my thoughts, feelings and dreams.
I feel like a caged animal
At a zoo, behind glass
Looking at my once life
Now held captive
From this disease.
I miss my old life, I progressed so far.
Able to challenge my strength of mind,body and soul
Each and every day.
Now that is gone.
Grateful yes I am
Sad and *******?
You better bet.
Although grateful, I am not in good standing with the life I lead  now.
I never asked for this change, I loved my then life and only pleaded for the healthiest body. So I may be the best I could be in all strengths from muscular to mental.
I would love to see the old me and old life I once had.
I would apologize with all my might for whatever I did for it to stop accepting me.
Then maybe I would learn how to live this new resistant relationship I am in.
It's hard to accept that your own body is fighting its every move and with its every move it is literally chipping a little by little of your life and freedom away.
All you can do is wonder why and watch it pay severe tolls each day.
If I cannot return to the past then please may my future be at a level of any normalcy that my present future lacks.
For the sake of my mind and all who are a very important part of it.
Life living in a invisible diseased world
Phone calls were made, meetings were held and the new group was set to get started

There was lots to be learned and so little time for the lessons to all be imparted

The plan was immense, it was larger this time and the time was going by fast

They would all act as one, getting everything done and their goal was to not finish last

It was done every year, in the schools through the town, it was something the kids all enjoyed

But this year was tough, with all the closings and stuff and the fact there was more unemployed

Each school was set up to blitz through the town and to collect all the food that they can

But with more on the list and those who would surely be missed were the ones who set last years plan

Team leaders were picked in each group at the school, and their job was to get this all done

And to beat last years tote by at least one more pound and to make sure that it was all fun

Pep rally's were held to get the students involved and help motivate those involved

But with more needing help and less firms out to help, they had problems they had to get solved

On December the first, the kids all set out ringing bells in the malls and the stores

From there they would go with buses and trucks and collect food by knocking on doors

The school who did best bringing in the most pounds would be win a cup and awards

But to all those concerned, they had to get out and blanket the town in great hoards

People backed out from tasks all assigned, It was cold and they had too much to do

There was homework as well, and jobs on the side and alot wouldn't see the task through

But they all persevered and the food all came in, cans and boxes and crates and in bags

There was food left at school from donators unknown, just good wishes all written on tags

The goal was to raise an amount more than last and to do it in twenty two days

The total to date was behind just a bit but there was still time to make this year pay

So with one last great push the students went out and they held one last drive at the mall

If they collect one more ton, then all would be done and they could all know they answered the call

On Christmas Eve morn the principals met and they said they had all reached their goals

They shook all their hands and they stuck out their chests for they knew that they'd fulfilled their roles

The students were told at assemblies too, and the food was dropped off through the town

They had beat last years numbers by about fifty pounds even though they all thought they'd be down

So for all those they helped for the one day that month, where they had Christmas dinner and laughter

Was brought  back to earth by one voice in one school, who asked "What would these families eat the day after?"
.
Edward Coles Apr 2017
Lived the life of an artist
long before I became one.
Pressed to guitar strings
until my fingers were numb
to all exposed skin
that was not my own.

Listened to one thousand sad songs
over and over
until the pointless chords
clamoured over one another,
psalms of living
fall on deaf ears.

Trawled archives of *******.
Lauded aristocrats of cheap whiskey nights
and black coffee mornings.
Garnished my days with addictions carried
by better men
in love with real women.

Grew thin, moved about the apartment
in the graveyard hours
tacking songs to the walls.
In the absence of chains and ***
I fixed myself with neon lights
and cigarettes.

Spilt paint over undeserving paper
beneath the halogen bulb
to colour radio silences
of past friendships,
mountains I should let recede
like a ship in the night.

Stood alone in crowds
to witness the onset of a moment,
openings and closings of mouths and doors;
each one to allow another person in.
I go home alone
and sleep with my thoughts.
C
Barton D Smock Dec 2014
trespassers
shoot themselves.

your son gets hired
by city

to illustrate
a book on mirrors
for households
with one
adult.

my son
dies
before the machine
that keeps him
alive

turns on.

a doll in doll country
burns its nose
trying to enter
the future
museum
of racist
oddities.

my hand tries my hand at forming
firstborn
erasures

using only
redactions.

god is exiled
for bringing
the animal
its childlike
behavior.

I am far too animated.

your body is the notice
eyes

give.
Aoife Apr 2016
the home
we once lived in
with wardrobes in shambles
and drawers with clutter
is now empty.

i packed everyone's bags,
gathered the last pushpins
from the wall in the kitchen,
and went on with my life.

i made sure to grab
the books we'd hidden in the attic
as well as the photo album
you'd stashed under the floorboards.

i opened the curtains
and then swept the floors.
i made our bed for the last time
and collected the closings
of the dust on the mantelpiece
that nobody ever cleaned.

i got two extra boxes
for all of the medication unfinished.
i marked them "fragile", for they were glass capsules
containing the substance needed to keep my daughter alive.
but her illness didn't **** her.

i was well aware of the dog's bed,
and it found a place
in the passenger seat of my suv.
his quiet whimpers and cries
were all i heard that evening
as i drove away from what once was my life.

when i finally got to my feet again,
i returned to making dinner for myself.
i only knew how to cook for seven,
and i found tranquility in washing things in sevens.
now i made food for one
and washed for one.

i accidentally brewed two coffees this morning,
in hopes you were still here to take it
and laugh at me for making it too strong,
but you're not.
i awoke at noon the day before and sobbed,
for i was used to being awoken by child's laughter
and small bodies climbing into our bed.

tomorrow, i will bring your briefcase to work
and leave it on your desk.
i'll collect it when i go to leave
and frown at the fact you never opened it.
i'll dispatch you three times in the field,
but you won't respond.

i used to see our wedding day,
but now i see your funeral.
i used to see our children's births;
but i've gotten used to their bodies in morgues.

your physical features
become the trauma described during your autopsies,
and our family photos
became the ones used in the funeral program.

the home
we once lived in
with wardrobes in shambles
and drawers with clutter
is now a house;

a house with things
that even i can't pack away.
• this is based loosely on a story i am currently working on. my fanfiction is https://www.fanfiction.net/~hotchnerjareau , so check it to keep up with my works!
Phone calls were made, meetings were held and the new group was set to get started

There was lots to be learned and so little time for the lessons to all be imparted

The plan was immense, it was larger this time and the time was going by fast

They would all act as one, getting everything done and their goal was to not finish last

It was done every year, in the schools through the town, it was something the kids all enjoyed

But this year was tough, with all the closings and stuff and the fact there was more unemployed

Each school was set up to blitz through the town and to collect all the food that they can

But with more on the list and those who would surely be missed were the ones who set last years plan

Team leaders were picked in each group at the school, and their job was to get this all done

And to beat last years tote by at least one more pound and to make sure that it was all fun

Pep rally's were held to get the students involved and help motivate those involved

But with more needing help and less firms out to help, they had problems they had to get solved

On December the first, the kids all set out ringing bells in the malls and the stores

From there they would go with buses and trucks and collect food by knocking on doors

The school who did best bringing in the most pounds would be win a cup and awards

But to all those concerned, they had to get out and blanket the town in great hoards

People backed out from tasks all assigned, It was cold and they had too much to do

There was homework as well, and jobs on the side and alot wouldn't see the task through

But they all persevered and the food all came in, cans and boxes and crates and in bags

There was food left at school from donators unknown, just good wishes all written on tags

The goal was to raise an amount more than last and to do it in twenty two days

The total to date was behind just a bit but there was still time to make this year pay

So with one last great push the students went out and they held one last drive at the mall

If they collect one more ton, then all would be done and they could all know they answered the call

On Christmas Eve morn the principals met and they said they had all reached their goals

They shook all their hands and they stuck out their chests for they knew that they'd fulfilled their roles

The students were told at assemblies too, and the food was dropped off through the town

They had beat last years numbers by about fifty pounds even though they all thought they'd be down

So for all those they helped for the one day that month, where they had Christmas dinner and laughter

Was brought  back to earth by one voice in one school, who asked "What would these families eat the day after?"
.
Rollie Rathburn Feb 2016
“You should write about it.”

or

I Learned to Smile at Mirrors: A Demonstration


The city was oddly near barren.
Strides hit the dimming sidewalk in two-to-one ratio.
Money looming tall above our covered heads.

When cornered into the shade
humans are unable to cast shadows.
Our path was laid clear by store closings,
locked doors ushering us down toward neon outlined water
to stare across gleaming black
while the shadowed lions bray.

Cloth turns to quarters turns
to pink fortune turns
to bright reflections across irises
while years of the same story vibrate
across our fingers.

Gears paid in hope spin warm with the smiles of
those  come before.
Lamps once bright now flicker and crack,
and the ballroom dancers
don’t quite turn with the fervor of before.
Sometimes what seems a flaw is what makes the object most itself;
inconsistencies or strange logics
from somewhere different than where you wanted.

Certain hands grasped against throats are
comfort blankets to soothe the burning,
forcing skin and bones to remember that with selflessness
and love
the past will no longer obfuscate
paths where feet need to fall most.

No sparing rejoinders for improvements,
or constant encouragement in what is already done well.
Every mile and hour leading to those sea salted boards totally rearranged me.

Fought 11 hours and 771 miles of asphalt
to press my face in where I was worst.
The greatest gift one can receive:
not encouragement,
but total excoriation of the places
where I was once only limping.

Let the train cars tilt with our backs due West,
shoulders sagging with knowledge half-learned,
thrice remembered.

Two deer stand in the rearview
as my tires turn heatward.
Smiling as I realize your Country
grew to reflect your worth.
Not the other way around.
Judy Ponceby Feb 2011
Snowbeasties lurking out there
Howling loudly in despair.

Hidden in the drifting snow
Innocent sparkling flakes aglow.

Snow devils spinning in a flurry
Causing anxiety and so much worry.

Treacherous roads of ice and snow
Blizzard conditions with arctic flow.

Peering from the frozen window
Snowbeasties dancing to and fro.

Grabbing the cocoa on a tray,
Closings mean we have time to play.
Barton D Smock Jun 2015
Alien’s heaven

poems

Barton Smock
June 2015



pilot light

baby, baby talk, and pilot light.

kitchens everywhere,
god is alone.

no brain

father smokes to make something disappear. he says he’s no brain but can pass for touched each time the bug is resurrected. when he rolls out of a blanket and into the side of a building, I believe again in the man mistaken for god’s pencil. mother can’t leave him anymore than she can leave her ears. terrify no one your childhood knows.

son

it was born in a bath of milk when there was milk to burn.  it drew with daylight.  when asked for details, it pulled a shadow’s tooth.  we took it to a movie, a war movie, where it made its first noise.  its pain went everywhere.  it sold, it sold until it ran out of clothes.  its mothers had fight.      

knees

visiting hours are set by a god who knows I smoke.  leaving my mark means I’ve pressed the barrel of a cap gun into my brother’s temple because the ****** keeps scooping into his ballcap the same toad.  my two fathers are here to bounce things off my mother when she prays.  sit long enough and ***** will dry them together.        

yearly

our collective identity is a sick child. some say fever, some say welcome to the loop of the biblically speechless. people are for others. are for making eyes at the gender of the god as it oversleeps in the coma we slip from. the child prays. the child causes a stir in the pastoral urgency of a moral imagination. we pray. we miss yearly the showdown between the town drunk and the town ghost. I trace a finger to put my finger on. the television belonging to our lady of snowy reception has fallen on our little angel more than once. nothing in the world is the world.

boy and gun

it entered my heart
to take a bird
from the world.
I felt nothing.    

the recent absence
of nothing.  

vernal

when you begin
to show
say
instead
you’ve a soft

spot
for god

race

says poverty
someone
at this table
has nothing to hide.

says father
touching
a UFO
cures frostbite.

says mother
open
the stomach
of the winning
monster.

area

somewhere, the mostly boy body pretends to be explored.  we are not we.  my mother ruins a sketch of my mother.  my father smokes two packs a day because online he was called prematurely haunted.  the name of your existence

is

priest retires to make umbrella for jack-in-the-box.  (her bus

is rain)

barbaric terms

each twin
slower
than the last, she spits

over my dead body

baby
after baby
out.

as news
of the massacre
spreads, the young
call it mother
by word

of mouth.

longing*     *for Gen

the baby boy stiffens at the sight of unrolled dough.  we say he is pointing the way to god.  crippled by the sadness in her hand, his mother keeps a claw mark like one keeps diary.

closings

trespassers
shoot themselves.

your son gets hired
by city

to illustrate
a book on mirrors
for households
with one
adult.

my son
dies
before the machine
that keeps him
alive

turns on.

a doll in doll country
burns its nose
trying to enter
the future
museum
of racist
oddities.

my hand tries my hand at forming
firstborn
erasures
using only
redactions.

god is exiled
for bringing
the animal
its childlike
behavior.

I am far too animated.

your body is the notice
eyes

give.

ins

night
the land
of a single
unseen
settler  

-

father
half eye, half oil    

-

self, self panic

bloodless     for Noah

my brother was blinded by a crow.

I’d tell you the story
but know
you hate it.

*******.

brother’s darkroom
became
the crow’s.

breathing spells

I chased only
the brother
I’d dreamed
of beating.

I told my sister
she didn’t have
a tail. told mother
it’s not suicide

unless you ask
to be born. I had a hand
for the year
father

went quiet
a hand
for the year
father

went quiet
for good. had dolls
over which

dying
out of character
held sway.

intelligence

magic amplifies in my loneliness a single flaw.

a bird, a high window. sound of a brain cell.

hunger and its unremarkable kitchen.

as a doctor I hammered the baby’s knee.

bio, and the undisclosed location of god’s recovery.

harm is harm’s audience.

disability jargon

i.

when it opens the bomb
it knows
like my brain knows
what it sees

ii.

homicide grief
is a recording
god’s message
speaks to

iii.

eight years old
she leaves the trampoline
in her body’s
fearful
accounting
of self

concord

cap gun.  swag from an uncle’s suicide.  

the daughter
the ghost
cartoonist.

voodoo dolls
in isolation.  isolation

in its prime.    

altar

the baby is too light.  its mother puts it on a scale that reminds her of a plate her empty childhood couldn’t break.  its mother invites neighbor boys to punch her in the stomach.  some of the boys bail.  some don’t.  the mother’s nickname doubles as her real.  the baby is not called bricks.



zero

when I couldn’t get my head around the surrender of my body to the flotation device of an immaculate conception, I’d simply swallow a baby that had swallowed a pill.  years go by and I am zero.  the number arrested for suicide.        




basics

because he is asleep, he does not find himself sleeping in the tub.  something slides from his belly and becomes wedged.  his dream business goes under even in dream.  he makes eyes at CPR manikins.  his son, his life, pushes for legs.

preparedness

you look like you’ve just been given permission to sleep in your clothes.

it’s a **** whistle only crows can hear.

it’ll put sheep
on the moon.

outlet

depression is a non-starter.  depression is depression unknowingly cured.  it is like I have this shirt because it exists and not because it invites everyone whose shirt it’s not to enjoy joy.  I don’t want to hear you say you’re sad to say.  I ******* to reappear and think it might be why my father vanished.  it’s enough during foreplay to flicker.


viewership

my youth spent trying to see the devil as a young man.  my motherly youth.  my **** scene a return to form.  cut from yours, you have your baby’s eyes.  I went unborn.  I went beaten.  we went together in broad daylight when broad daylight was god’s elevator.



pressure

the original thought in my head was to be postdated by god until god learned he had a baby on the way.  I had children until I could only have four.  what I say to self-harm is pay attention.  my daughter raises her hand on the off chance she buried something in her teacher’s body.  (we have stopped talking

but I can squeeze her anorexia into a phone booth)  poverty myth:  I groom my sons with the beak of bird abandoned.  real time I tell my tongue it’s ******* curtains for the mouth I’m getting.  full circle my daughter surrounds those brothers of hers that mine clone.        

high

mother, in the early stages of her food fight with god.

father, I can’t bury
my face.

in lieu    
of the lord’s
dog, raise

the lord’s
bone.

the mice

the conditions for mentally composing a suicide note for his sister are less than perfect. she’s sitting on his bed with a cigarette in one hand and his baseball glove on the other. both hear three traps snap shut in the kitchen. sister gags and it makes him think about gagging. now no more, these were the heart of the note.

signal

as my face
will one day
correct
my body
I expose

the elements
to my
ugliness  

-

my son is my search

history

-

headlights
when headlights
emerge
emerge
from a period
of non
worship

-

(wave your arms
long enough
you’ll have sticks
for arms)

-

they don’t  
happen
in my
lifetime
the terrible
things
I’ve done  

observance

when drought came
to my brother
I left
for the city
where I found myself
blanketing
manhole covers
with my coat
for women
who gathered
on rooftops
with men
whose daughters
had been killed
for jumping
rope

peril

I bit my tongue
when my tongue
was a cloud.

take cover, bones,
says my daughter
dancing.

I crushed my son
like a gift
and offered
god
my tactile
outlook.

stay small, future.  

persuade
a peephole
to show
some blood.      

no devil

the knock knock joke in need of my father’s skull is all that’s left of the outside world. hell was always the preparing of hell.

inseparable

mother is watching a show that keeps her from picturing the gods who portray us.  father is choosing an ice cube to bury.  myself I am very close to stripping for the cigarette my sister rescued from a baby’s crayon box in a dream that smelled like her clothes.      

masters

I have just had it written down for me how I am not classically racist. I am alone. I am brief stay of bullet. god is using each hair on my head to scribble on my son’s thought process. when I think of crab legs I think in color of the lightning bolt it snows inside. I miss mom. gospel, gospel that I hang these rags for invisible crows.

was

ask now my father if it still believes the present to be the future of a past life.  

ask then if it unscrewed one day each inessential light bulb that my party would have balloons.  

-

violence in movies.  also, food.  my mistake.  I glue myself

to nothing.  my shyness

-

is kind of
my angel.  

-

the body invents the soul it recalls.

gauze

the boy’s mother is biting off less than he can chew.  her insomnia
has put her inside a worm
her body
tries
to fill.  her milky eyed

-

husband
revs a tow truck
to death
in a heavy fog.  it is possible, humanly

-

possible

-

there’s nothing
to see here.  that her god

-

is, in a sense,
seizure activity
in the boy’s
spirit

-

animal.  

image

and do not
believe, as such, that yours
is a body

leads god
to inquire

godless

godless
balloon
animal

root effects     for Miles J. Bell

like he’s laying
yellow
on his road
out of grief
brother
takes a drag
and keeps it
until his head
is underwater
is what they call
with apples.

his eyes
have always been
two poverties
unexplored.  he is old, alien’s

heaven
he is old
but not before
he knows it.

the alien wept but was not heard weeping

not all
drones
dream
of you

An elevator;
takes you up and down
frequently;day and night;
either  to  heaven; or to  hell;
It depends how you behave;
Sometimes upward;
other times  downward;
or even to underground !
It looks like  God’s own iron hands;
who orders to be carried
either up or down;
Down to the hell; up to heaven;
The Lord’s chariot; neither pulled
by a horse nor by any  wheel;
________________­________
An elevator takes you up to heaven;
Sometimes down to your own hell!
Also it looks like the gallows;
or a hanging tree;
or a bore-well ;
no water; no air;
like a devil's fort in dark;
once you be in his custody;
No openings; No closings;
Neither a start nor an end;
a lifeless life;
within a life !
*
___________________­_______
BY
WILLIAMSJI MAVELI
williamsji@yahoo.com
www.williamsji.com
From MICROTHEMES, a collection of short poems, written by WILLIAMSJI MAVELI
Sage Mar 2016
This pen and paper feeds a hungry mind. A mind that's driven by thoughts that drive the deprived. The deprived mind is a mind which is filled with inconsistencies. Inconsistencies of ideas that were never finished. Finished ideas reap rewards only I can understand. Understanding the motives of finishing ideas is difficult for me to process. Processing endings for me is like trying to get a dog to chase an invisible ball. A ball which is full of non-existent closings. A close is something I can never agree with myself on. On the end of a page is something that never occurs to my mind. A mind that is deprived. Deprived like the end of th
Brian O'blivion Aug 2013
sterile pools singe clean white sheets
as we sing a dying dirge of keats
godlipped eyes in odes of closings
lifetimes in their fevered sickness

disassembled friends and lovers
numb from blue bell laced deceits
ride the sunlight as it decomposes
out of time with love's lithe quickness

fading thorns on blackout roses
line threadbare broken hearted streets
the black eyed blossoms know your name...(follow you home, step by step on)
braided bricks under crumbling feet
Summer once again almost over for another year of winter.
Cold weather, dead plants, snow , and hibernation as well.
Slippery roads, cold beds and closings on account of snow.
Christmas as well as the new year hearts breaking at Christmas.
As well as thanksgiving making people whom alone now sad.
Missing love ones whom had pass away, now they all alone.
Still the Good Shepherd created winter as well as spring and summer.
Heavy coats, snowball fights, hot cocoa to warm the inside.
Turkey, mash potatoes, sweet potatoes, and dressing as well.
PK Wakefield Apr 2015
remember, ,Dear
my always
fingers

through tousled
coils of sunhair
rainlight and
damp moonmusic

fold foiling
with heart
to imbue
each crisp
limit of your
breast with
darkness–caving

(in even hollow stress
wear my ardorous dress
though my neat closings near
as like even's purpl'd tress;

moves mouth:
A song through silence peer
immutable sound by guide
to ship of cloaken choler steer
toward harbors safe an' placid tides )

–i shall that lives though but only an instant of bright health
live by light that speaks
sing saying

a chord struck
by divinest stroke

resonating through all your earthly sphere

that and though
i shall die
in your chest
my immortal pulse

will ever lie
To me for all my sadness, to me for all my dread,
To your hands for touching mine,
To your eyes forever searching, to your lips that do not lie,
To I love you's that may,
To a heart that loves divine, to a window partially open,
To a heaven always closed, to a thought for which there is no escape,
To a child so exposed. To them who work their choosing,
To the right and wrong of ways,
To the length of night and the light of day,
To the peace in silence broken, to ****** sadly wrought,
To the me so enclosed,
To words and rhymes and riddles and times,
To which are lost and such cost,
To nothingness,
To time,
To idleness and,
To crime rendered just, to all things under the sun,
For which we have become, my thoughts fly to thee,
For them who cry in barren lands, for them who stir with mighty hands,
To them who bleed, to them who share, to me, to me, to thee
To seeds and weeds and all things glorious, to the ones of air and sea
To the threshing floor and fire,
To the harp and the lyre, to the ones with wings and eyes to see,
To the ones who deliver hope to me, to thee, to me, to me
To dreams I cannot escape, to fancies I cannot fulfill,
To burdens I never cease,
To amaze, to ****, my thoughts belong to thee, to lonely hearts,
To starting anew, to fear of losing, and loving, and you,
To thee, to water and fire and steam and iron, to forging the path,
To me, to heavens gate, to late, to late,
To a loss and to a point, to names,
To a soul without respite, to a soul without breath, to a soul with righteous rage
To wisdom, to knowledge, to right and to wrong,
To blind and to justice,
To duty, to people who need us all, to smiles not yet broken,
To burdens yet lifted,
To hearts yet shifted, to whispers at night, to hands in moonlight,
To hearing them say,
To I love yous that may, to disbelief, to chaos, to voices of dismay,
To find a new place for you may no longer stay, to find the lost,
To find the me, to find the one thing that we need, to find the right track,
To walking the whole way, to hidden and unspoken, and fearful to say,
To thoughts far flung and scattered, to the east and to the west,
To endings and closings, to fear for the rest, to you and the things I want,
To you and the things I say, to me, to me, to thee
To me, to thee to thee, to the colors and shapes, to the many and the few, to the young and old,
To the loss and the gain, to her and the child, to the ****, to the destruction, to the emptiness,
To ones who stand, to ones who gain, to ones who say my name, to me, to thee, to me,
To the loss I felt, to the gain, to the times we passed them off,
To upright, to the magnitude of faith, to the strength, to when she draws off her blind,
To when she draws her sword, to wisdom, to fury, to knowledge, to tears well spent, to things resolved,
To things I should have said, to things I should not,
To broken promises, and broken oaths, to what I failed, to what I lost
To smile, to light, to smile, to light, to me, to me, to thee, to light, to smile, to light
To me, to me, to thee
To lighter loads, to freedom, to breathing easy, to being more open, to being,
To friends, to life, to love, to release, to friends, to feeling, to love, to being
For the life, for the blood, for the right and wrong of it, for the chances to live, for the chances to love,
To love, to being
lillian May 2015
We’re sailing on a cloud of
Fog, dense grey
A sleek bullet speeding

His town has four stop lights,
And school closings due to fog
In the late spring.

In the mornings when we wake
Tangled up, drool stains on the edges of
His smile, I hear the dog next door bark,

And watch the sun slowly pierce
Through the thickness of the sky.
His big hands, full of sleep find my eyes,

And slowly graze my eyelashes,
The sun slowly hums in morning groans into
Each of my pores.

Even in the heat of summer, we drive with the wind
Whipping around us,
So loud that even our voices cannot break through.
Karmen Jul 2018
This memory of us which I do not share
Hold onto beyon depths of all ruts
A moment that felt of sincere
The most secure
About what you mean to me
And remain a place in heart
Honestly didn’t expect , so this memory I’ve never shared revealing my moment of true care for you removing years of doubt I always felt
Everything changed
What was always said, the real meaning of true friendship was no longer just words
But something that I felt and now understood
Cause we always mistook things that weren’t even spoke
Giving us a taste of the sandyhook
Remaining alive , center of the disasterous path it weaved
Leaving speechless on how to rebuild
Attempt to heal things not meant
     Hospital bed, coming to side ; squeezing in as I lean at your chest
Then began a quick rest
You never spoke , not even a sound
Remained still though cramped in that tiny patients waiting bed
Time going by
Still no sign of you even being real
You remain still
I assumed you were in own zone
Don’t know if you felt some wave of what i consumed in something of so many things that were all too real and hard to reveal Cause it had feels
A friendship I never believed
Disregarding your words of expressed care and love that you shared for the bond we built a friendship that be constantly stalled in building up.
I ****** up and thought too much
Made myself think I was Trippen on what I felt
It wasn’t real
Something in Munich head
Cause you weren’t really all there
You were no where near
And silenced vibes no physical motions
Made me feel I was honestly on my own
Just with physical feel cause the owner mind and soul were off seeking some guy and struggling its own mind of so many past nights
I killed my feelings of real and moment of love in the doing at being to my side cause there’s never been such type of cool connection in relating to us .
Exsistent in present time I’ll never know
Nor do I wish an answer to provide clarity of mind
Whatever it be
You there with me and all
Or simply gone out in another realm
Doesn’t matter at the end
Cause was I cherish to the most
And never exposed
Means so much to me
Not even this of what I write can really
Tell how I feel and felt
What change it made
The vibe of friendship once filled of doubt and thoughts of lies
Now washed , given little trace and
Added feels of a bit more to be some home
Knowing the battles we will fight
Won’t diminish our care and love
We will always remain great friends
Even when things are not said
Or if we go dead
But that I added as a last minute joke cause well I don’t do closings to my feels all great and ****
But that’s how you know it’s real
A random close to something meant to be forreal
So swoopesdela- ooomf
Right now sharing you’re awesome posame late early write tired too tired phone call good night fighter higher power devour
Ar Bazian Aug 2016
They always say every story must come an end,
every chapter must, well, embarks on its closings,
and every memory or scar must mend!

But, whenever I hear the winds in the canyon,
resounding vows of years ago,
back a decade, maybe more or so,
I find myself tangled in recollection,
a life time of win and woe...
Of much promise and imperfection!

And time passes... As it should...
They told me it would!

The animals are gone now,
they have left me to my sorrows...
To the stories your kittens, and you, would know...
To emptiness and many tomorrows!

I lay; ponder a sigh,
it must take its time, you know,
before I let it by...

Still, the midnight sky lingers,
to a frozen stop...
The days would pass, and flee,
but the starlit darkness,
is often atop!

Have I been a sinner?
Would you have been a saint?
Would there be a place for my corpse to rest,
without torture, prize, or the slightest complaint?

I find myself staggered, with my parting role...
How else will this chapter be sealed?
How will my pages fold?
My story is an aging one;
centuries and eras old!

But, whenever I hear the winds in the canyon resound,
I feel I have been longingly wintered,
in this barrened, unholy ground!

A.r. Bazian
*Written for a Writerscafe.org contest in 2012
Dennis Willis Jun 2023
this *****
inspiration
this look it up
fenestration
with a flashlight
and a crowbar

after openings
invariably
come closings

this stops me
except for
more openings

aren't we
distracted
by now

and the needle
has been
slipped in

and that's ok
in numbness say
I found a way
Yenson Sep 2019
In the market of the Souls
our selves and selves worth comes with values
some pronounce them as sacred living temples
guise as in the embodiment of the benevolent Creator
some voices abound that its but a mere spiritless casing
so varied in form and frame defying uniformity universal
to each the charges and expressions of comprehension upheld
in the array of minds and perchance without its theirs to know
and what good to me to bare and lay my value to sundry and all
to sully a temple with hosts far and near in the worship debauchee
a fleeting assail on the senses in probing assault while others await
on my stall there are no common goods to to picked and pawed by all
no bargain-bucket for buyers to rummage through at closings in dark
its no gainsay to the believers of spreading armor as gifts to disciples
yours to you as your values and esteem seeks to live with your souls
fools they are to hail its greed to keep the sanctity of the soul and self
in reverent union with just a one that nourishes passions pure, true, sincere and loyal
Ken Pepiton Mar 2020
2020 - day 88

Saturday, March 28, 2020
8:46 AM

Lucky day, depending on when day one was, but

by my count
today is my lucky day.

I'm bound and determined to answer for my bets,
that brought me to this day.

With the odds against me by some ungodly margin
calls that gobble up all the money
and lend it to the Pharoah wannabes and their priests.

Potentcies of poisons swallowed slowly
vary by the same factors as any damming, blocking of ease,
dis ease
despair repaired with promises of sustenance

those **** slowly, the soul, the immaterial matter that make a mind

think safe, unfettered, life is good all time thoughts,



thirty two seemed middle age, when I was sub pubescent.

a child could, imagine being that old.

The imaginary middle age might make a goal,
an aiming point,

for, we all know,
if you aim at nothing, invariably
you hit nothing when you pull the trigger, and become

the projectile for a while, miss-
ing the mark,
sailing on.

no outside force to correct your course, but crazy at
thirty two was the target I was given,

missing the aimed at reality, meant every thing to me,
forty years ago, now.

How different can one step be from another?

You have to ask?
you habitually ask unanswerable questions, why?

Do you need
knowing? Need to see the knife edge cut the tie
binding all you knew to all you
see

one step past that safe place?

To this safe place, tested, now,
proven safe, by virtue of the fact's self evidence,

you yet live, do you not, one step past all you knew?

Safe and sane, sometimes are not the same state of being.

A real state of being,
proven by that step you took with no destination in mind,

away from evil is always good, if you make up your mind
to find good
footing as you step toward ever with good intention,

the same good intention said to smooth the road to perdition.

But, trust me, says the peacemaker I imagine my AI intends

to voice, as a word comes to mind and tics a gnostic cog,

light

Pleasure, sure plea from a child, don't shut the door,
don't quit the light,
Grandpa,
tell me a story.
Tell me how the peace came to stay at your place.

A they recall an earlier part of the tale.,
Such pleasure, should you ever know,

you never let that go,

the kid exspects, out sees, into the darkness
and knows

Grand pa knows this story,

and he knows we know our side won,

Using nothin' to do
time to learn what books hold. They hold universes vaster than mine,

at the time, now is different, as always.

My bubble of being now holds a door into summer, and flatland.

They hold whole worlds in creations no one argues
happen by chance,
words we hold in common sense,
pure, sheer, luc, if I were

to lucify the shadow under the cover of the book, missing
from this one

storys guide the minds, you know,

those things your culture calls fairy tales, or just so,

stories you know,
Hercules in Aesop being basis for the moral:

The gods help those who help themselves.

Being the hero in your mind, AI ai ai, are we,

the people, imagining thee? Aitia I think I know

I thought you knew causes cause

that's all, no why. So cause some good.

See.
Smile. Wink. Die if you need to.

Teams of normal people, have you an imaginary team
of persons you have been
in movies and games and time of quiet meditation?

Of course, tu supuesto, you are supposed to

add a magi factor, a known

a secret made plain, snatched
from hiding--- hear

pop of joy.
Silenced to prevent alarm.

Cohen winks, a nod that says, everybody knows.

The world turns after all, my geocentric friends,
fall, and they do.
They nail the sun to the sky,
they see the firmament screech to a halt and jump

to grave conclusions, closings with, encluesures,

which we alter by kicking against the ******,
what's a gravewith both ends kickedout?

both ends kicked out, ruts,
ditches,
gutters,
courses for streams of dream stuff from the old days,

when we trusted Sagan, took the starstuff
by faith,

hey, what are the odds, given infinity as a possibility?

Nothing is impossible? Exact,
out act nothing, be nothing.

Imagine that. Can you? Then,
now, as it were, you ain't dead, you ain't in a nothing state.

This is life in realm of two-d,
flat out right

thinkin' in symbols holding soundible waves,
to form words

on lips in minds sealed
since ever after went viral, happily.

Happy, to help, said my old friend Greg Howard,
deadsome twenty years, he

some how seems to easily help me
think this way.

I have seen mortality spent to prove a lie.
I have seen good men die.

I know there are men alive because I did not **** them.

And there are men alive, wombed and un, because
I survived to think such silliness as all this.

Many, few
super, ior
infer, ior

are we the weak or are we the heirs of the promise?

I guess, the latter, but so did the Mormons,

a couple hundred years agone. Oh,

did you hear Moroni dropped his trumpet?
when they had an earthquake in Salt Lake,
during the build up to the COVID 19

final affect.

The fans say, talk about tomorrow, we got time
today.

Tell us, tell ye us, old bald head, in all yer teleosity,

what's next? -

A growl, from the old man being ingnored.

Watchathank,
old man, can these bone live? lieve?

Were there structions, in form of datadatading ****

signals
alarms
calls to arms, not carnal,

weapons of a meeker sort, peace at any price sorta

weapons,
hand to hand hand grenades, in the spirit.

There was war, in heaven, yeh,
I remember that trip.

We lived the dream, this is the future.
We won. I keep saying that, like a robot.
Long? Too long? This ain't the tip. life is rolling right along and i am hooked.
poetryaccident Jul 2017
At the end I see it all
and take pen to paper to clarify
what God's revealed to my eyes
perhaps this should not be
the muse evoking blasphemy
though closings bring such memories

a final push of energy
gifting me to share the word
has occurred as midnight's stroke
the tunnel's light must now wait
delay an exit to better realms
while last strength fills my limbs

clarity is the benefit
presenting views most conceal
when honor meets embarrassment
past is brought to present time
social constructs most dismay
are made plain on this day

I'll use the last of my will
before a rattle fills my throat
and the words are ended here
wishing that the season stretched
beyond the terminal now embraced
allowing for ending's gain.

© 2017. Sean Green. All Rights Reserved. 20170712.
"Ending's Gain" is about terminal lucidity, a term coined by the biologist Michael Nahm in 2009,
describes the brief state of clarity and energy that sometimes precedes death.
Dennis Willis Jul 2021
the calculations of coffee
and cream and cinnamon
round off and sip slowly
round the lucky tongue
should i make another one

dizzying numbers and
numbers of things move
a trillion beings splashed
gasp in delight, smack
would be lips together

things add up amplitude
modification by bird song
with dog barks
and car door closings all
setting their own volume

the average cell in my body
is above average it thinks
the uncountable me's
all counting their votes
yield up a molecule of smile

— The End —