The Poetry Marathon

Car Wash

Car Wash

 

Willie Nelson’s “On The Road Again” played as we drove along

Grady Way to the Brown Bear Car Wash.

My only memory of you & I spending any time alone is in a car,

usually during a manic episode, but let’s forget all that.

I want to remember our last car ride together,

you let me pick a CD from your collection of The Four Seasons,

Favorites From The 50’s & 60’s, Classical Moments, and, somehow,

The Best Of Willie Nelson.

 

I sat across from you for the first time in one year & four months.

Your room is small, but neat in the place you now live.

The caretakers are kind, even if the meat in the stew is too tough

and you still want to come home.

I’ve been preparing to lose you for years now, but there’s nothing

I can do other than turn up the radio with the windows down

and drive nowhere, crying my eyes out, singing loudly,

moving too fast for anyone to hear me.

Keep Memories Alive

Always
Speak their name
I may cry
I may feel sad
I may wish things could be different
But …
Speak their name
Never let them be forgotten
Tell their stories
Show photos
Speak their name
Reminisce
Remember …
Never let them be forgotten
Always speak their name

No. 4

butterfly kisses my cheek
its caress gentle
i sigh as it flies away

Images & Words

Scrolling past pictures all day, for years
The universe confined to four corners of a screen
What is the purpose? What does it say?

to stop on one that means something.

prompt #3: repeated lines (hawk & mice)

hawk and mice

 

my brain relentless

circling like a hawk preying

small thoughts flee down holes

 

flee like mice down holes

while hawk watches patiently

certain of his prey

 

I too flee like mice

trembling before the fear hawk

its beak rapier sharp

 

but fleeing like mice

will not protect us from hawk

inexorable

 

hawk watches, then dives

no more fleeing mice

my own legs tremble

 

hawk spreads his wide wings

I fall like mice before him

awakening blind

Comfort

There is comfort to be found
in busy streets and
crowded rooms
a distraction of thought
pulled by every sight and
sudden noise

There is comfort to be found
in spaces that are not
silently welcoming that
do not embrace your imperfections
in strong branches while
murmuring waters and
soothing winds pull you
into an eddy of remembrance
where
there is no comfort to be found

Band

Tactile

clapping on the downbeat

all to know

my audience

tones.

Vintage tonic to use for mix

I can finish making my tools.

Now I can hang them to dry

and bleed out the pig.

A saxophone trill

with fingers more

trigger happy than mine

The pig will live.

Philip V. Coombs 12-1am

 

Ending Vertigo

(more…)

teetering

so close

to the edge

but i breathe s l o w

because

b

e

l

o

w

there is peace

a stranger in the form of

f   o   g

it’s lapping at my toes

a dog on its last day

eager to play

but unable to-

 

prompt #3: repeated lines (villanelle)

Real

 

I close my eyes, and all the world falls dead

There is no light, no sound, no music rings.

I think I made you up inside my head.

 

The housewren in the eaves is real, I said

defiant when you told me no one sings

I close my eyes and all your words fall dead

 

But when you cut your hand, I know you bled

Like wrens in windows spread their tails & wings

Did I make that up inside my head?

 

Reality is such a fragile thread

Unravelling faster than a coil of string

I close my eyes and all the world falls dead

 

I struggle with the dreams I take to bed

Their music is a spider’s web that clings

I close my eyes and all the world falls dead

I think I made you up inside my head