24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
What did the serpent whisper
that split the world asunder
in that distant, long-past time?
He chose his words carefully,
knowing that the future mayhem of this planet
depended on the words he spoke.
Clever, diabolical being —
He leaned close to the cave man’s ear
and said the words that would divide
humans throughout history:
“You’re better than them.”
the rules are there are no rules
We gotta get away
We don’t know what they want
You say they might be able to help
But we don’t know that
We can never know that again
Stella’s right
I don’t know what trust means
How can I? Hope can she?
We’ve only just met.
Yes I see the irony
Saying we shouldn’t do
What we two did only a few hours ago
But that felt diff/
sudden noise — wild fury — the man’s back
— he has a shot gun — pointed at us
demands the ute — Stella is screaming
I feel like crying — don’t know what to do
Put the gun down, I plead
No!
At least point it away from us.
No!
If I give you the keys, will you let us go?
One of you maybe.
He looks at Stella.
I know his thoughts.
Okay okay I say
I’m just putting my hands
in my pocket to get the keys
& then you’ll let us go.
Sure, sure.
I know he’s lying. We all do.
Hurl the keys as far as I can — away
from us — over his head — he turns
to chase — grab Stella — drag her
toward the ute — get in, get in
— but the keys/ she begins
My house keys, let’s go.
Thankfully despite the chaos
I get the key in the lock
Start it swiftly & head south
All the while fearing
Shattering glass, exploding rubber
Or even a flaming fireball
(We’ve all seen Hollywood)
We’re away. We almost laugh/
Two booms. Quick succession.
Silence. Two hearts beat.
The ute seems unscathed.
We drive on.
Neither of us speak for many miles
its said earth was Gods gift to us
Like our bodies
its the only way our souls can live
the sky smells of wonder, the land pours sacrifices decimating droughts.
mankind’s hurdles have made it difficult to experience places our eyes have never seen before
living is never soul-less
its never pure
despite our birthed promises
we claim lands already gifted to us
like rugs left in hallways
our eyes should ache from the smoke scents of our burning earth
The Void yawned, exhaling a vacuum
Not space but the absence thereof
Not darkness but the absence of light
An empty space welcoming the all-that-is
The universal balance of opposites
In the beginning, there was no separation
No start and no end
A mass conglomeration of dark light,
Underground skies,
Burning ice,
Pitch black day and blinding bright night
Everything wrong perfectly right
Then deep within, a conflict
Disharmony
Division
A fracture across the grand unification
Masculine pulls from feminine
Dark from light
Matter from emptiness
The duality created turmoil
Created motion
Created the ebb and flow
The grand expansion and contraction
The instigation of rhythm into the stillness
And the beat goes on…
And on…
And on…
the crispy sweet
shell protects the
dark center
until it cracks
it sure wears better on an M&M
When I was 8 years old
My mother taught me how to sew
Pushing and pulling the needle through the fabric making clean near stitches
I picked at the loose frayed hole of my sweater
on a rainy day in November
And the rain drops kissed the concrete and the sky was as grey as your eyes
I thought I could fix us, like I could fix my sweater
Pushing and pulling the needle through making
Tight neat stitches
holding it together
keeping us together
Hour 15 Prompts…
Prompt 18: The Beginning
Write a poem set before the world as we know it came to be. It can be set in the blackness of space, it can involve the big bang or genesis, or anything you imagine.
Prompt 19: The End
Write a poem set after or during the apocalypse.
In the Beginning….
There was Darkness
There was Infinity
There was Negative and Positive in Equal Balance
There was No Earth, No Life
There was Order in the Universal Chaos – the Order that enabled Creation
——————————————————-
In the End….
There is still Darkness – in Hearts, Minds and Souls
There is still Infinity – of Greed, Crime and Corruption
There is still Negative and Positive in a Power Struggle
There is still no guarantee that Earth and Life will Survive/Exist
There is still Universal Chaos in the Order – the Chaos that will enable Destruction
An element or certainly two
Floating past one another
In the vast watery landscape
Interacting through electrons
Chemicals that form complex attractions
Each second, numerous connections
That lead to large, diverse compounds
A marvelous broth to nourish the future
Life will arrive soon
Maybe in a billion years
But till then, we’re together
In this quiet solar system
What should we do to pass the time?
Maybe we can become polarized
I’ll be immensely different from your makeup
But I know that we could still be compatible
Perhaps we can even float around others
Form a circle of friends that will allow us
To discover our physical properties
And find others to interact with
There’s plenty of mixtures in the ocean
And perhaps we aren’t meant to be
But if you ever feel that you need a bond
I’ll be in a corner of the sea waiting for you
