24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
This is what it looks like
When you sit down with nothing to write
This is what you do
When you haven’t a clue
As 5 o’clock in the morning
Comes screaming with no warning
And what you had prepared to write
All looks wrong to you
You sit still for some time
Stirring up the rhyme
As you hear your bed
Call for your sleepy head
Your brain moves in a haze
Hoping for escape
So like I said without a clue
This is what you do
“I’m just on my way –
what? No way –
keys.
Where are the keys
Seriously?
Where’s my purse
And my credit cards
And my brain.
My poor lost mind.
Then I’ll be on my way.”
The Letter
Dear John
(or was it Jim?),
I remember all the fun
we had last year
(no, that was Jack),
but now I must move on.
I’m leaving you the kid.
Please name him Joe Jr.
after you
I’ll never forget you, Joe
(no, Julio!).
©Ardelle Hollis Ray
Tinnitus
Frannie Z
Imagine that the wind
instead of passing around and over
decided to settle in your ear
and kicked up a storm.
Hailstones, ice pellets, slush
would all descend
into your ear canal.
Not in actual round cold
but in a vapor of hisses,
and sputter the night away,
not in dance
but in moans and static.
You might ask it nicely
to go play somewhere else.
But the spirit of noise nuisance
has no such plans.
Whistling and whooshing,
it turns into the B-52’s,
but without words or tune.
Sometimes it clamors,
sometimes it screams,
sometimes it yodels.
Its repertoire is endless.
The bad part is
that there is no cure.
The good part is
that there is no cure.
But if you stun it with music,
it may retreat,
at least for a while.
The beast awakes, the beast in me
And just as unexpectedly, it sleeps
I should rightly call it
A gift from God
When it sleeps
But now it’s gone
I wonder
What is there left if me?
What does the beast take, when it sleeps?
Playing spies with my cousins
After dark at Grandma and Grandpa’s
Hiding behind houses and sheds
Trying to capture the other team
Lying in the grass on a cool summer night
Talking with a friend in the churchyard
Enjoying the simplicity of country living
Looking up at the stars
Fishing trips on summer evenings
As a family, sitting quietly
Swatting mosquitoes
And watching for my bobber to sink
Camping in the yard
In a makeshift tent of blankets
Snuggling down in the sleeping bag
When early morning coolness came
Sledding with my brothers
On trash bags and refrigerator doors
Celebrating a rare snow-day
Two inches of snow on our southern soil
Christmas, always the best
Anticipation and surprise brimming
Hot chocolate and cookies
Traditions and family
I wonder
what will happen
in a few years
in this house
we were told
we’d become more and more
like our parents
you leak light.
silence comes swarming us, when life attacks to quickly and you can’t adjust.
you’re a young cosmo,
effortless attempts for power,
you come in with the tide and you leave in every energy pull,
beautiful, sunken man,
with hell on his mind,
brown eyes, tan skin, came disastrous and never-ending,
pulled the fire from his soul and wouldn’t let go of destruction.
potent and disastrous these words sink like a ship in the stormy harbor.
I pummel everything with your aura, they will know what you came and did,
and left everything in your wake, stamped your name on the wreckage,
and made gold from ruins.
I could see how hiding behind the words would create a bigger space,
but you cannot resist the urge to be dazzling, so we swim back into old routines,
you left, and I leave following you and once we’re gone, we only build again.
Wristlaw, learned something else, being too mysterious,
I cannot tell what changed.
There’s really no point, I should have known
You’ve been telling me, showing me
But I was not listening, missing the obvious
Dear Lord, my deepest, heartfelt gratitude
For patiently being the Omnipresent, the Great Decision Maker
And the Omnipotent…humbly thanking You
For the gift, for showing me how to get out
From the intricate web of self-deceiving
Self-incrimination, and realization of self-preservation
My Lord, Your presence and Your love is all I need
Your humble creation…
Read the newspaper
Open the door
Talk to people
hear the radio
Watch the T.V.
Black clouds
Hatred
Conspiracies
Lies
Frauds
Broken Hearts
why so much hate?
What can we do?
How can we do?
Only one thing
While opening your heart
Be careful
Store only love
While giving something
Give Hope
Give love
Tell people
That only love
Can win over hatred
See the world
And find smiles
to store in your heart
To spread forward.