Hour22
You know nothing,
but winter is coming anyway!
Embrace your nightmares while
looking for summer’s warmth…
Hour Twenty-four: Hoped For
Is that bright light bursting through the dark forest
The light I prayed for to lead me out of my morass
Or
Is it the light at the end of a dark tunnel,
The proverbial train rushing to end my suffering forever
Are its beams burning down the darkness
Leaving me trapped inside to be consumed by
Smoke and flames
Or
Are they a stairway to the light source
A way out and a way to enter
Paradise
Do I get to choose or have I
Been chosen
Hour 24 – In which I replace the word “hopes” with the word “feet”
In which I replace the word “hopes” with the word “feet”
after Nico Wilkinson
My feet move me toward a future I am quite unsure of.
But while I ask so much of my feet,
with all these dreams of forward motion,
they cannot answer.
Sometimes, though, simply having feet is
the best answer you can ask for.
Sometimes, I move at more of a crawl.
My feet, forgotten somewhere behind me,
cannot do the work I’ve asked of them.
I must drag myself back to the start,
find my feet again, wipe away the grime
and stand again, bolstered by renewed foundation.
Even so, my feet are complicated things.
Turning numb, stinging, collapsing at their joinings,
Occasionally, I turn my hatred toward them,
wonder at their use. All before I remember
there is cruelty in forcing anything
to act solely at my will.
So, I will be gentle to my feet now,
care for them, give them room to breathe,
accommodate the way they swell
on days I believe in them more fiercely.
Forgive them for being as unpredictable
as this body they are bound to.
I think there is a commonality
in how we treat our feet and ourselves,
how we treat that which is foundational.
Even when we find our feet
cannot be used in the way we wish
should we not answer with grace?
Hour 22 : Catch 22 Slice
The toppings,
The slices,
The watery dice,
The earth isn’t flat, but pizza it,
Why don’t we end conversations by being weird-doughs?
All I got is room & mushrooms for you.
Come over for a dinner.
Where we argue about the crusts.
Hour 24: Hope
Life is an interplay of shadows and light
A lot of times the black clouds seem to overwhelm the sun
But a tiny, silvery ray called hope shines through,
Guiding our lost souls back in to the action ring
Rekindling the embers of dying dreams in our breast
In the canvas of our setting sun, glimmering hope paints the image of a new dawn
Every step that hope inspires you to take, you rise above your fears,
Finding strength and love
2024 Poem Twenty Two
Little, Gay Awakenings
– Tasting her cherry chapstick for the first time
– Shego in afternoon cartoons
– My first short, short haircut
– The realization that humans could never be put into a box, let alone Box A or Box B only
– Liquid courage fueled telling her “I like you” and being the only one who knows the true depth of that tiny statement
– The beat of my heart as I knock on her dorm room door
To Make Brownies
Step one:
Open the box
Read the instructions on the box
Without spilling the contents of the box
Step two:
Spill contents of the box
Curse
Sigh with relief
That the contents are separately packaged
Step three:
Look for eggs in the fridge
Discover there are none
Step four:
Go to the store
Get wine, cereal, bananas
Pain killers
Step five:
Get home
Realize you forgot the eggs
Curse again
Step six:
Go to bakery
Buy brownies
Step seven:
Watch favorite movie
Eat brownies
Try to forget about bad day
On Hope
Hope is a 4-letter word
that is necessary to survive.
Almost as essential as breathing…
so we must work to keep hope alive.
There’s plenty of proof of sorrow,
but we can’t let anguish rule the day.
Hope is only deterrent that
can hold deep despair at bay.
So keep hope alive as a practice.
Renew your faith in what’s good
as you go.
With hope on your side,
you can withstand
any challenges you’ll come to know.