The Poetry Marathon

All the Why’s (Hour 2)

You want magic where there is none.

In humanity, whose spark is only meant to betray.

In God, who is not a genie –
no matter how many times you rub his belly with your prayers.

In psychics and mediums, who tell you everything you’ve already told them –
with your body, your eyes, and your social media vomiting.

In movies, where you escape the disappointment of your life,
only to blink two hours later, even more deflated.
Life is never what we see on the silver screen.

In music, that makes you smile, that makes you cry,
the love songs that make you remember all the why’s –
until you fall to your knees.

In your lover’s eyes, until the fire within them dies.

Humanity has failed humanity
and love has waxed cold.

And that’s why magic has gone away.

Three

You filled a hole for her when he was gone, a giant, babysized hole.

You filled a hole again for her when her only other he was gone, a lifesize, sinking hole of infinite silence.

But, when the shot came, and it was you who was gone, no sized replacement, no volume of fill in the stillness could ease her wringing ears, her tremorhands. No amount of anything elseness could steady her tattered, waning footsteps.

You were her fill in all the blanks, her rejoice over spilled milk soaking up the cracks. You were the sounds in the house, the warm little body that snuck into her bed at night for snuggles, the reminder that for all she has lost, she was still findable, she was found.

She shutters now, alone in her chair, in the new silence you left. She closes her eyes for the eternal fall into the last hole she will know… without you.

Backyard Blues

I open the creaky porch door and march outside with vigor
A warm, humid wind bursts onto face and tiring times await

The long and coarse grass hails my arrival
Its spiny ends prickle my heels and brush my toes
I feel the dew on each individual grassy leaf
And press down on the dampness with my 10.5 feet

The ground has much to offer and all, I take
Clay deposits harbor worms and choke all growth
Shovels dig deep and into the Earth we go
To plant an artificial tree, a metallic TV satellite

 

– Utkarsh Sharma (ManuDrama)

Senses

Senses

Night is powerful

Engulfing darkness within darkness

Happy apparitions shimmering all over

While fireflies try to hide their lights

Lightning strikes precisely everywhere

Drowning earth with incandescence

Sweet petrichor dissipates in the rumbling thunder

The tingling feet measures six vibrations

Revealing the tectonic drama underneath

Night indeed is powerful

 

Hour 3

@varenyas

Anxiety

The time is ticking

I’ve fallen behind

I thought this would be easy

My mind lied.

 

I should’ve known

An anxious child like me

Would worry and stress

Over the quality of my words

And the subject of my post.

 

I thought I could just write

And be content with that

But instead,

I’m worrying about being perfect.

Hour 3

What’s out there is best experienced as clean lines and simple geometries.

On crisp paper

That folds neatly into squares

What I’m trying to say is

Beware of the dog shits

They aren’t mapped

Home

The roadrunner makes a clicking sound
and spreads its wings in warning.
It is not my favorite bird,
the way it preys on others.
What I do love
are the hummingbirds buzzing by
like determined little helicopters,
their wings beating fast through the air.
Neighbors walk on the street, dogs at their sides.
I hear the dogs’ tags ringing like tiny bells.
Already the sun is hot against my skin.
It is summer now
and the desert stretches out her arms
to me —

Magic of Summer Nights

In between the cracked concrete

and the burnt out lights,

our feet meet. 

Whispered secrets, poetry,

notebooks passed

between you and me. 

Nights spent sitting curbside,

drawn together magnetically,

fire sparking, chemistry. 

You Need Not Be Smart My Love

 

You need not be smart my love, you need not be smart
You already have my heart, you need not be smart
You need no extra wisdom
For love itself is wisdom, I mean the highest wisdom
Your friends may say no
That I will lead you like a fool
Sarah did not say so
And she was not a fool

In this sport of life
On the spot of love
Shall the ball be my heart
There is no puzzle to solve
You need not be smart

The world is ours, you need not be smart

Just give me this heart and see
That you need not be smart

Always There, Often Ignored

Sometimes,
That TOUCH heals all the wounds…
And soothes the soul
That LOOK has all my answers…
And the sorrows disappear
That SOUND calms me down…
And only heartbeats are heard
Words are forgotten,
And only the language of SILENCE is spoken!
Power of it is such,
WORDS cannot describe as much!