The Poetry Marathon

Stages of my life

(Includes an excerpt from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot – in italics)

I was once a young child

Desperate to find things good and mild

And never did I question their bad taste.

Years ago I was a teen

Desperate to be our high school’s prom queen

And always did I wonder was I liked.

Later on I was a mom

Desperate to be with children at my home

Whom I love with all my heart.

I grow old… I grow old…

I shall wear the bottom of my trousers rolled

Power is all mine as these days part.

Trailing through ages!

1.Crawling on the knees,
I looked up,
Sun,stars,flowers,
everything I saw,excited me.

2.Grown up,
holding my Dad’s palm,
I walked onto my school.
New lessons,
alphabets,numbers came in.

3.In the thrilling teens,
I started to sing,madly,
I loved music,
Loved it to my life,
but maths,science,english
made the villainous entry.

4.I am a fish,
taught to climb trees!

Tragic Childhood Psalm: Hour 23

1: my only memory of them together

mom and dad

i was sick and pretending

 

5: I remember her screaming. oh the lament for her abusive father

forbidden touches. Did they start here?

 

7: they were fighting, me struggling

dad disbelieving – family ties burn

Crystals welcomed, angels watching over me

 

9: fire so fascinating

 

13:runic cards passed to me

 

23: answers from within

 

42:Increased psychic abilities

 

Amanda Potter©: 2019 Poetry Marathon

Poem 21 “Flower”

“Flower” by Mandy Austin Cook

She was named after a skunk

but her personality was much sweeter

my first pet my first comfort

my first childhood companion.

she befriended my teddy bear

and became my shadow.

and the days I needed silent encouragement

she would snuggle her head under my shoulder

and just stay for however long was needed.

Lost and Found, Hour 23

Sonoma wildfire
Frightened feline runs away
A friend gone too soon

Missing companion
The young boy searches the streets
Hangs flyers handmade

A call from stranger
Kitty purrs on telephone
Friends reunited

What Makes You

You bury yourself in layers as you grow,

And when others picked you apart

You buried yourself deeper and deeper.

Until the you they see is not bedrock,

Just another shelf of slim self worth,

Supported by stress cracks and boiling feelings

That threaten to burn you alive when you’re alone.

Remember even faults must shake, volcanos

Recover after being unmade by violent upheaval

And stand taller, recover themselves to calm.

Let yourself go. Unmake and break, bend, release,

Remember what makes you, we’re all made of fire

And beneath the thin shell of fear glow bright,

Brilliant like the cores of dead stars.

Remember to burn passion, own what makes you.

Prompt#23 Carefree days

I came into this world with a bang.
 On a stormy Thursday afternoon, 
     the trains stopped working, 
        the roads were flooded,
          I came into this world with 
5) the umbilical cord wrapped around my neck.

I loved food.
   I still do, no one had to coax me to finish eating.
    I loved eating mud, 
     and drinking soda
10) stuffing my face with chocolates .

I was a chatterbox
  I still am 
   I loved swings and merry go rounds. 
     oh I could never get enough... 
15) Hopscotch was my favorite.

My favorite thing about my childhood
 my mother pampering me with cuddles 
   my grandfather smuggling the tasty goodies 
    and sitting on his back as if I had 
20)set out to conquer the world.

Nana rose was the best
 she let me be
    she let me grow 
     and explore.
25) never holding me back.

These are some of the Precious things I hold dear.
Carefree running wild, full of laughter and uncomplicated childhood.  
  

-Janice Raquela Mendonca

prompt 29: the truth about darkness

the truth about darkness (homage to Billy Ray Belcourt and his numbered poems)

1. re-occurring nightmares about monsters in cellars with no ladders indicates deep, hidden secrets
2. the deeper the secret, the more painful the removal – like a jagged, rusted storm drain pipes through the middle of one who happened to be in the wrong time at the wrong place
3. the rest of the world speaks in joyful whispers, gifting balms of prayers to wounded souls, so the frayed edges of those Hiroshima fingerprints cool enough to allow others to touch us
4. new siblings bring so many headaches….like the many, many, many moves made so dad could work those gypsum – dust jobs he chased so we could eat
5. those voices in my head were not demons, like my grandmother said. The world chose me as their mediary and I promised to honour them by doing the best job I could. Ask my “invisible friend” Arthur (who turned out to be a dead relative from the Great War).

those early days were not so bad,

between the live in aunts and uncles

and short distances to Granny’s house,

I had joy sometimes, too.

(c) r. l. elke

Come Morning

It’s a boring story
Aspirin phenibut and morphine
A few years of pictures
And my first cigarette in weeks

listen until you can’t hear anymore
ignore until you can’t ignore anymore
stay still until you can’t move anymore
feel good until you don’t feel good anymore

Lonely lovesick or amphetamine eyes
Every Single pop song is a lie
Making figures and stories on the bumps on the ceiling,
the cage that protects you from the sky.
Aching burning painful lively desire
and the deathstill freedom of wanting nothing.
The walls turned yellow years ago
and the nights last for days.
Her face is blurry in my memory,
but I still see her long jet-black hair.
When I was a kid sometimes the world looked upside down

And nobody feels as good
as they think they should
And nobody can get to sleep
And nobody wants this to last forever
And nobody wants to die
And even the ghosts are fuckin bored
And everyone wants to go to japan

15. Explain how I feel…

When I’m near you

Or when we are apart

I see eyes that sparkle &

Eyebrows that tease 

 

Heart shaped lips,

That whisper please …

You voice my deepest desires

Ever so softly, you say,

 

“Let go. Let me love you, 

I can show you the way,

To love you without reservation,

I love you and you can be the same for me

Without question; without hesitation.”

 

I want to let go.

To show you too, I love only you.

My dreams no longer have an expiration date.

 

All rights reserved copyright (c) 2019 Natasha Vanover