The Poetry Marathon

A tropical moon,

giant and orange,

spread a canopy

of light across the lake,

dwarfing the people

on the pier.

Two kids in a jeep

came around the corner

and panicked at the

glorious sight and then

drove off the road.

The boy’s life was spared

but the girl’s breastbone

was driven like an icicle

into her heart.

My hubby wanted a house, so I chose an RV.

“It is homey” I argued .

Well no choice now its on the fly.  The ceiling’s low,

and the fridge is small, but we can eat out is all.

Family is where the heart is, and if they want to visit

they always can.

He complained about the room, but I told him we would not be

expecting a throng

I mean how many are going to come?

That day we drove and drove just

where ever the road took us

and arrived at a civilized site,

where they had church without sermons

a shop that sold wood.

I think the thing that finally convinced him

was the scent of the night river.

It was warm and sweet and

then we both could call it home.

What do you get for the guy

who wipes your ass when you can’t.

What do you say to a person who

stays up all night to make sure your temperature

doesn’t go up?  Who helps you walk when you cant do it alone?  Who

sits in a hospital chair for three weeks only leaving for a total of four

hours to take showers.

What kind of person even does that?

Even when your family and friends fail you,

which they surprisingly do.

Even when any normal person would have

had enough of gory wounds

and infections, he is still there.

You have to tell them you are the luckiest person alive.

I see the imprint of you on the white towel

above planks neatly squared off.

This would be where we last uttered our meanest words.

Nothing saved us from centuries of terrible curses and omens.

Our mothers even led us to the day

where both our chairs are completely

lonely and empty, the plants we tended

suffering the same fate.

The grey outside reflects the walls of social

injury, where nothing is quite what it appears to be.

The hedges hid our smug insurance of privacy

with bright green normality. We treasured those moments

that we now condemn. I remember your secret smile

as you turn away to stir your drink

with a small delicate finger.  I clumsily clink my ice cubes

in a noisy semi-circle

interrupting our narcissistic thoughts briefly.

There are small beads of sweat on your forehead.

I believed it could go on forever.

If washing dishes could be the best way to show love

Then how would you show hate?

I thought not saying I love you

Or touching you while in bed.

Then how would you show some hate?

Should I stop before I’m done?

Or touch you while in bed?

Oh it’s all so damn confusing.

Should I stop before I’m done?

I’ll never want to please you

oh it’s all so damn confusing

Should we try to talk this through?

I’ll never want to please you.

I don’t think it matters what I try.

Should we try to talk this through?

Or should I just go back to sleep?

Look how the barnacles

made a skin for the corpse of that ship

and you will see real power.

Open yourself wide

to the government of nature.

You cannot rule

over the sea or even over

the arches of the strangled monastery,

who lost religion, not through

a lack of faith, but from the inability to

control the wild vine.

We are all tied together,

and when one dies so does the other.

The house you live in is a mask for

what you really are.

Separate yourself from your original

life source and

you will not live.

The trees rubbed their

branches together

with a terrible screeching sound.

The birds moved blackly away.

Insects were silenced by the violence of the

outburst.

The smaller creatures began to sway.

Then the rain came and beat like glass

across the forest walls.

Death came to this world.

With not a provocation.

Death left this world free.

Technology needs to be way more advanced.

I want something that will talk to people without me telling it to.

Is that so much to ask?

I want something that will prevent life from catching up to me.

I want something to make decisions for me.

I want something that will cook my breakfast without me having to say please and thank you.

I want something that will live for me.

I want something that will love me for who I am,

without expecting to be loved back.

My husband didn’t like me drinking, or watching tv while he was gone.

He would feel the tv to see if it was warm and then check the garbage for beer cans when he got home.

As a result, I took to sitting in the birdcage to drink my beer.

The birdcage was small, and we had nine hens and one cock, so I had to sit under the roosting bar.

Our one cock was pathetic and the hens picked on him cuz he couldn’t roost.

He lost his toes while sitting outside during that terrible blizzard we had a couple years ago.

He was too stupid to just come inside when his feet got cold.

He did not believe that he couldn’t roost anymore because he didn’t have any toes

Well the hens tolerated him at times so their eggs could get fertilized.

So I’d be down under there drinking my beer and watching this bird fall at a180 degree angle straight down onto his head.

His ego would get so bent that he would just keep on trying to roost.

I didn’t care though, I was drinking beer and watching the show just like the hens.

Before darkness

colors are muted

buildings and lives

are shadowed, and

the death of another

day has dawned.

Time is the only element

that remains constant.

It clanks on monotonously

as a steady stream of

inconsequential actions

are performed to keep

darkness at bay.

Before darkness humanity tries to

bring light to the world.

But darkness always wins.