No. 1
race as one
no more hate
black lives matter
slogans cliches words
is anyone listening
actions are needed
2021: Hour One – Image Prompt
– From the Image –
Wings on the wall,
like Icarus amid the fall.
Their ominous call beckons a warning –
An ode to every mourning,
Of times both grand and small.
The wings on the wall,
strike a memory for all,
And we’re forced to confront a yearning –
To give life to dreams,
And peace to questions burning.
Icarus begins to fall;
It’s up to us –
We’re the Sun!
See the Truth of it all.
You Did Not Move (prompt 1, 9 am est)
You did not move to Georgia,
I asked every time we talked.
I never understood why you balked.
You did not move to Georgia,
though I longed for you to be here.
I never understood and sometime shed a tear.
You did not move to Georgia,
I could not raise you on the phone.
Your son, my brother, tried to reach you too,
though we found ourselves alone.
You did not move to Georgia,
You went to heaven on instead.
I was not ready to say good-bye,
I sure miss you Dad.
Gaslighting
But you don’t understand,
he’s lying and being abusive.
Why didn’t you say something
last year?
I did, and I wrote a letter to the union.
Oh, they never received it.
When did this all start?
I told you this already.
Well, I have no idea what you really mean about abusive.
Abusive! Lying about my reputation – falsifying documents –
creating a torrid of self doubt – making my life miserable.
I don’t see anything on record for his behavior.
You should have made a claim last year.
I did! I just told you I did!
The Invisible
I never was Salome
I never was Juliet
I never was Nora
I wore the clothes of Antigone
I could be Electra
but I was in love with Hamlet
I don’t accept Ophelia’s end
neither Louisa’s naivety
Still
In the end
I was no
body
no name
no identity
no desire
just bones and blood
and a sleeping soul
Chasing the invisible
worlds
Poem 1: Tribute to Edna St. Vincent Millay “Overlooking”
I will celebrate this day
under the moody sky
looking at the yawning flowers
watching the doubtful birds fly
I will not unearth
any of those wonderful things
letting things be
as the Church bells ring
The rolling hills
challenge my eyes to wander
the light breeze kissing the grass
as I begin to hum, in senseless maunder
I have no answer
or questions, for that matter
as I look at the town’s waking lights
no destination within the coming clatter
I look and think
of what might be mine
but maybe all of it is
in this wondrous miracle of rhyme
I mark my spots, claiming
by saying I love them
I will be back again
strumming the music, of each stem
One Dime
Twilight can’t fail her day
The clouds shall gather a mood to pay
Give me one noon to trail your way
I will not go blank with no dime to pay
Your heart is a way of a treasure island
A man
becomes milky in thousand steps to stay
I have sat you before this jungle cave
Feel no same— smile no shame—
Good luck I do aim: for you and it’s no game
Just remind my heart for one dime
It is a symbol of the stain after we dined
Data
Noise rises to crescendo
Signals far off distant stars
formless taking form
beyond our reach or words.
With each collective exhale
machines read the data
in our breaths
to reveal
our external selves
our inner dreams
our haughty wants
our desperate needs
and how we pass the time
between birth, and sex, and death