Hour 24: Why I Do the Poetry Marathon
Why divulge in art,
Why indulge uncertainty?
In a duty-bound,
Eternally narrow world;
To do, to embrace,
What is neither required, nor needed,
Is a present.
Return Gift
Return Gift
Do you remember the gift you gave me
When I was small?
You had said that I would become powerful
When I wield it in my hand
As thoughts flow
Now I realize how mighty the pen is
All your life you preferred to be an unknown writer
I follow your footsteps father
And know that the pen was just a symbol
The real gift was your inheritance as a writer
You left for the heavens
Half-way through your autobiography
I shall complete it for you
And that will be my return gift to you
Hour 24
@varenyas
20~24
I ordered you a million years ago
Your voice
Your thoughts
And your soft, gentle touch
A touch unlike no other
You melt me like I’m butter
There must be fireworks in your fingertips
I swear it must be true
You make me get rather noisy
Quite the opposite to you
I have to listen carefully
For that smallest change of breath
Then I think you must be happy
And I hope I pass your test
I ordered you a million years ago
Your humor and your wit
I ordered you a million years ago
Universal shipping must be slow!
Nest (Prompt 21)
My longing for space has evolved rapidly
I want to wrap barbed wire around my body
Don’t touch don’t come closer
I want a landline so I can be inaccessible
Leave me a message and I’ll get back to you
When I’m able
When I’m stable
I want the sun
Not just metaphorically, I mean
I want the scalding blistering heat
The blinding
I want to make a nest
And sleep until my body is dark
but my mind is not
The Money Stone
I was walking along a Florida beach
when a man approached just to talk.
I’d walked many miles, all the way from
Miami to somewhere north of there.
I’m not sure where I was. The post 9/11
world was fuzzy back then;
And, my mind was just beginning to emerge
from decades of traumatic abuse.
We talked for a while about nothing
but life and the strange times.
Was he an angel? I wonder that still,
for at that time I was struggling on so many levels.
Pennies in my pocket, and not a job
in sight, save an ice cream shop,
whose owner thought I was a Jew
just for having a widow’s peak.
It was true. My father was Jewish,
but that’s beside the point.
What difference does religion make
to ice cream, coffee, and milk shakes?
Anti-Semitic jerk!
Back to the angel on the beach…
what was his name? I don’t recall…
He gave me a rock. Just a small, round,
flat sandstone, about the size of a silver dollar.
He said “where I’m from, when someone gives you
a round rock, you put it in your pocket,
and it will turn into money. I think he was right.
After that, my luck changed, though very slowly.
It was among many low points in my life,
all of which I survived with growing strength.
I am comfortably secure these days,
though still quite cautious with money.
And, I still have that rock in my wallet.
24. Mask
Mask
Eyes are now our focus. We can now imagine what it is like to wear a hijab or a burka. This is not the middle east, yet now we can see this aspect of the culture in a new light.
Is a mask a sign or modesty or mutual respect? We may have a new appreciation for our freedoms and our misjudgments of a culture that we need to study more in depth and did not take the time to understand.
We do not have to be a middle eastern princess or sudi aristocrat to learn about the mask and its many uses.
Some laughed at Michael Jackson or the Chinese Nationals who used masks when they flew, maybe they were more forward thinking than us.
Now we are left to contemplate how we wear glasses, lipstick, and all that we took for granted in between. Nose clips that fall off our face or coffee filters used to filter out breathing to stop the fog. Saharan dust storms that cross the carribean sea, moving up the states from the coastal shores to the gulf of texas and beyond. Even Michigan and Canada may get a taste during the worldwide pandemic of just how useful those masks can be.
It protects what we cant see or judge. Do we need a mandate to decide what is best for the nation, our family, or the neighbor or stranger on the street? Individualism or collectivism which we will choose. We are now at a crossroads of time and space and this is our lot. How we handle the next few weeks may be a determining factor in our fate.
The Greatest Gift
The greatest gift
I’ve ever received
was the day that we learned
our son Gabe was conceived.
Such incredible wonder
on the day he was born–
such a sweet happiness
when we brought
our son home.
Each day was a gift
and such a deep joy.
The greatest gift of my life
is my sweet, darling boy.
We made it!
Congrats to all full and half marathoners! We did it! Feels so amazing!
Strings of Time – Hour 23
She wove the strings of time
Left, right, left, right
She wove them tight
Not a strand out of place
Each fate she was able to trace
With every loop
She fulfilled our hopes
She wove the strings of time.
Half Marathon My Hour 12
Yay made it through the half marathon! I enjoyed pushing myself again as it has been awhile since I’ve really written.
Me
My feet hit the ground in miniature earthquakes
My legs feeling both powerful and like jelly
My arms jiggle while I carry my things
My eyes shining bright with colors of the sky
My hair soft and the color of wheat
My body alive and well
Me alive and well