Spedometer poems on Hello Poetry

JL Feb 2012

Down off the beach
The women wear gold and white dresses
Worlds of pearl and crystal glassed slpendor

I can get there in twenty minutes on the motorcycle
If she starts

But what a night it will be
If I make enough to buy liquor
Or a blue night home

The moon peaks just up above the sable palms
The night is warm and brimming with stars
The smell of gasoline and wind full of ocean salt
Where my home is by the sand
Blown into my heart
And no matter how I shake it
Or try to hose it off
The salt remains crusted
The smell of sea and home

Up town to mainstreet
Where little Cuban joints
Like to keep the neon glow
Where drunken black boys
Smoke *** in the yard
girls sit cross legged on the roof
Of squat sea blown houses
Painted pink, and blue and white
Like Miami hotel lobbies

The spedometer is broken
Just a haunting yellow glow
As onto Seaway I turn
More sea than road
God put this road here for me
Right here on a warm night
Where I can speed by the brilliant
Candle lit yards and dull sidewalk lamplight
The smell is strong of sea there
Heavy on the sky
The moon is a yellow crescent
Up above the ocean black
But the bike shifts clean and quiet
And the yacht clubs up the road
Are Shining bright
Where
Pretty girls dance
Red lipped in yellow lights

Chris Jun 2014

Measure

How to measure:

A table.
take out ruler, string or tape
Size  lines calculate with  retina powered eyes count the spit that flys from open mouths who gather fill it with their laughter,

count the crayon etchings of the determined fire in eyes Thomas the tank engine colorer extroidinair

Weight gain.
Gaze down at waste, shift in skin as you reach  depths in pockets to hide McDonalds receipts and push them in

Do, mental math, one apple a month has got to off set at least one Big Mac

Mileage.
Look at your spedometer Thelma, it's pretty much yelling at you. Take stalk of all the shoes that have  warn you.count backwards from twenty five to Two.

Count the steps you took when you didn't have to, subtract the ones that didn't count and divide by the moments you glide

Growth
Annual reports, minions in Arnold churgen assuring you to stalk up on the market. Your rrsps  with thank you as they soar and plummet as all must on the onslaught of such heights.

Talk to the fifth grader inside you and ask what got me here, was it that Dora the explorer hair cut or the time I didn't give up, that lead to that other time i didn't give up that lead to the time  i pushed quit to the back of my tongue and swallowed it.

A moment.
In corners of mouth stretched outwards in an upward slant.
Those 60 seconds you ranted and most of it was good
That kiss you can still feel as uou tried to hold on to your skin
In the calculated weight of truth transferred to hands in use

Or the science behind the fact that you actually breathed again and  your body, received the donation, the free gift that fuels you, rushes in caresses your sinues and prepares the way for another little wind

I Cherish that wind

One moment, your body will say thankyou very much air, but this relationship of you fueling me and me needing you.. Is baked like that pie your mom doesn't like talking about any more

How does one measure a life
Success, deductibles, YouTube hits,# shout outs, lives touched, damage done, or how many times you actually enjoyed a cinnomon bun without apologizing to your hips

You choose. You choose what measuring tape you wake up with because that's the one they are gonna pull out when the man with the answers recites your yagooogaly

When you measure dare to recall that when the air says adeui and all that is left is your spirit and as your body falls let spirit rise tall

#fear #life #society #expectations #selfworth

Harry J Baxter May 2013

Driving With The Windows Down

The music blares loud enough to shake the car,
loud,
but not clear, because the cable is kinda screwy
so that every time
he hits a pothole
the music melts into
teeth rattling vibrations
and the breeze gushes in through the temporal openings
threatening to blow
the card parking pass
out the window
into the vast pleasant outside world
the sun burns down from space
turning the world warm with childhood nostalgia
and chlorophyll green lampshades
hanging from chocolate brown trees
paint the world with an aura of emeralds
and the spedometer plays Apollo
rising higher on its arc
twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, ect.
the rush of speed becomes deafening
and the hot asphalt road rises,
dips,
meanders,
and he controls its will
with the easy gliding of the leather steering wheel
and an easy smile
driving with the windows down

— The End —