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Iris Woodruff Feb 2017
Having observed others and containing the self consciousness of a noticer (do other people look at me the way I look at them?) she would dress in old borrowed clothing that smelled like other peoples’ laundry and leather because secretly she wanted to wear the other people try them on and she had this wrinkle between each brow that made her look just sort of worried no matter how she tried to press and smooth that wrinkle down with her thumb and in very private moments she’d stare at her features in the mirror with a sort of curiosity because she’d been told by leering men that she was beautiful but sometimes she saw only features: Nose eyes mouth all in pretty good proportion sure but she supposed the thing that held her curiosity was not her face itself but rather the disconnect between the face and the universe of thought behind it and all this she’d marveled at a very young age as ma would see her staring at herself in front of the bathroom mirror or in store windows and tell her not to be so vain kid to hurry along
And so she feared writing about her own vulnerable beauty for fear that she might be both of those things—vulnerable and beautiful. Instead she would take an hour long train ride, fake-dozing so as not to be ticketed, walk anonymous between busy persons until she reached a place that satisfied her Washington Square park, perhaps, or some small playground on the lower east side, or down by water or the hip corner shops in Brooklyn. And there, in strangers, she would find her vulnerable beauty, and there with the aid of a pen they became her and she became them.
Harry Bratton Dec 2018
Staring into the distance called to a halt lowly by a ceiling
With beams of clouds I have my essay planned, do the
Right thing when the morning comes, start early and lap lap
Lap it up… I missed a day will I be able to write it okay?
It’s only a draft, final assessment in the genesis of a new
Year as apocalyptic as it gets draped in gray by God’s
Gesturing arm lamp shading… why should I do it? To
Quickly bang it out before the deadline just to get it out
The way… daydream precocious bipedal insect monsters
Before the real thing moons God and his gang of whiskey
Parlour batchelors leaning on leather elbow pads admiring
The craftsmanship of the upholstery… the real thing is more
Absorbing always cutting off as I’m getting somewhere, start
In daytime and realize there’s nowhere to get, that’s the thing
Yelling stop think again, or fill every nook cranny and interstice
With feet free to walk in peace… they are antonyms I could
Never fit in, gaps that long ago gave up

Deserted wide areas of something, opportunity, you must
Agree are not expenses anymore by any imaginative feat
Dancing to deep scar/jungle depravity light reflections…
I can’t remember and don’t want to check over in case I
Get cut off -

Forget that’s true… (Something I literally cannot do)… I was
Enthralling, reading, writing, the {authorised} daydreaming -
Breakfast for dinner - dinner for breakfast - closer to the sun -
My legs have gone weak - I want to numb the static pain Spit-
Ting strangling cosmic debris from the satellite to the T.V…
It’s not that I’m not moving, I am careering just fine to turquoise
Blue sky, the bottom of a valley draped in a green screen sheet
Searching on my homepage for something more than my
Forest floor in the circular sky print of psychedelic white smud-

Ging print in the canopy tickling my mind’s eye giggles awake…
It’s that I’m not being methodical revolutions around a state I aim
To occupy, to occupy less derivatively… It’s not that… what is
This space? Living harmoniously, smiling on the front page of the
Daily Reality, not a youtube metamemetextraction everyone has
Different power to construe as well as they consume.. which, well…

Headlines to all cheer in support immaculately agreeing rather than
Memetic smearing in a forest snearing, no singing, no branches,
Hollow UVescence flood… hot sun burns ignorant eyes that power-
Point-slide nothing retinal light soggy cardboard calippo awkwardly
Bending, quivering like an Einsteinian physician’s space-time ******
You can’t see, squinting hard open town open mouth open source
Open eyes it is morning time morning square morning everyone everywhere
Square skulky shoulders and a brittle skunk twig head, not always there after
Shipping in a rectangular organisation of beds for fallen fruit everyone
Walks by, what is healthy? in society, what is homely what is dull housing
Ex-ice lolly sweet sticky strawb-red syrup marooning, baking to brown
Down backstage curtains poised in windy drapery drapery drapery…
Window hardware still there not to see any of the people, have you
Gone forever? The sun drapes savannah grapes out of place fire-soaked
Memories, temporary tent, arms and legs and back and Earth and one-
They’ve been the same thing begging to be vacuumed to a better outlook
Well away from towns bookmarking forests of knowledge seeming never
Ending turn to plywood, you can’t be in a vacuum better anywhere,
And hope strives away shooting through the replacement plastic funnel
Into a dropping everything…

Cornered - shopped - bussed - stopped - ticketed - one-wayed - one-way-
Systemed - ticketed - inspected - mauled - in the shops - for food -
For clothes - carred and parked in a roundabout way - merged in a
Motorway, by a dense grey matter, a concrete intelligence, one certified
Body of the indefiniteness of everyone's words, their words… our words…
That which is said… what people say… what we think… make a pretend wolf
Beg for a ready salted crisp at the the bar in the pub I leave the sound of
Those who hear everything better, I couldn’t hear a thing over the hoover…

A wild din falls on developing streets, silent and wide, stocky and broken,
Choking on ******* butterflies in my throat and stomach screaming… hold
Tears back while the sad song plays, that burst out of the interlude’s segue
To the beat picking up exactly what you wanted it to… wake up the pride!
I am trapped in a cage! Wake up the tribe! Is it on your webpage?

Where has it gone?
Nat Lipstadt Apr 2014
the best metaphor ever:
"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
"

—William Shakespeare, As You Like It, 2/7[1]
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
for Ernest L. Gonzales,
an overdue uncommissioned tribute


~
mined the meta data,
mined the meta world,
for the meta~for,
the truth serum ether
that gives me a breather,
turns out Willie's
meta-rumination
spot on, the boy's dotty
meta~ruination

no longer my eyes see
your eye test chart lettered reality,
tears of alpha~poetry all I got,
cloudy visionary
with wordy meatballs reigning,
charting a schooner's course,
on a Texas-sized ocean of poetic reality

police took away my licenses.

illegal for me have both,
they, city~proclamation proclaimed,
driving and poetry~striving simultaneously,
dangerous for life and limb,
claiming I drove like
I was in a poetry slam video game,
had to explain I was trapped
in the world of poetic-reality

where the alpha~words
afloating in the atmosphere,
imagery balloons preventing
crystalline vision,
so one or the other,
this world of mine,
the world of poetic reality,
is my baggage carried
and a foot in both
worlds  be word dangerous for global health

ticketed for doing 85+
in the left poetry fast lane,
judge disallowed my only excuse,
mentally composing multiple haikus,
and needed my fingers and toes to do
syllable counting

now you know why
I write poetry on the bus

no, the kid kids you not,
the only arrest on record for
poetry-composing intoxication
under the influence,
while operating an
auto~mobile ma~chine

Went to the bodega
for some late night vanilla swirl,
the immigrant behind the counter,
at 2:00 am, gave me my change
in tales from Bangladesh

late for work,
took me a fat taxi,
the driver, a city life comber~climber,
asked credit or cash,
and I said kind sir,
you do me great credit,
if a poem in Urdu
you would recite in lieu of payment

now you know why
I write poetry on the bus

So, my dear Ernest,
life is our poetic reality,
you are the best ever metaphor,
the one poets keep stealing from
each other,
at the intersection
of our eyes crossing

in fact,
ole Willie stole the world's most famous
metaphor's inspiration above,
when me and he,
once pub crawling,
we disagreed if a certain door
was the pub entrance or the exit,
and the next day
in a burst of
Poetic Reality,
he composed-stoked stole them words,
in a hangover haze

*so the poet point be this:
we may live in and of this world gritty,
but the only show
we ever know'd
was turning life
into the poetic one
Read the poetry of
http://hellopoetry.com/Ernesto/

A man who turned life's grit
into the best poems ever.
g clair Nov 2015
An ordinary day arrived again and ticketed talk
it cost me just to say "one second more- let's go for a walk"
"Yes- if you will promise-just to see me as yourself
and not the thing you made of me, that clock upon your shelf"

We strolled through misty meadows on that ordinary day
I learned to love my freedom and the things which come what may
We had our time together, now I can't recall the date
I want to say an extra-ordinary day but just you wait

"Why is it every day can't be like this one is today?"
and Ordinary looked at me and pointed towards the sway
"That same old wave is NOT the same no ordinary roll
and waves through placid water seem to change the water's soul.

The ins and outs, the ups and downs of every single day
are separate parts of sameness but unique in every way"
"try not to over think it be quiet, or you'll miss
the things you take for granted make for silence, calm the hiss!"

and so my ordinary date  had tried set me free
to wander down the road without a single peep from it to me
a silent celebration seemed no ordinary day
reset my pace for living and now no fine to pay!

"Where do you think you're going? as the sun sets in the west
"I've got to get a move on  but you've been a splendid guest
I'll be back tomorrow just an ordinary mate
but if you care to have some fun we'll make another date!"
.
Cedric McClester Mar 2019
By: Cedric McClester

How are we supposed to act?
When we’re ticketed because we’re black?
See we are profiled, as a matter of fact
And it seems like the deck is stacked
Cards are coming from the bottom
Like the higher ups have taught ‘em
Winter summer spring and autumn
To fill their quotas, we know they got ‘em

They’ll deny it, if we ask
But they’ve been put up to that task
Their motivation is hard to mask
I’m just trying to put them on blast
It’s a ***** low down shame
That we’re not all treated the same
It’s a vicious racist game
But they don’t want to shoulder blame

Could it be because we’re strangers?
We’re exposed to all sorts of dangers
Whenever we have unpleasant exchanges
They tend to treat us like they’re Texas Rangers
No matter why we’re stopped they’ll insist
We put our hands up and not resist
And if we do we’ll be remiss
We’ll have a better reason to be ******

See if we’re stopped in our cars
We could lose a life, namely ours
Which would contribute to our psychic scars
Long before we see prison bars
And what’s the crime we’re guilty of
While being black which rates above
All kinds of charges derived thereof
It seems our color gets us no love





Cedric McClester, Copyright © 2019.  All rights reserved.
Connor Oct 2015
I'm sure an abstract painter adores
the confusion of their
lovers.
Glass reflections on materials in a bedroom
E M P H A S I Z E
the EGOIST in every
sofa
and
actress
in a television set while it rains out
(creating pockets of water on the balcony)
Where is my foundation for times like these when
feet become LOUD ER in the daytime
and obstacles have grown their teeth?

Perhaps a dump truck full of nicely dressed mannequins
will finally be
ticketed
and my eyes
will see
as soft
as your
hair.

Quarry of bones in an office space
and the FORMAL TIE HAS DESTROYED ITSELF WITH
SOCIETAL EXPECTATIONS AGAIN
(LUCIDITY KEEPS INSANITY DISTRACTED)

Caffeinated Canadian Bohemian
daydream of firs showering adjacent
Manhattan batteries.
Tomorrow's rejections watch
bright and beautiful waves smile with false
inspiration
a n d a n o t h e r
concrete victim is created.

!MADNESS!
(the solar flare of the Neutral)
the ammunition in my coffee
and conversations blinking
LAUGHS          OUT
                           TO
                           THE
                           ABYSS
(gorgeous and hollow lineups in front of
a Vancouver bar 11:30pm)

Pale October energies and the
Dharma Radio
feathering my fantasies as this year reaches it's last quarter
CREATIVITY MEANDERING
NEAR NOTHING
anxiously I roll around on the mattress,
open window, listening in on the intricately staged
oblivion of trees
who've become infatuated
with coffins.

Gastown (as it appeared in my dreams)
has found it's dusk anthem!
Adriano Celantano's
"BUONA SERA SIGNORINA"
what a strange dream that was
the music was vivid to the point of
impossible recognition
and I'm awake and dizzy not from all that
but from love
(it's tilting my axis!)
Always has......

An untraceable eye
lingers in
malevolence to ALL city banks
where the late bop players
stand united and "free"
(Outside, by art on a wall with animals dancing in a hot air balloon, jealous of their own permanent state of painted euphoria)
Restaurants are consumed by silence
upon closing down,
but NOT the Fisgard streetcorner cafe
I frequent!
It's LOUD TRUTH and San Francisco weeps in
the decorated walls.....some far off dream of North Beach
Trieste evening with people who were once ALIVE!!
People that bleached
THE AMERICAN VISION
with sharpened language sleeker than
the polished jaw of Apollo.

Here I am again,
accepting the same sweeping misery
as those before me
(settled tombstones barely seen beneath a wild oak
while cars cry exhaust to beach-view apartments
and Winter's harsh wind drums against the window pane)
sure they were good people, but living plays no favorites.

I'm awake and dizzy!
forlorn with the morning.
Stars surrender to a sun
which often wonders
how we adapt to this asylum.
(Vanity makes me sleepy)

Warm in the delicate crimson light,
I lie in a temporary peace.
I am setting
as all else rises.
Refuse to call her Sensei falsely,
Respect a quality untimed to a technologic beep,
a beat more ancient than the tribal drum flow,
a wind more cold than the the Summit in Winter

flying Panthers as I walk through the door of my dreams, rolling over never a choice a gym dreary, rolling over never a choice a hymn ready no longer, resounding a frequent smile in simile, my two pairs of winds high in might bathe detritus with delight feathers at my finger tips, my eyes see me as my own Polyhedron and geometry, spiraling in a torrent of heart beats, charging my batteries for three years a hundred sixty-six weaknesses feel the eel's surface carry my mind's liquid purpose no knowledge for certain that the folks to my left knew the light of tomorrow hands intertwined homogenized in ****** desire function scarce Scarab singing Jazz music freely the dirt rotates feeling the stampede atop the Earth the near challenge is knowing who's shadow is whose or the ortho- light casts veils of it's own.

The soul's propose it's own flow the ego a serpent hungers forwards slithering towards the greens with flames on it's breath seeing the birds take flight above head a prey uncaught until evolution is now leaning towards radio hearing the frequent tunes as ribs to the cavity of a god's chest emanating the tree as high as Saturn the rings around our hands, the halo above His head, the debris collects the King in his Place. All are racing space to the widest in diameter, the scope of a day only governed by the light's loop around our perspective of "el dia y todo el mundo" as he please he moves as he moves he pleases, the winter cold cries for dusk earlier and earlier whatever takes to be the (one)Tidal a lunar crescent in hand bearing Psyche as a Moon as the key to stand, Hope lives in the dark, I pander a door around the corner lives the Lucy painting her soul's truth daily ignoring the outside chronology and the trigger of social trigger, Quickness to cut through and the jungle of introverted hyper-defensiveness I carry the torch of ages through my genes trenches giving in Lapis Lazuli and the Brew he brews, Pick an arcana and Spit on the text before you read the book backwards and burn the pages on around or atop of aQuirkiness of quarks as I part eyes elementary in school zones ticketed for seeing the invisible truth- daring to run for the North to south soon to dissect into the tree. Self a fear, a fear a self force seeks wrath angelic as Templars Archon for King Jame's Ire. Breed a triplicate not shadow nor shade, a vision neither Light nor Astral but a Visage of the Sane, an Image of the Same, a Nephilim of Samael, an interest of the Identity of Unknown total to the Matrices of the Evils of Man
Nat Lipstadt Feb 2016
Flight #177 / Seat #7C - where I'm bound/I have been released

the final part of the trilogy,
re broken lives,
some finalized,
some revitalized,
some, their score,
incomplete

~~~


on the road again,
crossing the continent,
from sea to shining sea,
from one set of Eastern grandkids,
off to see the wizardry
of the West Coast variety

six hours six minutes,
flying high time, weather's fine,
a voices inform us, that will be
our mutual time of peaceful co-existence,
on this particular traversée journey

I've done harder time,
30 years ++ with no parole,
except for poetic verse,
them words,
I learned to parlez-vous parlay

never been afeared of flying high,
even amidst the wickedest black pitch,
tar and feathered thick, which is all the
ovaltine shaped window of the
exterior world, cares to reveal
at thirty thousand feet

the oxygen level in the cabin,
as it usually does,
says hey!
feeling heady boy,
so get good, so get ready,
write us a poem, a new shiny toy,
another of your airborne verbal medley

I've got little upon
to expound,
currently limbo'd
tween fresh, death-revived,
past memories of imprisonment and release,
by the jailers of L'Ancien Régime
and
the soon to feel,
happy anticipation of
Frisco fresh young lives re-greeting us,
long distance visitors with joyous screams,
loud, clear and that may cut
the muddied gloom internal,
like a pair of welcoming,
gleeful, liberating scissors

my windowed widowed refraction,
directs my carpaccio-thin guise
to pierce onwards a well trod state of
deeper reflection

noting that we will soon be flying over
water poisoned Flint,
in the state of Michigan,
just missing by an inching,
Paul Simon's sung request,
his "all come to Saginaw" dare

yet, I don't know where I am,
though the course trajectory
pilot-officially programmed and set,
ticketed firect  through to
San Francisco

nonetheless, my internal organs all feel lost,
misplaced and turned down around,
passing directly over cities heard of
and yet never seen or footed,
can I still claim to have been there?

same question differently couched,
providing this passenger's headache,
I was there, of this world,
for the almost forty years plus,
though I wasn't really present,
merely accounted for,
finally learning that "freedom"
is just another word

and though the Angel of Death,
scheduled, made a pre-flight pick up,
he left part of me behind
and on board,
to pick up after,
steward some of his and my
messes

the eyes, the brain, the whole noggin,
search for secret signs,
potent portents, turn indicators,
that this gloomy doom,  cloud thicket,
this too shall pass,
this last shared repast of shards,
this,
my so long now song
an au revoir to
"sad eyed lady of the lowlands"

noting that I am outbound and seated,
on a bunch of lucky sevens, flight and seat,
could be my luck is youthful changing?

where I'm bound
I can't tell,
I'll let you know when I get there
when I know, how I'll know,
I don't know, maybe some
extrusion of new words will speak,
at landing time, a different voice,
where and when I'm bound,
that will cry out


"now unbound,
at last,
at last,
I have been released"
**

~~~
2/11~12/2016
started while over the Great Lakes, Michigan, and Wisconsin;
completed over Tahoe, Carson City, & Sacramento
"With your childhood flames on your midnight rug,
And your Spanish manners and your mother's drugs,
And your cowboy mouth and your curfew plugs,
Who among them do you think could resist you?
Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,

Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes,
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums,
Should I leave them by your gate,
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?


Oh, how could they ever mistake you?

They wished you'd accepted the blame for the farm,
But with the sea at your feet and the phony false alarm,
And with the child of a hoodlum wrapped up in your arms,

How could they ever, ever persuade you?
Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes,

My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums,
Should I leave them by your gate,
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?

With your sheet-metal memory of Cannery Row,
And your magazine-husband who one day
just had to go,
And your gentleness now, which you just can't help but show,
Who among them do you think would employ you?

Now you stand with your thief, you're on his parole
With your holy medallion which your fingertips fold,
And your saintlike face and your ghostlike soul,

Oh, who among them do you think could destroy you?

Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes,

My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums,
Should I leave them by your gate,
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?


Read more: Bob Dylan - Sad - Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands Lyrics | MetroLyrics
Mitchell Apr 2013
Outside cars line up ticketed
Rickety in a rusty mist of San Francisco fog
High heel and blonde echoing up to my window.
The traffic is light
The stars are distant and bright
A night in present to be remembered falsely
We take many things for granted

A laugh bounds against the high wall of this city's illusion
Many smiles, many grins, along with many ruins
I thought we were being bombed today
Work between my fingers the lights flickered above me
And I thought, "This is the day I die, and I die alone."

Around these corner alleyways the meter maids purr
Transcending human emotion ordered by rules & safety
The wind feels no guilt when it destroys
The Earth, ocean, and fire neither
These elementals, they play with us like pawn pieces
We can only bow and obey

At noon the abstract grip their baskets
Made of pencil lead, plastic, and porcelain
Hours pass and the power they wished for
Slips through their shaking, cracked fingers

At least the weather is good here
All good things appear near
An abundance of ripe fortitude
Makes solitude precious & everlasting

Hold fast to true strength and virtue
The darkest hour produces the greatest light
Hold fast to your skills and talents
Challenges shape the ones who will not be fallen

"TIghter," ordered the tailor, a drop of sweat dangling from his nose,
"Attention to the detail, this will not be a failure."
Concentrating, the apprentice's hands shaking, squinted his one good eye
Into the thin hole of the needle, the other side infinities void
The bare fire was outrageous with how little heat it was giving
His hands shaking from the cold, the wind hoarse
Outstretching pale fingers, the thread through the needle
Jess Rose Nov 2010
Tonight I am writing a poem about waking up tomorrow
To see if my car had been re-ticketed for expired plates
To see if the traffic will, like the weather,
Be unusually temperate for this time of year
To see if there is broken glass in the parking lot
Spray paint tags on our shop door

Tonight I am writing a poem about waking up tomorrow
To see if the leaves are falling
If the sky is still, like the people
Hanging onto fall
To see the skyline, the cloud front over the water

I am writing a poem tonight
So that I can wake up tomorrow
And remember to remember
To love it all
g clair Apr 2014
An ordinary day arrived again
and ticketed talk
it cost me just to say 
"one second
more-
let's go for a walk"

"Yes-
if you will promise-
to see me as yourself
and not the thing
you made of me
that clock upon your shelf"

we strolled through misty meadows
and hand in hand that day
I learned to love my freedom
and the things which come what may

we had our  day together
I cannot say the date
I want to say an extra-
ordinary day
but wait...

"Why can't an ordinary day
be just this  like today?"
and Ordinary looked at me
and pointed towards the sway....

"That same old wave is NOT the same
no ordinary roll
and waves through placid water
seem to change the water's soul
the ins and outs
the ups and downs
of every single day
are separate parts of sameness
but unique in every way"

"try not to over think it
be quiet, or you'll miss
the things you take for granted
make for silence, calm the hiss!"

and so my ordinary date  
had tried set me free
to wander down the road without
a single peep from it to me

a silent celebration
seemed no ordinary day
reset my pace for living
and now no fine to pay!

Hey!
"Where do you think you're going?"
as the sun sets in the west
"I've got to get a move on
but you've been a splendid guest

I'll be back tomorrow
just an ordinary mate
but if you care to have some fun
we'll make another date!"
.
Ottar Feb 2015
Feet* and paired Wings,
Today that is what, so brings
US
To this, where cha-ching,
The rights to which cling,
LIKE
Static, we gave our mothers,
When Sisters and Brothers,
BIG
Like houses fell with furry on
Us, with sibling rivalry, luvin'
LARGE
Hands saying stop, pointing
To the crosswalk, anointing
SAFE
Places to cross the roadway,
Rather than be a walking jay,
TICK-
Ed and ticketed, by some loud
Constable, unstable and proud,
THAT
with you now, a notch on his belt,
Quota made for the month, melts
YOUR
Resolve to have a good day, red
Cheeks on display, like those dead
MEMORIES,
Of how your Brother or Sister always
Won the battle of wills, and turn away,
SHUNNING
Your existence to even compete,
Participation failure so complete,
BECAUSE
They were younger, too true,
And bigger, better than you.
...Walking Jay
Look both ways in life before crossing anyone.
on the Earth, some need a heaven and hell above,
which suits the powered up reigning status quo rulers,
promising that by being just and docile,
one will earn frequent flyer life miles
to a destination ticketed & named,
but not by actual visitation,
a return confirmation, never

some take your self-love as their own idea,
reselling it over and over again back to you
but know that when you sing your own song,
the discoverable truth is we all
get to go to sort of a sanctuary,
especially if you record-keep your flaws,
in order to constantly reinvent yourself
in order to

reach some kind of agreement with yourself

human gravity is hard enough to escape so travel light,
shed those skins over and over again,
each a modest  improvement sequentially,
leave your exited charred speech behind,
knockoff the blackened flaking edges, a discarded cutaway,
this way to transcend phony notion redemption requirements,
redemption
is a toxic emblem, a symbol unrequited and a sucker’s play

I am the spirit of another’s name, who, here to teach,
this being today’s lesson;
how to reach your unique
truth sanctuary,
where the stronghold of who you yet-to-be, can-be awaits,
the reinventing ones, successful, some call poets,
they do not confuse redemption requests
with sanctuary
only provisioned
by yourself,
for yourself
lmn
Why, Herb-Filled Friend, shall I startle your Seal
On such Best Post for your Activity?
You, one so far, offered your Selfless Deal
If only Cloned admit your Destiny
That indeed Best - YOU - of your Words enflesh
Your Inner Owl which Riper Counsel take
Across me - WILD - of Rowdiness enmesh
Mirror their Image your Alliance spake
No other Discourse would Translation find
For the One closest to your Sweeter Bond
If ticketed your Admission remind
How with Silent Pills they grew you so Fond.
You deserve such Heart Pure as your bag's sling
Live that Moment's Shot; And such Smile you sing.
#tomdaleytv #tomdaley1994
Sara Reilly Nov 2017
Because of things
that happened
20 years ago
In a bed at night
When I was vulnerable
Accidentally trusting you
Old enough to leave Home
Not old enough to buy a drink
Just lost enough to fall for you
Give myself to you entirely
Because you had found me
Where others had pathetically not
In me you found the obvious
Fear
Insecurity
Abandonment
Neglect
trauma
You found yourself in me
Except you were twice my age
Affected tho like me - but wrong
My teacher so accessible
And so all the more taboo
For a feral girl without boundaries
Oh you knew me
You smelled me coming down the hall
My untamed heart
My broken heart
My disappointed heart
My empty heart
Waiting for all of you to get inside of it
And fill me up
I thought I needed you
I thought it was love
When you are starving
everything looks like food
Even the poison
You looked at me -
right at me - into me -
I felt you inside of me
naked in my chair like a stress dream
This was English class
Because you acknowledged me
In front of everyone
And without anyone knowing
You searched me
beseeching
pleading
I imagined you begging
I was so stupid to think
You could be mine
And I could be in control

For four years I imagined you begging
For for years you were oh so careful
Late nights at school editing
Driving me home- dropping me last at the top of manhattan
Peeling clementines for me
As I watched your fingers pull back the skin
Just like that
As we discussed my poetry
Until I was gone from you
And had only your words
“Love, Tom”
And a book of poems
Emily
I knew you loved me
And when I returned
In the snow globe of
old 72nd st station
We kissed
You possessed me
This was our secret
You said
And I laughed
In my head
Then out loud but
anonymous and silent
In the rush hour train station crowd
I was not keeping this to myself
I was - so - young
What did you expect from
My hormone flooded
Underdeveloped and broken besides
brain?
Besides thinking I was your
Pet ******
Secrets are for confession
spoken once
never to be repeated
but you repeated
didn’t you?
Mistaking me for Ophelia
Getting me to a nunnery
So the truth didn’t get you fired
But my lips parted
As only a ******’s could
telling all my sisters
What did Ophelia do with all those
tokens anyway?
She didn’t take the ******* train.

That was the night
I was ticketed
For smoking a cigarette on the platform
And tossing it into the tracks.
A secret I begged the officer to keep
From my parents
Which he said he would
But did not
A lie only
A policeman could tell.
So robust I had to believe him
I should have expected him
To betray me
By just doing his job

I could say that
About you Mr teacher
Or was ******* me
without a ******
Without my permission
Part of my homework?
Draft in progress
Freezing in the shadow of a skyscraper
The newspaper collectors
Building tents to the ire of city government
"Lighting fires" to calm a cold crazed environment
The unaided dangerous , the unrecognized , 'the ignorant'
The belligerent , the political tool , the ticketed and the
arraigned*
The miffed , the rotten , the gifted , the forgotten
Spoiled  , the lofty , the will-do and their atrocity ...
Blame it on the Jews , point at the homosexuals ,
contain the Christians , foil Muslim aggression , the racist whites
the intolerant blacks , the free thinkers , the wall builders
The contained and the "pyromaniacs"
...
Copyright February 8 , 2017 by Randolph L Wilson * All Rights Reserved
Classy J Aug 2015
Yeah, i'm walking in these streets, where there is violence and there is not enough to eat. Poverty stricken everyone is looking for their next fix and aboriginals get ticketed for being aboriginals. Life is full of despair, is there someone out there who cares, because rich snobs think they better, yeah they think they so neat. They couldn't even survive on welfare, or let alone survive in this hell hole, they to busy being political. Left side, right side, there doesn't seem to be a spectrum when people keep dying on these streets. It's a cold world with cold people to hot in themselves, if we all just came together we wouldn't even be in this mess. Crime is just a everyday thing, people cheat, people beat on each other, and it's not all about race but ignore me, shut me down, keep listening to your garbage beats. Governments control the world, we are all in the same boat, controlling us like they're some kind of doctoral Jesus to them we surrender and confess. Sorry I am not your puppet, government you may be the devil but I will not be your advocate. I will no longer let your lie's keep corrupting my mind, I am a self made man with a God given plan, so try to stop me, but the dice will no longer be in your hands. Hurt people in this hurt society, but all wounds can heal eventually, even something as catastrophic as this detriment. Walking down the road of pain, people trying to survive so bad they deemed insane, they've been detained, they've been banned, some try for a job but a lot get canned. Hard times in these rough neighbourhoods, and in reality there is no robin hood. Cold winters, scorching summers, begging for help, when about half of them will spend it on *****. Yeah, I see these things all the time as I walk down these streets, but there is organizations out there like hope mission that so some real good. So maybe there is some real hope after all, but we should do more for each other instead of just accusing and misusing.
Hank Van Well Jr Oct 2014
The surface
Limericks , rhymes , ballads and love
For a time just dabbled
Deeper
The whimsically rhythm
Stretched into elongated lines
And metaphoric realizations
A few more shovels full
I'm knocking on the door to my very own sepulcher
My soul
A poked hornets nest of emotions
The next phase of literary evolution
A ticketed ride to an abyss
Laden in hopes and memories
Pain and sorrows
And sometimes bliss
Further deep
The shovel a muse ?
Past the seeds
And Beyond
Beyond the outstretched fingertips
of the growing roots
where shadows have overtaken the sun
and the only illumination
The sentiment of those
who can associate with the insight
The shovel works
each new pile of dirt
Just another symbol
Another phase , another remnant
Left behind, the progression
Of a love struck heart
And its creative expedition
Through the depths of expression
Poetry
My poetry,
From a brushing on the surface
Budding rhymes , watered limericks  
To the deep rooted secrets
Locked in a soul
And I guide to just how far
Ones writing has grown ....
Kurt Philip Behm Mar 2018
Standing on the wrong side of the platform
  waiting for the train

Remembering the mistakes I made
  but not the reasons why

Listening for the truth beyond the excuse
  feeling what my thoughts would never allow

I boarded in the dark….

Ticketed, to a new and unplanned destination
  —fated, to a distant terminal unknown

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015)
Dennis Willis Feb 16
time and water are friends
so don't believe their lies
how they will be there
when you need them

you will sign up to be
flowing hoping to bob
your days gently along
an easy sunlit shore

these lies are employed
for someone else's laughter
our lives on some stage
of which we are unaware

a natural act an unseen watching
written up like time become space
I've inked my body's imagination
with misprints from the school lunch
menu

I'd like to have one of those again
pasty instant potatoes and add water
gravy next to an oddly shaped loaf
of how to make money off our children

we have been trading on our hearts
discounting how you affect my soul
with explanations galore that would
extrapolate happily on the drawbacks

Of Thursday afternoons with no wine
and it's this stage upon which all
of this nonsense cavorts it ills
as if we were more than ticketed acts

— The End —