24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
They will first ask you to shrink
and then to shiver
and then to speak.
And once you’ve shrunken,
they will ask you to
grow.
Once you have grown,
they will stare at your changes
and ask why
no one ever stays the same.
I rush to your grave.
A fool looking for love.
That can never come again.
I kiss your cold lips, goodbye.
The sky has cried its coldest rain.
I kiss your cold lips goodbye.
I cover your face in a shroud of love.
Then a river of mud fills the land.
I spend the night dreaming of love.
That can never come again.
I try to move on.
but your ghost lingers on.
I watch yesterdays stars.
A fool looking for love.
As l watch it dance away.
In the arms of deaths, the end.
– s.j.duncan –
I broke,
I struggled,
I strove until,
I reached the other side.
pain, it changed me forever.
Pain never lets go of you,
it always has a tight grip
on your wrists to remind
you how real, reality is.
My demons befriended pain,
they conquered me again,
but, my fight wasn’t in vain,
all my demons were slain
the moment I gave the power
to my pen to translate my pain into words.
j.r.m©
Words I long to say
Feelings that betray
Truths, found here and there
Dying without expression
Lingering, echoing
Words I long to say
Afraid to feel that way
Dying without expression
Afraid to feel that way
The past reverberating
Is anybody listening
Lingering, echoing
Truths, found here and there
Feelings that betray
Will find me where I stay
Is anybody listening
They really get you sometimes
With their smiling eyes and juicy lies
Grooming you to accept crimes
While self-respect and dignity flies.
They really get you sometimes
Designing tricks to absorb your cash
Rubbing wounds with stinging limes
Transforming hope into cold wet ash.
What a diatribe of men
With their smiling eyes and juicy lies
Enticing you to open
While strangling the blossom so it dies.
Gestures of love: simple mimes
Sweet talk and promises only serve
Grooming you to accept crimes
Disguised as acts of passion and nerve.
They really get you sometimes
With their smiling eyes and juicy lies
Grooming you to accept crimes
While self-respect and dignity flies.
The waters call to him,
No matter where he goes.
He longs for the beauty,
The waters gentle flow.
The waters call to him,
The love his sons do share.
They spend time on the water together,
Laughing without care.
The waters call to him,
Lake, stream, or ocean wave.
He finds healing in the sound,
The rest his soul does crave.
The waters call to him,
No matter where he roams.
The waters call to him,
For there he finds his home.
In a time, once; a land, far off
a woman is dreaming. Her nearly beautiful face
opens happily to take in your budding fingers,
the cord securing her body to your future
She counts atoms, names your neck king
of this time, this land
rubbing her hands together, a symmetrical cloud
of smoke pushes against the wind
a prayer from the dream to the dreamer
and it’s a sign, she thinks, pushing the unease beneath her feet,
this was the right time to come to this place,
to meet a boy in a field of lavender
until your course was set and here you are, having flown
past the pinwheel galaxies into the warmth of soft darkness,
into a woman’s dreams, months before something wrong sets in,
your time is now; your place is her
A book is a sailboat
A majestic schooner, white sails plumed gallantly in the wind, racing to plunge off the edge of the world
Fresh sea air invigorates, mist in the breeze. Fear and excitement etch into the back of your throat, making a taste of pennies and mothballs. You wait to hear the captain shout the words, the warning before the brink, but you remember, a start running up your spine, you are the captain at the helm, the fingertips at the page corners
You see the wild blue yonder and suddenly taste strawberries, farm fresh and fragrant.
The world is much bigger than just your little state of Michigan, your thin city of Saginaw, much wilder and friendlier than your best friend Clarice.
You see your boots are quaking below you, but you don’t know why. You are brave. There is nothing to fear.
You will meet people who hurt you, betray you, confuse and frustrate you.
You can’t get this kind of experience just browsing through memes.
When you greet people, they will smile and greet you back, and perhaps ask to take a selfie with you. You will find the world friendlier than you imagined. You can let your guard down. You will be fine.
Your name will be in their mouths, just as yours is in theirs.
You may panic at the last moment, and reach out for something to hold onto and prevent the spilling over.
If you do this, all will be lost.
Your hands will bare the scars, and will turn or be turned against you.
Be brave and open your heart to the brilliance.
Give the word, captain, raise anchor, and plunge.
Strong storms
surprise us
Winds blow
not as predicted
Rains fall
puddles form
rivers too deep
Cars stranded
on familiar roads
now rivers.
I have been taught,
Not to raise voice during noise;
To embrace wisdom at the hardest of times
………………………………………………………………..
I have been challenged,
I have been taken advantage,
I have been cheated,
Still they say,
Not to raise voice in noise
My identity has been questioned,
My limits has been tested,
My aptitude has been doubted;
For not being one among them.
Still they say,
Embrace wisdom at the hardest of times.
I have been taught
Over and Over
To know the boundaries of fear
And the limits of sucess
I have been taught
To be silent,
To be submissive,
To be…
Just the way
THEY WISH