The Poetry Marathon

Perfection is a myth to mankind
I have my faults
I have my shames
I’ve done things I’m not proud of
I’ve been a karmic friend
A karmic love
A karmic partner
I’m no better than anyone
I bleed the same
I cry
I feel
I have doubts
I have fears
I have faults
My skin is blemished with scars
I have cellulite
A plushy mom bod
I have wrinkles
Grey hair
Stretch marks
I have fibromyalgia
ADHD
CPTSD
I have healed
I pay attention
I cope with my pain
I’m proud of my tiger stripes
I dye my hair for me
My age brought wisdom
I make a good body pillow
I have texture 🤣
I’ve overcome self-harm and value myself
I’ve embraced my imperfections
I have faith
I have hope
I laugh
I’ve bandaged my wounds
I’m no better than anyone
I’m a loyal partner
I love loyally and unconditionally
I’m a ride-or-die
I’ve done things that would cripple others
I’m proud of my accomplishments
I have talents
But I’m not perfect
Not by a long shot
But perfection is a myth to mankind anyway.

Your voice is shaking
Quivering lips
In want to say something
But maintaining silence
You watch the show
As it unfolds
A story to gather
Enough info
To make decisions
Based on yourself
Not in line with beliefs
Held deep within your hearts.
Others opened their eyes
And spoke on behalf
And recognized the truth
When they told on themselves
Yet none reach out.
No one says a word
Or utters a sound
Just watching on the sidelines
On the bleachers
While traitors hide beneath
Throwing stones and
Hiding hands.
Who would stand for you
If you were me?
I’m an army of one
Against a battle on four fronts
Taking the blows
Turning my cheek to face one
To get bludgeoned by another
As I fight back
On my own
And stand up for myself.
An army of one, or so I thought
But a legion at my side
A Divine team I owe my life
And God taking the front
My ancestors at my back
Surrounded by angels and guides
With a butterfly resting upon my shoulder.
I stand up for truth
So what will you do?

I keep to myself
No bother to any
Offering what I can
Lending an ear
I give
And I gave
Far too much of myself
Lifted those
Who oppressed me
Loved those
Who hated me
Prayed for those
Who betrayed me
I keep to myself
Bite my tongue to the masses
And confess my feelings to God
I raise my son
Not my voice
I raise myself
And use my voice
Profess my truth
I’m no better
Nor worse
Than my peers
I work on myself
Changed my ways
Healed my toxic traits
And aim toward goals
I study
I educate
I meditate
Purge what no longer serves
I sing loudly
Nevermind my volume
I suffer in silence
From chronic pain
Not so much emotional anguish
Detached from toxicity
Removed myself
From abusive narcissists
I keep to myself
Isolated in solitude
By my own choice
And by God’s decree
I keep to myself
In Hermit mode
To gain truth and clarity
For my growth.

The best investment you make
Is that within self
Change comes from within your soul

You wonder how
I turn iron into gold
Pain into laughter
Abuse into strength
Slander into self-worth
Disrespect into self-respect
Sexual abuse into chastity
Emotional imbalance into stillness
Mental conflict into problem solving
Trauma into wisdom
Savagery into kindness
Deceit into authenticity
Ten of swords into ten of cups
Chaos into contentment
Wounding into worship
Battle scars into healed armor
Disenchantment into dreams
Attempts upon my life into living
Existence into presence
Sandcastles into a palace
Perceived perfection into embracing weakness
War into inner peace
Squalor into great abundance
Hell into personal paradise
The matrix into awakening
Self sabotage into self reflection
Screaming lies into silent honesty
Low vibrations into high vibrations
Naivete into discernment
Hatred into compassion
Misunderstanding into clarity
Anxiety into self motivation
Depression into attention
Emptiness into wholeness
Brutality into empathy
Understanding into comprehension
A raging explosive inferno into a flicker of candlelight
Lost identity into finding myself
Passion into purpose
Poverty into generosity
Perceived aesthetics into depth
Theft into gifts
Rage into collected calm
Ugliness into beauty
Being knocked down into rising above
I walk by faith and not by sight
I transmute energy
And transform into the opposite
No weapon formed against me shall prosper
Thus, I tread upon the path God paved
And I set my eyes to the sun and moon
Allowing the Divine to guide my way
Through and within Him, I found the way.

I’m not your plaything
Or someone you want to contend with
I am not soft spoken
My voice a single sharp edge of honesty
Your guilt shamed ears
Doesn’t want to hear
I’m not the dust beneath your feet
Rather the dirt from the ditch
You dug for yourselves
My being is rich with God’s Divine protection
And you thought you’d have me
In a shallow burial
With your crocodile tears
And your script to follow at my wake
So you can all keep your story straight.
I am not the gavel that cracks down
Upon your felonious acts
Selling yourselves for chunk change
As money has become your God
And the truth your devil.
I am not easily dismissed
But easily missed
Hidden from sight
Until your hatred unearthed
The treasure beneath
For what you intended to break
He instead rebuilt
For what you intended to isolate
He instead reformed and evolved
For what you intended to frighten
He turned into laughter
For what you intended to hate
Turned into an overabundance of love.
I’m neither victim nor survivor
I’m not thriving to exist
For what you intended to harm and break down
He only reconstructed
I am not the frail or injured
I am lungs of air
Exhaling deeply
All that is my authenticity
Who I really am
As shallow minds focused upon
The minnows schooled the shoreline
But I am the big fish
Avoiding your hooks
By His Divine hand
He is the water
And I am the fish
And together we swim
Through the murky depths
And the ultraviolet iridescent blues.
I am the mystery
That none can figure
I am the puzzle
Not in lack of one piece
I am the enigma
That tortures your mind
I am the riddle
That you lack an answer
I am the wisdom
You lacked comprehension to absorb
I am the waters
That slip like silk between your fingers
As you try and catch me
And what you know of me
Is the wet waters that drip from fingertips
Just an outer covering
You wipe upon your thigh
Dry yourself off
And believe you know
I left streaks upon your fabric
And now you wonder at my expanse
Nevermind the riptide that once
Desired to draw you in
Swim within the shallows of your assuming
And ponder the depths I reach
It some had a toe in
Others ankle deep
But God Himself
Knows my heart and soul
And the power of my mind
The softness that bears
No rough edge.
Upon my mirrored surface
Exposes your face
A reflection you’re loathe to see
So you cast stones
To ripple across me
But I swallow them whole
And still I remain
When the ripple effect
Becomes a tidal wave
That will devour
Your whole city
And wash it with
My loving purpose.

Do you make honey
With your slander?
Or is it a nest
Buried beneath soil?
Underground caverns
Twisting paper
Birthing stingers of lies
Paper thin
The nest you dwell within
Do you find yourself
Walking the corridors alone
Dry and crumbling
While you gather others to congregate?
Is it the sweet nectar you seek
As what the honeybees
Who busily toil
And here, you want to keep it in a jar
Until it crystalizes
Then put it under the heat
In order for it to pour for you
And your paper words
Absorb into the walls
You find yourself stuck
With stingers blindly
Finding your flesh
Like thorns from a rose
They tear
Yet never flower.
Yet my garden of clover
Feeds the production of
What moves slowly
As I pour the work into myself
and God’s word into yours.
You cannot escape
The entrance sealed
In a garden veil of love
A glue that purifies
An antiseptic that cures
All the wounds embittered
And heals with gentleness
And slowly it drips in
Healing the soul.
I nourish the bees with truth
You could free yourself
But your tongue is a dull sword
And succumbs to the fluid amber
Keeping your own self trapped
Within your paper deceits.

Witches and warlocks
Practitioners of the occult
Haitian voodoo magic and hexes
African shamans
Chicken bones
Deer tongues
Graveyard dirt
Stuffing chickens and rabbits
Sewn up tight yet bursting in vain
Buried under death rituals.
Spellwork is more than just
Bathing in blood
Poisoning with menstruation
Under full and new moons
By covens and the power of three
And the foolish waste of money
Spell is what you cast
With words
Affirmations
Manifestations
Thoughts
Deeds
Intentions
Binding yourself to
The “Return to sender x 10”
While you cast your evil eye.
Whether light or dark
Good or I’ll
Your thoughts and intentions
Are what you will become
And what you e down in darkness
Will come to fruition in light
And it is truth
That will be seen
From it’s growth.
As above
So below
So mote it be
Just make sure to
Spell your words correctly.

Take the money and run
Around blocks
Running circles
Around greed
Wasting the fuel of
Your life force
Your destiny
Your integrity
Your fate
Wads of cash
You chase like a carrot
To put in holes like
Nails in a coffin
Trying to stir up fear
Another notch in the headboard
Where sleep does not come soundlessly
From your greed.
You believe me to have
A price on my head
And opted to try and sell my soul
Diminish my worth
But I rise like a Phoenix unafraid
From the ashes of who
Burned me…
But you burned yourselves down
With materialistic explosives.
Karma is my friend
And she will visit me
As she will you.
What you don’t realize, though,
Is that it wasn’t my soul
On the block for slave trade
Up for show on a market
A theater in a strategic
Coreographed play upon my soul
But yours…
Accepting the money from blood
Siphon it out through your veins
And watch, hidden on the sidelines
While lining your pockets
With my botched demise.
It wasn’t my soul used
As poker chips
You gambled away your souls with.
The price was never set
Upon my head
It was on your own.
So I ask you,
How much did your soul cost you?
How much compared to mine?
Loyalty in the eyes of green
Whereas I have accumulated
Riches beyond measure
My soul remains intact
Priceless.
You sold your soul for a pittance
What money doesn’t realize
Is that there is no price to mine
Money can burn holes in pockets
And holes within conscious
As you all have burned me
A wounding upon your heart I pray heals.
All I required was atonement for the wrongs
Honesty
But you chose to keep your darkness
Out of shame and repercussion
but Karma will find you
As she will find me
And when she does
She will know you
By the coals from the G’s
You heaped upon your own heads
By your own hands.

The flash dilates
The truth
Narrow eyes down a narrow focus
Down a path of brambles
Thorns tearing flesh
Navigating through generational
Curses-secrets hidden
Behind smiles
Released and captured souls
Like fish hooked upon
The lips curling with their facade
Smile for the camera
And capture those “memories”
Pearly whites don’t
Allow entrance to pearly gates
Or gain wings of flight
The lines in images blurred
Distorted claimed falsehoods
Smiles disappear when
The camera drops
The moment of silence prepared
The image they wanted to keep
Smile for the camera
Adorn yourself in costumes and masks
And keep to yourself
What you don’t want others to know
Share your soul
Bare your heart
In a group of “loved ones”
With tainted arms
Hands holding knives
Around shoulders
To plunge between shoulder blades
“Love” cuts deep
And their arms
Weighed down by the lead weights
of their intentions and hidden agendas
Once their net was cast
Hook, line, they wanted to sink her
Smile for the camera
So they can connsume themselves
In the illusion of
One big happy family
In one flash
It’s gone.
The family dispersed
Like dandelion fluff
Planting themselves
Six feet under
Where in the dark their demons hide
Their seed buried
And from their growth
A still photograph
The image of themselves
They would kill to keep
Where it’s too dark to see
But in time the light will develop.