The Poetry Marathon

PROTECT THE CHILDREN

Leave them in awe of your determination.

Give them a lesson on your resilience.

Teach them to hold space for your presence.

Lead them towards an openness that closes the door to perceptions.

Hold them gently within the moments you share.

Leave them with a legacy to carry when you transition and the physical can no longer be there.

Give them a playbook to guide them towards self-sufficiency.

Teach them the truth about their ancestry and the power running through their veins.

Hold them in times of sorrow and pain.

Leave them better than you found them, so rejection doesn’t drive them insane.

Give them praise as they develop into their own uniqueness.

Teach them love is not conditional but transformative in each individual.

Dear Torri Prompt 4

Dear Torri,

No one ever forced you in a cage.
You did so willingly. You did so, thinking you were different. You did so, thinking your love was special. You did so thinking you were. You created these stories, and started to believe them. You were always creative, so creative you could run on words, no pavement was needed to ground you. Words with no foundation, words with no actions. You must have been insane, girl. Now when you look back you laugh at that loss. It makes you uncomfortable, that death. That death of that loving girl that trusted love. That death of that loving girl that wanted to look good for someone else.

Now you have no space left. You clutter it up with art. You create in that space you put someone else in. You have always been a smart girl in what you were smart in.

Now instead of entertaining, you share. You deny anyone else from coming in, not because you are undeserving but because they are. They will all desire you for this, but stay strong you smart girl. Recognize they are only interested because they romanticize the idea of you. So create away in all the beauty that you are for the world to see but never allow anyone to take up space in your soul.

Dear Torri, you dear sweet girl….were never designed to have a roommate.

Grandpa Gaius

Grandpa Gaius,

Last night, your children showered

Earth on your mortal home.

The last they’ll ever do for you.

I’m sorry I wasn’t around to say farewell.

I’m sorrier I couldn’t save you on your sick bed.

Death bed?

I watched your body breathe in oxygen.

I doubt that oxygen was of God.

I couldn’t save you.

 

Grandpa Gaius,

I remembered how we drank Pepsi

Together, as we fixed our eyes on the travesty they call Nollywood movie.

But you didn’t care. You enjoyed every moment with glee.

The smile on your face

Was comforting each time I paid you a visit.

 

Grandpa Gaius,

I’m not sad you left this corrupt world.

No, I’m happy because you’ve found peace.

Last night on your bed brought tears to my eyes.

I couldn’t even say goodbye.

Your sons wept into a new day,

And tried to keep this away from mom.

She too, felt it in her bones.

You broke her.

You broke us all.

 

I’m sorry Grandpa,

We’re trying to fight the covid-19;

We’re losing pretty badly.

 

Grandpa

Hello, it’s me again,

I think of you often

There are signs everywhere

of the love that you left

and the tokens of affection.

Lives were touched

even those who can’t remember

Those you have helped

or just crossed your path

The church pews were filled

mans many stories shared

You would have loved the fellowship

they responded to you even after

You wouldn’t recognize this world

but would have appreciated that it goes on

You’ll be glad to know

they haven’t ruined Star Trek yet.

Haiku for 2020

Corona virus
Protests in the street
Kidnapped caged children

The Lost Words (Hour 4)

Jisike, you are the friend who chose to foldaway

 

Truth found us in the beginning

Its presence, unwelcome

Its garment of honour, invisible

The invitation to the unity of birth, void

 

But we tarried

 

We were nascent beings, volatile and transient

We stood always with hairs in the sky

If we have a date with truth tonight again

They will be rehearsing our beautiful songs

 

And you chose to travel

 

Truth will find us midway still

Truth will find us in the end

Those beautiful songs must sing themselves

Those dreams built on sand dunes will remain

Not to be buried in the cemetery of lost words

 

Hour 4

Faye, I need to use your words
this morning.
No statement has ever made more sense
than the gaseous courage of your voice.

I can visualize these words.
This scene.
The tandem feeling of loss and
Losing.

What wonders language may create in the
Mortal version of combat.

I wonder if I still have this document
somewhere on my computer,
maybe in a folder marked sad?

Sad is the only word.
Not wearisome
Worrisome
Fearsome
Or unfabulous.

But the standard
Sadness.

Letter to my Love!

Dear Love,

Waking this morning without you,
I am lost,
Like a boat adrift,
In the blue ocean of Nottingham sky.

I am missing you the way, an orange misses its skin, once peeled,
That is all there is to say.

Just this:

I miss the way,
Your love tethers me,
But does not bind me,
To the Earth.

Your sweetheart,
Dimple.

Prompt 1 (Poetry Marathon)

Her Words

 

Her words are music I’m ought to hear,

Though she is near yet not from here.

Cast a word now from beneath the ground.

Something she says, remain out loud.

 

Her depth drowns my own spell,

As she slowly breaks a story to tell.

She came from heaven just before she fell.

And shared her story here in hell.

 

(C) M. E. Flores

#HalfMarathoner

#Prompt1

 

His Last Words To Me(Prompt 4)

i must leave little brother,

i have run my race and i have touched the hearts and souls whom which God sent me to,

but i leave you with this touch of wisdom,

it was never meant to be YOLO,

least the entire world would turn into sodom,

yes, you’ve one life,

live it right,

little brother pay attention,

i won’t see 16 but i pray you will,

you’ve got light in you,

shine it bright,

climb a mountain if you have to,

because they deserve to see,

 

 

 

hey Kudzi, life’s hard without you,

4th or 5th year since you departed,

the first i felt a bit retarded.

like a door with no key,

the lost key,

you left and so did my locksmith,

yea,

i lose a lot of keys(chuckles),

i reflect back to the days our parents would shout at both of us for being to mischevious,

to rowdy,

cuz you left me and the world felt crowded

stuffy,

thanks for seeing the light in me,

when noone else did.

love you cuz

-Ropa