24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
Sunlight shining down from above
Acrylic dots of blue
Shades of violet, blobs of green
Beyond the coral, lives unseen
The painter’s strokes blend the hues
Palette of pigments
Lines of Azul Oceano, spray of Noir de Mars
A symphony of underwater stars
Life within the canvas breathes
Fish glimmer, shells shine
Sunlight drenches their faces
The artist awakens
here I fall, these
shackles bind my wrists, my ankles and
my neck too
and this heavy chain to hold me together
as if my limbs will fly apart
shall I hold my breath? I’ll hold it for now
watch the sun shrink to a tiny star and the rough current
almost tumbles me about so I cannot see it
but the weight of the chain keeps me steady
so my fall is straight and true. I remember the first
time I saw this ocean, and
before that how I ran and hunted with my brothers and
heard stories of the edge of the world
How we laughed my brothers and I!
To imagine a mass of water as large as
the grassy savanna where we lived, what stories!
My brothers will not know that I have found it and soon
I will touch the bottom of this ocean
as deep as the sky.
Now my lungs burn and the light is gone and my body is numb.
I take a deep breath of water and succumb.
I had a dream one night-
I was in a boat with Poseidon…
We were under the sea
And as always,
The surface was beneath us…
What seemed weird to me
Was that below the surface
Was not water, but air…
Both of us could speak audibly
Under the water –
I could hear every word that he said…
I looked down, into the sky –
Birds were swimming in the air;
A man jumped up towards us;
I watched as his parachute opened…
I looked up and saw a large
School of Barracuda flying above us
And a shark attacking from the left –
I was scared…
“Don’t worry”, said Poseidon,
Waving his trident as he spoke –
“As long as you are in this boat with me
Nothing bad will happen to you…”
I nodded and opened my mouth to speak…
And then I woke up and realized
That I was soaked with perspiration…
My dream has passed, but
The memory will always haunt me…
Weirdest was Poseidon –
Before that night I have wondered
How he could stay under water
For such a long time but
My dream answered my question –
The answer made perfect sense:
Poseidon, strange as it may seem,
Is a fish!
© 2015 Antoinette LeRoux
Waking calmly from an oversleep
Feeling my baby curled into my back
Starting!
Jolting off my cloud
Running to the bathroom
Using the toilet
Washing hands and face
Getting a big glass of water and taking the daily pill
Lumbering into the basement
Folding
Moving
Washing
Drying clothes
Watching – It is already after 9
Using the toilet
Pouring coffee
Listening to John talk about blueberries
Wanting my housecoat that baby has commandeered to continue his sleep
Growling, I acquiesce
Nesting
Readying to write
Trying my connection to the Internet
Forgetting my password for the router
Remembering the location of the password
Logging in
Racing a marathon
Swallowing my heartbeat
Pacing overcomes
Panicking
Writing
Tall and lovely, free flowing and elegant
Beauty outside, and inside no different
In motion a vision of what all men want
Somehow it was me to whom your heart leant
My ears to which your sultry words went
Husky, loquatious and eloquent
Soothingly making me so content
Then musing where each God sent
Glorious moment
We spent
Went.
In the spaces between wrong and right
I hold my peace
Suffer desire
I’m on the edge of darkness
I can’t see where I’m going
Or where you’re coming from
Don’t leave me here between
If I’m right
We might just be
Be something more
More than we wanted
In the spaces between wrong and right
You’ll find me waiting
My heart’s on you
My mind’s on me
My soul know just
What we need to be
So please
Don’t leave me between
It wasn’t until the middle
of morning coffee, awakening,
I learned of it’s arrival.
On the drumming bus of sleep,
and mangled dreams the meaning
budded, bloomed, and withered
leaving broken stem,
memory, and lingering aroma.
Gathering strewn petals greedily
along the path, I breathe
bits of poems, answers, lies.
All equal, and
just as easily left behind.
I was never much for the sea
Though I’d never seen the sea
Lake Michy is as close as I could ever want
And as close as I may ever get
Though I should hope, one day, to see the sea
And die many years later, able to say
I’ve seen.
I’ve heard.
But, I did not venture.
I hated the idea of having the phantom that kept me at bay
To capture me.
Confirming yet another fear.
The anchor.
The icy cold liquid is wrapped around me.
Dragging me further below the surface.
Into the deep.
I feel the air bursting within my chest.
Fighting for release,
Fighting to escape.
Into the deep I plunge.
My eyes remain shut to the frigid, watery darkness that consumes all in its path.
I sink deeper as the bubbles make a hasty retreat.
My eyes betray me,
I see a mythical creature from the deep.