"huffy" poems
Elizabeth and God exist in a sunflower grave. Her mother and father slit her stomach open and watched the contents pour out like
spaghetti confetti.
Tommy, Elizabeth's boyfriend, rode his ocean blue Huffy, until the tread on his tires grew bald and until the grips were blanketed by dead skin. Looking for her, panoramic views of the horizon leapt beside him. Silhouettes of his legs, churned and kissed the orange and caramel dusk. With every tear in his hamstrings and calves, the **** in his sky grew and swallowed the memory of Elizabeth Mendenhall, Honor Student.
Margot, Elizabeth's twelve year-old sister, was an idealistic soul. Taking a Sharpie, she wrote on her sister's wall, "Liz, there is no death greater than the loss of self, and no life greater than one where we continuously search for what self is." Margot struggled with concentrating and frying eggs - but focused on the sunflower garden, dangerously and perfectly.
Hilary and Brendan were thirty-five and thirty-six years-old. They stabbed their daughter thirty-seven times. They don't know why they did it, they just couldn't think of a reason not to do it.
She begged for her life. The yellow petals of the sunflowers caught blood-drops and, after enough struggle, floated down to kiss and lay on Elizabeth's slow-twitch body. Hilary looked at Brendan and said, "What does this mean?" Brendan shrugged and said, "This is new to me."
The garden was an oven, and digging her grave was like pulling back on a cheap, plastic latch. Elizabeth had pale, pre-cooked pie crust skin. The slits in her stomach looked like peeks into a cherry stuffed filling. Crinkled lips looked indented by a stainless steel fork, back and forth, side to side. And the soil rained upon her like the reversal of hot vapor, returning home.
Elizabeth and the Sunflower Garden.
May 21, 2015
May 21, 2015 at 5:37 AM UTC
Try to remember riding your bike
When summers were too short
And the time until you felt heartache would be very long.
You pick up speed down that big hill then
Bam!
Pavement.
Now I wonder if this is falling.
If my pink Huffy prepared me for love.
In that split second
between bike and ground
(the one that makes you question why you were riding a bike in the first place)
You prepare for the pain and then
Bam!
After the break-up, make-up, screw-up,
Things get better.
Once that pain heals you get up and realize that you want to ride again.
You get a new bike, sit down and pedal.
You want to ride again
And feel the wind in your hair
Because its ******* beautiful.
Apr 15, 2013
Apr 15, 2013 at 1:16 PM UTC
She hushes me repeatedly
as if my voice could be– too loud
for these shrunken, elder walls
What voice can I revive to tell her
that this little place...reminds me...?
Ratchet up the memories
the young mistakes
my welfare “townhouse”
as if my voice could be too loud?!
Where does anger go to say
These cheesy rugs remind me!
of the smoky halls, stoop-sittin’
head lice, **** roach
fumigated invasion
Music loud enough to blow pipes
induce trauma through the walls
Thud Crash
“Stupid ****
Knife-weildin’, drug-sellin’, boyfriend-of-a-future
A can of beer later...
with stress on hold
the smells of dinner, now—all fifteen of them!
Assault me through the front window
“Ya there yet?
...to this “cute little apartment, I mean?"
So it’s sold…
Someone else will wash windows, rake the yard
Shovel Massachusetts snow
Christmas lights come down
in my mind—
Running toward them still
Toes numb
Skates bouncin on my back
Sled firing off sparks against the sidewalk in my wake
Running and as always late
Mittens soaked, heavy
Like my eyes—
Mom and I
looking out this window for the last time
Looking out toward the daughter of the woods I was
Behind—me
the bride sinks
to the bare mattress—
“Was it really 57 years?
How can it be?”
since...clutching can opener and Coke
He scooped her up and through that door....
“How can it be? Oh my….”
"You can always keep the memories."
she chirps to check the tears
But I can’t taste them!
…Mom baking cookies
stew and dumplings on the stove
Snitching chocolate bits
waiting for the bowl
Impatient little helpers at her side
Colors slipping…
A child husks corn in sunlight
A blue Huffy gleams behind birthday candles
Sheets billow from the line
Sounds fading...
A choir of music boxes
before the Christmas carnage
Doing dishes in three-part harmony
I can barely wrap my words around our voices!
“You can always keep the memories”
Preamble to the dutiful decision
Hypothermic excuse
to dump the place
Street sign shrinking in the rear-view
Aug 26, 2016
Aug 26, 2016 at 4:06 PM UTC
Anyone can laud a sunny day
And lavish it with praise.
It's such an easy proposition
Amid warmth and golden rays.
But it is, I'd say, a refinéd taste,
When a day dawns bleak and grey,
To find some joy in heavy clouds
That bubble-wrap your day.
And even given pouring rain
That many see as vile
The drum of raindrops on the roof
Can bring to some a smile.
A wailing wintry driving blizzard?
Seems to most so rotten.
Yet for me I get a thrill
From a landscape wrapped in cotton.
Now a slush-and-sleet-filled day in March
Is a horrible kind of weather
I fear it seems to void my thesis
And brings to no one pleasure.
It erodes the city's state-of-mind
Optimism is diminished
Everyone is in a huff
And wants it to be finished.
Oh, for a bright day in July
With no one feeling huffy,
The golden sun to rule the sky
and clouds so big and fluffy.
Jul 12, 2014
Jul 12, 2014 at 2:05 PM UTC
Messy Bessy
Pouty fussy
Screaming crying always *****
Ugly Bessy
Huffy Puffy
Yelling punching kicking kitty
Silly Bessy
Loudy mouthy
Mommy madly gives a slappy
Aug 3, 2010
Aug 3, 2010 at 12:57 PM UTC
Things will be rough if we are disgruntled
disgruntled voice makes others Grumpy
Grumpy feelings are always ungracious
Ungracious mood swings are nasty and huffy.
Smile on the face cheers up all
All the people around us feel good
Good moments shared,gives happiness
Happiness ultimately enhances our mood.
May 14, 2016
May 14, 2016 at 11:38 PM UTC
They were just talking about you
right before you turned the corner.
Whispered words, hushed hurried huffy
little things. Like pinpricks on the back
of your neck.
Or worse. Maybe they weren't talking
about you. Nobody is talking about you.
Nobody FEELS the way you FEEL things.
All capital letters and **** and vinegar.
You are alone in your intellect and alone
in your
FEELINGS.
Nov 30, 2012
Nov 30, 2012 at 9:32 PM UTC
I miss the days
where my biggest concern was how to
carry a sixty-four ounce grape slushie
from the gas station
while riding my Huffy.
Still, not much has changed.
I'm still awful at planning ahead,
and I still act on impulse,
and I still can't ride a bike
with no hands. It feels like the scrapes
on my elbow are open.
Summer was never really my season.
Jul 15, 2014
Jul 15, 2014 at 7:08 PM UTC
I see reflections everywhere.
Brick walls reflect the shimmering green blade summer days,
with 4-square games in a gated yard- wherewithal a Huffy backboard and bent rim- I was LEBRON JAMES!
Glass window panes reflect the exit of dad's leather silhouette.
Tie-dyed walls reflect blue/red splatters traced with a syringe paintbrush.
And you reflect me, because I am you, and you I.
You are more than a piece of me.
You reflect everything I ever was or wanted to be.
Apr 8, 2015
Apr 8, 2015 at 10:48 PM UTC
You're sitting there. Under the chair. Staring at me. Like years, and years, of what I'd like to call our life. Your green eyes are like...the woods. The woods we grew up in. The woods we came back to. The woods where we met
and where we will leave each other. For a long, long time.
These woods are full of Huffy bikes, and tennis ***** and summer ski trips, and deep lake diving. These woods are where friends are lost, music is found, first love finds you a hundred times, and nothing gets done.
I know you're thirsty, but you won't drink. You're sick of drinking. I try to tip the water up to your lips, but you turn your head. I beg you, "Please, just do it for me." You take one sip but no more. If I could breathe life, you'd find me kissing you. If my tears could heal, you'd find me sobbing on your forehead.
But I don't want your last memories of me to be sadness, so I turn my head away, and use every fiber of my being to pull out a smile for you.
We raised each other. and not once did you not come when I called for you.
We saved each other. and I don't want to think about life without you.
We fought each other. and you always came back into my arms.
I love you . and I don't want to have to bury you.
Apr 7, 2011
Apr 7, 2011 at 4:33 PM UTC
I was seven.
The sidewalk lured.
The Huffy beckoned.
The hill...
The hill...
Skinny locomotive legs
Pumping madness blindness happy
Freedom flight pumping pumping
The hill...
The hill...
Baseball cards in spokes were roaring
Soaring wheels and squinting windy
Boymachine thrumming heavy
The hill...
The hill...
Swerving Fords and Chevys curving
Hopping curbs and doggie-dodging
Lightspeed hoping
Seven and no sign of stopping
Hit the rock...
Funny how it all got slow, now
Boy/machine were separated
One went one way one the other
Gravity
The enemy
Apr 6, 2011
Apr 6, 2011 at 9:57 PM UTC
Tonight I planned to take flight to the moon with nothing but the thought of you; borrowing your eyes as well as the throb of your heart.
Counting down the seconds until we blast off.
Our silhouette left shone on the face of the moon; our cheeks felt with the blush of the wind. Our face pressed tight from the force of how fast our heart peddles.
With you leaned back
Your cheek pressed against mine, sitting on the front of the handle bars.
The sound of the bike chain echoing off the stars; this cosmic feeling racing,
Pounding through my chest.
Watching you ascend the stars as I've always watched you do in the dreams I've had of you.
Profound, how you've changed my outlook on life.
Losing track of time in the simplicity of how wide your cheeks spread.
Saturated in the gleam of your eyes.
I've lost touch with the reality of everything that is real.
In the midst of waking eyes; I always forget what I dream about.
My perception of you as a shooting star blasting off to the moon
On a bike
May 29, 2016
May 29, 2016 at 4:47 AM UTC
Oh my gorgeous little friend,
I wish you only the best,
On me you do depend,
Always putting my memory to the test,
You always want to try new things,
like fruit and veg but also sweets,
You get treated like one of the kings,
I’m constantly allowing you treats,
You’re beautiful and you’re fluffy,
You’re extremely soft to the touch,
Although you are sometimes huffy,
I hope you love me as much,
My little teddy bear hamster,
Alone in your cage,
I hope I’m not a disaster,
Because you have to age.
Aug 5, 2012
Aug 5, 2012 at 1:44 PM UTC
When I was 18 I fractured my pinky
riding my Huffy bike from my dorm to my vet tech class
I sat there in class for the next two hours
in horrified silence
not wanting to leave
I couldn't miss class
My hand turned from a beige to a lovely shade of indigo
like I had dipped the right side of my right hand in a vat of ink
That pain was nothing
When I was 20 I unceremoniously jumped from a mustang named Spirit
Fracturing my leg, the only thing keeping it attached was the muscle, tendons, and skin
But even that had been broken by a white bone
I cried and cried
That pain was nothing
See for a fractured finger or leg
You receive attention, and help
doctors crowd around you and inject you with morphin
and prescribe hydrocodine
to numb the pain
so that you can be put together again and heal
eventually forgetting why you cried in the first place
But what about a broken heart?
No one comes
and you are the only who feels that it would have been better had you been shot, because then you would know why you feel this way
there would be evidence of your pain
and a reminder that you used to be whole
not just a shade of who you once were
people wouldn't tell you to get over it
that you just need to think about something else
This pain is everything
Apr 13, 2016
Apr 13, 2016 at 6:33 PM UTC
Jibber jabber gobbledee-goo
tittle tattle engenues
verbosely nosey Velcro verbs
sibilant smacks or lips a purse
wealthy whacks stickball whips
no tweet or talk but mailbox spit
gnawing down our chews of cud
converse with street rubber tongues
pinky-swore on Bazooka gum
summer wonder learning none
we Schwin & Huffy bike the day
child hood friends what else to say?
especially at that age...
Teeny tiny laughter dust
we race like Del Mar champion studs
no babble trouble wordy sting
our Super 8 remembering
"look no handle bars!"
our arms for wings
young ole boys California Kings...
Feb 19, 2016
Feb 19, 2016 at 10:13 PM UTC
we live in times
that make it difficult
to differentiate reality from fiction
not in the field of literature
where borders always have been fluid
but in quotidian discourses
of politicians television internet
speakers present unproven attitudes
as if they were reality unquestionable
and they get huffy and evasive
if proof comes out that they are wrong
they claim that they have been misquoted
or at least misunderstood
and even if they do recant
this never hits the front page of the medium
but somewhere inside mixed with trivialities
few people check
so it seems to be up to every one of us
to use our brains and bother
whether the data we are being served
are edible or rotten
bccause these speakers
seem to have forgotten
what communication is about
we need to really understand each other
Jun 24, 2018
Jun 24, 2018 at 5:34 PM UTC
why did he take off
and leave the stage
he's left his fans
in a state of rage
they were looking forward
to his encore
but he quickly exited
the stage right door
he'll not be asked back
for a return season
as his huffy prima donna
act was without reason
Jun 30, 2013
Jun 30, 2013 at 8:00 AM UTC
Everyone lauds the sunny day
They lavish them with praise.
It's such an easy proposition
In warmth and golden haze.
But it is, I'd say, a refinéd taste,
When the day dawns bleak and grey,
To find the joy of heavy clouds
That bubble-wrap your day.
And oh, the ones with pouring rain?
Many call them vile
The drum of raindrops on one's roof
Brings to me a smile.
A wailing wintry driving blizzard?
You declare it all so rotten.
Yet my heart gets a pleasant lift
From a landscape wrapped in cotton.
Now slush-and-sleet-filled days in March
Are a horrible kind of weather
I fear it seems to void my thesis
And bring to no one pleasure.
It erodes the denizens' state-of-mind
Optimism quite diminished
Everyone with tempers short
All wishing it were finished.
Oh, for a bright day in July
With no one getting huffy,
A golden sun that rules the sky
And clouds so big and fluffy.
Aug 12, 2015
Aug 12, 2015 at 5:16 PM UTC
Hilarious.
Men seldom noticing,
Men seldom asking
Why is your school skirt stashed in the back seat?
Precarious.
Riding with traffic,
Wheels click and splashing
And then hiding your huffy beside an old friend's gate.
Benign:
Shirts tucked in shorts.
The best women in sports.
Italian books being bought at the church.
Jul 8, 2013
Jul 8, 2013 at 11:51 PM UTC
By Arcassin Burnham
Got a death wish,
Cause when I believed you,
You stabbed me in the heart,
Cigarette boxes and toothpicks,
Cleaned me of my sins like a ***** stool,
Id knew we'd always fade apart,
Not easy being 17,
And still having your pride,
Riding huffy scooters to other towns,
Not knowing if you'll survive,
I'm just tired thats all,
Maybe your strength be justified,
You don't even have the *****
To tell me what's wrong or right,
I have not been anywhere to see any place that you named,
Instead I'm stuck trying to make it on my own searching for when it rains,
If I have you on my wall or in my dusty picture frames,
I haven't even check to see if we were friends again its kinda strange,
Home to me is a prison , with no freedom to have,
My unfortunate life isn't perfect to say whatever and write in the lab,
I'm a big mistake in the making, didn't even have a dad,
But hell has no fury , then an angry teen wishing he had,
Got a death wish,
Cause when I believed you,
You stabbed me in the heart,
Cigarette boxes and toothpicks,
Cleaned me of my sins like a ***** stool,
Id knew we'd always fade apart,
Putting together pieces,
They say there's no star you can not reach,
They say you better pray what you preach,
But they haven't been in public for a week,
I was around when you didn't speak,
Or when you couldn't fall asleep,
But your off-putting motives were cheap,
Even when you had no I.d,
I was there,
Your ego was ahead of me you didn't care,
Your arguing presentation I could not bare,
Worst stage of Ebola floating in the air,
You wouldnt dare,
I got a death wish........
Oct 26, 2014
Oct 26, 2014 at 10:03 PM UTC
and when you were three years old. how did he ask you. where did you go. how many times did you go there. hearts above my head. wants to know me i want to know you. glad he put me on his car radio. is that all you think of. smeared across the windshield. starry eyed. constellations forming at the tip of your tongue. double cap my stars.
start speaking to me in astrology.
— my sweet baby. cowardly little girl —
little mouthed lovenotes
mysteries hidden beneath layers of red puffy cheeks huffy breath little smirk swollen eyes. holds me in his arms like a fragile plant. waters me with stories from his past. dreams of the future.
kiss the walls of my house. reach the rooted truths.
Mar 9, 2014
Mar 9, 2014 at 10:21 PM UTC
he sits on the curb
all twelve years of him,
waiting to be a teen
when he'll have to pay
adult price for a movie ticket
or bus pass
he usually has no cash
for either; but wishing and waiting
are art forms to him
he's learned to move
the brush of time slowly on life's palette
while he watches others whizzing by
on their store-bought skateboards
and Huffy ten speed bikes, while he has
only one gear for two feet
which now are clad in Keds
from the thrift store, and planted
firmly on the cement
by the drain gutter, where he
last saw his favorite possession, a Super Ball,
get ****** into the sewer
when the storm ended, he yanked
off the manhole cover and crawled into
the dark, but the ball was gone forever
when he came back into the street,
yet lamenting his round loss, more boys
on bikes buzzed by
their circles safely spinning
on asphalt, far from the gutter and curb where
he once again sat--wishing, waiting
Baltimore, 1965
May 16, 2017
May 16, 2017 at 4:06 PM UTC
Maybe a photo of her favourite corgis
Or, a foil-wrapped dog biscuit?
Surely, a collapsible crown.
A fold-up tiara would be
more practical - I guess.
Her Majesty loves horses, so a
carrot or two is de rigueur.
Spare undies would not go amiss.
Emergency use false teeth? Possibly.
As much as one can surmise,
pearls would not surprise.
Predictably, a ready made speech
on neatly folded vellum beginning
with the words: "My husband and I."
If I could be so bold – Ma'am -
I suggest a personal alarm.
A spare pair of gloves too;
all those sweaty handshakes.
But so as not to make you huffy,
in case The Poet Laureate may know
What's in The Royal Handbag?
I’m going to ask Carol Ann Duffy.
Sep 2, 2018
Sep 2, 2018 at 5:42 AM UTC
Heroic horses hammering holy heaven,
Hooves hounding, horseshoes howling,
Hot heads hurtling headlong on the horizon,
Handsomest horses hacking habitually,
Hugely-hung hoses hanging out hellishly,
Hardy and hardening, heartily heartening,
Harping at heartstrings, harmonious harkening.
Hades the hell-spawn harnessing hedonism,
Heckling horses, harassing the harmony,
Hot-blooded horses, huffy and hungrily,
Hearken the hell-dog, hail him and hallow him,
Hellbent and heinous, horse hearts are harvested,
Hundreds of horses haemorrhage helplessly,
Harrowing Hellscape, hostile humidity,
Haggardly horses hunching haphazardly,
Half-dead and hateful, harshly and hardily,
Hardhearted horses hurting and hurtling,
Heroes of history, humbled in hopelessness,
Holiest horses, howling and hollering -
Heeding honor! Hailing Hell!
Jun 25, 2025
Jun 25, 2025 at 1:25 PM UTC