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Catrina Sparrow Nov 2012
run into the crested shorelines where the greatest empires have fallen,
and kiss the tides of the salty sea in hopes of calming your clumsy pulse and flippant thoughts.

stretch your legs.
limber up like a prideful little boy before a rigged game of lava-monster...
and run!

run like your shoes will never untie and your heavy feet will never misfire.

run to the reams of yellowing pages you cling to,
full of ball-point memoir metaphors and pithy,
expressive descriptions of the beautiful women you've trained yourself to hate along the way.
don't get friendly with your paintbrush when you reminisce this time.

run.
full-fledged, snot-nosed, scared-shitless-grinned
sprint.

run to itchy cotton bedding drenched in the stench of day-dreams and nightmares;
peppered with heaps of insight they've yet to diagnose,
and one cold pillow
that can never seem to lull your static head to sleep or fully support the weight of your heavily burdened shoulders.

run like it doesn't mean anything for once;
like a wide-eyed kid who's never seen a map or compass,
he just zigs and zags through the seemingly limitless emerald velvet at full speed as he navigates the backyard in pure and honest bliss.

run to sun-soaked golden fields where the night sky tints itself purple to reach the perfect shade of darkness,
and your breath hangs low on the tops of the tall grass like the fog hanging over a prehistoric low-land,
and the stars shine like slicked-up pebbles about to let you decode the mystical secrets they hold...
and everything comes clear
and clean
and calm.

run free
and wild
and nameless
like it's the only thing you've ever known,
until you're ready to run back into me.
i wrote this one for a boy, with rain puddle eyes and the most sincere smile i've ever had the pleasure to know. this is for the one boy i've ever felt could truly see me. proving his intellect, he fled, and i haven't seen him since. this is just a plea that maybe, hopefully, some day, he'll come back to me.
Randall Walker Sep 2017
I thrive in silence
These mental pylons requiring void
I need all of my neurons to be employed


Modernity calls…

Undulating waves lambast the structure
My zigs start zagging when they should be zigging
The course turns inward
Noise so noisome, I then soil the blank
Cursing God, myself, and the bank
For such a hideous, heinous, everyday mistake

This arsenal
This armory
My six-digit word bank
Fall all out of order
Twenty-six slots, filled in with haste
The instrument bears air greedily in
My fingers can’t trace the holes amongst the din
So I issue out garbage
And pretend
This new edition is
Just another win.
//
I stack words like pebbles,
In a shivering tower,
Creation bets Wind
Me
'e could easily overpower.
//
But take a glance at my mouth,
It's holding something sour,
I'll sweat till I'm sweet—
Now wouldn't that just wow her?
Steve Page Mar 2019
God writes straight with crooked lines.

He zigs and zags out of compassion,
out of recognition of our fragility,
our inability to walk aligned to the sun,
our preference to shun the glare of the bright
and to tolerate that light only from the gloom,
but God makes room to write straight with His crooked lines

and so He completes His story.
The first line is a Portuguese proverb.
See also Genesis 50, Joseph speaking to his brothers who sold him into slavery:
v20 "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."
JC Lucas Aug 2018
The haze of a distant fire
flattens the light on the knolls
beyond the sageflats. Their half-tone
silhouettes jagged by tall pines.
The rumble of the engine as I stand beside the truck
with the door open, surveying the
horizon. Locusts crackling.
A patchwork of shadows washes
over the flats. Steel-gray clouds above.
The wind kicks up sparse columns of
dust. A lonely road
and a shot-up gate.
A glimmer in the dirt. Brass.
Nine millimiter. Discharged and forgotten.
The lock on the gate has been grazed by bullets.
Maybe this one.
The shadows wash over outcroppings
of lava rock amid the tall sage.
Nooks and crannies. Places to hide.

A gust of wind and I am standing in the shade
and my eyes relax as a prairie falcon
glides over the road to survey the
far side for something to eat,
close enough I can almost
hear the beating of his
wings and suddenly
zigs up and then
charges toward
the ground
and then
he has
gone.
blaise May 2017
run across the orange shorelines where the greatest empires have fallen,
and kiss the waves of the salty sea in hopes of resting your clumsy pulse and frivolous thoughts.

stretch your legs.
lithe up like a prideful little boy before a rigged game of 'the floor is lava'
and run!

run like your laces will never untie and your loaded veins will never misfire.

run through the realms of yellowing pages you cling to,
full of ball-point metaphors and crisp, eloquent descriptions of the beautiful feelings you've trained yourself to hate along the way.
i beg you to get over-friendly with your paintbrush when we reminisce this time.

run.
full-fledged, snot-nosed, scared-shitless-grinned
sprint!

run to silky cotton bedding drenched in the stench of your maladaptive daydreams;
peppered with layers of insight we've yet to discover,
and two cold pillows
that can never seem to sing your static head to sleep or fully embrace the weight of your bruised shoulders.

run like you can feel for once;
like a curious kid who's never seen a map or compass,
he just zigs and zags through the seemingly endless wildflowers at full speed as he pilots the backyard in pure and sincere bliss.

run to sun-drenched golden fields where the night sky tints itself blue to succumb to its favorite shade of darkness,
and your breath settles low on the tips of the tall grass like the fog growing over a prehistoric low-land,
and the stars twinkle like lake-thrown pebbles about to let you decrypt the gleaming secrets they hold...
and everything comes clear
and cool
and calm.

run free
and fierce
and nameless
like it's the only thing you've ever known,
run until you reach me.
i don't know why i always post poems weeks after i write them ****. but school lets out in a week and a half so i'll definitely have more time to write **** in summer
Samm Marie Jul 2016
Altruistic soul filled to the
Brim with bravery and
Courage that never halts and a
Drive that never dies
Elaborate and elegant in everything I do
Feeling every emotion to its strongest
Grade of real
Healing my once misshapen soul
Into a whole, not needing to
Justify my ways, be they
Kind or crazy because I
Love, it's what I'm good at
Mirroring the footsteps of great writers and
Never following the path then
Owning my fate and my faith
Pleasing myself above others
Questioning when necessary
Remembering where I am from then
Stepping into new and different
Thresholds that are
Unable to faze me, especially as I
Violently throw out my vicious cycle
Without wavering back to my old ways, using some sort of
Xylene to immortalize my past as a
Yellow reminder and stain, pushing me in
Zigs zags to be who I aim to be

This is the dream
That creates me
Commuter Poet Mar 2015
I can smell the morning
I can smell the sea mixed with dew and light mist
Memories of my childhood return
Free from care
I wondered what my life would become

The river is my beautiful friend
Today it rests calmly
Quietly reflecting everything neatly

I love to be alone with my thoughts
On mornings such as these

Eight geese fly low over the river
Making a straight line for the city
One moment they are here
The next they are gone

I want to be proud of my life
Proud of who I am

Who I am is what I do

Now for a short while
I sit and write in these historic gardens
On this ornate bench
I breathe in the salty air

The sun appears
To warm my tired face
The grass sparkles here and there
With the remnants of early morning dew
And daffodils stand tall
Their flowers ******* in the sunlight

The birds of Westcliff are happy here
They sing brilliantly

Long parallel waves roll slowly across the flat river surface
Finally expiring on the shallow beaches

For this short time
I sit still among the workings of the day
While a bee zigs and zags and joggers jog
And dog walkers walk and drivers drive
Written 21st March 2012
my body clock
has run aground
a good nights sleep
can not be found
counting sheep
over fences bound
i'm wide awake
instead of sleeping sound

sleep it comes
when it should not
i'm fearful that
i might get caught
a nodding off
a fight i fought
sleep when i should
can it be bought?

my body zigs
instead of zags
i'm wide awake
my eyes have bags
my inner spring
has stopped and lags
my nerves are shot
i zig....i zag

i lie in bed
one eye i close
i'll trick myself
my brain won't know
asleep, awake
which way to go
i'm half awake
my spirits low

If i am half asleep
i guess
i'm half awake
as well at best
there's the answer
to my sleeping quest
do half of both
i must confess!!!
for Ashlee Baracy and Lauren Podell
Charlie Jan 2015
In this life, we're given two lives.
One we're born with, the other we find.

Ignoring emotion keeps them apart, time brings them together.
Yet side-by-side, hand-in-hand they can fair out the weather.

One ticks, Two tocks in imperfect harmony.
Two zags while One zigs, with no one else they'd rather be.

Just when we can no longer be alone
Two finds us, Two loves us and carries us home.
A life shared is a life gained
dafne Nov 2015
the moon could never keep his hands off the ocean.
for millions of years,
(at least that is what it seemed to be)
the ocean and the moon were in a very entangled relationship.
many couldn't comprehend it,
because their bond was so abstract,
and some appeared to derive the right answers,
with scientific reasonings to every complication .

the ocean never really had it figured out either,
she never planned for someone so distinct to make an entrance.
in the beginning, the moon was exciting, extravagant, exclusive,
and caused her to feel something new, which was a tide.
the ocean loved the movements of the tide,
they formed her once slow heartbeat into a melody,
the ups and downs, her constant change,
a dance with the moon was a thrill.

the moon enjoyed finally having a partner,
for he was alone, visited by only a few a year,
now he had the ocean,
the one he could twist and turn,
wrap around his fingers,
make her heart beat for him,
and only him, her obsession with new-found life,
of zigs and zags,
it was so different from her stagnant past.  

the moon saw the oceans vulnerable eyes,
falling in love with him and his assets,
his magnificence and glamour,
he began to take advantage, shaping her
into a sea of emotions,
a puddle of once shallow water,
creating depths of mile long darkness,
and the ocean proclaimed her love to the moon,
everyday praises and promises,
but tides began to be reckless,
trying to escape the moon was the hardest for her,
without him she'd be completely still,
a girl with no owner,
but they came from two different worlds,
differences that were incompatible,
polar opposites,
the moon receiving few visitors,
the reckless ocean, once safe,
year after year,
they choose to stay.
(preface to constipation)

way before aye knew
the name Fletcherism applied
tummy uncommonly (recherché) atypical dyed
in the wool feeding and/or slaking thirst guide

did precepts sans hungry
deaf eating beast impossible to hide
(the ferocious growling harassing imp -
armed to the figurative teeth ready to pounce
viz casus belli sans reeling off

a pseudo say id dish us vicious jeremiad
me, this unrepentant conscientious masticator,
who re: lied
on self control unbeknownst
to this pumpkin eater
unwittingly followed

the basic tenet of Fletcherism - custom made
modus operandi vis a vis exercising okayed
mandibular metered (when famished),
eyes kept closed while tongue gently played

adhered to practice of eating small amounts,
which discipline stayed
engorging self, and as a result
(consuming sustenance

only when hungry avoiding
(wolfing like an instantaneous blitz krieg flash)
found me aware visa vis master car ding
marginal increase in pounds meaning
thy body electric weighed

approximately for long stretches
when a habitue at one or another dining digs
stuffed nibbling on hors d'oeuvre figs
adequately satiating with with oomf

when contra dance caller Scott Higgs
announced "hands four," which signal
helped get my mojo back
and reel lee deuce home jigs,
which kickstarted, syncopated,

oft times espying Bobbie Riggs
who years gone back **** Vic Tory huss
e'en when donning apparel of Whigs
like colluding trump petting molecules
that via tiff ***** doth zags and zigs.
Marigolds Fever Sep 2019
September’s Game
Hardball acclaimed
In the Outfield
Ambitions revealed
A pop fly
Up to the sky
Little fists pound the glove
In hopes they’ll catch one from above
Pitch a fastball
Batters stand tall
Slide to first
Some Wet Dirt
Is dispersed
Cleats dig
Arms S t r e t c h e d
51 Fetched
Catcher configs
Ghostly image of a bambino zigs
Swing the diamond
Beating hearts respond
Mysterious wonder
September’s game grows fonder
Copyright © Marigold’s Fever 2019
Keith W Fletcher May 2020
Lunacy  zigs and zags...
...across time and history
like crudely sewn patches
On the knees ...
...of childhood dreams !
re: visited today April 12th, 2023

Way before aye knew
the name Fletcherism applied
family and friends even the bartered bride
would (tongue in cheek) chide
tummy uncommonly (recherché) atypical dyed
ded if the letter “y” one did elide
in the wool feeding
and/or slaking thirst guide
did precepts sans hungry
deaf eating beast impossible to hide

(the ferocious growling harassing imp -
armed to the figurative teeth ready to pounce
viz casus belli sans reeling off
a pseudo say id dish us vicious jeremiad
me, this unrepentant conscientious masticator,
who re: lied
on self control unbeknownst
to this pumpkin eater
(me not named Peter)
unwittingly followed

the basic tenet of Fletcherism - custom made
modus operandi vis a vis exercising okayed
mandibular metered (when famished),
eyes kept closed while tongue gently played
adhered to practice of eating small amounts,
which discipline stayed
engorging self, and as a result
(consuming sustenance
only when hungry avoiding
(wolfing like an instantaneous blitzkrieg flash)
found me aware visa vis master car ding
marginal increase in pounds meaning
thy body electric weighed

approximately for long stretches
to enable safe passage for sturdy brigs
when a habitue at one or another dining digs
stuffed nibbling on hors d'oeuvre figs
adequately satiating with with oomf
when contra dance caller Scott Higgs
announced "hands four," which signal
helped get my mojo back
and reel lee deuce home jigs,
which indeed kickstarted and syncopated,
oft times espying Bobby Riggs
who years gone back **** Vic Tory huss
e'en when donning apparel of Whigs
like colluding trumpetting molecules
that via tiff ***** doth zags and zigs.
Dennis Willis Oct 2019
it's dark it's quiet
and there is ache
forcing shifting

i've a cotton swab
and two crayons
colors i can't see

smeared probably
indeterminate
like ankles sweeping by

my mind is in two places
at once the feel of that skin
against my face vibrato

back here typing words
i think with electrons and pixels
a density pleasing to the eye

and something is owed here
let from always guarded
a minimum a glimpse

my name is uncertain
i'm sure your hunger
is concerned with scent

the zigs and zags of the rest
clever beautiful intricate
non-existent experience
re: visited tonight October 15th, 2021

Way before aye knew
the name Fletcherism applied
tummy uncommonly (recherché) atypical dyed
in the wool feeding and/or slaking thirst guide

did precepts sans hungry
deaf eating beast impossible to hide
(the ferocious growling harassing imp -
armed to the figurative teeth ready to pounce
viz casus belli sans reeling off

a pseudo say id dish us vicious jeremiad
me, this unrepentant conscientious masticator,
who re: lied
on self control unbeknownst
to this pumpkin eater
(me not named Peter)
unwittingly followed

the basic tenet of Fletcherism - custom made
modus operandi vis a vis exercising okayed
mandibular metered (when famished),
eyes kept closed while tongue gently played

adhered to practice of eating small amounts,
which discipline stayed
engorging self, and as a result
(consuming sustenance

only when hungry avoiding
(wolfing like an instantaneous blitzkrieg flash)
found me aware visa vis master car ding
marginal increase in pounds meaning
thy body electric weighed

approximately for long stretches
when a habitue at one or another dining digs
stuffed nibbling on hors d'oeuvre figs
adequately satiating with with oomf

when contra dance caller Scott Higgs
announced "hands four," which signal
helped get my mojo back
and reel lee deuce home jigs,
which indeed kickstarted and syncopated,

oft times espying Bobby Riggs
who years gone back **** Vic Tory huss
e'en when donning apparel of Whigs
like colluding trump petting molecules
that via tiff ***** doth zags and zigs.

— The End —