The Poetry Marathon

Intermezzo

Intermezzo
Virginia Carraway Stark

Intertwined
In luminous black and white
They were determined to create a legend
Appropriate a myth
Anything is fair in love and war
Or so those who do such things will say
If they don’t those pangs of guilt
Will hurt them in the night
Jump off the cliffs
Into the breakwaters
Say a prayer and hope
You don’t feel evil jaws around
Your thighs
This is the real world
Of the city of white
Intermezzo
It brings us back
To our duet of love
Looking at each other
From across a river
Longing for each other
All the while we don’t know
Who made up the story we play in
Where is the house?
Where is the water’s edge?
Why can’t we play together?
Why must there ever be a war
To interrupt the piece we play?

Prompt 27 and 28, Hour 22

Write a nature poem set in a city.

or

Write a poem about technology in the context of nature.

Hour 21: Butterfly Garden

Butterfly Garden

The butterflies dance together

Tied by invisible thread

Wings spread in silent flutter

Poppies wait for them to land

 

Tied by invisible thread

Alight, afloat in the garden

Poppies wait for them to land

Velvet or sage, nasturtium

 

Alight, afloat in the garden

Tumble with blue damsel fly

Velvet of sage, nasturtium

Blue damsel and bee hurry by

 

Tumble with blue damsel fly

The butterflies dance together

Blue damsel and bee hurry by

Wing spread in silent flutter

 

Prompt 26: Nillie’s Watch

I’m the guardian of the house

Jacksey needs to see—

Needs to know I’m always right.

Who is alpha?  Me!

 

Birddog in the yard behind,

Catdog in the front.

Dingo when I have to fight,

Labrador at night.

 

Willing to go for a walk,

Watchdog for my dish

I’ll sound alarms when people knock,

I’ll even herd goldfish.

 

I love to curl up by the fire,

Humans are my pups.

I patrol the backyard wire.

I chew on plastic cups.

 

Nillie is my given name,

Master calls me sister.

I am loyal to a fault,

Rub my belly, Mister.

 

 

 

 

Love vs. Logic

her beauty draws me near

but her mind awes and inspires

its depths fathomless as unexplored seas

tempt me to dwell where I dare not go

for her wit confounds me

my tongue from which words flow like water

will not let them pour forth

dammed behind a stuttering wall

of timidity so unlike my habitual manner

as to be unrecognizable to poor Watson

 

I dare not confide my unaccustomed reticence

reveal the breadth of my excitation

in case it interferes with investigations

yet I fear it may

for were she to lay a trap for me

snare me in a plot

would I dare trust my instincts?

they baffle me so

 

addled as I am

there is only one recourse –

escape this raging turmoil

reconcile my emotions and my wits

contrive equilibrium once more

and when I am able to lay passions

long since quelled to rest

foreswear or redouble my resolve

to protect and serve

 

 

18. The Messenger XVIII

These giant skyscrapers

Are so impressive

I would never jump from their tops

Like everybody is doing nowadays

Just for the fun, is the tagline

I am too scared to have fun

But the night always come

So we can see the brightness

Of the stars and the planets

That are making such a wonderful

Milky way

Just for your Soul

When I dance or have really good fun

It’s with my two bare feet

In the mud, healing through my soles

And my skins

Achilles Ear

We do not live in a vacuum, which is good because I would be afraid all the time

I hate the vacuum, as you know, but I am also brave

at least when it comes to you, my family

Furever Family is what we’ve found

You and I together, on our playground

I saved you from being lonely

also from being afraid

I know you have some ghosts that haunt you in your sleep,

but I’ve learned not to hide from you when you call out in the night

instead I snuggle in closer and put my wet nose in your palm

Then you know it’s me and you don’t have to be a fright,

You saved me from the shelter and the human merry go round I was on

You saw a was a big boy, but your love was just as big

with your help my love grew too

and also, I am brave, from any spider

there ever was, you my friend, I will save!

 

The Mean Old Cowboy

An old cowboy stood alone in the muddy street

Gun at his hip and boots on his feet

And he called out loud so that all could hear

“I may be old but I don’t have any fear.”

“Send out the best and fastest gun around.”

“I’ll beat him on the draw and drop him to the ground”

The people in the town could hear his shout

But no man that heard bothered to step out

So the old cowboy walked to the saloon

And with the toe of his boot he kicked a spitoon

“I’ll fight any man in this place.”

Came the words from his grizzled face.

But the room full of men paid him no mind

There was no fistfight for the old timer to find

So the old cowboy just ambled on home

And when his old wife asked where he did roam

He just shook his head and smiled

No man is fool enough to face me whenever I get riled

Mermaids are my friends

The first paragraph comes from T.S. Eliot’s Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Tell human voices wake us, and we drown.

The sea is my comfort of present and past
the sea creatures, the mermaids come sing to me at last

The tell tales of old fisherman
tell tales of lost sons
trying not to fall in love because humans are forbidden
forever out of reach why can’t they learn this
what secrets they keep

Vengeance of The Goat Kind, Hour 21

There’s goat on the hill

He does what he will

He’s a bit of a pill

But it’s chill

He’s a grumpy old bugger

Kinda mean motherfucker,

But for a goat, that’s kinda run of the mill

He’s a great mountaineer,

Has a long billy beard,

His eyes a wise yellow,

Pupils square

He eats near whatever

From tin cans to cheddar

Because he, as a goat, doesn’t care

Behind a fence made of wire

Tied up to tire

The old goat spent most of his days

But on a hot summer morning

A terrible fire

Engulfed the whole farm in a blaze

So he chewed through the rope

And ran from the flames

Climbed up in the old gnarled oak tree

He nimbly climbed out on one of the branches

Hopped over the fence, and was free

The silly old goat,

Running free through the woods

Stumbled over the the old whiskey still

He drank all the whiskey

So, feeling quite frisky,

He returned to the farm on the hill

The farmer was glad for the old goat’s return

But saw in his eyes murderous glee

With a snort, the billy goat lowered his head and butted him right in the knee

The farmer fell down on grass half burnt and brown

And the old goat ran away free