24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
I’ve always found it haunting when the old tales spoke of death
Maybe ones more obvious like Macbeth
Always a glass of wine ready to be served
Makes you wonder if the dead got what they deserved
But lift the glass and take the sip
Of the blood spilled that fight once dripped
Where is your young lad?
I’ve never had a son! Stunned.
Who do you talk to?
My lover, and friend.
You came here alone, in grief,
What sins do you bare?
Writhing shadows etch,
He runs from the memories,
Sea embedded feet.
Hour 21
9/3/2023
“…By Any Other Name…”
The petals wither,
fall and shiver – as each stem
begins to slumber.
Come tomorrow will awake
and dance with their life anew.
Each garden echoes
movement and song as birds preen,
and mates abound.
Their warbling throats fill the grounds.
The vibrant hues soon beguile.
Chris
(C) Chris Twyford 9/3/2023
She’s singing again
why can’t she understand me?
I know the others need her, three
but more so do I
so I get louder, why?
But need is in order
please pick me up
I’m more important
ah, I like that song
calm down, not for long
and that elephant sound
my screams, they will drown
goodie, my turn
a bottle, I earn
and her smiling face
my yells are erased
a cuddle or two
a whispered coo
rocking, swaying
I forget why
I cried.
– Sandra Johnson, 9-3-2023
Grape Jelly
My favorite lunch was peanut butter
and jelly on white or whole wheat
with the crust cut off and cut on a diagonal
or I wouldn’t eat it. Crunchy or smooth
peanut butter, I vacillated between them.
Grape jelly. Not strawberry or raspberry
or orange marmalade that I still dislike,
and the only butter was peanut butter.
Grape jelly, like I put on white rice
and still do, though I don’t know why,
maybe because rice is sticky like
Nana’s farina and she always put
a spoonful of grape into the middle
and let me mix it up. I didn’t always
eat it but I liked it.
Today, my favorite lunch is Goober’s,
the brilliant invention of peanut butter
and grape jelly in a jar; a spoon, no need
for bread or cutting crust or diagonal cuts.
Once, I bought strawberry Goober’s,
just once.
Some people put grape jelly in sauce
saying it cuts the acid from tomatoes
but I’ve never done it. I did find
a recipe for meatballs cooked in
grape jelly and ketchup, another favorite
growing up, a staple for hiding my peas
and drowning anything I didn’t like.
I’m going to make these meatballs,
my kind of simple. Frozen meatballs,
store bought ketchup and grape jelly.
Slow cook, serve hot over white rice.
Perfect pairings.
~ J R Turek Hour 18
ABILITY
I thought I could become a Mathematician
Till I came across Differentiability
I thought I could become a Chemist
Till I came across Malleability
I thought I could become a cook
Till I came across palatability
I thought I could be a gymnast
Till I learnt about flexibility
I felt as if I was lost in the world
I seemed to be only focussing on my disability
Then God made me a mother
And taught me the importance of love and responsibility.
By
SHREYA SURAJ
Well, from now on y’all I’m just winging it
and like the late great Muhammad Ali
I’m gone bee stinging it.
I’ll be shuffling, and dancing,
and dope roping, trying
to get through this marathon
straight 24ing it.
I can do this I know I can
not like the little engine
that could saying “I think i can”
so fight is in me like the fist of
Joe Louis I’m gonna knock
this one out. The time is
counting down but
I’m not giving out.
hopefully someone
will read my little rhyme
and give appreciation to those
who are now out of time.
They’ve inspired me.
Stars
The inky abyss punctured by light from eons away
Looked the same by all who came before
We watched together, drawing our stories in the sky
Until the time comes that we reach for them.
Now, the world looks to them with hope,
Praying that another like us is out there.
Though other planets await us,
There will always only be one night sky of Earth.
