24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
you cannot stop
the will of a cat
you dare to try
they’ll swipe or they’ll scat
you cannot stop
your heart how it flows
you close your eyes
furry kiss on your nose
you cannot stop
from soon getting more
you start with just one
find yourself then with four
you cannot stop
all the wet on your lawn
you lie on it sobbing
when they are all gone
A powerful way to make a major change
Enthusiastically if you will, show how to look at things are really insane
But, reinventing will cost you nothing
On how you perceive things.
I had some crazy requirements:
had to combine Shakespeare and hillbilly
had to have recessive gene pinkies
had to be taller than me
I tried to set myself
up for failure
thought a man with
my specifications
couldn’t possibly exist.
You had Shakespeare’s birthday
and loved tractor pulls.
We had the same
outward turned pinkies
which are supposed to be
extremely rare.
You’re 6’5” to my 5’4”.
You do exist but
now in a world
separate from mine
I am a song, l dance along, l play inside your head, come chase my lonely tune.
I am a dream , a quiet place to be, in the darkness of the night, a lonely friend to sleep beside until the morning arrives,
I have walked a winding road, from the beginning until the end, a journey that has suited me for l am without a friend, it is a rambling way to go but pretty on the eye, so tip your cat cordially if you pass me by,
– s.j.duncan –
Writer’s Block is the absolute worse
it’s like having your creativity under a sudden curse
Your mind is constipated & your thoughts are unable to move
to a place that’s free flowing & on going
That place is called The Writer’s Groove
it doesn’t have an address & can’t be located on a GPS
to get there you have to go thru labor pains & literally give birth
to a piece of your soul for all the world to see
and when your life is over & you’er long gone
future generations will know you because
your words will live on
All because you re-located from Writer’s Block
and took up residence in The Writer’s Groove
Amidst all the buzz
Glamor and party animals
Colorful window panes
And the dim lighting
This loud music
Force me to bang my head
And thump my feet
Forgetting the world outside the pub
Alone in the crowd
Happens to me all the time
Is it just me
Or is it the crowd
They shouldn’t see our faces. Which is to say, our faces shouldn’t be what brings people to us.
They should want to listen. They should all want to wear their own masks. At our shows with the lights and sounds.
I’ll drum. I’ll beat my drums with sticks. I want you to create the beats I play my drums to and I want to see waves and waves of people when looking out from behind that series of cylinders of wood and hide. From behind the shiny metal disks. I want our vibrations to move people. Without our faces. No one should see those. It’s been done before. But not like this. Not like this. Everyone does everything but not the way we will.
They don’t have to move with us. We will move them and their bodies will make their own decision. Writhing. Jumping. Shifting. Sliding. Bumping. Banging. Whipping. I want them to be sore from the overdose of sweet endorphins that our music brings.
What do we have in common, me n’ you?
Me n’ You?
What do we have in common, me n’ you?
Me n’ you?
So much we have in common, me n’ you.
Me n’ you.
So much we have in common, me n’ you.
Me n’ you.
We’re both birthed from Mother Earth,
Me n’ you.
Both human, me n’ you
Me n’ you
We both think, me n’ you,
plan, me n’ you
do, me n’ you.
Create.
Fail.
Experience, me ‘n you.
Me n’ you.
Goals, intentions and beliefs, me n’ you.
Me n’ you.
This is only the tip-top of the iceberg, me n’ you.
We’re so common, me n’ you.
We’re essentially the same, me n’ you.
Me N’ You.
Me N’ You.
They never used the word sacrifice,
they always used the words a better life.
On the first journey,
I dropped the name that granted me wisdom
and the brightness of the sun and moon
for something equal in syllables
but meaningless in worth.
On the second journey,
I dropped the new words I had just mastered.
Gave up freeways for highways
and you guys for y’all.
It wasn’t enough to rip out my tongue
a second time
for y’all to see me as human.
Y’all wanted me to unflatten my nose.
Open my eyes.
Starve
than to use chopsticks.
Poke my eyes out with them
instead.
Y’all’s problem
became my problem.
I should never have taken that load,
I should’ve thrown it off the side of the Appalachian mountain range
and hoped for it to crush y’all
on its way down
rather than let y’all crush me.
Cold water washes my feet
The super stubborn sand
Still sticking to it
The smell of sea fills my senses
The smiling sun tickling my skin
Hearing the sound of rushing waves
I let my mind wander
To the time when we
Used to make castles in the air.
Then get on them to fly off
To that one far-off place….
Do you still remember it?