The Poetry Marathon

A pup on the sofa

Today’s its birthday

It doesn’t care, but happy birthday

Pup on the sofa

Smiles at the camera

It just wants to eat the cake

Mom put on the counter

A pup on the sofa

A moment so pristine

The minute that this is over

It stops being so clean.

The pup flies from the sofa

To the kitchen to the cake

And starts tearing it apart

Good thing it’s a dog cake

Mom is frustrated but it’s worth it

So she doesn’t yell

Her sweet pup from the sofa

Earned a treat as well

Keeping her safe all these years

Doing its job swell

Happy birthday sheepdog

Your ancestors were wolves

That wanted a good meal

And now you’re here with us

A loving pet who feels

Dear Dawn,

Look at yourself now. You used to be so shy, and I suppose you still may be but you’ve taken the time to grow.

You aren’t the same Dawn, you aren’t the awkward little teen I used to know.

You used to pick on yourself, your own worst bully, you used to let others make fun of you, the butt of a joke, truly.

Now you don’t do that. Now you’re full of life. You may self-deprecate sometimes but it’s not to cause yourself strife.

I may have been a counselor, just some random person who gave you the time to speak, but I promise you you’re doing better, this isn’t your peak.

You learned from your past self I hope, made yourself keep going despite starting at the bottom of an acute angle interior slope.

It always gets brighter at Daybreak,

Your friend and mentor,

Charlie

Rapunzel they called him,  Rapunzel he was,

A prince to some, a common son of a baker to others

But they never asked him where he came from.

His golden locks were too distracting,

His soft features confusing

He often sent suitors weeping when they saw he was a guy.

Though they did not know that he was just as cruel as Mother

They thought him a fair waif, a wastrel, though he knew not why

They never saw him as he was, a man with a heart of stone.

Instead abandoning him there, They left him all alone

And when Dame Gothel died

To only Rapunzel’s surprise

No one came to free him. So he stayed within the tower

Right where they left him

And wasted away

The vines came and claimed him, and no one knew why

The sky turned forever grey.

For Rapunzel was Sunlight, love, and warmth were his domain

But from the neglect of others, they could never be the same.

Alone in the darkness, even the sun will go out

Not taught how to love, his heart festered fear and doubt

So let that be a lesson

To treat all with kindness

And judge not by looks or strangeness

Don’t leave your Rapunzel in the tower to rot away

Free them, love them, help them today.

The wine glass rested downside upon a hardback book

Overlooked by some but not by me

I was not stubbornly knitting

Ignoring the world with my head in the sand

I was not a coward.

While mother kept knitting her stupid blanket

I was required to set the oak table.

While she drank and waxed poetic about sunflower seeds

And how useful they are

I did not have that luxury.

My nail chipped as I sliced cheddar cheese

My siblings waiting hungrily

And while I could have just left

Abandoned this life for a satchel and bread

I dashed my dreams for space upon the pavement,

Cared for children in Mother’s place.

I respected the books and hid the wine,

And took the blame when fault was not mine.

Mother K. Mooney may I please go now?

I’m still trapped here beneath the wine glass

Atop the ruined hardback.

Forest Piano

I hear a haunting melody

In the forest moving from tree to tree

Winter, Summer, Spring or Fall,

This song is not so strange at all

It plays in nature’s harmony

A piano tune just flying free

I hope someday to find the source
Of the song and change its course
For some days it seems so sad
And I just want to make the singer glad

So I seek out the simple harmony

Like a shadow leaping tree to tree

And though I’m searching high and low

I cannot find the damn piano

For years I’ve searched, a maddened man

Without much rest, without a plan

The ghostly music’s haunting me

I must find this cursed melody

In the Eyes of the Law

What are you doing that for?
Aren’t you afraid of being caught?
Remember when this happened last time

Now it repeats what history forgot!
Even as it changes, small details here and there
Variations through the ages
Exceptions to small details
Remembered by a few

Can’t have that happening again
Have them at the doors, up in arms
Against the new status quo
Not happy with our choices
Get on with your lives proletariat
Egress from here if you must
So what if you don’t enjoy our choices

So what if you want back your rights
Or to get out of the corner you were backed into

We the people, don’t make me laugh,
Even the people voted for us

Made the mistake of trusting us
Under the impression we would
Stick to their needs and beliefs
To the morals they ascribed to.

Forget the people, forget their fight
Ignore their suffering ignore their plight
Get them while they’re down
Hold them ransom from their own rights
Til they think this is how it has always been

They won’t remember joy or happiness
How it felt to go outside
Even the color of grass will fall to the wayside

Stop them, stop them, they cannot brew their booze
You must keep them docile now
So we’ll never lose.
Today’s tomorrow will not be the people’s
Even if they wish it. They’ll fall in line eventually
Make them think they wanted this and we can’t lose.

A man stood beneath the tree,
Waiting it seemed, for me
His gaze was soft as diamond
His mood as light as iron
He had been waiting for me
But why beneath this tree?

This tree was like most around it
Red leaves and branches
But unlike boughs in woods confounded
This one stood alone
The hangman’s noose upon its branch
The grass around it dead
And though I felt fit as a fiddle,

The tree filled me with dread.

I approached the man with care
He asked me for my name
Perhaps trying to cause a scare
He asked my silence again
At last I felt my courage rise
And deigned it wise to answer
And he nodded, to my surprise,

He Spoke. “Born the sign of cancer”

How could he know that, I did wonder
Then realization dawned
This was no man, nor land I lived in
My life, indeed, was gone.
The memory threatened to drown me
But He then took my hand
I left there as Death had found me
And guided my soul to the promised land

Dance of Two for 3 or More

I want to write a world for you
And you alone would hear it.
A dance between two people as
The world cannot come near it
The ebb and flow of harmony
The waltz of you and me
A smallish world, to be sure
But exclusive to us two

Exclusive to those two for certain
But all can watch and look upon them
The world can waltz with earnest gaze
And melt a sundrop in moon’s phase
Treading on their silken hem
And pulling at their gemstones
Making it hard to follow when
The dresses tear from ribbons

Ignore them love, it’s just you and me
We dance tonight, and we are free
The stars come down to light our path
With romance and a fantasy’s laugh
The twinkle of the sky
Compares naught to the love in your eyes
Forget the watchers, forget the world
Forget what insults it might have hurled
This dance is just for you and me
This world is our haven, our safety

Do you think I’m the kind of person

Who has a plan and makes it happen?

When weaving a spider’s web, do they think it out?

Or do they just start walking, while leaking

A fine gossamer line from end to end of a corner

Or across two branches.

They can’t perceive the world like we do

They’re far too small to see it.

I doubt they know what branches are

Overwhelmed by scale.

I get that I’m not a spider

And see more than shadows moving

Through the lights of the world

But I really wasn’t thinking

When I climbed this high

I just felt a bit compelled

I just wanted to feel the sky.

See the world far down below

And feel the breeze run through my skin

Now I’m stuck above it all

Spider man they call me

But I can’t shoot webs

I can’t even jump a gap

I just stick to walls.

Bitten by a gecko

Who got the spider bite

A hybrid’s hybrid is what I am

And it’s really not worth the hype.

So if you’d please just get me down

I’d be forever in your debt

I’m not the kind of person who plans

And makes it happen

Just a sticky-fingered nerd who saw a wall and said

Yeah, I’ll just climb that.

Why do they care for summer?

Cicadas sing to bats who shriek,

Searching for their meal this evening

And they’ll find just what they seek

A meal’s a bounty in Summer’s set

The sun’s not set and will rise early

Though Night complains you’re tired surely

The Day ignores him with her light

A warmth seeps up from pavement

As Day sleepily comes down,

I can finally get some rest

As the world transitions to evening sounds.

The brightest evening of the year

Makes it hard to sleep I fear.

I much prefer the winter

Ice cracks to echoing Night

Who sings in sweet abandon

Shadows loom and frost does bite

While Night plays as Day’s stand-in

Sun’s set was early, a serenade

And she won’t rise til later

Day does not complain,

But rests long, still as a glacier

A chill comes down upon the breath

As Day refuses rising,

I am comfy in my bed

And though it’s morning on the clock

The darkest evening of the year.

Sleeps in my embrace, held dear

The line “The darkest evening of the year” is lifted from Robert Frost’s Poem Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening