24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
When the harbinger of light finds me
I feel sleep’s sweet embrace slipping
Darkness departs in stirred slumber
Trials for a new day greet
Slowly stirring consciousness
Words form constellations
I should have written them down
You woke me from a dream where thre works never ended.
My husband ached; orange candle wax smeared in my ex-husband’s scruff.
You led me to my spot amongst the pillows and skulls, last night’s Pink Cat Cheshire sticky in the glass.
My lovely god of death and ruin.
How gracefully your flesh melts and your voice roughtens.
In your endings I am renewed.
Too may boxes for far too long
have been checked on my name
with sweeping declarations –
“You’re fat”, “You’re lazy” “You’re ugly”
“Sloppy”, “Forgetful”
And many have me filed under the not’s
“Not street smart” “Not capable of handling things”
“Not quick on your feet” and
the list goes on.
I listened and I believed
and ripped myself into tiny pieces,
each one scrambling to get a nod,
to erase the tick mark.
Till one day – there was nothing left
and I heard my own voice say – “Enough.”
Now I am on a journey
that belongs to me alone
and on this path,
I walk as a whole.
Water runs along the gutter
down the drain
into the sewer
I don’t need to see it
to know that it is there
taking our waste away
The same way
my heart beats at 60bpm
moving blood through me
I do not see the work
that brings electricity
into my home
Or understand how
I can send a text to another country
in a matter of seconds
But I take great joy in
what I receive from
all these invisible workings
Clean city streets
Love to share
Connections
[Prompt 2: The joy of unseen things.]
Day lillies in June
day tripping
dropping pretention
and petals
Hello, America!
narrow and rushing
stubborn and tempestuous
despite such poor soil
A sense of accomplishment
Courage in your heart
Reaching the finish line
When you were not sure that you could start.
Faith in what you believe in
Confidence that you will succeed
Humility to admit that you were wrong
Even a touch of greed.
Love that makes your heart explode
Sadness that makes you cry
Happiness that fills your soul
Contentment that causes you to sigh.
So many things are in this life
In the bountiful places in between.
A multitude of feelings
The joy of things unseen.
I stuck with the text prompt for Hour 2.
Coffee and change
Used to be a bit of spare change
might buy a cup of coffee or two
(with enough left over to leave a tip on the counter)
Just enough to wake you up
on a slow morning
Seems hardly anyone
drinks straight coffee anymore
Now it’s mostly liquid dessert
in tall, grande, or venti
Just enough to wind you up
for the next sugar crash
And there’s no such thing as change
26 June 2021
The universe is our stage.
We grasps it, you love it, and you want it.
We sing we dance; we’ll act upon the big stage.
And we’ll be the best at whatsoever we do throughout our whole life.
All that it has taught us from the beginning
We then make it with the help of our Abba.
AMEN
Open air and closed eyes.
Soft breeze through hair
like a gentle lover.
Lapping waves and ocean spray cools
where sun beats down.
Smell of salt and algae;
anywhere else a sign of rot,
but here, freedom