The Poetry Marathon

Level: Easy
Total: 24 hr
Prep: 10 min
Cook: 12 hr
Yield: 1 You

Ingredients:
50mg Sertraline
20mg Propranolol
12.5 mg Meclizine
25 mg Sumatriptan
0.25 mg Norgestimate and Ethanol Estradiol
200 mg Ibuprofen (as needed)
50 mg Tramadol (optional)
3 cups of Water

Directions:

1 – Preheat yourself to 98.6 degrees F.
Sift the Sertraline, Norgestimate and Ethanol Estradiol,
and Propanolol into a medium bowl. Set aside.

2 – Drink 1 cup of water. Gradually pour the mixture into your mouth,
mixing until incorporated. Let simmer.

3 – Once melted, use a rubber spatula to fold in meclizine and Sumatriptan
until steady. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center
comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Turn over.

4 – Top off with toasted pieces of ibuprofen to add crunch (to your taste).
For more sweetness, add a dollop of tramadol on the side.

5 – Wrap in plastic wrap. You’re best served the next day.

when I was four years old
she told me that clouds
were something you can
grab onto and keep

so on afternoons after the first goodbye
I’d go out to the yard, stretch
my little arms up into the gaping blue
to catch the cotton too far to reach

I never forgot
the disappointment on the plane
to -someplaceididntknowyet-
not being able to open the window

and when I first saw her again at the terminal
where families reunited, lovers ran to one another
my bitter silence arrival
met her soft chuckle at my frustration.

sometimes I see you sigh at nothing
or distance when you’re near
–and now when I look up at the sky
I keep my arms at my side

I now know: there are some things you long for
some things you can’t hold.

Didn’t you hear?
The world is ending.
Humans lost the race
against the Gods, again.
They’re the hare
with the exception
of us two tortoises.
As the inferno consumes
the rest of them
let’s lie on the grass
gaze upon the burning sky
and look for shapes in the clouds of fire.
Relinquish our ties
their destruction is our creation.

We’re Adam and Eve
with no drawback to temptation.
Roam the continents
and claim them as ours
there’s no one to dispute.
I’ll rename the lands old bands
Greenland is Greenday
Though, America and Asia can stay.
You can renovate the landmarks
carve our faces onto Rushmore
straighten the Leaning Tower.
We don’t need to give in
to Ozymandian sentiments.
The war did that already.

Look on our Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing can touch us here.

I ride the one with
three wheels.
I am not brave enough
for the two.
Please stay near
and don’t let me fall.
Can we get taho
from that guy over there?
I have change
from my birthday.
Look!
Uncle Rie can we
row on the bird boats
on the pond?
They’re ducks?
Oh.
Those are a type
of bird too.

butterfly pixels

animatronic flowers

through TV windows

Polar winds scarcely hit the polar bear.
This is no time for hibernation.
In the palest of the winter
the abode still melts.
Clinging to life
on a shrinking island
no longer does its hairy frame
disappear against the white ice
but rather contrasts the aqua waters.
Can they see him now?
Those idiots in suits and ties
who play God.
They pay no care
for in the growing warmth
they lavish, play golf.
For the Northern being,
it is a sentence to death.

We have until the night is over
and words waste our last breaths.
First love never lingers long
it succumbs to an early death.
This ballad marks the future
that has committed theft.
Lights circle the walls
reminding us of minutes left.
Pull your body close to mine
feel the harmonic motion.
Hand on my back, lean in and
give your final devotions.
We have shared bruises
beaten by the sandman’s hands.
Why I had to go I’ll spend forever
trying to understand.
We have until the night is over
to do so as we wish.
So with seconds left
I plant a kiss
as my parting gift.

(In response to W.H. Auden’s Their Lonely Betters)

Words are for those with promises to keep.
Our forte of language causes us to weep
We create worlds and homes built from letters
Between us and the wild, our lonely betters.

We are the only who can grasp the fragile time
We can find love through an internal rhyme
And make art from the romanticization of dying
If we said we would trade this for silence we’d be lying.

Yet I see the flowers who are naturally mated
No fuss and words and neither have waited.
Only if the bees who spread the pollen knew
What troubles from the search of love can put you through.

I envy the natural serenade of the birds
They give us songs that need not words
A whim of their own, it’s how they are made
We’re missing the message in our lonely shade.

I need you now more than ever
the sphere that spins below my feet
is unforgiving
The sun that awakens and sleeps
travels faster each cycle
And there’s never a moment
when we‘re together
where the leaves don’t evolve
into another shade

Take me in your arms
and whisk me away
to a slow world
I want to be able to feel you, finally
with no ounce of urgency
or hurried manner
Just you and I
while eternal sunshine
protects us from the seasons.

may i never blink when she’s here for the season
my flower girl blooms and i lose touch with all reason
i endure december rain and the dreaded january blues
just to see you again babe, you and all your hues
suffocate me with your petals i think i’ll be okay
you be the predator i’ll be the prey
your scent hangs like loose threads all pull and no push
i pluck it and your fragrance demands me to hush
i’m in your web of color
soothing
poison ivy
kill me with a kiss
but won’t you do it nicely
i’m fine ebbing in the springtime
as i know this is where you flow
i’ll lay in the garden bed with you forever
feeling the wind above us blow