The Poetry Marathon

Some people go fishing,
Others fish every day…
The former group fish for cyprinids,
The latter fish for compliments…

© 2015 Antoinette LeRoux

Saying “Good Morning”
Is not always cool…
To be honest, the saying
Can make one feel like a fool…
Before the Age of Technology
We stayed home after hours
And community gatherings
Were humanity’s power…
“Good Morning” was only
Used when it was true
But lately it is said even
When the greeted one feels blue…
Not everyone feels well
Every second of each day-
Try to think before you speak
And know just when you can say
Those two little words:
“Good Morning”

© 2015 Antoinette LeRoux

I had a dream one night-

I was in a boat with Poseidon…
We were under the sea
And as always,
The surface was beneath us…
What seemed weird to me
Was that below the surface
Was not water, but air…

Both of us could speak audibly
Under the water –
I could hear every word that he said…

I looked down, into the sky –
Birds were swimming in the air;
A man jumped up towards us;
I watched as his parachute opened…

I looked up and saw a large
School of Barracuda flying above us
And a shark attacking from the left –

I was scared…

“Don’t worry”, said Poseidon,
Waving his trident as he spoke –
“As long as you are in this boat with me
Nothing bad will happen to you…”

I nodded and opened my mouth to speak…

And then I woke up and realized
That I was soaked with perspiration…

My dream has passed, but
The memory will always haunt me…

Weirdest was Poseidon –
Before that night I have wondered
How he could stay under water
For such a long time but
My dream answered my question –
The answer made perfect sense:

Poseidon, strange as it may seem,

Is a fish!

© 2015 Antoinette LeRoux

Hi all! My name is Antoinette Le Roux (legally still Keyser, but I have divorced my abusive husband, and am in the process of becoming Le Roux again), and I live in Kempton Park, Gauteng, South Africa. I have been writing poetry since forever, but have never really published anything except on Facebook, Wattpad and my WordPress blog… and more recently on one or two websites as gigs that I’ve done on Fiverr.

My main reason for entering this Marathon is to get my butt in gear: I have known since my elementary school days that I am a writer deep down inside, but received nothing but ridicule from my school peers, teachers… and even my father who has tried to push me into becoming an architect. He used to ridicule me when I tried to express myself singing and he used to tell me that writing is for the “less intelligent”; he made me believe that a woman “cannot make it as a singer or as an author”.

Both my husbands simply made me believe that I am “good for nothing”, the second one even going as far as to call me a “good for nothing mad ‘effing’ bitch”!

Needless to say, when one gets told the same nonsense so perpetually one really actually believes all the verbal crap that gets flung at one…

Now, with my dad, peers and abusive husbands long gone… and with the internet as an awesome resource telling me to my face that all those people were actually liars, I have now decided that it’s better late than never. I am getting into the world of authors, come what may… I know that I can do it, and this Marathon is a great opportunity to show myself that I can because what I really need is the motivation and self-confidence to step out and DO IT!

And here I am then, at age 60, breaking into the world where I know that I belong! I’m coming home so to speak!

Good luck to everyone who will participate, and may we all survive!

Antoinette Le Roux