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Simran Modhera Mar 2021
Cigarettes and coffee and you.

If I had to name three things I couldn't live without,
I guess those would be the things. But it’s not an addiction,
per say. I only like cigarettes when your callused fingers
offer them to me,
your wordless expression showing concern and contentess.
I blow away our pain and worries and pass it on for later,
thinking I’ll make some coffee again today.
For both of us like I usually do.
Coconut milk in yours and creamer in mine, right?


My toes are suddenly cold
I dip them in these tender aqua waters,
juxtaposing itself with the Tampa humidity
that laces my cup. I can't tell if
you resting your arms around my waist
brings a fire within me
or if it gives me chills.
I start swaying to some synonymous tune
that happens to play in both of our heads at this moment,
even though the only music is
the wind whistling
through the shells and stems of the palm leaves.

My lips are, coffee and cigarette and you stained.
The painful heat always disrupts this heavenly time for us.

So we’ll meet here, same time tomorrow.
I wouldn't want to live without it.
Cheyanne Lemons Feb 2015
Everytime we close our eyes,
Trying to remember our mother's lullabies
Warm tears, sparkling like diamonds
Running down our cheeks, hiding behind eyelids

When we look in the mirror and all we see is hate
There is no one to break our fall except fate

We judge our eyes, ear, and...oh did I mention that nose is fake
You people are fickle, you criticize until we break

They say "God" created us all equal and that beauty is in the eye of the beholder,
But how can you say that, you hypocrite, let that smolder

Because while you sit on a throne of discrimination
We scramble and hide to find our place in this nation

He can't even go home to his family because of his ****** domain
He loves his partner but his fathers inane

She breaks her back at work everyday, does more than any man will ever do in a decade
But still riding on her gender, her paycheck begins to fade

And when you see us crawling, fighting with need
You kick us down for the feeling of greed

He tries to get a job and because of the complexion of his pigment,
They don't hire him, nada, that's the end of this segment

She walks down the street covered from head to toe, with only her eyes to show
It's her beliefs but that doesn't make the ***** looks a lesser blow

We fee; the hurt and the pain everyday.
While you sit on your ***** in Tampa Bay

And when we can't be accepted in society,
We don't know any other way for prosperity

So we find a way to numb the pain
The drugs, the razor biting the skin, the *** with mysterious men
Anything with a gain

Please don't hurt us, please don't shut the door in our faces
Because we always seem to wake up in stranger places

Believe us, because this world should not be dog eat dog, it should be full of empathy
Way past the point of poetic sympathy

Break our bones, our courage, our love but inspite of it all
We fight on so that we're with the ones we love on the day that we fall

Drag us out and hang us like a beacon
Because we are not the ones who should be beaten

We are the kings of the world, no prejudice only love
Because love is love even when push comes to shove

Please enlighten us on how being different is bad
And we promise you, despite the real truth, we won't be mad

He's in love with his boyfriend. He asked him just last week to marry him
Never to break his vows until they bury him

She's a single mom of three kids, always making sure they have a good life
But in spite of it her bosses always cut her down with a knife

And he needs to pay for his wife's kemo
Every night he's struggling to ask from people at his mother's Bingo.

And when she walks down the street, she takes pride in what she believes
Always wondering why the man in the window is angry at what he sees

This is us in every way.
We know you wish this was just friendly foreplay

But we will bury you, smolder you with the ashes of our last exhumation
Without you this world would have a better function

Ok, maybe we're astray from the norm
But who says we won't be the end of this petty storm

Dose us with gasoline, light us a flame,
Watch us burn at the stake like it's a game.

But we'll shine so brightly you won't want to fuss
Because, in the end, you'll finally see US.
Matt May 2015
I live in a small town outside of Tampa which used to be a small farming community, and still maintains some of it's small town charm; railroad tracks and farming fields. This being said, we live right off of the main road leading in and out of Tampa, and if we were to take a right onto said road, we would hit a SuperWalmart on the right just a couple miles up.

Around January of this year, I noticed a black military helicopter flying very low, back and forth along the above mentioned road - almost as if they were surveying it. I thought it was strange because it happened several days in a row during the work week and during the same time of day - middle of the afternoon. the flight pattern was the same each day - always on the same side of the road (the Walmart side of the road) with the helicopter making it to just about where the Walmart is before turning around and coming back toward our neighborhood to the the nearest intersection - then back to the Walmart again. This all happened a few months before JH was disclosed, so while I thought it odd, there was nothing to connect the dots to - until now.

Last week as I was driving my child to school and was shocked to see that 2 ****** recognition cameras (one pointing in each direction of traffic) had been erected at each stop light along the main road. These cameras were not there the afternoon before when I picked my child up from school. During the middle of the night, during the time span of about 12 hours, these cameras had been placed all along the main road of our small community, which also runs along a railroad track and leads right up to the Walmart.

4 days ago, there was a black helicopter hovering very low over our neighborhood with a man sitting half outside of the helicopter, his legs hanging outside the door, facing our homes and pointing what appeared to be some sort of scanning device toward the homes in our neighborhood. They were so low and so close that I could have tossed a tennis ball to them and they would have caught it. I noted that this helicopter activity also occurred during the middle of the afternoon, and on a weekday (when most folks are at work and would maybe not notice this type of activity). This continued for almost 10 minutes, rattling my windows and my nerves.

2 days ago a Sheriff's helicopter was hovering over our neighborhood, in the same area, but above the homes instead of in front of them like the helicopter from the previous 'visit'.

Now I'll share what I saw today that makes me feel we have much less time than we thought: This morning my husband and I drove to the feed store to pick up more chicken feed - which is just a few miles up the road past the Walmart I referenced earlier. As we were driving past the Walmart I saw an unmarked beige prison bus with blacked out, bar-covered windows driving up FROM BEHIND THE BACK OF THE WALMART. With all of the talk of Walmart storing up equipment for JH and the FEMA camp round-ups, I felt that his was very noteworthy. Anyone who has seen a correctional institute bus knows that correctional institutes mark their transport buses with the name of the correctional facility they belong to - this was not marked at all.

I don't think it's a coincidence that people all over the country are reporting the same combinations at the same time (military movement - helicopters and vehicles / Walmarts / train tracks / ****** recognition cameras / FEMA prison buses - some, like the one I saw behind a Walmart).

Please everyone - get ready - get right with God. Repent. Pray. Ask God to show you how to be ready and what to do when things unfold.

Your Sister in Christ
cigar capital                    
Florida state fair held there
subtropic Tampa
People live forever in Jacksonville and St. Petersburg and Tampa,
But you don't have to live forever to become a grampa.
The entrance requirements for grampahood are comparatively mild,
You only have to live until your child has a child.
From that point on you start looking both ways over your shoulder,
Because sometimes you feel thirty years younger and sometimes
thirty years older.
Now you begin to realize who it was that reached the height of
imbecility,
It was whoever said that grandparents have all the fun and none of
the responsibility.
This is the most enticing spiderwebs of a tarradiddle ever spun,
Because everybody would love to have a baby around who was no
responsibility and lots of fun,
But I can think of no one but a mooncalf or a gaby
Who would trust their own child to raise a baby.
So you have to personally superintend your grandchild from diapers
to pants and from bottle to spoon,
Because you know that your own child hasn't sense enough to come
in out of a typhoon.
You don't have to live forever to become a grampa, but if you do
want to live forever,
Don't try to be clever;
If you wish to reach the end of the trail with an uncut throat,
Don't go around saying Quote I don't mind being a grampa but I
hate being married to a gramma Unquote.
Doctor and Mr Granger have gone on holiday
They boarded an interstate bus at seven thirty am yesterday
By three this afternoon they'll be sunbathing at Tampa Bay
It's been years since they ventured down that way

Mrs Granger needed to escape the winter chills
Which had been so extreme in those Tennessee hills
The warmer Florida climes would give her such thrills
As the sun in this location has always heated her blue gills

The good Doctor Granger is a wonderful chap
He didn't want Mrs Granger to be in the cold snap
And he made sure she'd not have to feel its cold wrap
Hence the nice holiday into Tampa's warm lap

The Grangers will be staying in the South region for a while
Where the sun ever displays its radiant dial
And gives Mr Granger a good reason to smile
As she gets away from Tennessee's frozen wiles
Every so often, I like to post a poem about Doctor and Mrs Granger...
Kenneth Springer Apr 2013
Moons ago I smoked till the filter,
Drank Johnny’s backwash
And slept hungry.
How can you know an empty stomach,
Without dancing in Tampa for a buck fifty?
What’s for breakfast?
“cowboy killers.”
lunch I asked,
“Kentucky deluxe.”
Dinner?
“A bent Porto Rican kitten.”
But people are seasons
And springtime had come.
Now it’s easy, but still stiff.
In the end of the day.
ehh.
Pearson Bolt Nov 2017
i hate this town
and all the memories
tied to it
like broken symmetry,
loose wires
misfiring
in a fragile mind.

flea markets
and dog parks,
the Orpheum
and Foundation,
every inch
of this
coastal city
whispers quietly
of you.

each moment spent
in this ******* apartment
is a constant reminder
that waking up
beside you
felt like coming home.
Thomas R Parsons May 2012
Allow me today to sit and talk, while sipping on my cherry Kool-Aid – which by the way, tastes just fine to wash down my prescribed addiction,

I sit and relax today, I so rarely do – well, in truth, I have sat in boredom for months while life, people and chaos have come and gone, only to all visit again over and over and over…

I have focused so much on what is ideal that I know nothing about what actually is.

I have listened to sirens beneath my window, the ambulances, the fire trucks, searing into my brain a desire to be able to ignore them as they pass all while holding good thoughts for those who the sirens attend to,

My dog and I sit, he by me, me by him – along with the cat, sitting day in and day out – wondering.

Wondering – what if I wasn’t sick?

What if I had been a writer like I wanted to be?

What if I had learned to play the violin?

What if I hadn’t been molested as a child?

I write these words because there is no one.  No one with whom I can converse.  My dog – in his antsy fervor – has yet to utter a single word in contribution to my many attempts at conversation.

I don’t know where things changed.  I hear that people don’t like to be around people who are depressed.   I don’t want to be around me much either.  

Suicide, though an answer, I don’t have much courage for.  My mother always said suicide was a sin and you’ll go “straight to Hell” for doing it, then followed that up with “don’t even think such things!”  Rest In Peace mom but I think of it every day – but it’s a good thing I never learned to have courage in life.

The ice in my Kool-Aid is melting. Perhaps it’s a metaphor – a representation of what is happening in my life.
The bright red of life is watered down, becoming pink if the Kool-Aid to ice ratio is just right.

My heart is broken – again.  I continue to believe that somehow the one that I love will love me wholly without the need for sordid little rifts in the back seats of cars that sit far off in a parking lot, not under the lights – maybe under a tree that hangs over the last spot in the corner.

And where am I when this happens?  Home.  With the dog and the cat.  Cooking dinner, I imagine.  Knowing and oblivious.  Intuitive and in denial.

You used to love me so.  On our hours long bike rides through St. Petersburg – never venturing to Tampa because I didn’t want to ride on the Gandy bridge.  We sat time and time again at Mirror Lake contemplating our future together.  Happiness ensued and you were beautiful.  It felt as though our souls fused each and every time. And then I began to wonder.

Wondering – will I always be enough?

Will our lives be happy together?

Nine years into our relationship, will you still see me the same way?

I have changed – through no fault of my own – a series of strokes can change a person.  They can leave you blind on more than a physical level – but that too.  I didn’t mean to be different.  I didn’t choose to be cross-eyed and wounded.  I wanted to be more for you.  I, for some reason, need you to believe in me, for me to be better.  Are you still here?

Somehow, though, I knew that I would not always be enough for you.  It came as no real surprise when it was confirmed the other day.  The question is: what do I do now? (Oh, and… are you in love?)

I have no self-esteem.  I have no one around me to help pull me from the clutches of happiness turned sad.  Social media and a telephone are no replacement for a hug or a hushed conversation in a coffee shop – where I embarrassingly admit the emotionally crippling downward spiral of what I have allowed for myself to endure – the shame.

I deserved to be loved too.  I deserved more than cherry Kool-Aid, a prescription addiction and time spent wondering who you’re with.

Mom, are you sure you were right? Just wondering.
Not so much an intention of poetry, per se, but a series of thoughts that desperately needed written.
SøułSurvivør Mar 2017
A Story of Scientology and the
Mental Health System Connection

THE CAUSEWAY

By the time I got to Tampa Florida I was so weary that I was stumbling off my feet. I hadn't had any proper sleep in 4 days. My bones felt as if they had eaten a cancer. I can't remember sitting and waiting for motor pool to pick me up from the bus station. I must have been sleeping on my bags. Not that there were that many of them. I had very little clothing or toiletries. In fact I believe all that I owned was in one tiny suitcase and a carry-on duffle.

I don't remember the name of the man who picked me up that day. We'll just call him Noah. And the white van that traversed the Courtney Campbell Causeway carrying State Road 60 from Tampa to Clearwater? We'll just call that The Ark. Because we were about to meet a *deluge...


The first part of the trip I was nervous. It was raining and extremely windy. I remember asking Noah if we could wait for the storm to pass. He told me that he was under orders to get me to the Fort Harrison within a certain time frame. He would meet those orders come hell or high water. He didn't actually say that but that is what he meant. And that, my friends, is what we got!

The first part of the causeway appeared to be wide. It had palm trees on either side and some greenery. But at a certain point all it was was some roadway perched upon pylons. The engineers had started construction of the causeway in 1927. It was a total of 52,165' long. And, brother, I was feeling EVERY INCH!!!

The wind was blowing so hard that the rain was almost at a horizontal slant. The waves worse. They were spilling over the roadway and frothing. There was no one on the road of course. Nobody else would have been crazy enough to go out in that storm over that Causeway. But Noah had his orders, by God. And he was going to carry them out. That's how brainwashed and insane some scientologists are. Especially in the Sea Organization. Failure to follow "Command Intention" could be seen as grounds for the RPF. More on that horror later.

Well. I remembered Elsie. How she said the Lord Jesus Christ answered prayer. She'd told me that if you confessed your sins with a pure & contrite heart and asked anything of him, he would grant them. That's just what I did. I recall closing my eyes and talking to a man. I didn't know Him. But I told him I was sorry. And if he'd just get us to our destination safely I promised I'd try to be a better person...

Noah was terrified. I can still see his face locked in a rictus of fear. But now I felt strangely calm. Even when we hydroplaned over the asphalt I wasn't afraid. Finally we arrived at the end of that terrifying strip of water and wind. I don't recall exactly. But I believe Noah stopped the van and wept. For the first time in my life I thanked God. I recognized the event for what it was... A PURE MIRACLE.

*AND I WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER IT AS SUCH.
What I've written is what I remember to be. I don't know how we could have made it over that Causeway and not been swept over the side. It had to be an act of God.

What I will be writing from now on are my impressions of my time in the sea organization at the Flag Land base. All the names save one will be changed. There is one I don't hesitate to mention by name... the swaggering little dictator David Miscavige. A human monster of ****** prepositions. He will receive NO MERCY.

HE HAS SHOWN NONE TOWARDS ME.
Michael Bauer Feb 2015
walking through the big flea market

off of highway 19 north of Tampa

looking for whatever and something

curious and kitsch or campy



merchants selling in the parking lot

used blenders and old cameras

burnt out or faulty devices

DVD cases and game cartridges



old rednecks shout out opinions

in a cacophony of drawled signifiers

representing visions of despotic rulers

reigning a tyranny of taxes and decline



old glass containers and windshields shine

scattering high afternoon sunlight in the Sunday sky

sitting and resting used and content waiting

waiting for the wear and reduction of time



the market continues into indoor aisles

criss-crossing within a ramshackle structure

plywood walls supporting sheet metal roofing

an aroma of every greasy food wafting into one



people wrapped in worn fashions

whites in Ts and denim

muslim women in headscarves

a black deputy strapped down in uniform



the deputy enforces commerce laws

around the alternative marketplace

a variety of commodities are still available

bongs and e-cigs and incense and **** ****



parakeets cry out down one aisle

a stack of blue aquariums drone a bubbling hum

the stench of cedar and rat **** and hamsters

reptiles basking in the arid glow of heat lamps



all is right in America’s America

the flea market is the floorboard of that promise

an opportunity for anyone to begin

or start again and over and over



a liberal conservatism can be guarded well

with rifles or tazers at bargain rates

a conservative liberalism is applied openly

in the atmosphere of everyone for anything and everything



the dream of the flea market

a black market and a carnival

all of America’s cheap art on display

its people swirled into one



equal in their struggles and desires

reaching for resources and derivatives

buying low and selling higher

stealing and selling short



walking through the big flea market

on a hot and cloudless Sunday afternoon

looking for whatever or something

it’s a fun thing to do


**originally posted to my blog https://sublimeobscenities.wordpress.com on 4/27/2014
Mariana Seabra Jul 2023
Chegaste a mim em forma de argila, num balde de plástico furado.  
Apanhei-te, de surpresa, embrulhada nas ondas do meu mar salgado.  
Estavas escondida, por entre os rochedos, rodeada pelas habituais muralhas que te aconchegam,  
                                                   ­     as mesmas que me atormentam,  
quando levantas uma barreira que me impede de chegar a ti.  

Segurei-te nos braços, como quem se prepara para te embalar. Sacudi-te as algas, e encostei o meu ouvido à casca que te acolhia no seu ventre.  
Não conseguia decifrar o som que escutava, muito menos controlar a vontade de o querer escutar mais. Algo ecoava num tom quase inaudível. Sentia uma vida...uma vida fraca, sim...mas, havia vida a pulsar. Podia jurar que conseguia sentir-te, para lá da barreira, como se me tivesses atravessado corpo adentro.
Ainda não conhecia o som da tua voz, e ela já me fazia sonhar.  

Pulsavas numa frequência tão semelhante à minha!... não resisti,  
fui impelida a chegar mais perto. Precisava de te tocar, precisava de te ver,
     só para ter a certeza se eras real,
                           ou se, finalmente, tinha terminado de enlouquecer.

Se tinha perdido os meus resquícios de sanidade,  
                                                     ­                                   consciência,
                                                                ­                        lucidez,                              
ou se era verdade que estávamos ambas a vibrar,
no mesmo espaço, ao mesmo tempo, no mesmo ritmo de frequência, uma e outra e outra...e outra vez.  

Vieste dar à costa na minha pequena ilha encantada. Na ilha onde, de livre vontade, me isolava.  
Na ilha onde me permitia correr desafogadamente,  

                                             ­                            ser besta e/ou humana,  
                                                       ­                  ser eu,  
                                                           ­              ser tudo,
                                                                ­         ser todos,  
                                                        ­                 ou ser nada.  

Na mesma ilha onde só eu decidia, quem ou o que é que entrava. Não sabia se estava feliz ou assustada! Mais tarde, interiorizei que ambos podem coexistir. Por agora, sigo em elipses temporais. Longos anos que tentei suprimir num poema, na esperança que ele coubesse dentro de ti.

(…)

“Como é que não dei pela tua entrada? Ou fui eu que te escondi aqui? Será que te escondi tão bem, que até te consegui esconder de mim? És uma estranha oferenda que o mar me trouxe? Ou és só uma refugiada que ficou encalhada? Devo ficar contigo? Ou devolver-te às correntes? Como é que não dei pela tua entrada...? Que brecha é que descobriste em mim? Como é que conseguiste chegar onde ninguém chegou? Como é que te vou tirar daqui?”.  

Não precisei de te abrir para ver o que tinha encontrado, mas queria tanto descobrir uma brecha para te invadir! Não sabia de onde vinha esse louco chamamento. Sei que o sentia invadir-me a mim. Como se, de repente, chegar ao núcleo que te continha fosse cada vez menos uma vontade e, cada vez mais uma necessidade.

Cheiravas-me a terra molhada,  
                                                      ­   depois de uma chuva desgraçada. Queria entrar em ti! Mesmo depois de me terem dito que a curiosidade matava. Queria tanto entrar em ti! Ser enterrada em ti!  

A arquiteta que desenhou aquele balde estava mesmo empenhada                                                        ­                                                             
                                 em manter-te lá dentro,  
e manter tudo o resto cá fora. A tampa parecia bem selada.  

Admirei-a pela inteligência. Pelo simples que tornou complexo.  
Pela correta noção de que, nem toda a gente merece ter o teu acesso.

(...)

Vinhas em forma de argila...e, retiradas as algas da frente, vi um labirinto para onde implorei ser sugada. Estava no epicentro de uma tempestade que ainda se estava a formar e, já se faziam previsões que ia ser violenta. O caos de uma relação! de uma conexão, onde o eu, o tu e o nós, onde o passado, o futuro e o presente, entram em conflito, até cada um descobrir onde se encaixa, até se sentirem confortáveis no seu devido lugar.  

Estava tão habituada a estar sozinha e isolada, apenas acompanhada pelo som da água, dos animais ou do vento, que não sabia identificar se estava triste ou contente. Não sabia como me sentir com a tua inesperada chegada. Não sabia o que era ouvir outro batimento cardíaco dentro da minha própria mente,  

e sentir uma pulsação ligada à minha, mesmo quando o teu coração está distante ou ausente.  

No começo, espreitava-te pelos buracos do balde, por onde pequenos feixes de luz entravam e, incandesciam a tua câmera obscura,  

                 e tu corrias para te esconder!
                 e eu corria para te apanhar!
                 e foi um esconde-esconde que durou-durou...
                 e nenhuma de nós chegou a ganhar.  

Quanto mais te estudava, menos de mim percebia. Mais admiração sentia por aquela pedra de argila tão fria. "Que presente é este que naufragou no meu mar? Como é que te vou abrir sem te partir?"

Retirei-te a tampa a medo,  
                                                a medo que o teu interior explodisse.  

E tu mal te mexeste.  
                                  E eu mexia-te,
                                                           remex­ia-te,
                                                           virava-te do direito e do avesso.  

És única! Fazias-me lembrar de tudo,
                                                          e não me fazias lembrar de nada.

És única! E o que eu adorava  
é que não me fazias lembrar de ninguém,  
                             ninguém que eu tivesse conhecido ou imaginado.

És única! A musa que me inspirou com a sua existência.  

“Como é que uma pedra tão fria pode causar-me esta sensação tão grande de ardência?”

(…)

Mesmo que fechasse os olhos, a inutilidade de os manter assim era evidente.  
Entravas-me pelos sentidos que menos esperava. Foi contigo que aprendi que há mais que cinco! E, que todos podem ser estimulados. E, que podem ser criados mais! Existem milhares de canais por onde consegues entrar em mim.  

A curiosidade que aquele teu cheiro me despertava era imensa,                                                          ­                                                

               ­                                                                 ­                  intensa,
                                                                ­                                                       
         ­                                                                 ­                         então,  
                                          
             ­                                                                 ­                    abri-te.

Abri-me ao meio,  
só para ver em quantas peças é que um ser humano pode ser desmontado.

Despi-te a alma com olhares curiosos. E, de cada vez que te olhava, tinha de controlar o tempo! Tinha de me desviar! Tinha medo que me apanhasses a despir-te com o olhar. Ou pior!  
Tinha medo que fosses tu a despir-me. Nunca tinha estado assim tão nua com alguém.  
Tinha medo do que os teus olhos poderiam ver. Não sabia se ficarias, mesmo depois de me conhecer. Depois de me tirares as algas da frente, e veres que não sou só luz, que luz é apenas a essência em que me prefiro converter. Que vim da escuridão, embrulhada nas ondas de um mar escuro e tenebroso, e é contra os monstros que habitam essas correntes que me debato todos os dias, porque sei que não os posso deixar tomar as rédeas do meu frágil navio.  

(...)

Vinhas em inúmeros pedaços rochosos,
                                                                ­             uns afiados,  
  
                                                   ­                          uns macios,

                                                               ­           todos partidos...

Sentia a tua dureza contra a moleza da minha pele ardente,  
E eu ardia.  
                    E tu não ardias,  
                                                 parecias morta de tão fria.  

Estavas tão endurecida pela vida, que nem tremias.  
Não importava o quanto te amasse,  
                                                       ­          que te atirasse à parede, 
                                                        ­         que te gritasse                                                         ­                                                                 ­                    
                                                                ­                            ou abanasse...

Não importava. Não tremias.  

Haviam demasiadas questões que me assombravam. Diria que, sou uma pessoa com tendência natural para se questionar. Não é motivo de alarme, é o formato normal do meu cérebro funcionar. Ele pega numa coisa e começa a rodá-la em várias direções, para que eu a possa ver de vários ângulos, seja em duas, três, quatro ou cinco dimensões.  

"Porque é que não reagias?"  
"Devia ter pousado o balde?"  
"Devia ter recuado?"
"Devia ter desviado o olhar,
                                                      em vez de te ter encarado?"  

Mas, não. Não conseguia. Existia algo! Algo maior que me puxava para os teus pedaços.  
Algo que me fervia por dentro, uma tal de "forte energia", que não se permitia ser domada ou contrariada. Algo neles que me atraía, na exata medida em que me repelia.

Olhava-te, observava-te,  
                                                absorvia-te...
e via além do que os outros viam.
Declarava a mim mesma, com toda a certeza, que te reconhecia.
Quem sabe, de uma outra vida.
Eras-me mais familiar à alma do que a minha própria família.  
Apesar de que me entristeça escrever isto.  

Eram tantas as mazelas que trazias...Reconhecia algumas delas nas minhas. Nem sabia por onde te pegar.
Nem sabia como manter os teus pedaços juntos. Nem sabia a forma certa de te amar.
Estava disposta a aprender,  
                                                   se estivesses disposta a ensinar.  

(…)

Descobri com a nossa convivência, que violência era o que bem conhecias,                                                       ­                                                         
                    então, claro que já não tremias!  
Um ser humano quebrado, eventualmente, habitua-se a esse estado. Até o amor lhe começa a saber a amargo.  

Só precisei de te observar de perto.  
Só precisei de te quebrar com afeto.

Culpei-me por ser tão bruta e desastrada, esqueci-me que o amor também vem com espinhos disfarçados. Devia ter percebido pelo teu olhar cheio e vazio, pelo reflexo meu que nele espelhava, que a semelhança é demasiada para ser ignorada.

Somos semelhantes.  

Tão diferentes! que somos semelhantes.  

Duas almas velhas e cansadas. Duas crianças ingénuas e magoadas. Duas pessoas demasiado habituadas à solidão.  

Só precisei de escavar através do teu lado racional.
Cegamente, mergulhei bem fundo, onde já nem a luz batia,

                                                               ­    e naveguei sem rumo certo  

nas marés turbulentas do teu emocional. E, algures dentro de ti,  
encontrei um portal que me levou a um outro mundo...

Um mundo onde eu nem sabia que uma outra versão de mim existia,                                                         ­                                                         
       ­       onde me escondias e cobrias com a lua.

Um mundo onde eu estava em casa, e nem casa existia,  
                                                      ­            
                       onde me deitava ao teu lado,                                          
                          onde te deitavas ao meu lado,                                                            ­                                            
                    ­            totalmente nua,
      debaixo da armadura que, finalmente, parecia ter caído.  

Creio que mergulhei fundo demais...  
Ultrapassei os limites terrestres,
                                 e fui embater contigo em terrenos espirituais.  

Cheguei a ti com muita paciência e ternura.
Tornei-me energia pura! Um ser omnipresente. Tinha uma vida no mundo físico e, uma dupla, que vivia contigo através da música, da escrita, da literatura…Tornei-me minha e tua!  
Eu sabia...
Há muito amor escondido atrás dessa falsa amargura.  
Então, parei de usar a força e, mudei de abordagem,  
para uma mais sossegada,
                                               uma que te deixasse mais vulnerável,                                                                    ­                                            
         em vez de assustada.  

(…)

“Minha pedra de argila, acho que estou a projetar. Estou mais assustada que tu! Estar perto de ti faz-me tremer, não me consigo controlar. Quero estar perto! Só quero estar perto! Mesmo que não me segure de pé. Mesmo que tenhas de me relembrar de respirar. Mesmo que me custem a sair as palavras, quando são atropeladas pela carrada de sentimentos que vieste despertar…”

És um livro aberto, com páginas escritas a tinta mágica.
A cada página que o fogo revelava, havia uma página seguinte que vinha arrancada. Mais um capítulo que ficava por ler. Outra incógnita sobre ti que me deixavas a matutar.

Soubeste como me despertar a curiosidade,
como a manter,
como me atiçar,
como me deixar viciada em ti,
como me estabilizar ou desestabilizar.  

E nem precisas de fazer nada! a tua mera existência abana a corda alta onde me tento equilibrar.

Segurei-te com todo o carinho! E, foi sempre assim que quis segurar-te.

Como quem procura
                                       amar-te.

Talvez transformar-te,  
                                        em algo meu,
                                        em algo teu,
                                                                ­ em algo mais,
                                                                ­                          em algo nosso.  

Oferecias resistência, e eu não entendia.  
A ausência de entendimento entorpecia-me o pensamento, e eu insistia...Não conseguia respeitar-te. Só queria amar-te!

Cada obstáculo que aparecia era só mais uma prova para superar,  
                    ou, pelo menos, era disso que me convencia.
Menos metros que tinha de fazer nesta maratona exaustiva!
onde a única meta consistia  
                                                   em chegar a ti.
Desse por onde desse, tivesse de suar lágrimas ou chorar sangue!

(...)

Olhava-te a transbordar de sentimentos! mal me conseguia conter! mal conseguia formar uma frase! mal conseguia esconder que o que tremia por fora, nem se comparava ao que tremia por dentro!
Afinal, era o meu interior que estava prestes a explodir.

"Como é que não te conseguiste aperceber?”

A tua boca dizia uma coisa que, rapidamente, os teus olhos vinham contrariar. "Voa, sê livre”. Era o que a tua boca pregava em mim, parecia uma cruz que eu estava destinada a carregar. Mas, quando eu voava, ficava o meu mar salgado marcado no teu olhar.  
Não quero estar onde não estás! Não quero voar! quero deitar-me ao teu lado! quero não ter de sair de lá! e só quero voar ao teu lado quando nos cansarmos de viajar no mundo de cá.  

“Porque é que fazemos o oposto daquilo que queremos? Porque é que é mais difícil pedir a alguém para ficar? Quando é que a necessidade do outro começou a parecer uma humilhação? Quando é que o mundo mudou tanto, que o mais normal é demonstrar desapego, em vez daquela saudável obsessão? Tanta questão! Também gostava que o meu cérebro se conseguisse calar. Também me esgoto a mim mesma de tanto pensar.”

(...)

O amor bateu em ti e fez ricochete,  
                                                    ­                acertou em mim,  
quase nos conseguiu despedaçar.  

Até hoje, és uma bala de argila, perdida no fluxo das minhas veias incandescentes. O impacto não me matou, e o buraco já quase sarou com a minha própria carne à tua volta. Enquanto for viva, vou carregar-te para onde quer que vá. Enquanto for viva, és carne da minha própria carne, és uma ferida aberta que me recuso a fechar.
Quero costurar-me a ti! para que não haja possibilidade de nos voltarmos a separar.

Não sei se te cheguei a ensinar alguma coisa, mas ansiava que, talvez, o amor te pudesse ensinar.  

Oferecias resistência, e eu não entendia.  
Então, eu insistia...
                                   Dobrava-te e desdobrava-me.
Fazia origami da minha própria cabeça  
                                                e das folhas soltas que me presenteavas,
escritas com os teus pensamentos mais confusos. Pequenos pedaços de ti!  
Estava em busca de soluções para problemas que nem existiam.  

"Como é que vou tornar esta pedra áspera, numa pedra mais macia? Como é que chego ao núcleo desta pedra de argila? Ao sítio onde palpita o seu pequeno grande coração?
Querias que explorasse os teus limites,  
                                                      ­      ou que fingisse que não os via?”

Querias ser pedra de gelo,  
                                                  e eu, em chamas,  
queria mostrar-te que podias ser pedra vulcânica.

(...)

Estudei as tuas ligações químicas, cada partícula que te constituía.
Como se misturavam umas com as outras para criar  

                 a mais bela sinestesia

que os meus olhos tiveram o prazer de vivenciar.


Tornaste-te o meu desafio mais complicado.  
“O que raio é suposto eu fazer com tantos bocados afiados?”.  
Sinto-os espalhados no meu peito, no sítio onde a tua cabeça deveria encaixar, e não há cirurgia que me possa salvar. Não sei a que médico ir.  Não sei a quem me posso queixar.
São balas fantasma, iguais às dores que sinto quando não estás.  
A dor aguda e congruente que me atormenta quando estás ausente.
Como se me faltasse um pedaço essencial, que torna a minha vida dormente.

Perdoa-me, por nunca ter chegado a entender que uso lhes deveria dar.  

(...)

Reparei, por belo acaso! no teu comportamento delicado  
quando te misturavas com a água salgada, que escorria do meu olhar esverdeado,
                                  quando te abraçava,  
                                  quando te escrevia,  
                          em dias de alegria e/ou agonia.
Como ficavas mais macia, maleável e reagias eletricamente.  
Expandias-te,  
                          tornav­as-te numa outra coisa,  
                                                        ­              um novo eu que emergia,  

ainda que pouco coerente.  


Peguei-te com cuidado. Senti-te gélida, mas tranquila...
"Minha bela pedra de argila..."
Soube logo que te pertencia,  
                                                    ­   soube logo que me pertencias.  
Que o destino, finalmente, tinha chegado.
E soube-o, mesmo quando nem tu o sabias.

A estrada até ti é longa, prefiro não aceitar desvios.  
É íngreme o caminho, e raramente é iluminado...
muito pelo contrário, escolheste construir um caminho escuro,  
cheio de perigos e obstáculos,  
                                                   ­      um caminho duro,  
feito propositadamente para que ninguém chegue a ti...
Então, claro que, às vezes, me perco. Às vezes, também não tenho forças para caminhar. E se demoro, perdoa-me! Tenho de encontrar a mim mesma, antes de te ir procurar.  

No fim da longa estrada, que mais parece um labirinto perfeitamente desenhado,
                                      sem qualquer porta de saída ou de entrada,
estás tu, lá sentada, atrás da tua muralha impenetrável, a desejar ser entendida e amada, e simultaneamente, a desejar nunca ser encontrada.  

“Como é que aquilo que eu mais procuro é, simultaneamente, aquilo com que tenho mais medo de me deparar?”

Que ninguém venha quebrar a tua solidão!  
Estás destinada a estar sozinha! É isso que dizes a ti mesma?
Ora, pois, sei bem o que é carregar a solidão às costas,  
a beleza e a tranquilidade de estar sozinha.

Não vim para a quebrar,  
                                   vim para misturar a tua solidão com a minha.

Moldei-te,  
                     e moldei-me a ti.

Passei os dedos pelas fissuras. Senti todas as cicatrizes e, beijei-te as ranhuras por onde escapavam alguns dos teus bocados. Tentei uni-los num abraço.
Eu sabia...
Como se isto fosse um conto de fadas…
Como se um beijo pudesse acordar…
Como se uma chávena partida pudesse voltar atrás no tempo,  
                                                        ­      
                                                         segundo­s antes de se estilhaçar.  

O tempo recusa-se a andar para trás.
Então, tive de pensar numa outra solução.
Não te podia deixar ali, abandonada, partida no chão.

Todo o cuidado! E mesmo assim foi pouco.  
Desmoronaste.  
Foi mesmo à frente dos meus olhos que desmoronaste.  

Tive tanto cuidado! E mesmo assim, foi pouco.
Não sei se te peguei da forma errada,  
                            
                              ou se já chegaste a mim demasiado fragilizada…

Não queria acreditar que, ainda agora te segurava...
Ainda agora estavas viva…
Ainda agora adormecia com o som do teu respirar…

Agora, chamo o teu nome e ninguém responde do lado de lá…
Agora, já ninguém chama o meu nome do lado de cá.

Sou casmurra. Não me dei por vencida.
Primeiro, levantei-me a mim do chão, depois, quis regressar a ti
                            e regressei à corrida.  
Recuperei-me, e estava decidida a erguer-te de novo.
Desta vez tive a tua ajuda,
                                                   estavas mais comprometida.
Tinhas esperança de ser curada.
Talvez, desta vez, não oferecesses tanta resistência!
Talvez, desta vez, aceitasses o meu amor!
Talvez, desta vez, seja um trabalho a dois!
Talvez, desta vez, possa estar mais descansada.
Talvez, desta vez, também eu possa ser cuidada.

Arrumei os pedaços, tentei dar-lhes uma outra figura.
Adequada à tua beleza, ao teu jeito e feitio. Inteligente, criativa, misteriosa, divertida, carismática, observadora, com um toque sombrio.

Despertaste em mim um amor doentio!  
Ou, pelo menos, era assim que alguns lhe chamavam.
Admito, a opinião alheia deixa-me mais aborrecida do que interessada. A pessoas incompreensivas, não tenho vontade de lhes responder. Quem entende, irá entender. Quem sente o amor como uma brisa, não sabe o que é senti-lo como um furacão. Só quem ama ou já amou assim, tem a total capacidade de compreender, que nem tudo o que parece mau, o chega realmente a ser.

Às vezes, é preciso destruir o antigo, para que algo novo tenha espaço para aparecer. Um amor assim não é uma doença, não mata, pelo contrário, deu-me vontade de viver. Fez-me querer ser melhor, fez-me lutar para que pudesse sentir-me merecedora de o ter.

Sim, pode levar-nos à loucura. Sei que, a mim, me leva ao desespero. O desespero de te querer apertar nos meus braços todos os dias. O desespero de te ter! hoje! amanhã! sempre! O desespero de viver contigo já! agora! sempre! O desespero de não poder esperar! O desespero de não conseguir seguir indiferente depois de te conhecer! O desespero de não me conseguir conter! Nem a morte me poderia conter!  
E , saber que te irei amar, muito depois de morrer.  

Quem nunca passou de brasa a incêndio, não entende a total capacidade de um fogo. Prefiro renascer das cinzas a cada lua nova, do que passar pela vida sem ter ardido.  

Já devia ter entendido, as pessoas só podem mergulhar fundo em mim se já tiverem mergulhado fundo em si. Quem vive à superfície, não sabe do que falo quando o assunto é o inconsciente.  
Se os outros não se conhecem sequer a si mesmos, então, a opinião deles deveria mesmo importar? Há muito já fui aclamada de vilã, por não ser mais do que mera gente. E, como qualquer gente, sou simples e complexa. A realidade é que, poucos são os que se permitem sentir todo o espectro de emoções humanas, genuinamente, e eu, felizmente e infelizmente, sou gente dessa.

(…)

Descobriste um oceano escondido e inexplorado.  
Um Mar que se abriu só para ti, como se fosse Moisés que se estivesse a aproximar. Um Mar que só existia para ti. Um Mar que mais ninguém via, onde mais ninguém podia nadar. Um Mar reservado para ti. Parecia que existia com o único propósito de fazer o teu corpo flutuar.  

Deste-lhe um nome, brincaste com ele, usaste-o, amassaste-o, engoliste-o
                      e, cuspiste-o de volta na minha cara.

Uma outra definição. Um Mar de água doce, com a tua saliva misturada.
Uma outra versão de mim, desconhecida, até então.  
Um outro nome que eu preferia.
Um nome que só tu me chamavas, e mais ninguém ouvia,  
Um booboo que nasceu na tua boca e veio parar às minhas mãos, e delas escorria para um sorriso tímido que emergia.

(...)

E, de onde origina a argila?
Descobri que, pode gerar-se através de um ataque químico. Por exemplo, com a água. "A água sabe."  Era o que tu me dizias.  

Era com ela que nos moldavas.
Talvez com a água doce e salgada que escorria do teu rosto
                                                   e no meu rosto caía,
                                                   e no meu pescoço secava,

enquanto choravas em cima de mim,
                                                                ­abraçada a mim, na tua cama.

Enquanto tremias de receio, de que me desejasses mais a mim, do que aquilo que eu te desejava.

“Como não podias estar mais enganada!  
Como é que não vias todo o tempo e amor que te dedicava?  
Tinhas os olhos tapados pelo medo? Como é que me observavas e não me absorvias?”

O amor tem muito de belo e muito de triste.  A dualidade do mundo é tramada, mas não me adianta de nada fechar os olhos a tudo o que existe.  

Ah! Tantas coisas que nascem de um ataque químico! Ou ataque físico, como por exemplo, através do vulcanismo ou da erosão.
Quando moveste as placas que solidificavam as minhas raízes à Terra,  
           e chegaste a mim em forma de sismo silencioso,  
mandaste-me as ilusões e as outras estruturas todas abaixo, e sobrou uma cratera com a forma do meu coração, de onde foi cuspida a lava que me transmutou. A mesma lava que, mais tarde, usei para nos metamorfosear. Diria que, ser destruída e reconstruída por ti, foi a minha salvação.
Sobrei eu, debaixo dos destroços. Só não sei se te sobrevivi. Nunca mais fui a mesma desde que nos vi a desabar.  

E, são esses dois ataques que geram a argila. Produzem a fragmentação das rochas em pequenas partículas,  
                                                   ­                                                             
                                                                ­                         umas afiadas,  
                                                      ­                                                        
                                                                ­                         umas macias,
                                                                ­                                                       
         ­                                                                 ­               todas partidas.  

Gosto de pegar em factos e, aproximá-los da ficção na minha poesia.
Brinco com metáforas, brinco contigo, brinco com a vida...mas, sou séria em tudo o que faço. Só porque brinco com as palavras, não significa que te mentiria. A lealdade que me une a ti não o iria permitir.  

É belo, tão belo! Consegues ver? Fazes vibrar o meu mundo. Contigo dá-se a verdadeira magia! Também consegues senti-la?  
Tudo dá para ser transformado em algo mais. Nem melhor nem pior, apenas algo diferente.  

Das rochas vem a areia, da areia vem a argila, da argila vem o meu vaso imaginário, a quem dei um nome e uma nova sina.  

Viva a alquimia! Sinto a fluir em mim a alquimia!  
Tenho uma capacidade inata de romantizar tudo,  

                                                   de ver o copo meio cheio,  

                                                       ­                          e nem copo existia.  

Revelaste-me um amor que não sabia estar perdido.
Entendeste-me com qualidades e defeitos.
Graças a ti, fiquei esclarecida! Que melhor do que ser amada,
é ser aceite e compreendida.

Feita de barro nunca antes fundido.
Assim seguia a minha alma, antes de te ter conhecido.
Dá-me da tua água! Quero afogar-me em ti, todas as vidas!
E ter o prazer de conhecer-te, e ter o desprazer de esquecer-te, só para poder voltar a conhecer-te,
sentir-te, e por ti, só por ti, ser sentida.  

Toquei-te na alma nua! Ainda tenho as mãos manchadas com o sangue da tua carne crua. E a minha alma nua, foi tocada por ti. Provaste-me que não estava doida varrida. Soube logo que era tua!  

Nunca tinha trabalhado com o teu tipo de barro.
Ainda para mais, tão fraturado.
Peguei em ti, com todo o cuidado...

"Tive um pensamento bizarro,
Dos teus pedaços vou construir um vaso! Tem de caber água, búzios, algumas flores! Talvez o meu corpo inteiro, se o conseguir encolher o suficiente.

Recolho todos os teus bocados, mantenho-os presos, juntos por um fio vermelho e dourado. Ofereço-me a ti de presente."

(…)

Amei-te de forma sincera.  Às vezes errada, outras vezes certa, quem sabe incoerente. Mas o amor, esse que mais importa, ao contrário de nós, é consistente.  

Sobreviveu às chamas do inferno, às chuvas que as apagaram, a dezenas de enterros e renascimentos.  

Nem os anos que por ele passaram, o conseguiram romper. Nem o tempo que tudo desbota, o conseguiu reescrever.

Foi assim que me deparei com o presente agridoce que me aguardava. Descobriste um dos vazios que carrego cá dentro e, depositaste um pedaço de ti para o preencher.
Invadiste o meu espaço, sem que te tivesse notado, nem ouvi os teus passos a atravessar a porta.  
Confundiste-te com a minha solidão, sem nunca a ter mudado. Eras metade do que faltava em mim, e nem dei conta que me faltavas.

“Como poderia não te ter amado? …"

(…)

Minha bela pedra de argila,  
Ninguém me disse que eras preciosa.
Ninguém o sabia, até então.
Não te davam o devido valor,
e, para mim, sempre foste o meu maior tesouro.
Até a alma me iluminavas,
como se fosses uma pedra esculpida em ouro.

  
Meu vaso de barro banhado a fio dourado,  
Ninguém me avisou que serias tão cobiçado,  
                                                     ­             invejado,
                                                               desdenhado,
ou, até, a melhor obra de arte que eu nunca teria acabado.
Ninguém o poderia saber.  
Queria guardar-te só para mim!
Não por ciúmes, além de os ter.
Mas sim, para te proteger.
Livrar-te de olhares gananciosos e, pessoas mal-intencionadas.  
Livrar-te das minhas próprias mãos que, aparentemente, estão condenadas
                       a destruir tudo o que tanto desejam poder agarrar.  

Perdoa-me, ter achado que era uma benção.

Talvez fosse mais como a maldição  
de um Rei Midas virado do avesso.
Tudo o que toco, transforma-se em fumo dourado.
Vejo o futuro que nos poderia ter sido dado!
Vejo-te no fumo espesso,
                                               a dissipares-te à minha frente,
antes mesmo de te ter tocado.

Tudo o que os deuses me ofereceram de presente, vinha envenenado.

  
A eterna questão que paira no ar.  
É melhor amar e perder? Ou nunca chegar a descobrir a sensação de ter amado?

É melhor amar e ficar!

Há sempre mais opções, para quem gosta de se focar menos nos problemas
                     e mais nas soluções.

O amor é como o meu vaso de argila em processo de criação.  
Cuidado! Qualquer movimento brusco vai deixar uma marca profunda. Enquanto não solidificar, tens de ter cuidado! Muito cuidado para não o estragar. Deixa-o girar, não o tentes domar, toca-lhe com suavidade, dá-lhe forma gentilmente, decora os seus movimentos e, deixa-te ser levado, para onde quer que te leve a sua incerta corrente.

Enquanto não solidificar, é frágil! Muito frágil e, a qualquer momento, pode desabar.

Era isso que me estavas a tentar ensinar?  

Duas mãos que moldam a argila num ritmo exaltante!
E une-se a argila com o criador!
                                            E gira! E gira! num rodopio esmagador,  
                                                    ­  E gira! E gira! mas não o largues!
Segura bem os seus pedaços! Abraça-os com firmeza!

Porque erguê-lo é um trabalho árduo
                                                           ­      e se o largas, vai logo abaixo!

São horas, dias, meses, anos, atirados para o esgoto. Sobra a dor, para que nenhuma de nós se esqueça.

                                        E dança! E dança! E dança!...
                             Tento seguir os seus passos pela cintura...  
                                       Se não soubesse que era argila,  
                          diria que era a minha mão entrelaçada na tua.

Bato o pé no soalho.
                                    E acelero!
                                                      e acalmo o compasso...
A água escorre por ele abaixo.
Ressalta as tuas belas linhas à medida da sua descida,
como se fosse a tua pele suada na minha.  

No final, que me resta fazer? Apenas admirá-lo.

Reconstrui-lo. Delimitá-lo. Esculpi-lo. Colori-lo. Parti-lo, quem sabe. É tão simples! a minha humana de ossos e carne, transformada em pedra de argila, transformada em tesouro, transformada em pó de cinza que ingeri do meu próprio vulcão...

A destruição também é uma forma de arte, descobri isso à força, quando me deixaste.  

Acho que, no meu vaso de argila, onde duas mãos se entrecruzaram para o moldar, vou enchê-lo de areia, búzios, pedras e água dourada,
         talvez nasça lá um outro pedaço de ti, a meio da madrugada.
Vou metê-lo ao lado da minha cama, e chamar-lhe vaso de ouro. Porque quem pega num pedaço rochoso e consegue dar-lhe uma outra utilidade, já descobriu o que é alquimia,  

o poder de ser forjado pelo fogo e sair ileso,
renascido como algo novo.
Michael Rucker Oct 2017
Jung Boulevard was the street that struck my chords.
The first time I saw her walking down the street,
her sisters were at her side.
I had them over for a "house warming" fire that night,
where the fire burnt out in twenty minutes,
and we all just sat in the cold with no words to share.

She knew she loved me in that moment,
and I knew I loved her.

Some nights her and I sat under the stars,
November cold kept us close.
We kept filling the air with empty words,
only begging to hear the lull of each voice.

The night we had *** in a candle lit room,
The time we came across the pack of dogs,
Waiting at the bus stop for you...
pieces of us.

The memory haunts me,
and I hope it haunts you too.
Jeff Lewis Oct 2019
5 pm Halloween afternoon
87 degrees outside
I wonder--is that in the shade?
Anyway,
I'm not expecting many snowmen
Looking for Snickers bars.
As a kid i might dress as an artic explorer as a way to stay warm. Different places, different times.
Lamar Lewis Jul 2011
So you're riding in this car, and you feel this kind of feeling. Like the wind is softly caressing your skin as curtains drawn over a freshly opened window on a spring day, blowing in soft spurts up and down your skin, subtely undulating to the ryhtym of natures heartbeat in harmony with your own. At a stop sign, it's second nature to stick your cigarette out the window and flick, but at full speeds you should have known. You should have known that the sheer movement all in one direction would be enough to wipe that ash straight away, revealing a new and beautiful burning ember, bursting with life and oxygen, beckoning up at you with the long lost pleasures of your most recent inhalation of life into those black heavy lungs. You stop to think and realize that life, with it's many shortcomings and speed car races, is a mysterious enigma, with an ultimate prize when you solve the puzzle.



But that last puzzle piece, oh how elusive it remains over the years. Be it love? Or loss? Perhaps musical inebriation or an exceptionally deep relative conversation with a complete stranger. The kind that leads to dancing eyes and an incredible variation of ****** expressions that you hadn't even thought possible from the tiny muscles below your cheeks, pulling the strings from somwehere up above to show you the right complexion to wear at any given moment or pause.



I still think that love must have something to do with it. More intoxicating than the ripest wine from the most exotic vineyard. More majestic and mystifying than the school bus ride with your fresh smelling brand new pleather/plastic superhero backpack and matching shoes on your first day of school back in 1995. More powerful and tumultuous, yet unpredictably moving, than the first time it hit you like a ton of bricks remembering in mid adulthood that some place, some where in time, you had a real home, with a real family, with real holiday tradtitions to celebrate and commiserate about each and every year, but that's all gone and done for. Yes, love must be involved some how, the invariably escapable little *****. She must be hiding somwhere amongst the tree lines and leaves, the rivers and valleys, the shooting stars and comet tails brightening the dull black of night. Yes. She must be somewhere.

Maria Yuryevna Sharapove
Cuantos amore y tu?
De Donde eres?
Soy de Estados Unidos, un poco en la Florida.
Es muy bonita aqui, Yo pasar vivir en Tampa, FL.
Currente en Orlando, FL.
Sus ojos me gusto muchas.
El feo es muy beauty-full.
Las flores de unas manifestaciones have certainly done their NUMB3r on me.
Die.
Fur.
Ewigkeit.
eternity.
Everlasting.
eruptions.
Elliter­ation eh?
wet Yet?
I bet you sweat for a Poet?
I certainly hope you adore an actor.
I beumse you to be a mused by musicians musing over you alone.
Marriage isnt so tough when you I toughed it out this long.
Have Your Veins ever felt like Runaways?
Meow.
Me, OWWW?!
(;
peace//love
X//0
sugarpova?
sharapova?
more like supernoavs!
excuse me
supernovae
eh?
I could do this alllllllll day (:
Wuv youuuu
Lov u?
I wish I knew russian
Yuryevna is the only world I need to understand.
The sun swirled my whole life
Arent you the sun incarnate
and
immaculate of course.
we gloridifed all the benches
killed all the 'rockstars'
I Am augustus, antony, another one?
it goes on
ad infinitum.
I have a perfect soul.
So do you.

'I want you to notice when Im not around. You're so very specialllll :(

I wish I was Special

But Im a 'creep?
Your the creep!

Your the ******.
But its okay
I like 'Polka" dots.
Ill 'CRUCIFY' you wink any ******* time you want. BELIEVE ME.
Now
Testify

Run
Run
Run
RUŃÑŃ Uhm
Are we done yet?
Nope

"Whatever makes you happy, whatever you want, a child as soon as possible of course. Youre beaitful. The most beautiful princess a 'prince' of 'peace' could corrupt. (;

Lets Let Love LIE, Live.

Everything in its right place Maria.
I know Im a Tangential Thinker, diagnosed by Grace itself.

Ive been through prison, kail, solitary confinement.

and guess what

it wasn't all for you
but it was and i never knew

My lost lenore.
Quoth the Raven.
ALWAYS.
Stewie Dec 2017
Almost a year in this new city and things are still new to me.
I don't like it here.
I think about home quite often; the way the city lights of downtown trickled upon my face as I sped up in my car.
The bass of a song vibrating my body as I swerve under the bridge and onto the interstate.
The smell of the air as the heat rises off the pavement on a hot summer day.
The hug of my mother as the scent of Chanel perfume stains my clothes.
The laugh of my father as he tells a "dad" joke.

I'll be home soon.
You can't really appreciate home, until you leave.
Cori MacNaughton Jun 2015
A Moment in Life Twice Lost to Time
The Swiss watch is my paradigm
Residing now ‘neath Tampa Bay
A moment in life twice lost to time

The gift, from a wall of ice to climb
In Luxembourg where I did stay
The Swiss watch becomes my paradigm

Research belaying the banker's crime
Through valleys green, o'er bridges grey
A moment in life twice lost to time

While belching diesels share their grime
And church bells call all souls to pray
This watch, my truest paradigm

In this city from another time
In Europe's heart I found my way
A moment in life twice lost to time

Returning from this land sublime
My walls and battlements fell away
Rodania watch, my paradigm
A moment in life twice lost to time

2 March 2000
This poem was my first, and to date only attempt at a villanelle.  The watch was a birthday gift from a doctoral candidate for whom I was acting as research assistant, which I lost years later, sailing in Tampa Bay.

I have read this in public but this is the first time it appears in print.
wah Sep 2014
call me when your flight lands in Munich
and we can discuss
how the cinder blocks
standing stationary in the walls
like cold queen's guards
meet so seamlessly
they touch so cleanly
never a crack, never a pore

call me when your flight lands in Tampa
and we can talk about
all of the clothes on the floor
folding and crinkling
discontinuing continuum
they haven't been touched since July
and when you call,
we can talk about how they
make my room smell like
gasoline

let me know when you land safely in Munich
and I'd be happy to go on
about the smell of the parking garage
equal parts old rain and new exhaust pipes
and the open air
underneath the moon; so close
that I will grab it out of
the closet sky
and give it to you instead of saying:
        I'm so ******* sorry

let me know when you land safely in Tampa
and we can assume the position
of conductors
of a grand orchestra
of lost crickets and cracking bones
of the dogs barking at
spilled black ink
and chasing the painted Sun
and maybe when the song is over,
we will clean up the mess
and be able to fall in love
with nothingness
Hanarchy Feb 2016
I leave my love for you in the sun.
I leave my love for you in the gentle breeze that caresses the palm fronds, the way you used to caress my hair.
I leave my love for you in the clouds that kiss the sky, just as you kissed my face.
I leave my love for you in the warmth touching my skin, just as your warmth soaked into me as you held me in your arms.

I leave all of it here, in a place of my greatest dreams and my worst nightmares. I leave it here, so that someday I may return to it. I leave it here, so I can finally set myself free.
Levi Bradford Apr 2018
Cool zoo--
dry ground--
the kind meerkats treasure,
perfect for tunnels to escape sunlight,
and reside in--
be a part of--
whatever it is that's holding everything up.

It was December in Florida,
and the cold hung silent in the air;
as if someone spoke, heaven's branch might snap,
and snow would fall all at once,
and cover animal exhibits.

Christmas lights--
tiny suns,
each thinking its gravity formed the center of the universe,
connected by this green vein that seems to connect everything.

I watch my partner exhale,
my partner's breath resembling snow,
and somewhere in the distance,
we can hear a hyena cackling at my joke untold.
The first date I had with the person who is now my spouse, we went to the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa for their nighttime holiday lights display. At the gate, the ticketer told us the park was empty. "No one came tonight." And asked if we wanted tickets for a different night. We said no, and explored the zoo alone in the darkness while all the animals slept.
Noah Sep 2015
I live for two hours, five hours, bite to bleed.
A cryogenic coma until we begin.

Arguing in vain with the town around me,
over nothing able to be justified, and he and I don't care;
reveling in the confusion of the tri-city area—
drowning our egos and taking our time
until we truce with razor smiles; shift
to removing tongues with pliers in our words.
(living amputation and too much diet coke)

Shouted disclaimers spread to the rest of the state,
in case they never wondered how it feels
to watch a living heart exposed.
He gleamed gold with self-confidence as he cracked his knuckles.
"I'd like someone to hit me, y'know?"
Next to him, Tallahassee rolls her eyes, Tampa looks away.
(I catch his stare. Deo gratias. Deo gratias. Father, Son, and Violent Thoughts.)
Thank God, I whisper, and I am yelling.
He is split from throat to hip and I drain his open truth.

Speaker static shifts the room,
podium to floor.
This isn't over, he says, and we laugh
because nothing we ever say can be proven,
and we intend to prove it all.
I know the rhythm is off but this is a super rough draft. anyways. it's is about this dude Orlando who I'm in class with idk he's pretty cool we're friends
Doctor and Mrs Granger raised their family
In the foothills of the lovely state of Tennessee
All their children have left the Granger compound
They're all traveling to other grounds

The good doctor and his adoring wife
Have now established a retirement life
On Tuesdays and Saturdays they go to the local museum
To show the tourists the many artifacts found at Atkins stream

Yesterday I saw Doctor Granger at the shopping arcade
He asked if I'd team up with Major Rogers to play charades
He said Mrs Granger so enjoys these afternoons of fun
And that she'd be making one of her famous fruit buns

Doctor and Mrs Granger shall soon be going to Tampa Bay
To have a holiday with their friends Doctor and Mrs Day
While they are relaxing in the sun shine
I'll be thinking up some more story lines
cigar capital                
its nickname, the Big Guava          
has streetcar, Tampa
shireliiy Nov 2015
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Sam Bowden Mar 2019
In a rush and dash,
you left the bustling and thoroughly coursed New York streets,
paved smooth by the administrators of your newly proclaimed home.
There I stood,
as I watched the Lyft carry you north,
as if on a cloud,
away from me.
And here, I find myself:
having left behind the sun and surf and sandy roads of my home,
which seemed so narrow but always felt a place rich with possibility.
Having left behind too, the parochial, working-class life of my forebearers, in search of something more.
In a city, foreign and yet familiar to us both,
we caught a glimpse of one another on a chilly night in November,
that sweet, sweet November.
Miles from the places we used to call home, Tehran, Bloomington, Boston, Philly... Nashville, Tampa, Chicago, New Brunswick,  
gone are the comforts of our mothers' kitchens and fathers' protection.
You, gracing the tiniest grain of sand with your presence as you carry your doctorates on your breast pocket,
and your mother's dreams in your hands...
Me, occupying the academy,
without rhyme or reason but ever searching for the latter.
Against the winter's breeze,
your tempest of black hair flows in the wind,
fluttering around your face like the Whirling Dervishes,
making me lost in the ecstasy of the Divine.
Clad in black,
and with no adornments nor jewels,
save the crimson lining your lips...
to my eye, your beauty has nowhere to hide.
And on that night, I breathed it in,
even as your mechanical chariot carried you away from me with deliberate haste.
A brisk wind caught my back, pulling me back to the pavement,
though as I strolled my mind drifted like dandelion seeds blown to the wind...
Back in Tehran, long faces wrapped in linen would grow despondent,
if only they knew my thoughts of you.
Sure as the pious, I knew:
a splendid love story began between us that night,
propelled by the tenor of laughter,
and the strike of piano keys,
and the belted lyrics of strangers sharing merriment well into the small hours.
My romanticized childish hopes swelled that night,
that a heart engulfed in a forlorn sea might make acquaintance with such a passionate soul...
As I strolled back to Harlem,
I couldn't shake the thought of your dancing silhouette next to me,
the feel of your hair around my fingers,
the warmth of your jean-clad leg pressed into mine,
the strength of your hand atop my thigh,
nor the magic of your smile which could spark the ire of miscreants
or calm the rumblings of a tumultuous sea.
Sure as the pious, I knew:
This was the beginning.
And only the beginning.
Suns rise and sink,
the moon melts and grows;
So too does our love.
Days and nights have since past,
ever spent caressing one another,
while the wheel of fate spins a web of love around us.
Tucked away in our cocoon, we are,
away from the eyes and envies of the world.
Resplendent in your timeless beauty, you are.
Know that the gentle kindness between us will never fade.
Know that the thought of catching your gaze,
even if only just once more, sustains me,
And it always will.
G Rog Rogers Aug 2017
I thought of you in Paris
and remembered
you in Zurich

I was reminded of
you in Moscow
and I could not forget
you in Cancun

My memories were of you when I went back
to New Orleans
and Tampa Bay

I continue thinking of you
in Dallas and LA.

-R.

(16)
-LA
©2017
Andrés, aunque te quitas la boina cuando paso
y me llamas «señor», distanciándote un poco.
reprobándome -veo- que no lleve corbata,
que trate falsamente de ser un tú cualquiera,
que cambie los papeles -tú por tú, tú barato-,
que no sea el que exiges -el amo respetable
que te descansaría-,
y me tiendes tu mano floja, rara, asusta
como un triste estropajo de esclavo milenario,
no somos dos extraños.
Tus penas yo las sufro. Mas no puedo aliviarte
de las tuyas dictando qué es lo justo y lo injusto.

No sé si tienes hijos.
No conozco tu casa, ni tus intimidades.
Te he visto en mis talleres, día a día, durando,
y nunca he distinguido si estabas triste, alegre,
cansado, indiferente, nostálgico o borracho.
Tampoco tú sabías cómo andaban mis nervios,
ni que escribía versos -siempre me ha avergonzado-,
ni que yo y tú, directos,
podíamos tocarnos, sin más ni más, ni menos,
cordialmente furiosos, estrictamente amargos,
anónimos, fallidos, descontentos a secas,
mas pese a todo unidos como trabajadores.

Estábamos unidos por la común tarea,
por quehaceres viriles, por cierto ser conjunto,
por labores sin duda poco sentimentales
-cumplir este pedido con tal costo a tal fecha;
arreglar como sea esta máquina hoy mismo-
y nunca nos hablamos de las cóleras frías,
de los milagros machos,
de cómo estos esfuerzos serán nuestra sustancia,
y el sueldo y la familia, cosas vanas, remotas,
accesorias, gratuitas, sin último sentido.
Nunca como el trabajo por sí y en sí sagrado
o sólo necesario.

Andrés, tú lo comprendes. Andrés, tú eres un vasco.
Contigo sí que puedo tratar de lo que importa,
de materias primeras,
resistencias opacas, cegueras sustanciales,
ofrecidas a manos que sabían tocarlas,
apreciarlas, pesarlas, valorarlas, herirlas,
orgullosas, fabriles, materiales, curiosas.
Tengo un título bello que tú entiendes: Madera,
Pino rojo de Suecia y Haya brava de Hungría,
Samanguilas y Okolas venidas de Guinea,
Robles de Slavonía y Abetos del Mar Blanco,
Pinoteas de Tampa, Mobile o Pensacola.

Maderas, las maderas humildemente nobles,
lentamente crecidas, cargadas de pasado,
nutridas de secretos terrenos y paciencia,
de primaveras justas, de duración callada,
de savias sustanciadas, felizmente ascendentes.
Maderas, las maderas buenas, limpias, sumisas,
y el olor que expandían,
y el gesto, el nudo, el vicio personal que tenían
a veces ciertas rollas,
la influencia escondida de ciertas tempestades,
de haber crecido en esta, bien en otra ladera,
de haber sorbido vagas corrientes aturdidas.

Hay gentes que trabajan el hierro y el cemento;
las hay dadas a espartos, o a conservas, o a granos,
o a lanas, o a anilinas, o a vinos, o a carbones;
las hay que sólo charlan y ponen telegramas
mas sirven a su modo;
las hay que entienden mucho de amiantos o de grasas,
de prensas, celulosas, electrodos, nitratos; 
las hay, como nosotros, dadas a la  madera,
unidas por las sierras, los tupis, las machihembras,
las herramientas fieras del héroe prometeico
que entre otras nos concretan
la tarea del hombre con dos manos, diez dedos.

Tales son los oficios. Tales son las materias.
Tal la forma de asalto del amor de la nuestra,
la tuya, Andrés, la mía.
Tal la oscura tarea que impone el ser un hombre.
Tal la humildad que siento. Tal el peso que acepto.
Tales los atrevidos esfuerzos contra un mundo
que quisiera seguirse sin pena y sin cambio,
pacífico y materno,
remotamente manso, durmiendo en su materia.
Tales, tercos, rebeldes, nosotros, con dos manos,
transformándolo, fieros, construimos un mundo
contra naturaleza, gloriosamente humano.

Tales son los oficios. Tales son las materias.
Tales son las dos manos del hombre, no ente abstracto.
Tales son las humildes tareas que precisan
la empresa prometeica.
Tales son los trabajos comunes y distintos;
tales son los orgullos, las rabias insistentes,
los silencios mortales, los pecados secretos,
los sarcasmos, las llamas, los cansancios, las lluvias;
tales las resistencias no mentales que, brutas,
obligan a los hombres a no explicar lo que hacen;
tales sus peculiares maneras de no hablarse
y unirse, sin embargo.

Mira, Andrés, a los hombres con sus manos capaces,
con manos que construyen armarios y dínamos,
y versos y zapatos;
con manos que manejan furiosas herramientas,
fabrican, eficaces, tejidos, radios, casas,
y otras veces se quedan inmóviles y abiertas
sobre ese blanco absorto de una cuartilla muerta.
Manos raras, humanas;
manos de constructores, manos de amantes fieles
hechas a la medida de un seno acariciado;
manos desorientadas que el sufrimiento mueve
a estrechar fuertemente, buscando la una en la otra.

Están así los hombres
con sus manos fabriles o bien sólo dolientes,
con manos que a la postre no sé para qué sirven.
Están así los hombres vestidos, con bolsillos
para el púdico espanto de esas manos desnudas
que se miran a solas, sintiéndolas extrañas.
Están así los hombres y, en sus ojos, cambiadas,
las cosas de muy dentro con las cosas de fuera,
y el tranvía, y las nubes, y un instinto -un hallazgo-,
todo junto, cualquiera,
todo único y sencillo, y efímero, importante,
como esas cien nonadas que pasan o no pasan.

Mira, Andrés, a los hombres, ya sentados, ya andando,
tan raros si nos miran seriamente callados,
tan raros si caminan, trabajan o se matan,
tan raros si nos odian, tan raros si perdonan
el daño inevitable,
tan raros que si ríen nos enseñan los dientes,
tan raros que si piensan se doblan de ironía.
Mira, Andrés, a estos hombres.
Míralos. Yo te miro. Mírame si es que aguantas.
Dime que no vale la pena de que hablemos,
dime cuánto silencio formó tu ser obrero,
qué inútilmente escribo, qué mal gusto despliego.

Mira, Andrés, cómo estamos unidos pese a todo,
cómo estamos estando, qué ciegamente amamos.
Aunque ya las palabras no nos sirven de nada,
aunque nuestras fatigas no puedan explicarse
y se tuerzan las bocas si tratamos de hablarnos,
aunque desesperados,
bien sea por inercia, terquedad o cansancio,
metafísica rabia, locura de existentes
que nunca se resignan, seguimos trabajando,
cavando en el silencio,
hay algo que conmueve y entiendes sin ideas
si de pronto te estrecho febrilmente la mano.
La mano, Andrés. Tu mano, medida de la mía.
Vivian Mar 2015
I can still taste
oranges on my tongue,
tropicana from tampa,
extra extra pulp in my mouth.
The orange groves are
dying, frost encroaching, and I
can do little; I'm at the
supermarket searching for
coconut oil and lavishing
honey straight from the bottle
onto my tongue; empty
bears litter the linoleum and
the taste of your ***** still
evades my fractitious memory.
Dave Davis May 2013
Horton’s Bend
Dave Davis-2013
Treat the earth well,
It was not given to you by your parents.
It was loaned to you by your children.”
Native American Proverb

Chapter 1
During the early part of the 16th century, the Spanish began their expeditions into the New World in their quest for riches in the form of gold and silver. It was a time of great competition between explorers attempting to be the first to expand the Spanish Empire. Famously Ponce de Leon discovered La Florida in 1533 which allowed geographers and map makers to better outline the coast which de Leon hugged during his travels. His perception that it was an island misled geographers for a number of years. Historic documents do describe a quest for a body of water which was known for a restoration of vigor but the Fountain of Youth was not a focus of de Leon’s. Upon learning of La Florida, further expeditions were made ready. Hernando de Soto’s exploration, which began in the vicinity of present day Tampa Florida in 1539, was a four year journey which provided more information about the strange new continent.
Other expeditions filtered their way into the southeastern United States. Expeditions such Tristan de Luna de Arellano traveled into the interior southeast from 1559 to 1561 including the chiefdom of Coosa in Northwest Georgia and Juan Pardo who led two expeditions into the present day Carolinas are also chronicled.

What a strange world it must have been having stepping into what they must have considered an undeveloped and tangled landscape having been at sea for months prior to their arrival. These new comers were warriors riding into a land of what they considered savages ruled by mighty chiefs. The chiefdoms were purposely distanced apart in order to ensure a semi peaceful relationship with nearby chiefdoms. Each principal chief or cacique lived in areas surrounded by earthen mounds and fortified walls with hand dug moats. These rulers were presented with gifts of corn, exotic materials from foreign lands, and other tributes by their subjects. During the past seventy five years, archaeologists have reconstructed the past life ways of these people through their excavations of village sites and burials. Coupled with the work of dedicated historians, we now have a better understanding of how these native peoples lived and died. We will never fully understand their world.
Theirs was a hermetic world which was provided all that was needed. Respectful of the land and its gift of life giving resources, the native peoples were dependant on the land which figured prominently into their spiritual being. Their needs were meager as they did not desire wealth or the need to satisfy a gluttonous royalty. The principal chief’s rulings were simple and they obeyed without question. He and the other leaders asked only what the earth would provide. Their only loyalty was to the ethereal gods and to the cacique who communicated the will of the Creator. In times of famine or strife, theirs was a community that continued to be self sustained as it had always been from birth to death. They must have considered that dark times had arrived with the new strangers. These interlopers were not here to commune but rather to bring greed and lust to their land.

Native American groups surely were frightened by the sight of an entourage of the bearded new comers. Dressed in quilted shirts with bright colored sashes with tall hip boots, their appearance had to be most curious to the natives. The presence of never before seen animals such as the horses bearing the soldiers were cause enough for the Indians to scatter from their villages. The horsemen wore the heaviest armor consisting of chain mail or if preferred a breastplate of sorts. Their weapons were a long lance in conjunction with a small shield. The foot soldiers wore peaked steel helmets along with quilted shirts armored with small steel plates and were equipped with sharpened steel weapons such as short double edged swords, halberds, and crossbows. Matchlock guns were also a weapon employed by the Spanish explorers. They were close combat weapons which would have to suffice since heavy artillery could not be used in the thick and tangled environment.
The Spanish found the New World to be a land of hardships when they depleted their supplies of foodstuffs between chiefdoms. This land proved not to be a place of abundant riches but rather difficult terrain for pedestrian journey. In order to supplement the Spanish took the stored food supplies that Indians had readied for winter. As Old World warriors, they had no hesitancy to threaten or harm when supplies were needed. Word of their arrival brought both fear and awe to native groups who were duped by the rich lies and gifts of the metal objects that was so foreign to them.
While the devastation of Spanish contact impacted native lives, it should not over shadow the rich history of these people. Prior to contact, they were thought to be involved in the construction of a society emerging from the chiefdom level. Their capability to understand astronomical constants, their ability to sustain an agricultural culture, and the art produced attest to a vibrant society that was merely unfortunate to be caught up in a dynamic European expansion that was inevitable.  
Their story is more than that of European contact as they dealt with pestilence, political instability, drought, and dwindling resources in large communal sites. It comprises a much larger picture from a story long forgotten in a language that will forever remain unknown. History is filled with the tragedies of conquest but this story does not end with the Spanish invasion of peaceful natives. It does not end at all because their spirit was stronger than any intrusion by the strangers. While much suffering has occurred from this contact, there was one group who managed to avoid conflict and quietly retain their heritage. Unfortunately time has left a ragged history with gaps that are not fully understood by those who seek wisdom from the past. No matter. Their intentions regarding history were never as strong as their passion for the land.

On an unknown date during the 16th Century in Northwest Georgia, a group of Spanish invaders made contact with a group of Native Americans who believe in the sacred ground they call home.



Chapter 2
Ronnie King sat on the tailgate of his 4x4 pickup and drained the last of an ice cold Budweiser that had been waiting on him all day. Ronnie kept a cooler full of cold ones for quitting time although he usually just drank the one beer before leaving for home. Working as a foreman on a timber crew, he was soaked in sweat and enjoyed just taking a moment to reflect on a day’s work. He always felt like a man who could tote a chainsaw for eight hours and deal with the elements was a man by God. The sun would be setting soon and he would talk to a few of the boys before they headed to the house. It also gave him time to unwind a little bit and to pick off the ticks that seemed to always be attracted to him. He sure hadn’t forgotten that bout of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever that had contracted a few years back. He remembered well how dizzy he was that hot afternoon. Some of the boys had chuckled but nobody scoffed at his 107 degree temperature when he was checked into the hospital. Anyways this was the best part of the day and he always got to thinking about his life.

Ronnie loved his job and wondered how others could ever work inside all day. Hell, even if he was paid more he couldn’t really see the benefits of extra cash compared to working out in the woods. More than once he had paid attention to deer signs and had bagged some bucks that were the envy of his fellow workers. It was just a great deal to be outside. Sure he ached pretty good by the end of the week and knew arthritis was in his future but it gave him a great opportunity to do what he really loved: look for Indian sites. Ronnie had been just a boy when he found his first arrowhead down on the floodplain of the Coosa River which ran through his grandfather’s farm. That thrill was one that never got old for the young man. Those who are observant and willing to risk the mud never knew what they would find after a good thunderstorm on a freshly plowed field. As Ronnie grew to be a teenager he already had a collection of artifacts that the local museum drooled over. Other kids that were Ronnie’s age were busy playing football or were involved in some school activity. Ronnie was different and had little interest in neither scholastic nor collegiate pastimes. Once he finished his chores at home,  he headed for the river.

When Ronnie graduated from high school he got a full time job working at Patterson’s Logging. At 18, Ronnie was a tall man with a full beard and was often mistaken for someone much older. He never was a big talker or one to boast. Many at school thought him slow but that was where he fooled them and the teachers too. No reason to give your all since they would expect more anyway. Besides what would he do with trigonometry? He loved the outdoors and spent quiet evenings along the river banks staring at the ground in search of the history that he loved. Teachers didn’t spend much time on how Indians lived during the time that the mounds were being built. He enjoyed books at the library much better than any of the school books. In particular, he loved the book Sun Circles and Human Hands which had wonderful pictures of burials dug up during the WPA days. He did take the time to learn how the Works Progress Administration had been created in the 40’s and created jobs to work on the large dam projects that brought on some of the earliest organized archaeological projects in the United States. At night he would look at Sun Circles and gaze at the pictures of the excavated burials and all the exotic grave goods that had been buried with the interred over 500 years before. The well made pottery vessels had always been one of his favorite artifacts but he had never found a whole ***. Having spent time with different books loaned from the library, Ronnie know the difference between pottery sherds dating to the earlier Woodland Period and those that dated to the later Mound builders or what the archaeologists called the Mississippian Period. He also enjoyed the ornaments and jewelry found in the burials. The designs in the shape of woodpeckers, rattlesnakes, and strange squatting men with eagle claws were carved into shell gorgets that were found around the necks of the nobles of the village. He realized that not all graves contained abundant artifacts as some simply were just a prone or flexed body that must have been a common person. Ronnie knew that there had to be some schools here in the south where you could learn to be a paid archaeologist but who had money to go to college? Besides, they might want him to give up what he found. What right did a museum have to something he had found? No, that didn’t seem right at all.
Patterson’s Logging worked all over a tri-county area and allowed Ronnie access to private property that he could never get permission to walk over. There were a dozen men who worked for Patterson not including Patterson’s boy, Ricky, who had helped Ronnie get hired. Ricky and Ronnie used to do a little cat fishing on weekends. Kicked back with a six pack on a boat ramp, the boys used to fight off the bugs attracted to the lantern glowing bright in the middle of the night. They talked about girls they’d like to get a hold of and wishing they had money for a nice pickup. Ricky’s daddy made pretty good money but most of it was ******* in chainsaws and equipment for keeping the logs steadily flowing to the saw mill. Ronnie never told Ricky but he was **** grateful to be working on a crew at Patterson’s.

A couple of the men who worked for logging outfit were from Cedartown which was located south of Rome. They didn’t speak to anybody very often and pretty much kept to themselves. Ronnie didn’t know them but had heard them called Jarvis and Ladge. The crews had finished logging a section near Armuchee Creek where some county workers had been using bulldozers to prep the area for a bridge project. It was time for lunch so everybody got out their lunchboxes and sack lunches. Jarvis and Ladge ate quickly and headed out to the disturbed area to walk it over. Ronnie had already figured on going out there too but they had beat him to it. He just went ahead and watched them looking for a few minutes. Finally Ronnie headed out and walked around a little distance from them. They glared at him at first but didn’t make a ******* contest out of this patch of dirt. Having walked around staring at the fresh soil for a good ten minutes the three were somewhat close to each other so they stopped and everybody wanted to inspect what the others had found.
Ladge had found a few good sized flint chips and a broken tip of a point. Jarvis looked at him and said “Buddy you ain’t found **** look at this piece of pottery!” He held up a large thick rim sherd which had pinched marks all around the curved rim. “Nice one Jarvis” whistled Ladge. “That’s a Mississippian sherd, Jarvis” offered Ronnie. The others stared at him until Ladge said “Boy this ain’t Mississippi! You in Georgia.” Ronnie didn’t want to be a smart *** to the older men so he said “I been reading in some books on ancient Indians and the pictures showed pottery that looked just like that one that was near 500 years old.” “Huh” Jarvis mumbled “Well what do you think about this bird point?” It was a small triangular point no bigger than a thumbnail made of black flint. Ronnie hesitated a moment and told them “That’s a nice one but you know they didn’t hunt birds with those don’t you?” The men just shrugged and Jarvis said “That’s what I always heard them called……that the Indians used a blow gun and blew them through it”. Ronnie was a little more confident but with a little caution said “That point was used on a bow and arrow…..you know how most points you find have a stem on the bottom end?” Both men nodded with interest. “Well those were used on spears but this type was used on a bow….bout the same time as that sherd you found”

Ronnie thought he might be scoffed at but both men just shrugged and one mumbled “Well I’ll be ******”. Ronnie then realized that Jarvis and Ladge’s interest was just in one upping each other and it was something to do besides talking to the other loggers. “I’d like to look at one of them books you been reading…..I got something I found and want to know more about it.” Ronnie’s interest was peaked and asked “What does it look like?” Jarvis tilted his head a little while looking over at Ladge and said “Just bring that book of yourn’s when you can.” Ronnie took the hint and all three realized it was time to start on the next parcel of the project.
As the work week continued, the three usually sat together and formed a group of their own talking about artifacts away from the others. Ronnie brought one book in but it was from some work over in Alabama and didn’t have what Jarvis was looking for. One Friday after work, Ronnie was about to head home when Jarvis and Ladge asked him to take a ride down to Cedartown and look at their collection. The two had a little cabin out off of Chubb Road with a rusted 49 Ford sitting out front. A metal trash barrel smoldered in the front yard. Ronnie walked in the cabin and had to choke back holding his nose as it reeked of sourness. These two ol’ boys were true bachelors who were not ones to throw out clothes until they fell apart. It was just sometimes they didn’t feel like picking up anything from a pile that had lain in a corner for a couple of weeks. Jarvis walked to a chest of drawers and opened it and asked Ronnie to come take a look. Ronnie looked in the drawer and saw a collection of artifacts typically found in the area. The material ranged from large Savannah River points dating back some 5,000 years to more of what the boys had termed “bird points”. Ronnie picked up a partial *** with check marked stamping and smiled. “This is a nice one….I’ve seen fragments like this on the Oostanaula.” He added “It’s from what is they call the Woodland Period”. Ladge smiled a big toothless smile and proudly proclaimed he had f
A novella to share with my friends.
Pearson Bolt Aug 2017
we held hands behind the Black Lives Matter banner.
we took to the streets in solidarity with Heather Heyer
opposing white supremacy and every vestige of bigotry.

the cops stood idle while racists circled
the park like sharks to shake our resolve.
but we carry a new world in our head and hearts.

we marched down Kennedy and Ashley
no badge or gun could hope to stop us hundreds.
we mourned and wept and rose like lions.

no justice, no peace! no racist police!
1-2-3-4, this is ******* class war!
5-6-7-8, organize to smash the State!


i cannot find the rhythm and beat amidst this misery.
but, in her memory, we will drive the fascists out.
from Tampa Bay, FL to Charlottesville, VA: *¡No pasaran!
This is less a poem and more a collection of thoughts, images, and experiences. For Heather Heyer. Rest in Power. Martyrs live forever.
samuel hdz Apr 2013
I left because you wanted me gone.

I love you!

I came back for you.

but...

I left my thoughts in Immokale.

I left my drive in Lehigh.

My inspiration is scattered over the waters of Ft. Myers beach.

My plans wait in South beach.

Orlando, Tampa bay, and Fort Lauderdale still whisper my name.

It's time to go back to the sunshine state.
Amanda rodeiro Oct 2015
Dad has told me since i was born that theres a shark out there with our name on it

Thats why i never go as deep as my shoulders in the ocean

warnings rattle around my head and a sense of abandonment wraps around my legs

maybe the riptide felt like gentle hands leading him home

he’ll find us one day

i wonder if he’s talking about the shark or neevie

often i imagine him living in puerto Rico, having found his way among the waves he would reside in a tiny hut near the ocean side

listening every night as if to receive a whisper saying “come home”

the sole reason of dads birth being to replace his mothers only son

stand in for a deadboy

came out looking the exact opposite 

blonde hair, blue eyes

stevie, her sweet boy

pouring all the bitter, ******* she held into him

didn’t they tell you the bruises left behind were just love marks?

cherish them, it means she cares

mommie dearest loves you so, did you not know?

the closest form of loving someone is hating them and he’s got that down to a science

thoughts of prying the jalousie windows shut during winters in west tampa

counting each bullet that echoed in the distance

sitting on cotton bags skinning potatoes as his father prepared dinner for the navy ship

uncurling himself late at night when the sound of the door opening would alert him that he could finally stop hiding and embrace the warmth his fathers smile radiated
Alastur Berit May 2015
it's not your fault, i think, as you smile in your sleep.
so upside down inside and out blue and red then yellow and purple
i am a swirling sea of color, never settled
tide in, tide out
in tampa bay there are two tides.
you are not always on my mind, nothing is always on my mind,
maybe just a fear of high tide.
You are the most beautiful thing i know.

it's not your fault, i think, as i'm sinking i try to hold on but
there's more than one kind of addiction.
precisely!
you can quantify any data you'd like.
you are a candle on a window sill late at night, you are sunshine
which sometimes i feel too dark to be allowed in, but
the sun always helps.
You are the most beautiful thing i know.

it's not your fault, i know, as i storm angrily to bed
lay towards the wall
looking at the wall
choosing the wall
while you ask "can i come in?" i enjoy saying "no" to hear you ask it
again persistent. you are better than rain or ocean or snow.
you are someone to grow with. but my anger is stronger than reason or the world would be a better place.
You are the most beautiful thing i know.

it's not your fault!
i understand, yearning to be held, felt, touched
my thoughts shut down like broken links in a fence, but instead of letting something in i keep you out.
you can't touch me because i want to be the rulemaker of our game.
when i was a kid they never let me play.
it's not your fault
You are the most beautiful thing i know.

it's not your fault,
i think, as i struggle to breathe. is this asthma or anxiety?
will the migraines ever stop? will my excuses for pain ever feel like they are allowed to be real. you see me.
you help. you don't ask. i've never been so felt before.
You are the most beautiful thing i know.

it's not your fault,
i wonder, as you lay there in your sleep
i will always question life more than perhaps another
am i meant to be a Mother? will i doubt my child from the day it's born because it's mine? will i give them scorn?
would you be a father with a mother like me?
You are the most beautiful thing i know.

it's not your fault
i wonder if i should leave
after my blows, only trying to hurt.
you are only here for me but i can make anything ugly with time.
i hope this sickness doesn't spread. please only take my head, leave him alone.
He is the most beautiful thing i know.

it's not your fault.
sometimes i'm melodramatic, or when the mood strikes pragmatic.
but never the same.
sometimes i think i should leave, but
i can't.
you are sunlight in the window, you are glass in the mirror,
you are steady and patient and far more than i deserve,
you are a quiet reserve.
you are a new park to watch the sun set
you are a life i haven't met yet
you are more beautiful than rain, ocean and snow,
You are the most beautiful thing i know.
I was in rat-bag Tampa on the rat-rag & looking for a ****** when
Jesus came back to Earth to get even-Steven with Godless heathens

— The End —