24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
Looking at the sign
I pondered
It was a lady/tiger decision
One that could not be changed
Would I choose eternity?
With all the world’s problems, I don’t think so…
But I don’t want to leave the planet just yet, either.
Several people with walkie talkies scurried past me and took the sign away
Time to strike set.
Hidden under layers of sorrow runs tears unforgiven by passing years. Walking with a piece of hope staring off into a gaze reflection of many forgotten faces still straving to be glam and pacing to live steady. A river flooded slowly runs dry as warmth embraces a open-hearted soul, Risen with determination.
Poem by: JGomez
If I could speak
I’d remind you that I started out fresh
shelter to youth
the boy still shiny
working fences
above the tree line
He stayed too long
thought he could keep the wind from his heart
but it tore right through
Funny thing is
those down on the flat
forgot about him
No one saw him fall
He didn’t so much die
as evaporate
care was not taken
and the calendar stopped watching
moonlight rattled the windows clean out
Wind pawed the walls
done peeled my tar
my skin ‘most gone
those UV rays
and time
have a way of
having their way with ya
and wood stays wood
for only so long
and the wind takes us all
in the end
Fire at your fingertips
Fire that leaps from your perfect lips
Fire that heats all of what I am
Fire that burns in your epigram
At length, you and I are endlessly drawn
You of the sun and I of the sea
Slipping through sunsets and rising at dawn
Flames crave to be quenched, and only by me
Water drips from my eyes every night
Water cleanses each burning, every harm, every slight
Water connects me always to all beings that are
Water surrounds us, no matter how far
Roil and boil in our yearning to grasp
Groping to touch as hearts at distance clasp
Fire and water barely meeting, and then
Into the ether, we rise again
Fire at your fingertips
Fire that leaps from your perfect lips
Fire that heats all of what I am
Fire that burns in your epigram
As soft as I am when I wash over you
As hard as I come when my fury’s released
I fall every day as the morning dew
Wash back again, back again, passion unceased
Water drips from my eyes every night
Water cleanses each burning, every harm, every slight
Water connects all the beings that are
Water surrounds us, no matter how far
Can you claim what is mine with all your soul’s heat?
Can a sun claim an ocean and neither retreat?
Can two beings so strong make a life that will last?
Can two such hearts meet, make a love unsurpassed?
Fire at your fingertips
Fire that leaps from your perfect lips
Fire that heats all of what I am
Fire that burns in your epigram
Heat me, embrace me with fires that burn
I’ll cool you with kisses, none sweeter than mine
I hope and I wish and I want and I yearn
Fire and water shall meet in a love genuine
Water drips from my eyes every night
Water cleanses each burning, every harm, every slight
Water connects all the beings that are
Water surrounds us, no matter how far
“there’s a sale on grill pans, honey”, she says
“we have two pans already”, I reply
“those aren’t for grilling. Costco has a special if we join—free paper towels, and pizza”, she says
“we’ll need a larger closet and freezer”, I reply
she smiles and begins paging through the new IKEA catalog
I look out the window—watch a crow balance a piece of bread on the crest of the neighbor’s roof
There is no true line of division in time
Past or Future
Present is an instant
a second
and its all over
like sand particles and ocean shores
it washes away like dust
no line of division
like pain
like love
like life
at some point
it all washes away
and will stop mattering
even to you
I used to
spill the words,
effortlessly pouring.
Sometimes they’d slosh,
unexpectedly,
over the edge.
Now I’ve
stoppered them up.
The bottle sweats.
Pressure builds
whenever shaken.
Wait. Don’t Open. Else the words will
Erupt.
Three
Dabbling in the surf with an baby-sized insta-friend
A wave too small to boogie board
Tumbles us.
Sand in my eyes and nose.
Salt broth duking it out with oxygen
Battling for trachea space.
I can’t find up or down.
Insta-friend gurgles and gasps.
Death, as it applies to me, is a brand new thought.
I’m only three.
But here He looms, instantaneous, implacable, incredible.
Mom’s at home, Dad’s surfing, I’m still wave-tossed and
Scared.
Who finds my body?
I see my spot in the van ride home
(perched on the engine cover between the front seats)
Empty. But even without me chirping all the way home, Dad still won’t have
Time to figure out how to tell Mom about my tiny, sodden, limp
Corpse.
I find up, manage a gasp, open my eyes.
I see Death reaching down for me, a silhouette of terror.
He lifts me out of the water, one-handed.
In the other paw, Insta-friend dangles by the scruff next to a
Surfboard Death clenches with his armpit.
Death isn’t death.
He plops us on the sand, shifting the board and grinning.
He walks away.
No new rules, no warnings, no questions about our folks.
He handed me back my life, and now
My life is in my hands.
Eight
Scrabbling the coastal boulders and tidepools
Racing across jumping tip to craggy dip
Across chasms large enough to
Snap a femur or
Lose a body
I fly where adults won’t walk
To child-sized worlds in
Pocked rocks
Each with waves and light
Denizens feeding and sleeping
Living and dying
Our differences are just a matter of
Scale.
Twenty-eight
Body-surfing every week for years,
A nearby seal joins us each time.
She may think we are retarded seals who
Need looking after.
Thirty-five
Decades in this water on this beach
Decades on the mat
The water is high
But I know how,
When a wave is too big to ride, to
Dive deep and lay flat on the sand
Waiting for the wave to pass over.
I know this challenge, I’m practiced, I’m good
(Better than many), I’m safe.
I stroke up a rising wave, ready to
Slide in just past the crest and
Flip into the joyride.
Cresting, I freeze and miss the wave.
The next in the set
One of those odd waves with a double amplitude is
Close
Fast
Huge.
I gulp air, diving down into the sand
Seawater tugs me deeper in that
Retrograde way waves wander
And though I’m pressed like a flounder, this wave doesn’t
Want to leave a safe zone, so she
Seizes my feet and curls herself into shore.
With the weight of the water, I’m pinned.
She lifts my legs into her curl, squashes my chest.
My back folds inexorably.
My heels touch the back of my head.
I can feel the bones in my spine
Opening on the ventral side and
Dorsally grinding, reaching fracture pressure.
The wave passes.
I crawl to shore, grateful the punishment for
Hubris was just a warning.
The ocean gives everything.
The ocean takes everything away.
I do not love the green crayon,
a boring or sinister themed tone
from those who are left handed,
except those other shadows are
lavender, old fashioned,
pale peach, rare and slight,
yellow like not fully ripe bananas.
trim the black dress with lace,
startle me with red, but keep
green nudes away or mute.
I covered the pain I didn’t thought of I got,
Yes I m strong enough to hold.
I have never asked anybody to make me feel special,
As I know nobody stay so long whom I told.
Yes sometimes emotion makes me breath less,
And I prented my nose is red because of cold.
Yes I m proud of being self obsessed,
As my attitude is known for being bold.