Under the Veneer

My favorite recipes have an element of danger.
Then, I observe how not to follow them
until I can make maximum example of my shortcomings
and the performative chagrin I convey just short
of a bow.

Only my select audiences know how I juggle
an armistice in one hand
and a cleaver in the other.

Tell me how you’d like my job.
Don’t I know it.
Haven’t I gone through the machinations
for you to take my mantel?
Or at least keep it clear of the riff raff
who think democracy means
they have a place here.

Call me a turtle.
Call me a hare.
Call me a fascist.
I’ve got a place in a bunker.
It’s just the right temperature.

my mother is a fish

oh Addie,
you rest in power
the privileged kind
a dying wish that for your family becomes
a death wish of sea monster proportions

the dirge of your daughter
is for her child as well
and the nails of your coffin
cannot keep the book of Addie closed
even for a night

you plucked the minister’s bed
a stench even before death
that oozed in your sweat
and your children too
a curse of verse and platitude

oh, Addie
the dead woman drowns
floats, in a coffin boat
a tainted fish
reeled back in to be roasted on a fire

oh, Addie
where behavior and intention meet
whether noble or nefarious
your children wash their hands
of you;
and your husband,
smiling through fake teeth and faker blessings
grooms a bride
found with the shovels borrowed for your burial
rest in power
rotting
oh, Addie

Writing

Chairs are screeching

with vehement rebuttals

leading to laughter and drink

with contradictions abound

but no one is hurt

just strikes of the pen

and who wields it the best

 

with hunger

and heartache

And

Ink

Philip V. Coombs 4-5am

Human – Hour 5

I am human too
I like ice cream
I love going to the beach
I enjoy music
I like to feel strong
I crave for attention
I want to make my own choices
I yearn to know more
I am driven my whim and emotion
I require rest
I try to do my best
I love
I long to be loved
I struggle and compromise each day between ideals and desires
I fear change
I miss the comforts of childhood
I believe in the unseen

No matter how much I try
To find my niche in this world
To be different
To be special
I am just the same because
I am human too

Prompt 8: Hour 8: My Truth

The breeze hits my hair as if it were calling my name

worried by my most recent choices

I embrace the chaos, confusion and sadness that overwhelm me

trusting in my intuitive nature,

my ancestral calling to be by the sea.

Losing everyone in my life who doesn’t understand,

doesn’t take the time to even try-

Hoping to find the end of my story to be what we all hope it will be-

a happy ending.

 

*Poem inspired by the book “True to Me” by Kay Bratt.

Hour 7…normal

normal is a strange word,

a strange concept,

a belief born from ignorance,

from a herd mentality

for normal is

different

for me

for my child

my mother

my father

the lady accross the street

my best friend

you.

No Hate

Do you really think I am the type of person who goes around spewing hate?

I don’t partake in eating from the table constructed from the destruction of others.

I am love and I am passion.

I am fire and I am wind.

An earthquake of epic proportion.

Don’t you dare ever put my name in the same sentence structure of hate groups like the kkk.

Just cause you saw the K at the end of my name and neglected to embrace all that is Special

About me in thus famous place.

HOUR 9 The Last Tango in Entrechat

The Last Tango in Entrechat

In his exquisite state I approach,
Refined in my appearance,
Delicate in my step,
Benign.

Feeding his ego, as he will feed us,
I request a demonstration,
Extreme prowess,
No limits.

His ego swells in my presence,
Angering Dyer-Bolique,
Such is his envy,
Irrefutable.

To fiend takes to the stage,
Solitary in his solo,
Exhibiting aloud,
Symphony.

Music plays at our behest,
I take the front seat,
My shadowy twin,
Watching.

Prima Ballerina glows with pride,
As he offers his performance,
For my eyes only,
No limits.

Pliable plier, bending his back,
Etendre, his leg stretches,
Sauter et tourner,
Jump and turn.

Tempo increases, carefully chosen,
Confused in his entranced state,
Plier, etendre, sauter, tourner,
Faster and faster.

Each flex and bend pushing his limbs,
Hurtling towards the extremes,
Pain is an illusion now,
First snap.

He laughs manically as his elbow breeches,
Through the skin bone protrudes,
He is unfazed by the crack,
My puppet.

My shadowy soulmate increases the volume,
Tempo gathers pace, like his twists,
Turns flex further, another elbow,
Ghastly.

Melancholic intrigue bathes me passionately,
Soaking in Dyer-Bolique’s warm glow,
Audience to our elastic prey,
Entrechat.

Entrechat, the beat of a rabid heart,
He takes flight and slams,
Tearing his knee,
Unstoppable.

Blissfully unaware the creature pushes himself,
Down on his knees, locked in the harmony,
His back bends, further and further,
And snaps!

Music ceases, silence reverberates throughout,
A duo and a solo artist, unwittingly broken,
We approach the stage as he lays,
Paralysis.

Our hands meet as we push the mangled being,
Head meets feet, severance of spine,
Our gloved hands lift the mess,
The meat.

Basted in honey,
Dressed with the offal of a dead man,
Garnished,
Slowly roasted.

Now his barely breathing cruelty burns,
Now he suffers,
Now he dies.