"crystallizes" poems
streams of salt and H2O leak
down reddened cheeks and condense
in a golden beard. a war-torn nation,
half-a-world-away, crystallizes clear as dayspring
in an insomniac's screaming and fragile psyche
at half-past-three in the morning.
what strength must a seven-year-old posses
to persevere amidst the perversity of cluster bombs?
munitions bought and paid for with the taxes
we fork over to the United States. will her blood one day
stain our hands with crimson? will her mother's?
a girl who just wanted to read, to escape
the tragedy that inundates our surroundings,
to a magical realm of pure imagination.
where we can summon spectral stags
to save us from the misery of humanity
and learn to disarm those who would harm
us with the charm, Expelliarmus!
the bastion where i found the first seeds that grew
into a rebellion opens its doors to you, Bana.
there's a crater where your house used to be,
rubble strewn in Aleppo, Syria. but know that Hogwarts
will always be there to welcome you home.
Nov 30, 2016
Nov 30, 2016 at 4:05 AM UTC
a polar vortex
swirls eastward
on Siberian Tiger paws
bounding over
Appalachian Highlands
gobbling geography
gelling Great Lakes
spawning Erie blizzards
sculpting Wabash ice floes
clogging commerce all
along the Ohio River Valley
this voracious
juggernaut’s wide maw
bears icicle teeth
laughing as it swallows
Pittsburgh, Little Philly,
and a Big Apple, before
gorging itself on
generous portions
ladled into
simmering crocks
of steaming
Boston Baked Beans
growling
blue arctic
air blasts roar
bursts pipes
savages the heat
of blasting furnaces,
bubbling boilers, hot
belly stoves frantically
drinking oil, flaming gas
burning wood and
burping soot
the blistering
jet stream claws
screech a slashing
stratospheric hum
as Frigidaire blasts
swallows breath
brittles limbs
chafes cheeks
gnaws earlobes
crystallizes tears
nibbles nostrils
cubes snot
numbs toes
bites digits
diving sub zero
gradient subdues
batteries to
deaden states
delays buses
derails trains
cuts power
constricts veins
preys on
vagabonds
and animals
get the homeless
off the street!
bring the animals in
check on your
elderly neighbors
don’t get caught outside
and shut the **** door!
do you own stock
in the Public Service?
beware the polar vortex
and next months heating bill
Sonny Boy Williamson
& Otis Spann
Nine Below Zero
Oakland
1/6/14
jbm
Jan 6, 2014
Jan 6, 2014 at 2:43 PM UTC
Frozen tears on my cheek,
Empty soul within my body.
So cold that it crystallizes the moisture on my face.
Sometimes I feel so empty,
So entirely devoid of humanity.
Jan 27, 2016
Jan 27, 2016 at 8:42 PM UTC
*Oh I do distinguish,
What is the ALL;*
***We inwardly receive,
Knowing truly;
Beyond the painful,
stories we numerate;
Which are often,
Yes painful horrific;
Yet when the love,
Beauty we all know;
Crystallizes,
clearly within;
We are empowered,
All great gifts whereby then,
Painful needs are mete with instant;
Response;
Not one doubt,
Second thought;
We are all,
Highly and acutely aware,
most sensitive too;
As the evolved beings we are;
We are the Holy Grail;
Moving the mountains;
Of the impossibilities,
Only we have already created therefor;
We are the vessels dissolving,
Mountains back into the sea;
Of infinite possibilities;
Whereby this infinite,
Sea of love though not seen;
In blinding light,
Of our more limited,
Consciousness;
Deep gifts;
Of our commonalities,
Make the painful numerations;
All the more beautiful;
Upon Our;
God Given commonality!!!!
Therefore the fearful snake,
Firstly hissing;
Transmutable in the laughing;
Joy;
Highly developed;
Golden Wisdom;
Sans;
Any doubt,
Lest we forget;
Hard worked for,
Well earned lessons;
Thank you!!!
Eve, Lilith!!!
ALL!!!***
We are ready;
***Already free;
Freeing;
The almighty;
Tantric,
Holy breeze!!!
Always,
More willing;
Yearning,
What is good;
More,
LOVE!!!
Giving!!!
Receivable!!!***
I call,
***Welcome!!!!
Thee Eighth of Days;***
Whereby fore;
Food!!!!
For,
Our bodies and souls;
***NEED!!!
LOVE!!!
DESERVE!!!
WANT!!!!***
***INHERENTLY!!!
KNOWN!!!***
*All,
Available;*
***HERE!!!
NOW!!!***
***ALREADY!!!
PREPARED!!!***
In an instant;
***BEFALLING!!!
ALL!!!
OF ALL!!!
FOR ALL!!!***
\ /
***HEARTS
LOVE***
/ \
***KNOW
NOT
\ /
B
O
N
D
A
G
E***
!
!
!
.
.
.
\/
.
.
.
*S
a
S
a*
***L
O
V
E***
!
!
!
Dec 17, 2012
Dec 17, 2012 at 10:52 PM UTC
My ears are tingling
from the barrage of dyslexic sounds
and my hair is curling as fast as
any olympic event
I can't pay attention either
It all just drifts by
invisably swept in the
seawave current
Nothing else matters
Does it
Because my legs twitch
anyway
And it spreads with infection
Giggling like a gaggle of geese
or girls
to peak the top
of the end of
the bungee rope
Sweeping fans clear the cobwebs
full of the captive sunbeams
in the rafters in the closets
the minds of the mimes
Petering out
to Only a tri kle
A pleasure of peaking
and swifting being overwhelmed
by the black hole of the past
turning the world inside out
Falls
That's what it All does
Then crystallizes
into a thousand twenty bajillion four
morsels of careless color
Shining and gleaming spotlights
Tantalizing the eyes
of silly maskéd
prisoners
Turning them on
tremendously
but it all grays
to mud all the colors
in a palette make gray
You knew that
when you were a child
So pick up the paintbrush
and follow the directions
by the people who cared
enough to invent
a color by number
So easy and convenient
Even never in your wildest
dreams could
You imagine
Jul 11, 2012
Jul 11, 2012 at 5:48 PM UTC
When the shoreline isn’t
the third floor, lightning won’t fly
at all or at once.
the trees turn to plastic
trees when Africa’s carved.
We won’t 'hurt' them that much.
I remember anticipation sneaking slowly
when we all had butterflies
in the stomach.
Remember the one who showed you
what was new? The one who gave
you chills down the spine?
When the trees of earth are the
algae of the sea, moss will be
endangered species
when the best mutation is gills,
the pastime will skid from consumption
to survival instinct.
when the institution holds the
artist down and uses
two rolls of gorilla tape
As long as everything remains
the same we won't have
to realize we're backstabbed.
The universe crystallizes and
the sea turns to muck; theoretical
garbage and ****
The clouds melt into the grass
The mountains drop and when
There’s no peak to see what’s left,
I'll be on top of my mountain
I got no hand in the outcome
And so I’ll turn at last.
Mar 1, 2012
Mar 1, 2012 at 1:02 AM UTC
we sink half an inch every year
"soon, we'll be up to our ears
in water"
not a creature of fury, just of habit
the moon pulls her to churning, to crashing.
hotter water temper tantrums
rush the brine into our basements
soaking scrapbooks in salt
until it crystallizes faces
and yet i cannot blame the marsh
for reclaiming what was never ours
and taking even what was as penance.
but i refuse to condemn us
for shaping shorelines into lives
because things are so much clearer
when they turn with the tides.
we’ll grow gills in time,
we have to.
the ones who stay on land
could never handle shifting sands
don’t know we cling onto the inlet
with white-knuckled hands.
they never grew from buried roots,
seeds are just flotsam in the sea
so they’ll call Frank O’Toole crazy
when he can’t bring himself to leave.
Mar 25, 2018
Mar 25, 2018 at 10:11 PM UTC
The snow lofts on the cities cold air. The drenched earth, to cold to drink in the wet, spills pockets of slush and snow onto our paved plastic world. The cold slows the city down and the skirted girls are bundled in their polyester puffed shields. A still, tranquil quietness presents itself and the heat from the coffee escapes the cup much like we might imagine a soul departs its host. With chilled dried hands the vain cover their hair and curse the moist air. The homeless huddle in quiet desperation hoping to fight mother’s winter’s rude return, her warm ***** of summer seems so long gone. My transparent reflection on the glass separates me as I gaze into the gray dismal sky and dream of walks, gloved held hands. Pulled together at the heart, the cold does not pierce loves warm undying barrier. I imagine her porcelain skin, blushed cheek, and red wetted lips as the chilled air crystallizes the sparkle in her sea green eyes. She sees through me. I don’t exist. With empty cup and left tip, I wake from this dream, put on my armor and walk past my life back to where reality and angst wait.
Apr 21, 2010
Apr 21, 2010 at 8:52 AM UTC
heavy wind
cold rain
and yes, the stars
and yes, these hands of mine
a dream in my chest is molting
my dream sheds its muddy thunder-stained skin
and asks for a heart of sunflower fields this time
and the nights get heavy
like they always do
I am older which means
when I think of forests I get stuck
not on the robin eggs
but on the fox teeth
in my head I am hunting for myself
but I come up empty again
the night grows so wide it could be a cavern
and I am somewhere underneath it, inside it, lost
but travelers always leave lanterns behind
and as I feel for the candle
there arrives a memory of bronze colored light
so I dream
I dream
I keep dreaming
one word in my mouth crystallizes like sugar
hope
Jun 29, 2018
Jun 29, 2018 at 1:59 PM UTC
The green light has frozen over.
See that haunted house,
how its windows
flicker desperately
in their attempt at survival,
how every lampshade droops
under the sublime gravity
of its glassy tears,
how each blackened bulb
crystallizes then shatters
like the constellation-mottled
pupils of the starry-eyed--
of any
optimist
dreamer
lover
bright-young-thing.
Nomadic phantoms float along
the pin-prick stalagmites
of the ceiling in ringlets of
emerald shadow.
Surely,
dawn will break,
(unconventionally.
tragically.)
The sun itself shall bow to ruin;
and, in a remarkably quiet gesture,
it will fizzle out
like a can of cherry cola
that's gone stale,
like humanity's own taste
for the light
(and its growing appetite
for the darkness).
Still,
we drink on--
in wait of the rush,
indulging in the hope
that somewhere
in this dying
expanse of universe,
there is someone
who will love us
for the tipsy,
poetic souls we are.
Nov 2, 2018
Nov 2, 2018 at 8:50 PM UTC
now. I am
enjambed
the tips of my toes radiating
scarlet and plum from
gripping the slowly eroding
precipice upon which
everything balances. Freezer-
burned ice crystallizes
my lungs as I
draw breaths
dredging a lake for
my own body. I am
scales weighing
what I have lost and
what I cannot disgorge from my
over-macerated soul of
olives long-forgotten in
a rancid
brine. I am
enjambed
half-baked and
eager yet
incomplete without
end. I am
Jun 13, 2011
Jun 13, 2011 at 2:17 PM UTC
appendages cold, swiftly touched by flame’s embrace
ice water, cooler than before
pulsating muscle crystallizes
crimson Darkness envelops the stranger
while hail bruises another
thoughts of the faceless girl joining the plunge
cause the clouds to shift, stars shine through
Darkness has not dissipated, nor has it conquered
dice rolls nine and two
in trutina
May 9, 2013
May 9, 2013 at 2:14 PM UTC
My breath escapes,
rises in a column before me,
dissipates into the sky,
as if drawn away
by the frigid night air.
It wafts skyward,
spirals and swirls and fades,
drawing my eyes
to follow its ascent
upward, ever upward.
As I watch it dissolve,
melting into the sky,
I behold the spread of the heavens,
stretched before me:
a priceless tapestry of light.
Pinpricks of brilliance
strewn across a canvas
so exquisite that the night
crystallizes my tears
before they can even fall.
I blink, forced to lower my gaze
from the shimmering splendor above.
I shiver in the cold air, and smile,
the stars overhead mirror the crystals
in my eyes, both now frozen in my gaze.
Feb 11, 2011
Feb 11, 2011 at 12:29 PM UTC
.
*Light crystallizes
Falls to earth in joyous spree
Redhead girl in sun*
Feb 11, 2017
Feb 11, 2017 at 3:20 AM UTC
I am imploding.
The paint drips off the walls.
Every part of me folds onto itself.
The ground is a rumble strip.
I am fractaling inward.
The skin of the earth crystallizes.
I am eternities splayed forcefully.
The rain continues to fall up.
Jul 13, 2013
Jul 13, 2013 at 4:14 AM UTC
He comes to her in moonlights glow
Wraps her in his arms
it is so cold....
Protection he bestows
Yet she cannot feel his skin
so cold, she's shivering....
Only the feeling from within
He is her forever mate
At least in her minds sake
her breath crystallizes, frozen
She cannot know if he is truly there
Or if her mind just fabricated him to help deal with what she cannot bear.
so cold, dark, shivering, can't see
For he is only a ghost that shall forever leave with the dawn
With the break of the sun he disappears
gone
Oct 29, 2015
Oct 29, 2015 at 11:07 PM UTC
Poison infiltrates my stalwart veins
Unable to process with the soiled remains of a battered
Tattered heart
Still on the wintery edge of wishing
I was made of stone
Eyes wide shut, looking up through dark waters
I can still taste you on my lips
Feel you on my fingertips
Ice crystallizes where magma used to flow
Larva to razer sharp butterfly
Silver moonshine quick
Wishing I was made of stone
With absent minded memories
Apr 4, 2012
Apr 4, 2012 at 2:52 PM UTC
Overhanging words
Reinforced for stability
Gives no viability
No consolation
Overstating the reality
Will not create any more viability
Than what crystallizes like frost
On the blades of winter morning grass
Stare too long at the image
And you will never notice it's gone
Until it no longer exists
So turn that evil inner eye
From the portrait painted
By the inner vision
Still that will not contain
The ever escaping pain
When a need to prove
Control...
... Of self-evaluation
Only proves that you are the Creator
That held check...
... On open channels
Seeking the tunnel vision of self...
... WHAT ?
Deniability?
Not a good trade I don't believe
For the path you were denied
By the paint by number artist
You became...
... And the way you fell victim
To your own false pride!
Aug 18, 2016
Aug 18, 2016 at 3:20 AM UTC
They must be blind and numb,
The webs between my thighs,
The maw of my heart
Ice crystallizes the imprints,
Grooves of lips and fingertips
But my blood runs too warm,
I thaw the floes, divert arctic currents
To bring them to me, to drown locked with me
For each promises to swim willingly,
For they see the beauty, think the water as shallow as they
If I go with you? Will you drown me too? No,
Each promising to obey!
Into the depths, beneath the salty foam they grab
For me, force their tongues against the cut of my incisors
Draw blood. My quills draw blood. More poisonous than rockfish
Now, to drown, speared and mute
I beg their promise be kept, it's never any use
Their glassy eyes hold nothing
There's no swimming with them now
Jun 3, 2015
Jun 3, 2015 at 10:43 AM UTC
My mind goes through a lot
Two many unhinged objects
Shoved into a pocket-sized area
A curled web of thoughts
Tied around my already infirm brain
It seems the only way to turn it off
Is to close the broad shutters
The vision that shows reality
The two windows that hold the truth
Holding the pupils of perception
My ever so jaded shoulder
A stiff frigid table
Becomes a deep resting place
For the intense memories
Created in my fragile head
I then enter my own place
My candy coated world
One that causes my mouth to feel
To raise my lips just enough
To see a merry grin
One that causes my eyes to tear
Pools of crystal glee
A fountain of youth
Filling up the steel ducts
Of my giggling inner child
I have my dream
That seems so abundant and real
I spread my wings that tingle
Each made from every sparkling piece
Left in my delicate body
Then I fly so far and high
Away from my big bully called trouble
All I can do is wave a tiny good-bye
As the icy wind crystallizes through my hair
Chilling my skin just enough to feel a tickle
Until I wake up
To see reality’s evil eyes glaring at me
Trying to sink into my soul
Scorching through my beating heart
Then take my smiles away
But I realize it isn’t all that bad
For I still have love
And one powerful heart
Turning my will to unyielding stone
Making me invincible
I know who I am
I know what I want
I know I am strong
And I know I have enough direction
To be and do what I want
Jun 15, 2010
Jun 15, 2010 at 9:05 PM UTC
Your pain is mine
and yet
it isn't
I know
and yet
I can't know
in your soul
like a fragile snowflake
each memory
crystallizes
creating a space
a space to hold the pain
each remembrance
echoes
another note
in the melody
that plays
in a minor chord
every anguished face
rends your heart anew
your pain is mine
and yet
it isn't
I know
and yet
I can't know
the spaces in your soul
are different shapes
you alone hear
the haunting strain
the gaping wound
in your heart
is uniquely
yours
your tears
are knowing
tears
I can only cry
for
not knowing
May 2, 2017
May 2, 2017 at 12:14 PM UTC
I sit, clutching my arms,
The warmth of them feel alien to these cold hands.
My breath crystallizes in the crisp morning air.
I'm feeling cold, not from weather.
My insides freezing over.
So long have i felt another's touch....
I tell myself someone has to
Love me.
But do they?
....I feel even colder now......
Jul 25, 2013
Jul 25, 2013 at 8:51 AM UTC
every time i wake up, i stare at the floor boards
waiting in silence until my thoughts **** me slowly
i take the stake, shove it through my brain
stop and think how much the devil has shown me
late at night, terror fright, taking flight, fighting might
shifting eye, little lie, guess i'll make this my plight!
demonic devil, do you use the deadly treadle
tapping toes too, to blue jam with your dreaded treble!
scratching claws now on chalk board black tops with your kettle!
shifting serpent spitting death you are black rose pedals!
kiss me quickly with bliss, i know the taste will settle!
watch my eyes close under sunlight, too late to level-
so, i let your poison seep deep into my concrete, abstract, and spirituality
hoping that the hoax has only one hold on my hellish individuality,
and that one omen of open obliteration making available my obliquity
stops before the second-strike sinks in my skin and makes me sing my dead man soliloquy-
how hopeful!
how hopeful to think that one mess is enough to get me by from the rest,
that enough is enough for me when i mess up,
and i will always be going good, going right, not running left.
sadly
i get mistaken by my madness for a smile and a pasture behind the veil that’s masked it!
while the laughter in my catacomb cerebellum crystallizes my coffin with convoluted clasps and cocoons me in my casket!
swallow the final wishes to walk away without wondering what would have went down without wanting to ask this
last question to push you powerfully over the edge without paying attention to the proper time, not seeing it’s all plastic!
because we’ve passed the only moment to turn our backs without the consequences of living in our bloodied baskets!
we kissed the serpent’s lips and ****** the spit off his silky-smooth tongue, mixing salt with fresh, leaving everything brackish!
cut off the arms and tongue before the venom attaches,
but still i swallow it whole and expect to outlast it-
Oct 31, 2016
Oct 31, 2016 at 11:18 PM UTC
You sure ain't got nothing when
you're in love with every lady
you meet while there's leaves between
your toes that are spread around
the street.
The boy wrangles in anger
but mostly just helplessly
until the snow fall crystallizes
the earth and makes all wind
northern blown.
Sisters scratch and hiss over
dresses stitched in 1666 while
hiding in a black lit room, texting
and making sure their attacks only
make others' dooms
Oct 8, 2013
Oct 8, 2013 at 11:09 PM UTC