24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
It’s wasted energy to define
Oneself or one’s world
When we can create and shine
On own own terms
It starts with what is taught
By the time we hit grade school
Do this; don’t do that; don’t get caught
Being yourself — whatever that means
Truth be told I don’t conform
Because a person can’t be amazing
If you don’t push against norms
To discover life without boundaries.
Identity
Can’t stay a caterpillar and
become a butterfly.
Growing, hermit crab must
leave his shell to find another.
A tadpole, I need to
give up my old self to
become something fully new.
Still hard to shed an unneeded identity.
Take it off like an old white coat,
out of fashion, wrong size,
uncomfortable in summer.
Need freedom to grow.
Keep the title,
discard the responsibility.
Giving up a medical license is not
becoming “Other”.
My dog will still know me.
Helen
Scientific Mathematician;
cooked by omission and commission,
taking pleasure in her mission
to drive Her siblings with dirision
while holding the whole box of donuts
in her lap – eating them all
For her self prescribed nutrition
Intentionally mean and making unholy decision.
Loved unconditionally, would not stand for cruelty,
Cooked like a sous chef like Chef Boy R Dee.
kept the charge and her responsibility
Shared three donuts miraculously!;
respectfully!
Grace.
Michellia Wilson
Poetry Marathon Hour 8 (2021)
MY MIND
During your absence,
I absorbed the lavender goodness of Hollyhocks,
plucking a stem with her toppled skirt of beauty,
I turned her upside down and made her dance across the picnic table
with the four ‘o clocks in her shadow…
During your absence, the confused essence of me
pushed away the light and I rested in my rocker
Counting darkness in undefined increments…
During your absence,
I searched for something that just wasn’t there,
stopped by the edge of a broken window pane, my world splintered by weathered wood and dust from years of looking for something that doesn’t exist.
Buckle up, bitches
And get ready to ride
You just might need stitches
You best say goodbye.
From what life has taught me
Through my ins and my outs
Jutting through the expanse to see
To witness what it’s all about
One minute I’m jovial
Burning brighter than a solar flare
My jokes are quite colloquial
Seriousness you can find elsewhere
But then my mood darkens
It’s weight heavy in my chest
It shrivels the life within my gardens
Yet save flowers if they’re pressed.
And then it shifts to where I’m stressed
Overthinking, cartwheeling to conclusions
The tides of woe leave me unimpressed
Negativity a soul’s murky pollution.
I hold my wisdom as my tongue
And murmur my knowledge in kind
Here I thought I knew too much young
Back then I was unimaginably blind
But then I remember how I love
The magnification of desire
Consumes all like a blaze thereof
Leaving my heart roasting on a pyre
And then find reason to smile again
Its the thought of you
Daydreams, how I can’t abstain
Hanging upon your every word till true
So I shake away uncertainty
That swallows my entire head
What I let go remains uncertain
Intentions oft misread.
And then back to fatalistic ideals
There’s nothing that can be changed
So accept that I am the raw deal
Back and forth, there I go- I’m really not that deranged.
Out as a trader
Endures child-labour, sex-slavery, abuse, and hawking
As an outcast
She ends up in the UN Ambassadorial seat
With opportunity to revenge
She refuses
Instead trades her power and position to pursue world peace
Red Queen
Man always wants to play God
some people barely scrape by
while others sit on their thrones
thrones made of those beneath them
There are few who have power
and do not abuse it
you are no better than anyone else
if you do not use your power for good
The wealthy do not believe in rags-to-riches stories
either you are from them or you are not
therefore, you must play the part
even if it means forgetting who you were
Love is not always two-sided
the boy you thought was good
may just be bad
anyone can betray anyone
-The last line is taken from Red Queen, by Victoria Aveyard
growing up batman
was always my hero but
the joker felt real
one weaponized white
privilege the other became
the system’s victim
Big dreams
Big schemes
Ruined by war
Marry often
Marry for profit
Always wanting more
Do it yourself
Don’t settle for less
Break men’s hearts
And deal with the mess
Persist though famine and drought
Never wanting to be without
He would stand all he can
With the baby gone he ran
Would she see another day
With a broken heart
None could say