24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
I’ll never forget the night
the night I begged you to stay
the night I tried to convince you that we were worth staying for
that we were better than any drug you could consume
I laid myself down on the floor, on my knees
at your mercy and pleaded with you to be with us
That night in February you looked in my eyes
No
you said, in flattest tone
getting up you walked out and you left me,
you left us
and my shattered heart all over the floor
Words in the air
spoken freely
Compassionately
with care
Gentle nudges
of love
Always given
without thought
Just because
I showed you holy,
you showed me purity’s price
then you showed me holes
RIGHT NOW SOMEWHERE ON THE GLOBE
The poetry marathon is cutting across a different segment of the stratum of the world
But the same segment of the journey we are on together.
Someone is in a household that is waking up,
Someone is in a household that is going to sleep.
Someone looks out their window at the bright sunlight and thinks about the pumping of their heart.
Someone looks out their window and sees the dark, and takes their metropolol to control the pumping of their heart.
One person sees a meadow and recognizes it as Yosemite.
Another wonders why there is a boardwalk in the wildnerness.
People see glassy buildings that look like home,
Others see an alien structure found only in the fabled big cities.
One person writes their first poem at 6AM, after a sleepless night worrying they will miss the alarm.
At the same moment another person is checking the clock after a comfortable dinner at home.
One person strolls in and out of their familiar writing spot,
Another is hunched at the kitchen table.
At the same moment one person is writing while rush hour traffic pelts by,
Another is hearing the crickets.
Another hears a distant siren in the quiet of the night.
One person is writing on the Sabbath,
Another will finish just in timey r church.
Sleepy and wakeful,
Isolated and distracted.
Quietly centered and
Raging with a personal drama,
We are all at the same moment,
finger to the keys,
In the same moment, the same rhythm, the same phase,
of the marathon.
Every summer has a story
this year, 2016
hot
humid
thunderstorms
still hot and humid
more storms
repeat
Not good enough
was planted in my mind
when attention needed
I could not find
In the one man who was
supposed to be there
He left and created
A new family elsewhere
He allowed his wife
To treat us bad
The first man to break
my heart was dad
Sixteen words ago,
skies were blue,
not anymore, no,
skies are no more,
we are left.
Sometimes I think
too much
Worry
too much
About things
I can’t change
Traits that are
part of me
Please?
I
need to sleep
and my teddy bear
keeps waking me up when he
snores.
©Ardelle Hollis Ray
I once heard about a dog near death
his owners granted his last wish
for cheeseburgers
He lay, unmoving on the floor
hadn’t moved for days
they sat around to say
their goodbyes and cry and hug
an to gift him with a feast
a celebration of his life
in the form of cheeseburgers
The dog saw the cheeseburgers,
jumped to his feet,
gulped down the delicious treats
and proceeded to live 2 more years.
So when I look as if I’ve given up
I task you with the very important job
of finding
what exactly cheeseburgers mean to me.