chels: Favorites

May 2013 chels

Tom Orr

going to war to prevent war

they say every man will defend
when in fact it's a means to an end
something egocentric
a valour
a glory
a small gain for uncountable loss

a crusade ethos of the government
when the governor's meant
to be a guardian of interests
yet to guard his own interests
he'd rather tear a hole
in the only things some people know

a hero, a death
a medal, a death
an honour, a death
a victory, a death
or is it the other way around? i forget

a strong-hearted media
which will only feed to you
a story to spin an election.

and I can wholeheartedly say
the only state
which I possess the mind to believe in
is that state in which you've left this crater

devil's land once called home

May 2013 chels

4lines

May 2013 chels

Joshua Dougan

4lines

Being an introvert is kind of rough,
You see, cause I believe in finding love.
A sight to see... but I'm blind to luck.
Cause in the end, inside I'm stuck.

May 2013 chels

PM Automatic 3

May 2013 chels

Owen Phillips

PM Automatic 3

This trail leads to the animal crossing
It fails to accommodate intrepid adventurers,
Bushy tailed explorers, mountain climbers,
Talkers to squirrels and chewers of pine pitch.
The divine medicine denies us the headspace to believe we're really dead,
The reclined estrogen felt good against twenty million years of insecurity
Golden-layered, factually flawed
It lay exposed for decades
Rusting innards and misfiring sparks
None of the heavy equipment does what it says
Robot arms move with intensity
No programmer yet programs tenderness
The limiting factor has always attracted the acting crowd
Always desperate for theatrical work they magically appear
When it's clear that they're needed
But heed the warnings, they're known to be cheaters; the people who say so could also be wife-beaters
No need to wait for a stereotype
Follow the one you haven't lost touch with

Well I actually wrote it at 1:21 AM but I was in bed about to sleep so it is more appropriately grouped with the other PM poems than the AM ones... Maybe I should come up with another way to designate them, since I'm so often writing after midnight.

May 2013 chels

warning

May 2013 chels

ok

warning

if you decide to leave,
just know that I will
never again take a cool,
sharp breath or feel
a petal between the
tips of my fingers,
i will be too soaked
by the backfire of my
own words and the
direct cut from yours
to sigh and release
these demons you
helped wrangle last
summer. it was a low
point, sure, but I still
loved every minute
of our struggle and
if I was given the choice,
i’d still pick the July
with you on the too
hot lake and hot nights.
it's a motion picture
in the back of my head,
so if you ever see my
eyes roll back, don't be
caught off guard. It's
just a side effect of

You And Your Touch.

May 2013 chels

Treasure

May 2013 chels

Susan O'Reilly

Treasure

“Hey, you
Yeah, you, what you looking at”?
“Did you buy tickets”

That was roared at me as I watched this fine gentleman try to dump a package

At first, I thought it was just ordinary ******* but he was being too protective of it
then whatever it was, moved ever so slightly

I couldn’t move
I was rooted to the spot
he could roar and bellow all he liked
but I wasn’t going anywhere
I couldn’t

He looked at me with an evil grin
and just dropped his bundle in the bin
then with an ignorant shrug
went on his way his errand done
I think I actually heard him whistle

I rushed over
and gently picked up this man’s *******
I unwrapped it
it was a beautiful little kitten
snow-white
it’s colour being its only distinguishing mark
a tiny scrap of a thing

It wasn’t moving now
no sound emitting
I massaged its little chest
urging it on with every thing I had
A tiny little rise
Yes
I can do this

It slowly opened its eyes
took deep racking breaths
its little body spasmed
then
blessed relief
its breathing no longer laboured
and
a most wondrous thing
like a baby’s first cry
a miaow, barely audible
music to my ears
then getting louder
rising to a fantastic ear-busting, heartwarming crescendo

I’ve kept it
it’s now my companion
when it wants to be
I called her Hope

One man’s ******* is now my treasure

May 2013 chels

Dial M it's murder

May 2013 chels

John Edward Smallshaw

Dial M it's ******

Time reigns
it smacks you in the face and it scrambles up your brains
until you think you've had enough but you need a little more
so you hang on to the second hand
as it sweeps across the pool hall floor
and the hour glass is halfway full
so you pull a face
but that's no good, you can't see the forest for the wood
and you can't cut it down.
Time laughs and laughs at you,
the clown
and the clock spins on in the Circus
reminds us
we're mortal
but made of more than flesh and bone
that gave a home to the time invader
the raider that loots the hours from our day.
One day he'll pay
but not before we do.
we who
are stuck in the seconds that turn and bump in the minutes
and bring us to a final conclusion
where time being fused
in the time we have used
and any time we had left
we had no time for that.

I put on a coat and an old trilby hat
pretend I'm a spy
but time has his eye on me
time stands and spies on me
what
irony.