The Poetry Marathon

Sunshine on the hanging baskets
Greet the flowers there
The trees stand still
Silhouettes on baby morning blues
Bushes and an apple tree
Awaken the birds in the yard.

I dreamed of time spent with you
Nestled to my chest
Soft and new

I ache with longing to see you
Hold you again
In my arms

I give thanks to pictures
To help pass the time until
I see you again

Rhonda, my love.

This dress does you honor.

Revealing your soft, alabaster skin

The velvet is the perfect foil

To you auburn hair.

Rhonda, my dear

It gives me great pleasure

To take you to supper with me

Afterwards as we stroll past the shops

We will have a bit of ice cream to eat.

Silence fills the Courtroom
Pregnant with expectation
The question has been asked
Everyone poised, waiting
Waiting for the response.

I swear, I take this solemn vow
Every word I say is true
Though difficult to believe
Believe it you must.
I speak nothing but the truth.

My impulsiveness is well known
My strength has been compared
To that CrossFit beast of a guy.
Froning , I think is his name
I hear that he can lift elephants

I heard it, that is a fact.
As so I too can lift them
It’s not too hard to do.
You can’t just try it, off the cuff
You must practice and take your time.

Some shudder at the thought
While some just stop and stare
Plainly I will tell you this
Some of you won’t even know
The criminally sublime.

The answer then is yes, of course
Of course this came to be
The courtroom released its breath
As I calmly picked up my elephant
And headed out the door,

I want to plant pine trees
On the edge of the ball field
so students see the sky
Instead of the prison
On the valley below

I want to plant mighty oaks
In the potholes of my street
Sometimes, to alert drivers
And sometimes to have
A forest instead of a road.

I want to plant gardens
Along the neighborhood walks
Fresh vegetables and berries
For those in want and need
To take as many as they please.

I want to plant lavender
In place of GMOs
So we never have to see
Glyphosate decimated fields
Where wheat and grain grow.

I want my wants to be my needs
To eat from where I live
To grow and flourish
In the sun and clean air
In my city and in my skin.

“I need space.”
He stepped back.
Farther and farther
Until he disappeared.
He didn’t understand

My need for inner space
Inner peace
Peace and quiet
Space. I need space.

Space for love, not
As distance between
I want to share and hold
To touch
To breathe and live.

At a table for two
At the far end of the bar
I sit alone,
Thinking of you.

At a table for two
I drink my scotch neat
And think
Of what I would say.

At a table for two
It doesn’t seem fair
To see people
Smile and hug

At a table for two
No one chances to sit
In the chair
That is meant for you.

Lose the goddamn need to tattoo
Your life on your ass
And then bitch
Because people are all up in your business

Lose the goddamn need to defend
The political machine
When he’s an ass
On the world’s stage

Lose the goddamn need to create
Drama out of nothing
When life just flat out is what it is
And everyone can move along.

Lose the goddamn need for validation
Every damn time you turn around
Trolling social media
Like it put the dope in dopamine.

Lose the goddamn need to give up
Personal rights and freedoms
Even when you are the only one
Who cares.

I have done this for a million years
And have seen you live
I have watched a planet die
And another born.
I have loved a woman in reverse
Our timelines running to the other ends
And through it all,
I am here.

Trust me, I am The Doctor
And trust me you must
If you refuse, my stories are meaningless
For a leap of faith
A decree of absolutism
A requiem on imperatives –
Moral or otherwise.

How do you see me, I wonder?
Always trying to slow down,
To not speed ahead of you.
To explain things
Without giving away
Event changing secrets
To fixed points in time.

Now I am the 13
Lucky for some
Closed minded be damned.
For they are unlike the TARDIS
They are even smaller than they appear to be.
Mostly they cannot see
Although I help them nonetheless

I do
I can
I am the Doctor.

Hail the name of Ganesha
Oh, wonderful and powerful Ganesha
With a elephant’s head
Given after yours was cut off
By Shiva, petulant Shiva

Hail the name of Ganesha,
Oh, wonderful and powerful Ganesha
Made of earth and shaped by his own mother
Easily holds his own with demons
And others who mean to do harm

Hail the name of Ganesha
Oh, wonderful and powerful Ganesha
You remove obstacles
And ensure success
For people over all time, all the world over.