24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
Please don’t pet the alligator,
don’t throw rocks and aggravate her.
With her crooked, toothy smile,
She can chase your for a mile.
And DON’T go riding on her back,
Or she may have you for a snack.
On this, your life may just depend,
The alligator ain’t your friend.
Art: North Fork of the St. Lucie River 2012 by Virginia Galfo
I’m terrible at writing haikus.
I always need more words to say what I mean
5 7 5 can fuck right off.
I can admire the elegance of simplicity,
but at the same time, one cannot contain
the entire story
within the headline.
Words need to EXPAND.
I don’t like haiku
brevity is not the soul
of wit, its wit’s foe.
The truck broke down outside of town. Without gas, without energy, he waits in the metal sheet bed. Sweat brims on his neck, making his shirt sticky. The sun is brutal, but he knows that it will get dark soon, and with dusk comes relief. If only he can move out before morn’.
Butterflies in a
dust bowl of wonderous light.
They flutter upward.
the best
marrying the garden gnome
at his widest he weighed almost
twenty two stones with long hair
knitted into his fluffy white beard
is this the best you can do?
her plucky old mother cried
what’s to become of you with
this round sort of fellow?
the bride smiled her toothless grin
twirling in her planetary way
I love him Mum and he loves me
that’s the best anyone can do!
Loyalty can cripple you…
more is elusive at times
impossible.
catching firsts is that more.
keen
blinding
light(e)ning strands punching through time
fighting for space
the wonder
fading faster than the mundane arrives.
(oh, but it arrives)
leaving space. a gap.
what comes after a first and before a last.
the awakening of minutiae
keep track (how to keep track)
count (count by what)
don’t lose your place (do i have a place to lose)
wait, wait, wait.
wait more.
before eyes open
before breath cleared
(what is that before)
living a moment with a camera in hand.
in anticipation.
a camera moment.
anticipation of a camera moment.
is all.
what is it if you miss a first
a last
a more.
I didn’t intend to sleep. I simply longed for the ocean. Poor facsimile, I found a YouTube sound file–eleven hours of waves crashing on an anonymous beach. Earbuds in, I closed my eyes and fantasized of a castle on a shore in the mist, myself safe within, prone and passive, listening to the waves endlessly advance and recede. Soon, I slipped beneath the waves, into oblivion.
Monsters from the deeps
Whisper evil secrets in
My paralyzed ears
We wandered, stopping at a playful stream rich with minerals, and in the near distance, an ocean, grey and serious, knowing the predicament we were in. Knowing, and saying nothing. Feeling no obligation to make any warning. After all, the ocean doesn’t tell sailors when they are going to wreck and drown. So playful stream joined somber ocean, and was lost to salt water, as was I.
Salt water took her,
Turning over, she saw sun,
And sank to the depths.
The teasing of the innocent children felt like barbs that left invisible wounds on the child at the centre. Dark, they called him. He stood stunned and shunned. “Mummy, I need to ask you something” he said to his mother. His mother replied “Yes, tell me”. “Why am I dark when all other children in my school are fair?”, he asked. His mother thought for a moment and said, “It is God’s gift to us. To Him, we are all one, His children. Whatever the world says, you need to find your inner strength and take the right path. Make choices that make you a better person and the world a better place. Just like day and night co-exist, all colours, seasons, and elements of nature have their value.” The next day, when the children teased, the child just laughed along and joined them in their game.
let thunder rumble
strength of roots hold tree upright
cuckoo calls echo
You are a delicious languish
that I cannot languish.
Although not so sweet and fair
I declare:
Even the tiniest bit of you I desire.