The Poetry Marathon

Prompt 16 Hour 13

Slatternly

 

look at those hedges

untidy and blathering

 

imagine the stories they hold

deep in the worn mulch of their roots

 

verbose I am sure

as cluttered as the home they rest

 

look at those eaves filled

with last years leaves

 

unconscionable the weight

they bear to save rain from her hair

 

this woman not yet thirty

yet unsound and unworthy

 

look at her dress

a rainbow of a mess

 

how must she survive? does she not know

this world of judgmental eyes?

 

waiting to pounce on her

waiting to see

 

if she has an answer

for the who? what? or we?

 

I suppose she doesn’t care

Perhaps she is not all there.

 

or perhaps her happiness

is in a place without stares

 

a place we will never know

while using judgemental glares.

 

C. Churchill

 

for we cant see past

white picket fences or

 

 

Dilatory

I’ve been sitting for minutes. The bus should have been here by now. Traffic is backed up on A street. And on the C underpass, as far as I can see.

A truck just rolled by and I heard a traffic report that there are accidents all over town. And then a kid rolled by ranting about how they should have left even earlier to make it to his game on time.

It seems like no one is where they want to be. Maybe we can all agree to start over.

Don’t Run

Why are you running
Are you scare of the feelings
you have for me

I feel that you are confuse
These emotions you have
You’re scare to explore

You can admit the physical attraction
We have for one another
But is it more there then you
Are willing to explain

Can you love me
Do you love me
Can you be happy with just me

Prompt 15/Outside In (The Voyage Out)

The dusk was saluted at the hotel by  
electric hours to kill                            
the peevishness of dissipation, who lay back      
in long arm chairs
cigarettes in hands

The evening was dressed                                  

the mail had been distributed from England

This seemed hard to silence the lion when its (sic) stimulated

Some loathsome sheep cough 
a patter of conversation just when the bones are being mauled.

These comparisons did not rouse a glance around the room 
eyes fixed upon spears arranged to run points whichever way approached

Oblivious of surroundings 

Perceiving mind a complete blank
fixed attention upon creatures 
too far to hear little theories

 

Prompt 16/h13- Insipience (definition)

Sit down and don’t touch.
It says curse so that means?

“We remove the curse!”

Yes-n-no it means we don’t touch it!
You
leave it alone
until
you
find the way to

“spread it! Like jam!”

My lord Mica, you do not want to…
One does not
One should never
spread
a curse like a paste

You simply do not
Just don’t…
Don’t touch it until the curse is removed.
Understand?

“Why?”

Curses are often lethal!

“Why?”

Lord Mica
you
are three hundred and seven
How do you not know this yet?

“Why?”

Your foolishness confounds even me…

Williwaw [Prompt 16]

I think of you…

up there.

I think of us…

once there.

I stand below the mountain…

of where you once lived,

where we once loved.

knowing you have gone …

on to another realm;

leaving only the images…

fading as they do.

The violent wind,

sweeps over my aging body…

you come and take my hand.

We are together again.

 

The Final Hour

coming & going

what does one do when the words run out
when they don’t flow as easily
can’t get stuck in your throat if you can’t imagine them to begin with

what happens when you’ve suppressed your feelings for so long you can’t find them anymore
if a tear falls and you ignore it, are you really crying?

what happens when the words come back
a rush, a hurricane and they just won’t stop and you don’t know what to do and you can’t breathe

what happens when you don’t let the feelings come back
what if you don’t want them to?

13. The Messenger XIII

I fell in, a long time ago

I’m going back now

It’s like a big swimming pool

I have only one desire: to dive in there

Everyone surrounds me

It’s hot, all this love

Let’s dance all the life

Until we fall

All together we fall in

It splashes, nobody stays dry

An ocean of love heat

So glad to fall back

Kuebiko

Camera phones out, brandished like weaponry
Pepper the streets around the crime
As if the threat of observation were enough
To stop a violent perpetrator in their tracks,
Quell the wave of the power trip from washing
Over the bulletproof vest, pressed uniform, holstered gun;
And as if the promise of accountability could be distilled
Into one solitary square of communication, freedom.

One knows that in a world where the only power we possess
Is to know what we alone saw and heard and did,
So that when the forces of “are you sure?” and “surely not” –
Bickering and backstabbing, secondguessing and gaslighting –
Crash upon you from an attorney’s confident voice, creating doubt
For everything you do not have clear as solid rock:

In the knowledge of that future time,
All one can do is watch.

Finish Line

Poem 11

Finish Line

By: Ashley L Powers

 

I can see it

This journey was bittersweet

Unclogged my mind

Allowed me to spill my thoughts

True freedom

It’s so close

I can feel it

I accepted the challenge

I killed it

One more poem to go

The checker flags are waving

It’s over

I MADE IT!