24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
You think you are still 35
You are not
At least you don’t shop at aeropostale
Or try to sport a belly piercing
Or faddish tattoos
And what’s with the cleavage??
Your body is stretched out
Your face sags, along with the
Other parts
You limp from hip surgery and get stiff when you don’t move around
Two-piece,I think not
socks with sandals, NO!
Just be your conservative old self and no one will care.
25-year old girl
Outside my running car
freezing, from home far
left early to beat a storm
only now my key is safe and warm
In 96 it tortured me
frantically trying to get in, you see
a blizzard brewing high and low
a manager helping but no-go
Angry, finally getting in
driving home, no snow within
and now I fear I’ll be trapped again
inside a frozen drift – no-win
Scared now, road barely seen
ice caking on my windshield thin
on the ground, no trace of green
I ponder, amidst the motor’s din
When finally I make it home
another trap assaults my bones
within abode I’m caught, dear me
without those staples I need to BE
and days it stayed that way … three!
The blizzard of 96 it was
but not so free of slush because
now snowplows push street-snow in
both car and me are stuck again.
-Sandra Johnson, 6/22/19
So tell me love
did your fingers blister
when you snuffed out
our flame
was there remorse
the day after next
of when you realized
your side of the bed
was cold and empty
I often wonder
play that day back
Stuck on repeat
with those words
I wanted to say
with the words I needed to say
with the words I’ll never get to say
On my way to heaven I stopped to say hello
You were going the other way
I thought you might be
for a while we traveled together
and you tried to drag me down there with you
astonished at the gates
I saw there were no flames
no broiling heat arose
no wisps of acrid smoke
sulfuric on my tongue
white vapours played like shadows
against the wall dark
reflections of soul-sucking vampires
and cold so deep I felt its pull
and pulled away
let go your hand
before I ventured forth
too close to turn
though you would drag me there
against my will
I chose redemption
safety, a heart full of glory
joy overflowing in the light
I have spent my life tapping the bricks
between the two bathrooms, waiting
for some magical world to reveal itself.
I have avoided eye contact in the mirror
with myself & others, taken off my pronoun
buttons before going into the bathroom.
Bless this room of requirement turned
mainstream, this place where I am no
different than anyone else, just a person
at a coffeeshop not being asked to choose
between two doors that will never describe me.
Dear Old Age,
You scare me
You’re the only thing that truly does
Death isn’t the problem
It’s the slow decline on the way there
It’s the decay
The disappointment
The endless letting go
so much work
Dear Jesus,
I suspect you’ve been reborn, a lot
That you come here all the time
We’re just too dumb to notice
Dear Peddlers of Chocolate,
I have to take a second to tell you that you are a hazard.
Your wares are worse than crack or flesh or slangers of “happy pills”
made to make us forget ourselves and how we hurt.
My beautiful waist has been wasted on your product.
I cannot seem to fit into
my life
as it was before you arrived in our neighborhood.
Please, do take your trade
and fuck off.
Love Ramona’s once lovely ass.
(c) r. l. elke
Roads not only take you to destination
They become your companion too
They give you new people
Show you new places
Becomes your confusion
Gives you solution too
The roads not taken
Are best friends
They give you rare gems
A path not only leading to somewhere
but leading to yourself too
Choose the roads
Always…
Dear butterfly,
How are you? It has been many years since we last spoke, time flys. I don’t know why but I have this permanent feeling of “I’mSorry” i have to say it. To you. I say I’m sorry to everyone, everytime I laugh, I try not. Now a reflex.
I miss you, to talk, to hear the air flow bend and break to your every whim. To hear you laugh againwould change my world. I hope you and the kids are happy, so free. I still dream.
Oh, butterfly a childhood dream. I have not forgot you and cant believe I actually caught you, almost. To let you go now. We will meet again some day. A dream is but a dream, Butterfly wings in a breeze, I can still hear you sing.
Sincerely yours,
Berto