24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
After a funeral
After all the tears are spent
Solemn gray shadows close coffin lids
The room is warm sitting next to the fire
Attempting to calm itself.
The wall reveals its true intentions
Slightly buzzing gossip
A distant lamp just over the door
Fighting for its life
Flickering eternal escapes
Plans fizzle as draft tickles the floor
Everyone rests
As death waltz’s through the room
Silence
White
Is refreshing
Just like
When the sun’s
First rays comes
Through the window panes
White
Is pure
As pure
As a baby’s
Giggle
Purer than the glare
You see in those innocent eyes
White
Is peace
It’s mellow
It is a new slate
White
Is classic
It is the color
We try to use
To replace
Our mistakes
You know… Like white out
Black is the color
I choose to wear
From my tank tops
To underwear
Black
Bestows
Confidence
It embodies
All the colors
Found on a color palate
Black is connected
It is not
In the absence of
Like its
Opposite
Black is warm
It is security
It is alert
I like to paint
My creations with black
Most times
Write my name
In this undeniable ink
Black and white
When mixed together
Bring confusion
I
Stay away from
Those grey hues…
I smile because in the stillness
I feel fully our emotions.
I sink into your essence which is
a fragrant almond oil perfuming
my skin.
I immerse into the warm thickness of it
how it cocoons me, closes in with
security and sanctuary.
This stillness allows time for
my pores to absorb all
that you offer.
My skin glistens with it, breaths out
your scent. Your fingertip’s
whorls and swirls
permanently tattooed underneath
my skin.
The power of your tenderness
the delicate nature underlying
your strength keeps
me irrevocably bound to you
as long as you choose to
grant me this gift.
every time i go to the dentist now,
they ask if i want to close the gap
between my two front teeth.
that i’ve always had
and no one said anything before
i was 40 years old.
my grandfather was my dentist
and he must have liked the gap,
because i do.
as a kid, and sometimes now,
i’ll stick something in there.
a dime fits well,
not a quarter.
i say, no, i want to keep my gap
and whoever it is, just shrugs
her shoulders
as if i’m making a mistake.
lauren hutton had a gap that
made her famous.
she was on magazine covers
with a gap between her teeth.
i bet her dentist didn’t ask if she
wanted to close it.
so i’m not perfect
and i’m not on magazine covers.
i love the gap
it makes me smile.
Commanding the room
The largest lead weight
On the rubber sheet
Of social intrigue
Little ball-bearings
Scattered in patterns
Move at a distance
But never too far
Prompt: Concrete imagery
Form: Unrhymed quatrains
This man stands there looking alone, lost and clearly in fear.
His eyes hazed over I say hello no response I guess he cant hear.
I ask if he needs help and nothing comes out when all at once he calls me Gloria now I know he needs his bed
This man on the corner is not deaf he needs help, he has alzheimers I must find his home he needs his meds.
This man on the corner can be you or me, memories lost like the blank stare in his eyes.
He must be so scared, lost and alone, my dad too has this disease someday’s he just sits there and cries.
This man on the corner is now in good hands he wears a bracelet with a nursing home address.
Now I’ve returned him he’s home at last his wife Gloria says thank you as his hand she does her best to caress
my thighs were thick enough to kick away the feelings, all the outside one, but what was under the skin, that blood line was different, way different…
Contentment
Ever
Burning unceasingly firmament
cascading
Cooling effect
Effervescence indifference
Apathy empathy
Awakening lingering
Inner thrust outward sign
Inward movement
Pulsating
Wondering
Write a poem that contains primarily visual images. Really focus on creating striking and lasting images. The images can be connected or disconnected.
———————————————————————————————————————
Murder
of crows, breaking through dimly lit
tunnel entrances—Flinging violet pedals
from their wings. Caricatures, drawn on
cheap canvas—all my friends lining the walls
of my otherwise barren hall. Shaking you up
like a liter-o’-cola—Farva blowing his lid. Steaming
up and out, a sauna brimming out a crooked door.
I’m going home. Waiting for bad news and a phone
screeching through that contemplative silence. Freckles worn
like archipelagos on the face. A plethora of multicolored sun beams
radiates from the diamond. Pearls hang from Nuit’s arched back, glistening
with starlight—a planet revolves around a long forgotten celestial body. Ra
had his time, now is the age of the child.
I am found breathless, bound
in the parenthesis of your kiss.
Unknown to my undoing, you
hold my heart, enclosed in your fist.
Gentle sighs deplete the quiet,
minutes tick away unheard.
The world is twirling on its axis
yet here its ceased to turn.
(A million stars will dance tonight
because you are in the world.)
A flame of hand, a shock of lips
all my secrets you’re unfolding.
But safe within this secret bliss
your heart I’m sweetly holding.
(Oblige the sun and bless the moon
a song of secret is her tune.)