"uncurls" poems
Where the slow river
meets the tide,
a red swan lifts red wings
and darker beak,
and underneath the purple down
of his soft breast
uncurls his coral feet.
Through the deep purple
of the dying heat
of sun and mist,
the level ray of sun-beam
has caressed
the lily with dark breast,
and flecked with richer gold
its golden crest.
Where the slow lifting
of the tide,
floats into the river
and slowly drifts
among the reeds,
and lifts the yellow flags,
he floats
where tide and river meet.
Ah kingly kiss --
no more regret
nor old deep memories
to mar the bliss;
where the low sedge is thick,
the gold day-lily
outspreads and rests
beneath soft fluttering
of red swan wings
and the warm quivering
of the red swan's breast.
5.3k
At top of the hill
A fragrant hill
Stands the blue windmill.
It has bricks of gold
from the Cotswolds.
It stands lonely, cold and still.
No wind to blow here anymore.
Blood sweat and many tears
once lined the dusty, white floor.
Now ivy of green hugs the door.
No stones turn
no fire burns
grounding flour to make a pound.
Every hour, each second counted.
Hands of the brave
that made a mark to engrave
their time on the hill
where now time stands still.
A Raven who calls to the midnight air
His wings as blue as the blades
His body as deep as the ace of spades.
As old as this story has been told
new hope is about to unfold.
The Raven is about to learn
as once more the blue blades turn
Through the yellow window
a farmer's wife
begins her new life.
Her golden apron, her new dreams
the sparkle in her blue eyes
whips up a wind like never before.
The generator stirs, the life uncurls
like tail from a happy cat.
Except this is tale that is about to begin.
Sep 18, 2014
Sep 18, 2014 at 5:11 AM UTC
I move through the woods in ritual
The trees have shed their leaves like
Third sons and eldest daughters,
They cling bravely until the wind uncurls their hands
and bears them away from home.
A scavenger, I search them out, hold them between finger and thumb,
Their last embrace.
Sometimes I will pluck a fading life from a branch,
melded amber and crimson,
the dregs of sun in their veins,
offered in the last vibrance of summer’s heat.
At home, I press them between pages,
tiny spells of weight and gravity
cast to keep their color.
I know this magic,
Autumn and I are kindred in this,
Our eyes are the same soft green and sepia of hiraeth
cradles of remembrance,
nets always cast back into memory.
Like all memories
There are a thousand useless,
The umber of old blood, trodden underfoot,
the seconds that dripped by unmarked.
But we hold the fragile, happy few,
High upon a shelf
the glowing phosphorus of laughter
The currant red of a last kiss
Returned to and returned to
Like an unanswered prayer.
Oct 9, 2021
Oct 9, 2021 at 7:09 PM UTC
2 AM:
i'm falling in, and out, and in, and out,
of sleep.
my mind reaches:
arching forwards,
slowly uncurls a single finger
pinkish joints blossom
one-by-one
the slightest graze of fingernail
and what i think is real bursts into a million,
iridescent
spinning globules sent
skittering down a marble hall,
who knows how long?
but sometimes there are no marbles--
there are only shooting stars
masses of hazy, gaseous yellow
pixels, flickering and glitchering
in the corners of my eyes, hover
at my brow, drop at my feet ah...
a sadness devoid of
emotion.
like androids,
dreaming.
Sep 25, 2018
Sep 25, 2018 at 11:14 PM UTC
She stops before the glimmering mirror,
falters and prepares.
Gangly and awkward,
Legs unfolding, leaning forward
she drinks.
A slender skyscraper gallops,
sashaying.
A wet bud uncurls and blooms.
Winding, uncoiling, plucks a leaf.
Enchanting daughter of heights:
Embraced by the clouds,
Smooching the stars.
Towering sky-queen, ossicones her russet crown.
Bronzed cloak, auburn jewels.
From protuberant knees to shadowy lashes,
a lofty leader,
willowy wanderer.
Mar 24, 2015
Mar 24, 2015 at 1:40 PM UTC
I fell for the way the smoke uncurls. The way it unravels and dances in a montage of swirls. I fell for the way the smoke danced off your lips. And the way there was so much more to you than the movement of your hips. I fell for the lipstick you always wore. And the smile I could hear in your voice when I said I was at the store.
And I saw the way a garden bloomed in you. The way the buds showed all the colors from pink to blue. And I remember looking at you and feeling yellow. And I remember the way my legs all of a sudden felt like jell-o, simply at the sound of your "hello".
And it was you, you were the light that shined so bright. The only detail I care to remember about that night. You were the only shining star in the sky. And I remember thinking, I wouldn't mind being by your side. The girl of my dreams. Had me realizing life wasn't really as it seems. You see, that night I realized just so how hard a person can fall. They say the taller they are, the harder they fall, and I've never been so okay with standing tall.
I never was great at talking about the way I feel. Truth be told, there's just too many scars that time is taking too long to heal. I've been searching for the words to say in books and songs I've never heard about. Trying to keep my heart from bursting out. Of my chest yknow?
The rose that bloomed every time you smiled. The tulips that flourished every time you laughed. The thorns that pricked my fingers every time you cried.
You were a garden that only time could water. The LSD that dropped on the blotters. You were the Lucy that had me feeling wavy. Had me feeling like life was amazing. And thank god for her. Because now I don't feel pain as much as I've been hurt.
But I saw a flower bloom. And I think that the love I felt was true.
Jan 2, 2017
Jan 2, 2017 at 1:58 AM UTC
When Adam ***** Eve
And calls out Lilith’s name
the slinking Power inside her
Opens one sleepy eye
And uncurls two glistening fangs
Eve wraps her fingers around Adam’s given rib
Hands ****** and covered in blood
Eve plunges bone into sacred heart
Hears him gasp from gospel mouth
Mutters her name like prayer,
Like truth
Winds herself around him in python embrace
Swallows the blessed body whole
And becomes the Garden he dies in
God looks away
Sep 27, 2018
Sep 27, 2018 at 4:50 PM UTC
Wind blows chilling the air
Hair whips across bare skin
Eyes of sea fill with tears
The grass bends to the footsteps
His body lays still
Sword still grasped in His hand
A small body lets loose a scream
Others feel the touch of death
Lucky the wind spared them
Knowing very well next time
Could be the last
Golden curls spill across the dead One
The wind rushes through once more
Her body still
Hand uncurls a vial drops to the ground
The scream becomes the last breath
Rushing out
They sleep entwined forever
Heart
Mind
Body
Soul
Apr 29, 2010
Apr 29, 2010 at 7:49 PM UTC
For the lady who sees it all, Mahkhon
Scribes gather –
Words tucked between
Laughter and Memories, hidden
For them to find and tell.
A river fairy she is,
Papyrus reeds, her wings.
A naiad, watching bubbles,
Reading hearts, --
Precious bubbles, a keeper
In four years.
Seven Years past,
The fairy is a Woman, Who
Bears keen eyes with ken.
Imagine her delight,
For each bubble pricked,
Truth, love, stories unwrapped.
A seer uncurls the scrolls,
An oracle whispered to gentle Wind:
A dandelion she is
Made for the skies,
Lift her up ---
But kindly change her not.
May 4, 2016
May 4, 2016 at 7:59 PM UTC
darkness of the mind
fire in the heart
my desire
is
my destruction
within the forests of my breasted figure
lies a dormant snake
sprouting fear in my dreams
leaving me empty
aside from memories in my wake
all of the blue I once knew
suddenly bursting into flame
it's time to face what I create
a pair of emerald eyes
unblinking-unthinking
another of the deepest mud
unrevealing
no longer feeling
the last
most terrifying & candied eyes
butterscotch & bloodshot
looking upward to the crescent in the sky
seeing new colors
saying
goodbyes
six eyes
on three heads
sprouting from a body
made of
snow
curling crystals
jagged and etched
along the slender creatures form
hunger tries to consume
this beast
"what is love,"
the fire asks,
"save for a wet & bloodied feast?"
the snake uncurls
as if ready to latch on to it's prey
then soon after
bolts away
the heartbeat of fire:
much too loud in it's calmness
to be frightened by
hunting snow
with intentions to consume
such a succulent meat
will the snake evaporate in the heat of desire
or
will the fire be smoking
in it's failure
to catch the slithering beast?
frightened with a calmness
death is in the air
in the stare
of all
six
sick
& wicked eyes
the fire muses
in it's confusion
of what's right or wrong
the hunt is no longer a game
life and death
no longer simply names
realities of fortune
and lacking
just the same
the snow and the ice
too weak to face this flame
predictions of
when the snake melts down
to nothing but water and bones
she'll gather the crusted crystals of desire
she so often used to admire
used to hold
in a heart of stone
a different destiny to behold
if the snake
were to win
the burnt paper of her skin
would
go grey in the wind
no more
flames
no more
spark
heart grown
dark
and weary
what torture could send the snakes tongue
down her throat and lick the flame
into an outrage of misplaced
words
that held nothing save for demands
in those hands
the blood had stained
how much of how little could last
no more of the new
in the end
what is left is
all that has passed
snake and flame
forever
in cycle
recycling their pain
until
neither remain
Jun 19, 2014
Jun 19, 2014 at 12:24 PM UTC
the *** machine has begun to breathe on her own. father ***** a brown bruise into mother’s half of my cigarette. I could be doing a handstand in a prison yard or watching as my cell is turned upside down. brother uncurls a finger from his made fist so deliberately I know he means it to be a hard-on. I crush my eyes with my eyes and try to remember the name my son gave to the loose tooth we hung together from a doorknob. was my son told me the puppets need our hair.
Dec 23, 2014
Dec 23, 2014 at 8:01 PM UTC
Sometimes I feel like there’s a worm inside my mind,
I hear it, when it’s nighttime, it has a voice
and that voice tells me to turn my body four times
so that everyone I love doesn’t leave me.
More than that, though, I feel it
right at the back of my skull. It nestles
deep inside and chokes the blood flow away
from rationality, and I clench my fist two times two.
And then it uncurls. I think it is wounded
but it is really just gorging on the compulsion
I have fed it. Again. But the reprieve is glorious
for a moment, until its maw opens back up for more.
Its body is a spiral, contorting thoughts
until I am at its mercy; although it is part of me,
I feel as though I am part of it.
It’s impossible to run away from an attached body.
One day, everyone you love will die and it will be your fault,
ballet turn, pivot, dance en pointe my darling, again,
walk, walk, walk, walk, there we go, now people are alive.
Now you’re a hero, for a second, for two.
Here we are in the thick of it.
Oh, you didn’t like that, did you?
Jul 17, 2021
Jul 17, 2021 at 8:46 PM UTC
a fist broken
uncurls tightly
(and from in
there bursts
a whole heart
laid o
pen)
Feb 26, 2012
Feb 26, 2012 at 5:21 PM UTC
Often, I think back.
Grip on the childhood
uncurls, slowly.
If the muscles don't fail,
bones will break. Oh,
Did you ever get
over your neglect?
Comes and goes,
Bexis, comes and goes.
Too high an expectation,
receive your input
and your feedback.
Grip on my childhood
memories loosens,
sudden. In your descent,
you grow terminal.
Your heart beats so hard
it might rip through
your ribs to fly upward,
back to the summit.
All your love, it is not lost, I
lap you up, still.
Is this separation unreal?
I can never figure out if
I'm naive or cynical,
if I'm worthy or worthless.
How did you feel,
when with me?
How did I feel,
when with you?
If the muscles don't fail,
bones will break.
If we play with what's at stake,
will we ever learn and grow?
And if so, is it worth this grinning ghost?
We'll make it,
either way.
Jan 14, 2019
Jan 14, 2019 at 10:30 PM UTC
Many moon-less nights festering,
tucked with the glass and cloth drawn shut.
In confinement a vacuum
against the all-consuming hollow of modern.
Oh how we scramble,
"too busy" to catch me a glimpse
so we'll leave it to chance on the Underground circuit.
Carts of death, on which we're wheeled
like lambs to the end of the line.
If our spine uncurls and blessings conveyed
fall to bitter silence, let these words
embellish our story.
For fury may burn holes in the gut,
but crumpled parchment and black X'ed out pictures at the eyes
long transcend the ideologue.
That white speckled hue, the hum of neon boards
worn but audible. Somewhere between the dim
of Old Street and Whitechaple,
the sound of lonely echoed in departed steps.
I plead forgiveness,
if not claw at the thread that knots a stomach tight
and loop it like a noose instead.
There are no combinations, no literacy codes to re-write history
when actions speak in a universal slur.
I'll do it over, scratching memories from the surface
of old Polaroid photos,
finger balanced like the needle on a buckled vinyl
poised to screech one last note.
So come now, let us meet
on shores our lips spoke the promises of;
let us not shallow graves
where not a single petal bloom in our name,
our egos are too big to return to the dirt.
Nov 26, 2018
Nov 26, 2018 at 2:31 PM UTC
"Come by, come by" the shepherd calls
To a black and grey dog that's not there.
He's minding his own business
Which to him is all very fair.
A whistle is blown, but on deaf ears
The sheep thinks it is all a scream
They run wildly all over the field
But the dog's done in, out of steam.
"Come on lad, round 'em up for me"
The shepherd's voice is slightly raised
But the dog does not care one little jot
He neither cares or is phased.
The dog starts a sit-in and makes a sign
"Less sheep, more juicy bones"
The sheherd laughs, so do the sheep
The dog sighs and all afternoon moans.
The sheep's wool uncurls, fear looms
Another dog springs an attack
The shepherd has a smile on his face
Watching the first dog creep on back.
The sheep dont know what has hit them
They are rounded up in the blink of an eye
The sheep **** through open gates at speed
and did an immediate left towards the pig's sty.
Textbook!
Apr 6, 2014
Apr 6, 2014 at 3:03 AM UTC