Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
Gracie Harlow Jul 2014
When I was six years old
you took the stabilisers
from my bike, for the first time

You knew I was ready
You gave me a push
and you let me go

Two months ago
you took me to the airport
to catch my flight

You knew I was ready
to cross the world alone
and you let me go

Sometimes I wobble
But I haven't fallen yet
You taught me to balance

You prepared me for this
then you took my stabilisers
and you let me be free.
Marshall Gass Apr 2014
Two people lurk in everyone
the star and the scar
born from building high citadels of power
and cascading into smithereens
when the switch is tripped.
Maybe the voltage ran low
or the circuit breaker was poorly constructed?
I dont know.

I operate on a three phase armour
of emotional stabilisers
that spark and twitch when overheated
with too much energy. But I return
with black faced integrity
collars up and smoking
to fight on another electrifying moment.

'Thats life' I hear
the rollercoaster ride
built into the system
going around in circles
always facing the sunrise
and sunset. We scream and tumble
into the guts of the incline
the switch and roll of events
swerving around corners
holding on ******* knuckled
until it finishes its rumble
and we walk out wobbly and vomity
until the better side takes over.
The darker side recedes
into an unknown pocket.

Author Notes

Thanks to Cinderley13 who wrote about Catfish and Lydia and Lyda and made me wonder what the hell was being alluded to? It now makes a bit more sense.
© Marshall Gass. All rights reserved.
Subtract five and carry one,
this long division
goes on and on until
I realise it's not about the five
or the one but life
and that goes on
and on.

The formula as I can see
is not numeral, it's
more elemental, and
mental arithmetic
is just
placed in my path to make me
maths sick or
more sick of maths.

The teacher laughs, but he's a fool
he subtracted, added,
divided and still
shares the same school as I.

It's all good they said but they
would
wouldn't they? as if the day was not
long enough for carrying numbers and
lugging that stuff in my head and
the thread of it's lost on me as I
suffer through geometry and where's
Pythagoras and what's philosophy?

Carry five and
stay alive,
keep the one to yourself.
Taut
Tight
wired and light,
tonight I'm going to take the car
tonight I may or not get far but
I have to go,
have to blow these cobwebs from my head,
quick or dead but under par
tonight
I'm going to take the car but first,
burst the bubble that I'm in,
begin to slake my thirst for all things that will end and in the end,
begin to start
begin to break apart the chain that tightens up
around my brain,
start the car,
taut and tight,not wired right but tonight's the night.
In the finding of unwinding I am wound up tighter than before,
the night becomes a bolted door
and I the rabbit in the spotlight where lurchers hound me,
spooling free
I'm in the car
not very far from where I start and find my heart just isn't in it
spotlit as I am,
still the rabbit
not the man.
Daisy King Nov 2013
in the next ten seconds,
he opens his mouth to speak to an acquaintance in a room full of acquaintances
an ugly metal faucet that has been dripping for fifteen days drips again in an upstairs sink
he tucks a strand of hair behind her ear as she bites at her fingernails and
            looks at the magazines lined up in the supermarket
before she opens the postbox, she inhales
she throws her head back before laughing at his anecdote, her knees feeling the ache
            of being crossed for too long
with slightly tremulous fingers, she touches she sleeve of her coat without reason, feeling
            like everyone on the underground train may be looking at her
he takes a sip of water and screws the lid back on, checking his watch
a hiccup is heard from the back of a classrm
he kisses her for the first time on the mouth
he notices his hair has fallen out and sits in the shower drain
their elbows graze against one another's in the lecture hall but neither of them
             catch the other's eye, both staring straight ahead
she blots her lips over a folded tissue to remove pink residue and looks herself in the eye
             in the mirror
her father lets go f her shoulders as she wobbles on the bicycle without its stabilisers
             for a second attempt today
he notices a stain of yogurt on his tie and curses quietly
she burns her fingers whilst making toast
she argues with the cashier about the fact that selected juices were marked as being on offer
the rain rattles against the window and he is uneasy with the lack of rhythm in its sound
they put on her favourite song and remember her as she was when she was still alive
someone wipes salt from her cheeks with a tissue
he realises that the tooth fairy doesn't exist and doesn't mind because it means he's grown up
she asks her father if she is pretty and he say anything
she slips a packet of biscuits into the supermarket trolley, her mother sees
             and doesn't say anything
an elderly woman cradles his arm as they slowly cross the street
they look at one another and both know
he says I'm so sorry
she says I'm so sorry
he says I love you
she says you know I do.
Mateuš Conrad Sep 2016
and when Aeneas, the Trojan prince, fled Troy with
the shamed Paris and Helen, took to sail, and led
the remnants of his people to the shores of Italy -
it was from the womb of Helen where the Roman tongue
was born, in a vision, the plagiarism descended from
high - as to how strengthen the papyrus
and change from oxen blood and quill and
frailty, to the sweat the chisel and the stone,
or as the fables said: two tablets, made of stone,
and in stone you will write of Rome,
and you will be glorified; but they needed
a revenge against the Greeks - so they
used what empowered the Greeks: their alphabet
(later known as the a-to-zed, although
i don't know how that worked out in the learning
of letters, it became known as the geography
of towns) - thus from
alpha (α) came       a                 (and here the major
distinction... given the nature of Greek encoding,
namely that each letter had a respective noun / name
attacked to it, the Roman tongue became more
musicological: the West End theatres are a pale
shade of the former Grecian tragedies and comedies...
the Roman tongue sung, as it was encoded to be
sung - no longer the ancient naming of letters,
akin to Greek, akin to Hebrew - the revolution
of loose consonant associations, by excessive
consonant solos with vowels as prime stabilisers
of the symbol being seen, on papyrus, as also in stone,
and no stranger then the talk of dimensions:
using the preposition on refers to 2 dimensional
objects... the preposition in refers to 3 dimensional
objects, and how much stronger the feels when said:
the cheap sacrifice of the skin to tattoos,
as those who said: suntans are for peasants -
they're the same people that sacrificed themselves
to the tattoo) -          from beta (β)    came        b
                      (remember the cartwheel: b q p d)
from gamma (γ)              came      y
                                  fr­om delta (δ)                  came  d
from epsilon (ε)                       came   e
   from zeta (ζ)              came   z
                 from eta (η)                            came  n
  from theta (θ)                            came thought
  from iota (ι)                      came    i
                 (mind you, the reason why the Greeks
  named their letters, is the reason why this system was
perfectly suitable to accommodate the letters into the use
denoting scientific constants - constants, consonants,
      constants, consonants, eh? vowels are always unstable
   *******) -
     from kappa (κ)                   came   k
lambda (λ) and upper-case gamma (Γ)   came   L
(mind you, the Greeks also had a cartwheel: γ λ Υ, gamma
                           lambda, upsilon)
from mu (μ)           came    h       from nu (ν)       came  v
   from xi (ξ)...           actually, i don't know if they even
   used this... unless! xi... 11... maybe they thought:
let's derive a mathematics based on xi - i, ii, iii, pre nu,
                             i.e. iv, ν, vi, vii, viii, ix, ξ, xi...
from omicron (ο)                       came    o...
         so as to expose the nature of it all, the rotary
transformation, the moment of homage toward
the feminine Greek spirit: with the perfect curvatures,
the smooth babe's buttock cheeks all over woman -
curve on curve - yet with the Roman spirit: a homage
toward the masculine spirit: rods, sharpening,
alms due to the acute < 90° - knives where once boxing
gloves were - as will be shown in one specific example...
and from rho (ρ)                  came  p...
            pi (π)?          a myth like status ensued from this
letter - they merely looked at the anatomy of
pronunciation from beta, and came up with p'eta -
lending to correct the ρ, to which they added a second
leg, \, to represent the possibility of the first step
forward: or trilling;
            from sigma (ς)       they derived s: emphasis in
later application of Latin, as in garçon -
and from tau (τ)                 came t (the basis for the crucifix),
   and from upsilon (υ)           came   u    -
and from      phi (φ)         came    p (by moving the
          doughnut dividing line to be attached
   like a tangent -
        and from chi (χ)              came   x,
  and from psi (ψ)            came psychology summation -
and from omega (ω)               came    w - and only then
did the idea of the cartwheel gymnastics and all
what's decisively chiral provide the revision of omega
once more:        to give       m -
so you see, in light of all this: Romans chiselled the curvatures
of the Greek feminism, sharpening their letters -
making all sounds acute - readied for opera and
war cries.
I've got
trainers I can't train
sneakers that only clump
a fukin jump-suit that can't
jump
and
I've also got the right 'ump

otherwise or otherwordly
he
meaning me
is ok.
Iestyn Tudor Jun 2020
It stayed with her forever,
The faded **** in her skin.
A permanent reminder
Of courageous origin.

Welsh suburbia,
The week’s paper nestled at doorsteps
And cars lining driveways.
The sloped street dared
Every child to climb
Onto their bike and conquer.

She avoided it when shaving
As though an accidental cut
Would pollute
Childhood's lustre.

No stabilisers. Wicked.
The street’s children envied her.
A goddess of danger.
They all lined up on the day,
To see their idol
Dominate the asphalt *****.

Imagination made it prickle
In board meetings and cafes.
Time marched on
And the sensation with it.

Parents peered
Out their front doors.
Grandad stood vigilant
Fighting a smile.
The silence before calamity…
…and the forward push.

The scar sat beneath her shin,
Short from a distance but
Taller the closer
You came.

Whoosh. Down she went
Gulping the air and
Smiling like a belle.
Children blurred as she passed,
Everything became a haze
And she hollered.

It prickled
At Grandad’s funeral last year.
That made her fight a smile,
And she eventually succumbed.

Euphoria blinded her
To the oncoming curb.
The bike lurched, and
Heaved her off.
Pain echoed through naïve bones
Radiating beneath her shin.

Her husband asked about it.
'I fell off my bike as a girl.'
Her children asked about it.
'I fought a dragon.'

Grandad appeared instantly,
Deft hands wrapping
Gauze around a cut.
With an affectionate ruffle,
He pulled her up onto his shoulder
And carried her back.
When she cried in pain,
He pulled her closer.
Kimberley Leiser Apr 2018
Docs think they can cure and make me feel better,
come up with a solution to life's problems
assess me with another mental disorder,
put it to order with my letter and GP report along with my prescription, 100mg lamotrigine once a month medication
to numb the daily pain.
It feels like a gun shot to the brain!
Moods rising and falling caused by shock and trauma
what exactly happened mind was wiping out the physical and mental torture!

It doesn't quieten the voices if anything just eradicate my memory now I get blanks in my head
family and friends have to fill in the gaps and scenes
that are now missing. I become constantly hungry and incomplete numb feeding myself those pills to keep my emotions asleep, docile quiet and unfulfilled quivering with shakes and sweats
had to wait to collect my tabs at the medical centre
you know what one day I came into see my psychiatrist with a new perspective and conclusion meds can not cure me
their the brain's bicycle stabilisers to keep it trekking along
and not falling into the realm of unknown and into the great beyond but i know some natural remedies to alleviate me.

He nodded you've done research Miss Leiser. Your go far should go into teaching or be a therapy. Do you want to hear the 5 natural remedies to remember
1. acceptance of what has just happened can't be changed the horror of ****** trauma. I went through when I was 21 feeling helpless and weak, couldn't speak, was in shock!

Crying and feeling alone. I could either be the victim drowning myself in beer and punishing myself every year

letting him and the voices win blaming myself and living in guilt and fear that I could have acted and stopped it asked for help instead of suffering in silence

or be warrior that will overcome accept past is over, calm my anger and forgive the man that did this to me. Believe it or not he hasn't changed but I've been the better person by not reacting to the rage and negative voices -

*****, ****, *****.

At one point I wanted him to feel my pain and punch the ******* down and for him to do time for committing the crime. What would be the the point of seeking revenge it will only get the pigs on me and will the anger make me any better than him.
In the end I accepted an half hearted apology but whether he has learnt his lesson is unknown. I will let karma deal with him and he'll stay the **** away me will not let him or anyone get to me again!

No one will lead me astray  will not end up sick in the hospital or alone in the gutter. Don't let the haters bring you down, now changed my way of thinking - been keeping positive, ignore deception, ******* and lies.

2nd natural cure build my creativity write and help people with rhymes and build up moral and educate people on mental health and good decency. Making people laugh with sharp wit and tips.

Third remedy - exercising my body - walking in the sunshine eating good food and looking after my diet.  

and finally forth remedy  meditation and relaxation - cleansing my charkas, releasing the negative energy being made aware of the energy vampires that surround every day there the best cures you can master in order to get better faster.
Transactions with
tranquilisers
tied down
by de-stabilisers,

quiet is how they want you to be
silent in strait jacket company.

We're all one away from the day
praying it never arrives
living our lives to pay
for the moment
she says we can stay.

If you want the juice
learn how to squeeze.
We're all a bit unbalanced
acting like crazies
maybe stabilisers would help?
like they have on bikes for tots

trainers if you will
to keep us on the
straight and can you follow this
am I going too fast
too slow
and do you even know
what an even keel is?
Ryan O'Leary May 2020
Sail through
air as crow

Quilled oars

paddle wind

bow beaked.

Claw leg heels
nail anchor keels.

Hollow ***** shafted
fringed weathervanes.

Plumed rudder, red
admiral of route.

Port - starboard
optical peepers
vertigo stabilisers.

Altitude latitude.

Black blinks.

Ink hued horizon.

Pawn perches
leafy land mast.

White's aurora !
Ryan O'Leary Jul 2019
I can never recall, running
out of bread, butter yes,
even sugar, but never bread,

That was when my mother
baked every day.

Running out of bread is a
modern phenomenon, only
since this rise of fake flour.

Mass production of homogenous,
commercial, processed, full of all
sorts of preservatives, stabilisers
and colourings, with an endless
supply chain, is why people run
out of, quantity bread.

The difference between now and
the future, is, sell by date, but not
eat by date, though, best before
end of wrapper is always there
after the list of ingredients which
nobody reads or understands.

I never run out of bread, because I
never run out of flour yeast or water.

" I bake, therefore rye bread ".

— The End —