24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
Burial
You buried your cat in your backyard,
only you put him in a casket. Yes, a tiny
little casket with a shrine underneath
a small tree. You loved him more
than any human, more than your wife,
your siblings, your parents.
You dug him up after the separation,
took him with you to a new place,
buried him somewhere I’ve never been.
A cat casket. A reminder of the only one
you’ve ever been able to connect with,
leaving those who have tried to love
you the most behind.
Ah… the sun
The ultimate commander
of humility
and the tales we have spun
Continually restoring life
But spelling death too
defining acceptance and obedience
Cutting the air with a knife
Is our sky a desert
Where caped corpses
laugh at our hijinks
and the obligations we skirt
Do you turn into the moon
at night
disguised so worrisome
Teasing, with bright stars so strewn
You watch me
and seem to understand my dreams
A cluster of confusion
from nightmares to afternoon tea
The lines are drawn
with the invisible threads
Of your razor-sharp rays
where ideas spawn
Thoughts of immortality
and the oneness of all
Winds that coat our skin
reflecting your vitality
I drink the shine
and warm my chilling blood
As mornings tell me
of your power Divine
This is not a story about Ram
it never was,
though he played
a two bit role
which pandered
to his vanity
and you are forgiven
for thinking it is.
This is a story of a woman
born of the Earth
sold
to the strength
which she made
her home.
Abducted
taunted
jeered at
haunted
by her captors
by strangers
by the common man
she endured
the jeers
the lecherous
leers
and never complained….
only to crumple
at the accusation
of doubt
in the eyes
of the father of her children
the man she loved.
It took just over ten hours to convict
the jury of twelve saw no reason
to dismiss or acquit.
The evidence laid before them made
clear that something must be done here
With a callous nature and malicious intent
the defendant intentionally decided not to
release his knee off of George Floyds neck.
Sitting in that chair in the courtroom
awaiting his fate stunned when the verdict
was giving “GUILTY on all Three Counts”
his face flushed red with dread as he now
comprehends the gravity of his situation.
A collective sigh of Relief being extricated
from the mouths of people around the world
who through a video bared witness to
the evident execution of an unarmed black
man was expelled at that moment.
Twenty two and a half years the defendant
was giving seems a little light to me
But hopefully this finally gives the Floyd
family some Peace.
Once upon a summer
so long ago
We picked strawberries
in a farmer’s field
I found it delightful
and so fun to eat
The memories stir now
as I watch them grow
Thinking of those days
a summer so long ago
The font of all knowledge
Wellsprings of optimism
The tap of occasional insight
Buckets of useless trivia
Sprinkles of dubious facts
Puddles of misleading statistics
The drought of despair
Arid death of all hope
The tallest house I lived in was two stories.
The tallest building I’ve been in was 102.
I’ve flown in the sky at 35,000 feet —
So high the people looked like dust.
The moon is 238,000 miles away.
Mars is 140 million miles away.
When I get there, how minuscule will people look then
When there is no limit to how high we can fly?
Everyone seems to crave
that return to normalcy.
But what does that even look like anymore?
I’ve been wearing masks
before the CDC recommended it.
Mine just happen to look like smiles.
Anxiety is my social distancing.
Depression, my quarantine.
So that abnormal that you
are so desperately trying
to get away from?
That’s my everyday.
There’s no return to normal
for people like me.
armless
she stuns at first glance
but looks past rude stares
to allow gawkers the opportunity
to reveal their kinder, gentler selves
it doesn’t always happen
befriending the boy
whose Tourette’s keeps him
alone in a world filled
with ‘others’ who simply
haven’t been separated yet
someday those others
will each be all alone
and maybe remember
what it felt like
when the armless girl smiled
and gave them a second chance
[Prompt 8: Try and condense the plot of a book, any book, into a poem. It can be very direct and recognizable, or abstract and obscured.]
Balloons above nature
Firing flames lifts to the sky
Birds fly by unnoticed