Embargoes poems on Hello Poetry

Geof Spavins Sep 14

Standing with Marshal Gebbie

No trumpet sounds.
No banner bleeds.
Just the quiet hum
of satellites watching
what we dare not name.

Power does not sleep,
it drips
from trade routes,
from whispered sanctions,
from the tremble
of a diplomat’s hand
hovering over the red phone.

We are not at war,
but we rehearse it
in algorithms,
in tariffs,
in the way maps
shrink and swell
without consent.

The empire is hungover,
but still it walks,
barefoot through proxy fields,
cloaked in plausible deniability.

And we,
the breathers between borders,
write poems
on the backs of embargoes,
sing lullabies
in contested airspace,
and pray
that silence
is not mistaken
for surrender.

Carlo C Gomez Jul 2022

Permission to Land (Moon Trills)

What on Earth
took you? Do we dare land?

A lark of descension. An aborted beginning.
Moon trills.

Captain is dead
at the controls.
Mother gives birth in the airlock.

Trouble in the passageways.
A struggle to name it.
A drink before eclipse.
All that's wrong with the world
sounds like harmonium in the (wishing) well.

First flight over Hölderlin's Archipelago,
creating new and stranger versions
in the sandclouds.
So this is
Tharsis Rise?
Life without a trace.

Non-terrestrial Martian field.
Halcyon flowering seas. A rock with no trees,
no urban hopes.

Yet, the whole universe inside
wants to be touched.
I love you in zero gravity,
pushing tender buttons.
*** as solution.
Moon trills.

A kiss of atmosphere.
This alien womb.
Those android embargoes.
Our children are born echoes of astronauts.
Lunar schedules
their first words.

There's a lightspeed sensibility
to this type of marriage and parenting:
no leaving the hub,
no exit procedure.

The Sol they sing
is a harm hymn,
moon trills,
subject to the ladder and the weight of breath
this outside Earth.

But I love you in the veil of a twilight moon.

We're monuments
burned into moments.
Moments without a beyond.

#family #marriage #fear #hope #future #alienation #individuality #communication

Ganesha Michael Shapiro Feb 2019

guttural embargoes

Seldom do we wonder
At our own defenses
When lies are spreading
You run for cover of your fences
Underneath roofs and ceilings
You speak of the One
Who knows all your secret dealings
In the fire and the snow
The rainbow often turns yellow
Our ancestors dance on the edge of a needle
Blessing the fragments of your incarcerated heart
Imprisoned impermanence
Life is a lesson
Drunk on gypsum and water
You repeat this guttural embargo
Can we dance
Or do we follow
Grief is the missing piece in your puzzle
Saltwater runs down your face
I erase the razor’s path
Hundreds of fireflies insist you are their lover
In the diamond’s eye you become another
Sultry siren
Tumultuous teenagers breathe light and fire
Listen to the river going underneath your houses
Remove your clothes and wander in your underwear
With lungs of fire
You tread toward the tower
If you are stubborn enough
You may one day be discovered

Sia Jane Nov 2014

Māra

Insomnia,
Once again we meet,
I've grown accustomed to your
Nightly *******,
A dangerous liaison in
Those early hours.

It's 5 o'clock in the morning
I'm tired worn withdrawn
The monotony of daily embargoes
Assaults on a mind.

So tainted with desire
Laying beside me, skin as pale
As ghost walkers of the night.

Unheard, betrayal forms
A multitude of symbolic reasoning
Classical mixtures of
The abstract mystical undertones
And tangible fears grounding selves
Burrowing deeper below the surface.

Māra is beside me, smiling
Oh how I wish I could
Get her to see
That I'm not seeking attention
I'm merely seeking redemption.

Her demonic shadow need not
Accompany me
Stealing hours of wakeful sleep
I'm no lover of hers anymore.

Insomnia,
I'm tired of this dangerous liaison,
I want freeing.

© Sia Jane

I only just found this! I'd typed it up on my phone when I couldn't sleep. And forgot! So here's another today :)

Sia Jane Jan 2015

I, Insomniac

Insomnia,
Once again we meet, I've grown accustomed to your nightly *******; a dangerous liaison in those early hours.
It's 5 o'clock in the morning, I'm tired
worn
withdrawn
the monotony of daily embargoes; assaults on my mind.

Insomnia,
You're beside me now smiling, so tainted with desire, laying beside me; skin as pale as ghost walkers of the night.
Your demonic shadow need not accompany me, stealing hours of wakeful sleep.
You're no lover to me.

"Don't you see me," you smirk.
"Of course I do," I retort.

You begin to justle with rage, splashed sanguine, green with envy. Toiled & troubled; you know day is breaking, you fear the light.

"I missed you last..." you pause...
"Oh, you're going to give me the silent treatment? Okay, I'll just answer for you... 'I always miss my baby, every night you're absent, I know I can't live without you'.."

I turn away, tears in my eyes...

sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep

Insomnia,
You're my demon of the night. I fear how far you will bring me to my knees; begging on another star - already dead no dreams will become - for strength, hope, love.

Insomnia,
I call you my dangerous liaison, I still cling to you -
friend & foe
absent lover
lost addiction...

You keep me so deep,
in love with you.

© Sia Jane

Elliott G May 2021

Beekeeper's Dance

Sickness, death, disease,
rats, bugs, ***** fleas;
Royal knights at ease,
not trying to appease
the masses anymore
as bodies amass on the floor.

Stomping down the corridor,
black-gowned conquistador
in court known as le docteur.
Majestically pointed beak,
leather satchel, utensils squeak
as one two three and four
the man takes to the floor-
And Waltz!

Clack the Castle door.
The wicker-faced figure
grows taller, grows bigger,
and one goes to figure
who first pulls the trigger
And Clasp!
Hands come together as one
step by step, step on the gown
almost trip and fall down,
white as silk and black as dawn;
A smirk met with a frown.

Endless days, deadly gaze
from beyond the red-glass eyes:
A mosaic from the skies
as God's son met his demise,
idolized by commonfolk,
glass sculptures embedded into walls.

The ******* of angels,
interlacing strangers;
masked visage from nature
in the form of bustling bees
busy beguiling Byzantine baronesses,
backstabbing brides, burning bioessence,
*******, burdens, nature's reconnaissance.
Tiny creatures nestled into wooden crates,
by the hands of humans' race;
the beekeepers their only living grace.

The two figures intertwined
Ying-yang dancing under starlight
Snow-white and the seven plagues
dressed in crystal, black parade.

The court jester coughs and gargles,
the monarchs paint the floors with blood,
as the silk road lifts embargoes;
a thousand-year old flood
of plague-infested spices,
time to roll the dices,
is it rats or mices,
who really cares,
everyone's already dead.

#plague #beekeepers #middleages #freeverse #dance #death

Micheal Wolf Jul 2020

All grown down

When I was a child I had questions.
Why aren't dogs blue when the sky is?
Why don't they live long?
Why do we die?
Why do we have to go to school?
Why does it snow?
Why does it rain?
Why do we go to church?
Who is God?
Why do we pray to him, where is he?

As I grew many were answered. Grown ups knew best. The answers often not to my satisfaction but that's life you're told.

At 50 I have other questions.
Why do we ****?
Why do we starve?
Why do we hate?
Why do we bomb?
What makes one God better than another?
Why is your God worth killing for?

Now l am a grown up and I have the answers and I don't like them. Because now the grown ups are acting like children.

Why do they have no reason?
Why don't they seek peace?
Why must they keep killing?
Why am I the same species?
Because I really don't want to be part of this anymore.
There is a plague upon mankind it's symptoms are greed, hate, narcissism, mania, egotistical tunnel vision, delusion.
We fought wars to stop tyrants, now we vote them into power. We signed arms embargoes. Now we sign for more nukes.
We can't look after our homeless, our disabled, our sick, and we preach to others from our high ground. Yeah.. Both feet in quicksand and sinking. May our children be around long enough to forgive us. May they ask those very same questions. May they find better answers than we seem to have.

Yenson Jul 2019

You Know why..........

they think i like them
they think I am on board with their psychotic ways
oh yes, I know them too well, those forsaken *******
yes, I go along with it all, I make them think we're pals
do you think I'll want anything to do with these idiots
if I have my way
No, its all about my residency, free accommodation
free medical care, free money, reasonable peace
my papers are still in their hands
in a way, my life depends on them

Look what is happening in my nation
hunger is killing people, embargoes and sanctions
life is so ******* hard that lives are being risked to get out
people are dying daily, no medicines in Hospitals
these ******* evil people are behind it all
you don't know how much I hate them
you'd never know how much damage they have cost
all for petrol, all for oil, all for their own ******* convenience
and for their allies in the 'you know where'

Oh please let them think I am a fool
lets just play their game and survive
I take their money and do what I please
oh yes, I smile and laugh with them, the ******* morons
they are so ******* hated, its unbelievable
I have friends, actually all of us here now hate them so much
but we have to do as we think pleases them to survive
a lot of them don't like us either and we know this

I think sometime ago, one of their officials was shot
you heard all about that time, remember they raided our office
it was in all the papers, yes we hate them and they hate most of us
but we take their ****** money and all lie through our teeth
who can be real with these *******, tell me, these ******* bullies
they are liars, disingenuous cheaters and hateful racists
they make fun of us, we make more fun of them, the crazy fools
I'd rather die than **** their men, the ****** ***** unwashed fools

yah, I play their game with them, let them think I am their pal
yah, I am one of the sisterhood, yah we all stick together
let the stupid fools think that, I need to survive, I need to live
they don't wanna know what we truly think about them
I swear, they don't wanna know, the selfish Oil robbers
the ******* ignorant pirates, so conceited, so arrogant
I just smile and tell them what they want to hear
For now I take all they offer and pretend I am all for them
Its called playing the game of survival....

— The End —