24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris lives in Southport, NC, USA. She is a published poet by Cameron Art Museum’s ‘Writers Respond to Art Program’ and was awarded the Certificate of Completion for successfully completing the 2021 and 2022 - 24 Hour Poetry Marathons. Her poem Wheels was chosen and published in the 2021 - 24 Hour Poetry Marathon Anthology and her poem The Date was chosen for publication in the 2022 a 24 Hour Poetry Marathon Anthology. She is a contributing author in Whisper’s & Echoes, an on-line literary magazine as well as in 50 Give or Take by vineleavespress.com for her 50 word stories, Love and The Wedding and The Sleep Doctor. In Visual Verse with her poem Mother Earth, and in The Virtual Poetorium for RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT a poem in the Octagon style as well as several other poems chosen for the podcast. Recently published by Carrot Ranch Literary Community in their Baby Ducks Ate My Lunch Collection for her 99 word story, Duckling Survival Guide. Also published in The Orkney News with He’s A Possessive Muse and in Spillwords.com with I Am Not A Man. Gypsie-Ami writes flash fiction, short stories, creative non-fiction and fiction as well as poetry. Her short story, Conversations With My Neighbor is published in the anthology, Trouble, by Daniel Boone Publishing. Gypsie-Ami received Honorable Mention in Tales from the Moonlit Path 2021 a yearly Halloween Issue, Abandoned Places Halloween Challenge, for her short story, Abandoned Memories. Her poem Seasons of Change is published The North Carolina Bards Poetry Anthology 2023 and her poem “Found Her” is slotted for publication in the Poet’s Choice book, Zest with Pets. She has recently completed a chapbook of poetry and is working on an action/adventure/paranormal romance novel. Gypsie-Ami is a member of NCWN and WSN. She is a contributing member of several local and out of state writers groups. She has been photographing and writing about flowers since she received her first camera at age twelve. Gypsie-Ami is known to her closest friends and relatives as Gypsie.
Presidents come and go
some make lasting impressions,
others make lasting change.
I want to make change
to bring light to
the plight of the world.
To speak Mother Earth’s words
in a language all can understand,
all can absorb.
Using my time and resources
to shout at the world,
STOP,
Mother Earth is angry.
Just as this President
has left a distinct image, albeit one
of disrespect and subterfuge, I will use my words to create understanding.
Opening ceremony so many new faces
so few old and recognizable ones.
The past rushing forward
slamming into us with a vengeance.
This is how she found us
“the past draped about us like a cloak.” (after Diana Khoi Nguyen)
Come, come and join,
the future begs of us,
tantalizes us
Do not fears us, rejoice in what was
and what will be.
Receive this cloak of history,
Wear it – and remember.
Sleep is coming
Sleep is near
Sleep is winning
Sleep I must
Goodnight I say
Good night
I sleep
Purple eggs laid on large fern leaves
Sunlight dapples across their shells
Tiny wings of gossamer gold
Emerge just right, just when they’re told
When the sun is high and the sky is blue
Little fairies chip through
Fragile shells of porcelain
Broken through by dorsal fins
Into this world of black and white
They call to me with joyful voices
Happy to see me they are
I could never traverse too far
One, two, three and four
five, six, seven, eight
Oh my, two more and we have ten
Wherever will we put them and when
Come my children, let us fly
Through these woods and to the hills
There you will find the pink unicorns
I assure you they are quite norm
We circle, we glide upon a rainbow cloud
See how the turtle shells glow
and the robins egg sounds
Look there and you will see
Our beautiful home, waiting for you and for me
So when next you see upon the ground
Purple spheres with no known name
Place them carefully back upon the stem
So they will come back and stay with you again
The touch of a feather
across a baby’s cheek
Your fingers so lovingly
stroke the curls of my hair
A kittens soft mewl
brings mother cat there
licking her kit
with tenderness and care
To show a true love
to form a strong bond
Remember to touch and
you’ll never go wrong
Beauty beyond compare
it’s fruit delicious and very rare
There’s only one like this you’ll see
planted right there – just for me
From whence it came
I haven’t a clue
Wait until you see it
fully in bloom
Almonds they fall
down from a branch
umbrella’s attached
to bright underpants
When I was young
so very young you see
I could not wait to get married
to a man who would love me
Not a beauty nor shapely
at least not that I could see
But still in my heart
I wanted someone to love me
At last when I found him
and took him to ground
I thought he was happy
that I too had been found
Along came a child
a girl pretty and tall
Next a round boy
that following Fall
It started before then
but I never had noticed
The very late hours
he flew to Tuamotus
More frequently than not
he’d call on the phone
Reminding me again
he’d not be coming home
The man I had married
the man I had loved
Now an echo a memory
with someone else that he loves
A little sea port town
sitting right on the coast
there’s so many sites
I can’t help now but boast
The houses are grand
far grander than most
I could never imagine
being one of their hosts
I’d never complain no not at all
My little abode’s a gem with ease
My flowers are bright and dance
with my trees in the breeze
I hope you will visit
I hope you will come
see my home and my place
very happy ‘neath the sun
I found you that day
standing there all alone
Quite sure that no one
would ever take you home
You withered and wilted
having given up all hope
The last of your kind
lost abandoned no rope
Then along came me
and spotted you there
Thinking how lovely it’d be
having you near my chair
So I paid the kind lady
left her shaking her head
Wondering why I would buy
a tree that was basically dead
But I knew that day
with water and care
The joy you would bring me
by just being there
They stand there and stare
and make weird silly faces
Knock on my walls
putting me though their paces
Hairy and stout ones
they come by in crowds
Tall ones and short ones
Most vulgar and loud
Sometimes they throw money
pennies bouncing in-mass
Laughing and jeering at me
Ugly human now held behind glass