The Poetry Marathon

prompt 21 hour 21 longing

prompt 21 hour 21

what are you longing for most right now?

 

y’all know what I want…

 

the coolness of my pillowcase brushing on my cheek,

the last memory before sleep overtakes me into the daylight

where I dream of words

and poems I wish I had written

when the pen was in my hand with a life of its own

instead of this sleepy thing,

dormant except for the longing for cool pillowcases

and wordless dreams.

 

maybe a cup of Earl Grey tea

weak enough to warm without threat of keeping me

too much awake

when the time comes to fold up the laptop

and sleep.

 

© r. l. elke

Candlelight Dinners

Candlelight Dinners

Countless stars
Holding numerous candlelight dinners
Eager to celebrate
The rise of a new dawn
And adorn the crown
Of the morning golden light

Hour 20

@varenyas

Basic Necessities (21 hour 2020) prompt

My mind and body long for the steam of my bath water to fall upon my flesh

While I sit here cold and under some stress.

My body shivers as it cries out for my bed

I tempted when I go near it to just lightly lay my head

Four more hours!

My brain yells.

Four more hours and we would be able to take a spell.

Sleep as if our fingers have been pricked and everyone else around us is napping too

Four more hours, we can make do

Just dance around in circles, blast your music, do some pushups, eat some breakfast

Don’t give up now, you got this.

And in four more hours, you will soon be resting.

 

Poem 21

The man, body and stranger arrive to a mesa. They don’t up.

The stranger says this place is just his people’s burial ground. But sacred all the same.

We take our hands to dig. A spot for this body to rest at last. It is a slow duty.

The sand shifts and slides, tumbling back to the hole

We are done at last

The body will live forever in a hole 6’×1’×4′.

Til the flesh rots and the bones eventually rise. Bleached by deaert sun.

The next tim3 someone finds this body she may be 1 whitened skull.

Protruding.

Hour 21: Sleep

My illusive friend,
you torment with with your absence.
I long for you to smother me
return every night and find me waiting
sink in to my bones, and don’t let go.

Mracles

Miracles

I’ve seen friends survive cancer
more than once.
People survive car accidents,
pandemic illnesses on death’s bed.
I’ve seen a baby born from the donations of others
and people live through traumas.
I believe in miracles even though I never had one to call my own.
Cup my hands in prayer,
it’s never too late to believe.

Margarette Wahl

Focus

My focus is warped

warring with a deep physical need

to soothe the swimmer’s itch rash

inflaming my legs.

My focus is divided

vying with the physical need

of finding a more comfortable

means of sitting up all night,

My focus is eroded

by the pain of our

discontented hearts,

4:00 p.m The meeting of a hero

She stepped back and lowered her look:

 there was a young man as if jumping out of book:

broad shouldered, tall, dark eyed, overshadowing the sun,

she was hesitating in pain: to stay or to run?

“Don’t be afraid.I’m not a lion, and you – not a mouse.

Let me carry this.Where’s your house?”

The life-turning moment had happened in a twinkle of eye.

She could not fantasize, she lost patterns out of sight.

Firefly #9

All my memories of before
Had specks of you in gold
I saw you everywhere
Flitting through my skies
Now the days are darker
I don’t see you much around
So today when you brought me a little light
I felt freer from the ground.

20~16

How can you live

when there is nothing left to give?

Feeling empty inside

where he never wants to hide…

Why does he keep me

if he really does not want me?

Why do I stay?

Living until I can feel alive again…

Where does the love go?

Being alive is killing me.