Prompt 4 ~ googling old lovers

googling old lovers

I looked for you yesterday
Knowing that your name
That song of syllables
Bequeathed you by a man
As tall as you perhaps as wild
Would ride the tidal wave
Of names of losses left uncounted
Dark hot sorrow

It was a nuclear separation
The explosive white fire
of my father’s anger
The warm brown sorrow
of your mother’s foreseeing
The incandescence of desire
fell from my fingers like notes
of music from plucked strings
Or water heard, unseen
I did not find you

Only your death
the abrupt end of that road trip
we once thought we’d take together
three years after the black hot sorrow
Of my leaving
you were dust unto dust
Bones broken by familiar hate

and now decades past that fire
the hazy smoke of your name
curls above the embers
Dark
Hot
Sorrow that I would not feel
Could not submit to
Even now

 

Hour Four

J

 

I love a man who walks away

I love a man who loves me

I love a man who laughs sunlight and candy

I love a man who shines.

 

He is tall and he is handsome

as a river is handsome, as a hearth is handsome

beautiful in its nature, and also

in the comfort it gives.

Dark and good-looking, but his beauty

is on his skin and under, warmth of a fire

radiating love and loving-kindness

I love a man who shines.

 

He knows how to keep them laughing.

He knows how to make me smile

when all the world is crashing and

I forget there’s light to be had;

he cavorts, he clowns, he teases

he holds and strokes with sweetness and jokes

until we are both giggling helplessly in each others’ arms

I love a man who laughs sunlight and candy.

 

I see it in his eyes, his face his smile

in the gifts he gives me, not because he gives them

but in the way he gives them; he wants everything to count.

I feel it in the way that he holds me, soft and desperate

Hard and soulful, he touches my hands

He takes me, takes me down

Like an animal, like a man, like a penitent god

I love a man who loves me.

 

He is a sunset

bright and warm and lovely

shining hottest in the last colors of the day.

I want to sit and bask in the heat

and brilliance, and hear the crows cry as they circle

just a moment longer, another few seconds please

but there’s just no use; the sun always sets

And I love a man who walks away.

Hour four

Let Me Escape

 

a joint

a lighter

Let me escape

 

a starry night

a solitary sea shore

Let me escape

 

a pen

a paper

Let me escape

 

a muse

a poem

Let me escape

If Only (Prompt #4)

If only you had let me know
Maybe I could have helped
Things would be different
But you would still be here

If only you had let me know
I would have dropped everything
I still love you
And miss you with an intensity that scares me

If only I had listened more
Maybe I could have helped
Where was everyone else?
What was the final straw?

If only you had asked me
We would have found a cure
Things would be different
Your kids would have their father

If only I had known
I would take back those words I said
We might not be together
But you would still be here

My Robot Heart

I am shiny machine
Silver like wares
I have feelings too
But nobody cares

I can achieve 10 petaflops
But nobody cares
Just how much that really is
I should send up some flares

That would get their attention
If only for a second
But nobody cares
They always have to be beckoned

If only they knew
That inside my heart tears
That I can feel more than them
But nobody cares

why didn’t i love you enough?

poem#4
why didn’t I love you enough?

pushed past the hurt
pushed past the lies
saw an empty soul catching on fire
why didn’t I love you enough?

came out of the darkness
gave him all my light
exchanged a perfect fit for irregular
why, didn’t I love you enough?

you turned a deaf ear
when I needed you most
left me in tears, alone and hurt
why, didn’t I love you enough?

now I see what I feared so I stare at this same face
this me looking back in the mirror
and I’m asking the same question again
why didn’t I love YOU enough?

The Baptism…

Love the lord or get the fuck out of my house. I conceded and remembered wading in a pool of water the size of a backend of a sauna and cloudy with a dead rat floating by with roaches trailing behind. I baptism thee in the Name of the…I didn’t want my hair to nap up and I knew my Mother waited patiently on the other side with sunglasses, a migraine, and a moldy towel. Just get it over was all she said.

My Father held me under what seemed an eternity. Damn, my hair got wet and what was the point of all this…oh yeah, I needed a place to stay and my soul wouldn’t go to hell…I pulled at his fisherman boots and glub, damn roach rat water.Hallelujah! I’m saved and waded in the water…Oh yeah daddy, can I read the porn in the trunk of your car?

I once was lost and now am found…Momma can I have a drink too?i had a rough day and I can go to heaven now. I had a double scoop at Velvet Freeze, lemon and bubblegum. My favorite instead. I wore an Afro the next day to gym that morning. Was blind, but now I see.

4~17

I never knew…

How much I had to give~

When I thought:

Am I so empty?

 

I never knew…

How much you felt for me~

When I thought:

Couldn’t I ask you?

 

I never knew…

How much of you was mine~

When I thought:

Were you with others?

 

I never knew…

How much my soul could die~

When I thought:

I’ll have you never?

Peaceful Fate

Heart thumping and brain screaming

A challenge is barked in crowd teeming

Sweaty pace and frenzied panting gait

They stretch toward peaceful fate

Uprooted

the only difference between a

weed and a flower is

intention.  flowers that pop up

where you did not plan for them

are either weeds or volunteers

depending on your perception and

you never planned on me

being here.

 

you tore me down but I came back

stronger, grew my roots

deeper, said I’d bloom bigger

next time so you would have

no doubt that I belonged here.  

I lived on the runoff of your wisdom

until you encouraged my growth, but no

matter how well-groomed I was, you

could not unsee the wildflower

in me.  

 

lately, I’ve been focusing on

personal growth.  going to the

gym by myself, eating more

vegetables.  I am not here to prune

my overgrowth, this is not about

what you can see on the surface.  I am here

to become so strong that no one

can ever uproot me

again.