24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
God is a woman.
All you need to do is pay attention to
-the pink watermelon slices and their sticky seeds
-the warm, thick perfumed air of flowers from miles away
-the delightful sweet, pop from compressed grapes in your mouth
-the curve of every hip, every breast, every cloud
God is a woman,
so pray.
THE SKY BEYOND THE CLOUDS
for Jenica Pembroke
Jenica said she’d never been on a plane and it broke my heart
I wanted to try and give her the pictures piece by piece
watching out the porthole window as the ground fades away
into a blue-green marble backdrop of our planet’s body
the illuminated curve, the clouds drifting beneath you
like standing on the bow of a steamer ship as the mists waft off the water
then the sun sets and beneath the clouds
all the wondrous caverns of treasure open to us
the winding lighted streets and houses
transformed into the richest undug mine
brimming with gold, with silver, with diamonds
sparkling beneath the metal wings of our impossible bird
no I was never scared, not even in turbulence
saner men than I have risked their mortality for beauty
cheating time the only high-minded dream of modern machinery
the abstraction of our entire world a simple accident
in the idiom of turning a bug into a feature
a picture’s worth eight hundred twenty-two more words than this
He was huge, my guardian
Sent my way by who knows who
Big people no doubt.
Concerned with my safety, no doubt.
Or perhaps concerned I might explode?
Who knows…
Mountains of molehills if that be the case.
I am not like the terds not deserving of a “u”.
In any case, he was enormous!
Six feet, eleven inches tall, as I recall,
Flying coach instead of the business class ticket he bought?
Trading down with the guy next to me?
Very strange indeed.
I’m a nerd, not a terd,
And so sorry to have inconvenienced you,
Oh so very handsome tall man from somewhere else.
The day looks bleak
More bleak days to come.
Dear me! How sad are times!
Don’t let the bleak sadness
Drag you under. Don’t flounder.
Don’t be afraid to blunder
Do not fear the thunder
It is the lighting that kills and burns
And turns men to ashes.
I’m hopping a flight
I don’t care where I’m headed.
I need a break from my life.
And the losses I’ve dreaded.
Maybe taking a plane
to some place faraway
will help me feel sane–
help me face a new day.
I won’t send a postcard.
Don’t expect me to call.
I’m in need of some me time.
I’m so done with this all.
Why take an airplane
I would rather take the train
Or drive in my car
I would rather fly off
the rails, then free fall from
High up in the sky
Gandhi once said, that you should “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. I thought this quote was clever and I respect his endeavor and agree with whichever quote that I read from Gandhi. It goes with the you reap what you sow quote from the Bible and I think that makes you grow into a person that is well known and you start to glow into a person that is mindful of their actions and focus not on the factions that people are divided on.
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
―
Bessie Coleman
In cotton fields, Bessie stood
And looked up in the sky
Oppressive heat filled Texas days
But one day she would fly
Bessie walked four miles each day
To a school with a dirt floor
She excelled in mathematics
So one day she could soar
Bessie got a scholarship
And went away to school
She continued on through college
For the skies she’d one day rule
In Chicago, Bessie worked two jobs
To pay to learn to fly
But she had to go to Paris
To learn to rule the skies
Bessie earned her pilot license
The first Black person ever!
The skies belonged to Bessie now
Because of her endeavor
prompt 12 hour 12
The sentence is: “I have faith in the ceremony.” from Research as Ceremony by Shawn Wilson. I am doing my Master’s degree in Indigenous Education for Reconciliation and Resurgence….so there are lots of books like this laying around my house. I was happy I happened to choose this sentence. It fits so well into my life.
ceremony
At the end of the day,
I lean into few spaces
where faith dances alone.
I lean into spaces where
doubt live in layers –
has made friends with
want
in the darkest of days
before ceremony taught me my name.
© r. l. elke
Browsing around the plane
it seemed quite out of date.
I didn’t want to worry
we’d already left the gate.
Twas not till the first drop
many began to worry.
We couldn’t turn back now
cuz we were in a hurry.
But with the second one
and more intense this time.
We heard the pilot clearly,
“We’re turning around on a dime!”
Then prayer got louder and louder
as fear was everywhere.
Could all our lives be lost
as we fell out of mid-air?
.
Oh, many kissed the ground
as we boarded off the plane.
I’m convinced it was only angels
who kept us safe and sane! ✈✈
by Del Bates