"depot" poems
i used to cradle her bleach-cracked hands in mine
and decode the stardust resting within her fingerprints
up until the day that i lost touch with the art of reading braille
and she stopped slinging tall-tales for me to fetch
and rest the plot-twist at her feet
often in the post-script
i'd find my train of thought highjacked by the sunlight illuminating the rainbow of earth-tones ablaze
in her frizz-ridden curls
as if she'd been washing her hair with the damaged case of beer
she'd gotten for half-price at liqour depot
she never did quit drinking
but neither did i
at least we tried
though sometimes
in the middle of the night when nothing was alright
and we'd barely survived another fight
her face would catch my glance
cast aglow by a flood of lava-lamp light
the sea of freckles resting at the crest of her cheeks
rose lips perma-pursed in half tilt
her resting heart-rate so high that i could almost see it
pirouetting within her chest
it was then that i'd love her best
amidst the ruins of who we were
just moments before
Mar 10, 2014
Mar 10, 2014 at 10:19 PM UTC
You've planted daisies
Inside of my heart
And now they're starting to grow.
It's been awhile since plants
grew here.
It's been a garden
full of those potted
plants that you buy
at the supermarket or Home Depot
that you think you'll take care of
but they die soon after.
Gardens are only for those
with green thumbs.
My thumbs are red
from plowing and tilling the soil in my veins
in hopes that maybe
A good planter will come along
and plant the right flowers.
Daisies are starting to grow on me
and I think they're here to stay.
Nov 11, 2014
Nov 11, 2014 at 9:13 PM UTC
The snow is thin and pale today
like that girl –
you thought –
from the Home Depot –
the palette of an empty day
I think, instead
to smooth my hand along your arm
extend dominion 'cross your chest
To till the damp slope of your shoulder
in surging heat
of earthen tones
to find in winter flames
your brow, your cheek, your neck
...your mouth that way...
This is the braille I'm all about
being far-sighted
and just too close
to even focus on you –
your eyes –
and all
the loss
these days
Jan 16, 2018
Jan 16, 2018 at 1:45 PM UTC
coupon for Granny's Original 32% All Natural Oatmeal®
cart-to-cart down aisle 48 and this man's an affront to khakis
and this woman's brain runs off a child's complaints
BLIZZARD 2013
according to the radar, buy 80 pounds of rock salt
from The Home Depot®, more saving. more doing.™
more rock salt. more doing
BLIZZARD 2013
according to the radar, buy two-weeks-worth of tuna,
a pallet of Pepsi Max®, and four loaves of Baker Good's NeverMold Bread®
all for $21.99 with your Sam's Club® Rewards Card
BLIZZARD 2013
cart-to-cart down aisle 62 where once there was soda, now an I.O.U.
and I read on the internet that the preservatives in diet cola will keep
my body from decomposing and I read on the internet that these
dented, discount tuna cans will give me botulism
BLIZZARD 2013
one jug of water from a spring in Mountain View, Arkansas
one jug of water from a spring in New Iberia, Louisiana
picking between Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana
the pitter-patter on the warehouse roof reassures
time for eenie meenie miney mo
BLIZZARD 2013
and the intercom desperate for a cart wrangler
customer service now open for checkout
don't leave your toddlers alone in shopping carts
they're choking on free samples
with an echo, raindrops strike parking lot pools
just past the intersection an ambulance grumbles
BLIZZARD 2013
in a room with a view wishing the windowpane weatherized
beers bought by volume, candles forgotten, six months of
licorice, EverFluff® popcorn, and hand warmers of chemical kind
remembered
BLIZZARD 2013
will not be landing in the city, watch out for that rain though
if the temperatures drop below 32 degrees it could ice over
and if the temperatures don't, well, it won't
News 7's coverage of Blizzard 2013 brought to you by
The Home Depot®, more saving. More doing.™
and Sam's Club®, savings made simple.™
Feb 26, 2013
Feb 26, 2013 at 2:40 PM UTC
That ***** Named Desire
I had a succubus try to take my seed
in a dream today
I broke the connection and said
***** you gotta pay to playyyyyyy
You so used to controlling my desires
well, NOT ANYMORE
Best get on your knees and call me sire
“Sir you have the floor”
I wage war on the empire
of the realm of desire
So if you conspire to be in my line of fire
Don’t say I didn’t tell you,
You’ve earned my Ire.
The rhythm of my war drum goes:
BOOM BOOM KAT TiS KAT
OHHHHM
Mah heart BEATS ta da Rhythm of the
BOOM BOOM KAT TiS KAT
Dreeeeeiiim
We illuminate truth, or sooo it seeeeeeeeeeeeim
But still.....
The rhythm of my war drum BEATS:
BOOM BOOM KAT TiS KAT
OHHHHM
So I wage war on the realm of the evil fae
Ima PURIFY da demons until
dey take me away (screamed)
Bleed out into LIFE;
reverse the vampire effect
place succubi in a hearse
and drive them straight ta deaph
cause lately You been drivin me crazy
and making my will, focus, an determination
sooo haeeezzzzy
But NO MORE
cause now Its time to
Settle DA SKORE
Ritually open my wounds
and bleed acid on you
Don’t worry theres enough
cause your hackneyed and few
Ima chase the Daemons off
Smoke my dreads to their lungs
and make dem young cough
so offten I put em in a hot-boxed coffin
Now your outta breath
But im just not stoppin
huh (echo(
whats this? whats this....(echo(
Claws,
talons,
teeth,
and uh oh
Blood barrels stacked Its a wierd supply depot,
for that army growin
and growlin behind your eye, see though....
They Perma-
on your shoulders,
and now mine, Truth Show
!!!!!!1111RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!!!!!!!11
So my wings tear free of my back
For so long they’ve been bound and compact
I look to my lovers and brothers and CRy
Stand!
Pick up your weapons,
Humanity,
Its time to act
A TRUMPET BLOWS,
BEATING WINGS
THE DRUMS CONTINUE INTO THE DISTANCE
The rhythm of my war drum goes:
BOOM BOOM KAT TiS KAT
OHHHHM
Mah heart BEATS ta da Rhythm of the
BOOM BOOM KAT TiS KAT
Dreeeeeiiim
We illuminate truth, or sooo it seeeeeeeeeeeeim
But still.....
The rhythm of my war drum BEATS:
BOOM BOOM KAT TiS KAT
OHHHHM
Feb 22, 2016
Feb 22, 2016 at 1:08 PM UTC
Many creationists view the duckbilled platypus as an enigma that evolution cannot explain.
Super-Platypus attempts to escape from aliens.
Am I one of yours? Little Platypus?
In August of that year the Submarine Support Depot
platypus debate began.
Out of a large cloth travel bag,
Diana pulled the furry platypus hand puppet
platypus-in-a-can.
Boba Fett told Darth Vader, "As you wish," he was really saying, "I love you."
I took a quiz once that told me I was a platypus in a past life.
Sep 26, 2013
Sep 26, 2013 at 1:17 AM UTC
I love the way rain looks when it melts the pavement into glass.
All the trees and lights cast back the tangled road.
Looking out the window during a storm
and bringing your eyes from the street
to the window,
all the water droplets move along to their own rhythm like land ***** ending up a puddle in a stage of full maturity.
Dec 12, 2015
Dec 12, 2015 at 12:28 AM UTC
I won't lie, it's easy enough to replace you.
You were a replacement yourself. I bought
you at office depot, and your predecessor
was given to me by a friend. Mechanical
pencil lead is cheap. The only difference
between you and the lead I've owned
before is that you broke every other
word I tried to write. It didn't matter
how much weight I put onto the paper.
You snapped into pieces that dropped
every time I tried to pick them up.
Because of your brittleness, you
stood out, and unlike the lead
that kept itself together, you
won't be so readily forgotten.
Feb 7, 2010
Feb 7, 2010 at 7:38 PM UTC
I SAW a telegram handed a two hundred pound man at a desk. And the little scrap of paper charged the air like a set of crystals in a chemist's tube to a whispering pinch of salt.
Cross my heart, the two hundred pound man had just cracked a joke about a new hat he got his wife, when the messenger boy slipped in and asked him to sign. He gave the boy a nickel, tore the envelope and read.
Then he yelled "Good God," jumped for his hat and raincoat, ran for the elevator and took a taxi to a railroad depot.
As I say, it was like a set of crystals in a chemist's tube and a whispering pinch of salt.
I wonder what Diogenes who lived in a tub in the sun would have commented on the affair.
I know a shoemaker who works in a cellar slamming half-soles onto shoes, and when I told him, he said: "I pay my bills, I love my wife, and I am not afraid of anybody."
2.2k
In the next place
Everything's there
That isn't here
Like free flowers
On every street corner
And little shops
Where everyone is forgiven.
In the next place
Nobody feels alone
Because everybody's heart
Beats at exactly
The same time
And the rhythm
Fills the air.
In the next place
The sun rises
Twice a day
And the espresso man
Stops at every house
So even sleepy heads
Are sure to marvel
At the light rose sky.
In the next place
There's a depot
Where all the people
Who were lonely before
Arrive to throngs
Welcoming them
With hugs
Singing hallelujah.
In the next place
The new people
Get so much love
They forget
To be afraid
And finally understand
That in the old place
Nothing had to be
The way it was.
Sep 28, 2014
Sep 28, 2014 at 3:10 AM UTC
10,000 steps to a poem
<~>
walk to save my visions, my subterfuge-self, trying to
encapsulate the moments, seconds of nano-instances of a
tableau of histories, of actions becoming interactions,
a physical mitosis, ground into one human paste of word-cells
by a singular mortar and pestle that more than blends, but condenses
walk in Whitman’s footsteps, prowl old cobbled
streets seeing them anew, listening to the patois
of each skyward pathway, a commingling of
catechisms, Tefilot, Salah, Stuti Karana, into a stampede becoming a tornado funnel of a multivariate alphabets singularity - a prayer|poem returning to birth-mother
rush homeward desperate to retain the holy mess of verbal music,
before aged eyes release the visions, into a heavenly lost but found
depot of single lefty gloves, snatches and refrains, hymnals, phrases,
10,000 preservation band steps keeping but scraps, weeping
for the so much lost, yet blessing-uttering thankful for this one,
to a one
*who has kept us alive, sustained us, and brought us to
this moment, to this season.*
4/4/21
1:50pm
~writ by night, daylight born~
Apr 4, 2021
Apr 4, 2021 at 1:57 PM UTC
Rainwalking
black umbrella, dark as the sky,
over head clouds moving slowly by,
dropping misty curtains as they go,
unveiling what my four eyes see
ahead, beyond the spots.
sidewalk walking,
glass topped bus stop,
straight ahead and slightly left,
blue sky tarp,
covers two shopping carts,
mirrored squares decorate the front,
hiding more belongings,
bust show your expression
if you dare look, yourself,
in the eye as you are judging him,
homeless, and using,
a corner of a bus stop as a storage depot,
temporary,
until a complaint, brings the transit police,
and a pickup to steal it all away,
oh and they brought their tazer, "just in case..."
"next stop, 94A and King George Boulevard,
Surrey Memorial Hospital"
©DWE012014
Jan 7, 2014
Jan 7, 2014 at 10:38 PM UTC
Plant me and forget about me,
for I am an annual.
I will show up when you haven’t thought about me for a while.
You might remember what color I am,
or you might be surprised that
I’m in fact purple.
You’ll have to get back into the routine of tending to me.
And we’ll have to develop our relationship all over.
I’m merely a fling,
which you’ll go back to every single summer.
I lose my petals after October
and you simply can’t handle that.
You’ll find comfort inside
caring for an exotic cactus you bought in the Home Depot garden section.
Seeing you every day for four months is truly worth it
though.
Jun 24, 2015
Jun 24, 2015 at 12:28 AM UTC
The Sun & Earth
23.5 tilted degrees
North Pole & South Pole
Equator
Tropic of Cancer
Tropic of Capricorn
and Meridians
North/South/East/West
Hemispheres
Equinoxes
Solstices
Four seasons
Astronomical phenomena
Today at where I live——
On northern hemisphere
The Garden of Eden
A local Home Depot
The Sun will directly hit
The Tropic of Capricorn
giving us the longest night
and abandoning the North Pole
All it has remembered
is the pole on the other end
Where penguins, whale seals,
and albatrosses will bathe
whole day in full brightness
at -15 degrees Fahrenheit
What a chilling exhilaration!
Could I run away from
this so called winter solstice
this unbearable darkness
this senselessness of
obscurity and wickedness
Could I go to the South Pole
and dance with the penguins?
Dec 25, 2015
Dec 25, 2015 at 8:40 AM UTC
Home Depot does not sell azure paint.
No. They do have Morning Sky,
Tropical Lagoon, Morning Breeze,
Ocean Cruise, Cozumel, Empress Teal,
Almost Aqua, and Navy. But no azure.
No cyan, either. No plain ol' blue.
I will take my verdant money elsewhere.
Home Depot should be more poet friendly.
r ~ 4/29/14
Apr 29, 2014
Apr 29, 2014 at 11:27 AM UTC
I really wanna write pretty ****
Like about birds singing at night
or the tired steps of the one Mexican maid
as she passes by my house before and after work
I want to write pretty ****
About my mother’s resilience
Her words of encouragement
And the sound of defeat in her “mijo no tengo ni pa’ la leche”
I want to write pretty **** academic **** deep ****
About beautiful man of color
Trying to be anything but black or brown
Girlfriends claiming their white side
The silencing of accented voices
I am dying to write pretty ****
I want to write about her big *** eyelashes
And her fierce makeup
And how her face was flawless when they found her laying there
In a poodle of blood
Why would anyone **** someone so pretty?
It’s as if they hated pretty ****
Like the color of brown and black skin
And green trees and ****
Why do they like to **** pretty ****
Like spirituality and native languages?
And they give nobel peace prizes to ****** up institutions with ****** up policies that push people to desperation, bomb them, starve them, and at the end blame them,
They like to blame pretty **** too
I want to write pretty ****
Like waking up to the bright sun
And driving by the day laborers at home depot
Some of them look so hopeful, and some of them so defeated
Some of them sleep beneath the little tree on the parking lot
Why do you illegalize pretty people?
Ain’t freedom pretty and injustice ugly?
Then why don’t we write about justice and ****
About the caribou not having to be fenced
And native land returned to indigenous peoples
Why don’t we claim our inner beauty
And recycle all them ****** up magazines filled with cropped bodies treated as money, souless bodies,
The fashion industry is ugly
And why don’t obama talk about pretty ****
Like reparations and wealth redistribution
And getting rid of Deportations, Deportations that’s some ugly ****
Jan 24, 2014
Jan 24, 2014 at 3:19 AM UTC
Pleading for a purchased god
Romanticized for its ancien régime
Celiac, and yet I licked the wheat paste
Of the letter I was was trimmed A4
In all that time spent by the basin
(and its traffic-trimming wetlands)
I only rode my bike to the depot
To color code my calendar
When capital kept its calls collect,
When the gravy train kept me idle
Each chamber would be emptied
Fruitlessly: punch drunk with praise
(Indulge a little)
Each from four through five: orchestrated
The plains always claim the sixth
(Respecting the tradition of western folk)
Only three will ever threaten treatment
Sep 25, 2022
Sep 25, 2022 at 9:57 PM UTC
funny how the good feels like a stranger. i went to office depot with my little brother, we were buying markers and glitter glue, and i was someone whose hands didn’t tremble. someone who didn’t want to go home, so we took the long way. when i am driving with the radio on, i am an actor in a bad movie. when i am picking up scallions at the grocery store, i am the girl you believe in. but when i’m hurting, when i’m breaking, when i’m scared—i look down and my shadow is there. i don’t know who i am without it.
Oct 11, 2021
Oct 11, 2021 at 9:58 AM UTC
Marriage was never really in the cards for us
But it was simply the next step in our relationship, like growing out of a pair of shoes
You would buy the new shoes wouldn’t you? So why not just upgrade to a newer status of “us”?
I never knew what I wanted out of life
You always had a plan
I thought we balanced each other out
But maybe we were at opposite ends of the universe, slowly being pulled further apart by our vast differences
But if I knew one thing in this world, it was that I loved you
God did I love you- I was as sure of it as I was as sure as the stars and moon above that gave me such comfort on those cold nights when my anxiety would steal any notion of sleep
You used to find me lying outside in the grass, staring up at the sky at 2, 3 in the morning
You never said a word, just lay down beside me and held me until I stopped sobbing
We fought constantly
Over stupid little things that I now regret
We would get into raging wars about which flowers to buy from the stand- I love sunflowers and you hate yellow
After we fought you would shove me against the wall and kiss me until your tongue melted away all the curses I meant to scream at you
The week we decided to repaint our kitchen was the week I met another man
It wasn’t planned
Nothing ever really was, if I had anything to say about it
We met at the flower stand; he said my sunflowers were beautiful
Soon we were fooling around in the back of my car every night that week
The next day at Home Depot we were fighting about the paint color
Of course I wanted yellow and of course you hated it
I screamed that I had slept with someone else and the look on your face just about killed me
It was like I had stolen all the dreams you ever had, and I guess I did because I took your heart and I shattered it like a mirror
We haven’t spoken much since, just civil conversation with lawyers present about the divorce
You should have bought me sunflowers.
Nov 19, 2013
Nov 19, 2013 at 12:34 PM UTC
One dude's short, the other's tall
both are slim and that's not all
both are fat and both are jerky
both named Jim, I'd rather turkey.
What is it? It's Slim Jims. Yuck. Beef Jerky with Nitrates and heavy on sodium, I saw the Perky Jerky, (it's Turkey Jerky) at Home Depot and I had to have it. Lower Sodium. Good source of protein. Lightweight. and NO Nitrates!
Mar 8, 2014
Mar 8, 2014 at 7:24 PM UTC
rolling down the highway in 16 tons of steel
i can hear the rumble of each and every wheel
foot down on the throttle as fast as i can go
delivering my haul dont have time to slow.
listening to the songs on the radio
as i sing along to the ones i know
destination tuscon is where im in heading for
turn around again head back home once more.
in my big old truck with its empty load
rolling on again down the same old road.
back home to the depot for another trip
with another haul that i have to ship.
on the road again do it all once more
heading down the highway like i did before
another destination to some other place
one more day of trucking that i have to face
rolling down the highway in 16 tons of steel
i can hear the rumble of each and every wheel
foot down on the throttle as fast as i can go
delivering my haul dont have time to slow.
listening to the songs on the radio
as i sing along to the ones i know
another destination to some other place
one more day of trucking that i have to face
Feb 25, 2018
Feb 25, 2018 at 6:52 PM UTC
Look at my body. See my body.
Do you see all the scars?
The ones from when I was a little girl
and fell off my bike,
when I picked at my chicken pox,
when I walked through home depot just a little wrong.
The ones from when I was a grown up little girl
and fell down when running in the woods,
when I picked at my pimples and scabs,
when I walked and ran into the door just a little wrong.
The ones from when I was a grown up hurt, little girl
and carved a heart into my arm,
drew a checkerboard on my thigh,
wrote words into my stomach.
Every single scar on my body tells a story.
Some are happy and playful about a little girl who liked to wear dresses.
While others are sad and depressing about a grown up girl who
felt too much pain.
Dec 6, 2015
Dec 6, 2015 at 6:18 PM UTC
Nightmares everyday
Lined with hands reach for my throat
Shady smiles trustworthy at the least
Cerulean eyes turned ruby eyes
Corrupted with the loss of blood
From scars gaping
Black hole hearts wanting my insanity
Why can't I be sane?
Don't I deserve that?
No I don't
Because what doesn't **** you
Makes you stronger
What a load of cliche
I can't be sane
I wouldn't be me
Mystery Girl said it herself
Honestly I don't like being me
Does Walmart, Office Depot, the Mall
Sell lives at a low price?
Aug 18, 2013
Aug 18, 2013 at 10:08 AM UTC
I'll be the whiskey that you used to drink,
if you be the good thoughts that I like to think
I'll be the paper you write all of your tragic poems on,
if you promise me you'll sing them like they've never been sung.
I'll be your late night till the darkness turns to dawn,
if you will take my simple words and turn them into song
I'll be the one who sometimes makes you want to see red,
but you'll always be that gypsy tune runnin' through my head
Standin' on the front porch smoking' Camel cigarettes,
favorite cup of coffee hangin' 'round with your best friends
you are the life inside the painting that is hanging on the wall,
and if I didn't come here to see you then I wouldn't come here at all
old suitcases and the guitar strings scattered round the floor,
knives drawing notebooks and a bucket of dreams sittin' by the door
I will be playin' this guitar for you as you fall asleep tonight,
and you'll hear it through those paper walls in the early mornin' light
you can find her at the depot but she ain't waiting' for no train,
you might find her in the attic starin' out at the rain
she is as lively as the colors of which most artists only dream,
she's seen the bitter side of life before and its jaded her it seems
(c) 2011 CJM
Mar 28, 2013
Mar 28, 2013 at 2:38 AM UTC