The Poetry Marathon

Self Titled – Hour 10

What is love?

This is the third time
trying to execute this poem
and that’s what love does
to someone like me

It’s impossible to explain
it could be a call home
it could be a feeling
it could be feeding your cat

The beauty of love
is that we don’t know what it is

We never know when to expect it
or in what direction it will come from
It keeps us on our toes

It’s also gutwrenching
turning your stomach into a knot
that’s tied too tightly
unable to be released

It also gives you life
in the search for that feeling
again

I long for it

Hour 10

“What is love”

Misattributed quote says love

Is finding your weird partner and

Being weird with them.

 

Movies tell us love

Is recognizing our soul’s counterpoint

In another.

 

Books tell us love

Extends beyond class

And privilege.

 

Commercials tell us love

Is a diamond, a card, a

Bouquet of dead flowers.

 

Life tells us love

Is precious, rare, violent, painful,

Soul rending, necessary.

 

What is love…

A commitment kept between two hearts

a four-lettered promise

those nervous butterflies at the sight of him

everything that follows after life…after live…

everything that’s offered and what you have to give

its work, truthfulness, open and it’s free

its between people and animals

it has two legs or four paws

its blood pumping to the heart

ink dripping from your pen

it’s the inspiration to write this

its a phone call, a hug, a kiss, and everything that comes in between.

I love you when you…

I love you when you put me first

I love you when you let me talk

I love you when I interrupt to bring the conversation back to me

I love you when you choose me to be first

 

I love you when you tell others how great I am

I love you when you share my fame

I love you when you forgive my inattention and you have to explain things again…and again

 

I love you when you make fudge

I love you when you take care of the business

I love you when you do the cleaning up

I love you when you make all the arrangements

I love you when you discard the best picture if I don’t shine in it

 

I love you when you are of use to me

I love you when you do what I want

I love you when it’s convenient for me to do so

 

I love you when you buy my books

I love you when you teach me new things

 

I love you when you let me shine

I love you when I need to whine

I love you when I need to vent

I love you when it’s the cool thing to do

 

I love you when I get stuff from you

I love you when you do the work

I love you when you kiss my ass

But now that you’re done doing that

I 

 

Well

 

I don’t love you anymore

 

#10 What Is Love If You Are Gone?

What Is Love If You Are Gone?

 

If you were gone,

Days would seem endless

And nights even more so.

 

I would have to call repairmen

And car mechanics

And financial planners.

 

I would have to eat all the vegetables

By myself

And the chocolate cake.

 

Without you, love would be a treadmill

Going, going, going

But never getting anywhere.

 

What is love without you—

I don’t want to find out.

 

Cindy Herndon

Miserable Good Wives (10)

The table, besides me, is bald and bearded

I’m getting there but hanging on

we are brought turkey and sides

Kraft sprinkled mac and cheese

stuffing with giblet gravy

green beans with pork fat

cranberry sauce right out of the can

they bring it out to us tired

they bring it out while their kids run and scream

they bring it to almost whispered thank-yous

they bring it despite not orgasming in years

they bring it after breaking down in the kitchen

while the others keep going

they bring it to the ones we know are abusers

they bring it to the ones they’d like to take for a spin

they bring it to me multiple times because I eat good for my size

they bring it to husbands who complain about their attitudes

when their backs are turned

and they think they can’t hear

I see some of them gripping the cutting knives hard

and looking at us

even me

like they’d love to bring that to us.

 

Hour 10-What is love?

Love is doing dishes,

making dinner.

Holding hands at the movies.

It is singed with frustration

and joy.

It is worry in the hospital waiting room.

It is sticking around through good and bad.

Love is communication and respect.

It is founded on attraction,

but grows with admiration and need.

Love is saying “I’m sorry,”

when it needs said.

Saying “I’m sorry too,”

when it needs said.

It is accepting responsibility.

It is finding the path together

and honoring the other when that path splits.

It is belief in one another.

Keeping the other’s best interests at heart.

Love is vast and comical.

Touching and fanatical.

Love is everything and nothing.

Love is the Universe

and the blade of grass beneath our feet.

 

 

Prompt 7 Shade Stars

Wooden swings are a beloved classic

plucked memories of rising dandelions

its petals cushioning footsteps

leaving this swing

accessible regardless to iron gates

and locked fences

accomodating to lush landscapes

and joy

 

Hour 10–What is Love?

What is love she said

ya got me he said

then he said let’s kiss and see if it happens

Hour 10: “Psych Ward Dragonflies”

Sterile white walls hide the maniacal sorrow,
Frame the wide windows facing nearby rooftops,
Through these endless wells of pouring desire,
she laughs and cries, looking at the same
fields disappearing in the distance.

On mornings after the rain, shallow pools adorn the roof,
where dragonflies gaily dance from each sheening surface.
Their tails entwined, skipping along the water. She cries.
She cries. And the dragonflies dance.
How sad it is to live for anything that blooms against the tide.
The heavy veil that blankets all, disconnecting
everything that meant more than what it first appeared.

How sad the synapses in her mind, growing weaker,
like the eroding gravity of cerebral stars,
senses can’t recall her best memories anymore,
there is only the recognition that it’s slipping further away,
just like the dragonflies dancing from pool to pool,
while all the world is in its final act.

How sad it is, as it all falls to emptiness.
The mind, the universe,
the universe within the mind.