24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
It’s a constant fight
To keep the sun out
Everyone opens blinds
And I shut mine
I can’t stand the heat
I hate the pain
The focus of heaven’s spotlight
Burns me to the core
No, not a vampire
But might as well be
I detest sunlight
And how it hates me
(In the dark of the night
I saw her in her grave.
So far below beneath me…
He stood there beaming knowledge
Through his desperate eyes to mine.
Burning cold with fear inside me
I could see unwritten futures…
Her new image warm and glowing
Full of endless possibility.
Me beside her holding tight
Straddling the deep and dank…
Keeping her from falling in)
the rain,
just didn’t stop
water,
surrounding us,
sea and river
joining to lap at my doorstep
we huddled,
seeking warmth,
side by side
wind pounding walls,
the house drowning in its fury
falling,
falling into the darkest night.
O Spinner of a Thousand Tales
(That recycle the same four plotlines)
O Maker of a Thousand Worlds
(Populated by the same 6 characters in different hats)
I plead to you, Creator of (clean, black-and-white) Conflicts,
that my narrative be flush with thine bounty.
Let my bitter rivals be placed upon buses,
let my villains be as obviously evil as they are one-note
and let them receive their grim and tidy comeuppance.
Though not by my hand;
the audience must needs think of me as pure and merciful.
I beg you, Sovereign of Stories,
(we’ve all heard a million times)
Let my challenges be overcome
by montage and instant mastery.
Let that to which I turn my hand
garner me praise and jealousy
of my peers and instructors both.
I supplicate myself before you, Manager of Meet-Cutes,
That all of my crushes shall,
in time, turn out to have loved me in secret.
That I might find truest love,
without more than a glance at growth or self-improvement.
That I might blunder into the life of someone special
Just when that special someone needs me most.
Of you, Architect of the Profound
(as long you don’t think about it too hard),
I request the most saccharine of happy endings:
Let my finances be ever sorted off-screen,
and my hair only ever fetchingly tousled.
May my recklessness be vindicated,
and my actions have only positive consequences.
Grant me a conventionally attractive one true pairing,
whose only flaw (by the closing credits) is clumsiness.
And if it be thine will, equally appealing children
who speak and reason like tiny adults.
Gift me, O Cosmic Hack, a place for my came-with-the-frame family.
A gleaming castle, a stately manor, or a shimmering starship.
Even a nice brownstone would suffice,
Your servant is not greedy.
With greatest humility
thy most devoted disciple.
Mary Sue
My love is not so loud
as trumpet’s blaze,
but mystery of leaf
in Autumn’s haze.
I love you like the mountain
turns to sand,
as snowmelt, drop by drop,
reforms the land.
(this will be added to)
Jennifer Pratt-Walter
6/22/2019
They call it Chemical Valley
The barbed wire fence
Surrounding the millions of metal pipes
In a plant that produces toxic air.
Just down the bumpy road
And over the paved bridge
Are manicured lawns where people live.
To those passing by
The blue rivers a pretty sight
Neighbouring the border, just to the right.
But to the locals
Who wait for the sirens
And pray they won’t blare out of schedule
This has become they way they live.
Back. Back to that long-ago place
One. More. Time.
But unlike Dorothy,
The fanciest shoes I own
Cannot take me there.
Their clicks are mute.
Moot.
Moo—t.
Like cows who never come home to rest.
And in my imaginings—
Be they wakeful or beyond—
No warmth can match Grandma’s arms,
Holding me when I hurt,
When life crowds too close.
Can enfold me.
Hold me.
Rabbit Hole for me.
Like Alice and her looking glass.
That mirage, of what once was,
Wavers in the distant fog,
Tempts me close out sanity;
And walk the corridor
To a place where change is coin at best.
Second star to the right,
Through the night,
One-way flight.
To Neverland and Peter Pan and what was—but is no more.
The Same Sea
I climb down to the water
Where paper rains into the sea
The same sea that, when I sleep,
Has a song I can sing along to
The same sea that, when I sleep,
Will tangle me if I step into her surf,
Eroding the sand out from under me.
She always threatening to drown me.
I’ve said I loved you
Many different ways.
In texts, over the phone,
In messenger, Audio, and
Video
But never to your face.
Never, to hold you
As the words flew out.
I met you but couldn’t meet you.
Fear of what I survived.
Life and death,
So, I hide,
In tech
And give you my love
From Afar.
One day, we will meet
Under the stars
Where love will grow
In real time.
With touch.
For now, our love will grow
In a modern way.
If you listen you will hear them-
calling,
whispering,
warning,
across space… across time.
listen
& you can hear them-
on the wind,
riding waves,
wrapped in music.
listen
they are right here
celebrating,
encouraging,
guiding.
if you listen.