24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
I remember the night our new house burned to the ground,
I remember the lights and sirens of the emergency vehicles,
I remember the smoke billowing out of the front windows,
Cascading like a stream of tears
Slipping away into the night;
I remember watching the neighbours in their tight little aloof group,
Guiltily staring as our house burned down,
Grateful it was us and not them,
I remember the night our new house burned to the ground.
I hear voices
all around me,
Shadows call
and taunt me
with whispers of
Friendship
Of love
and of joy,
but none of them
are directed
to me.
There once was a lovely girl named Sally
Who about her (sad) love life would dally
In other ways she was super smart
But had challenges in affairs of the heart
She only went out now and then
Her family thought her an old hen
Worked crazy hours — her friends said it was a ton
But wouldn’t stop ’til her 401(k) hit the big one!
Finally she met a fabulous guy named Mac
But on their first date had a heart attack.
Sadly, incredible Sally died
Her family stood by and cried
and warned her nieces not to end on that wrong track!
Here I stand so hot,
Trying to not think of food.
Hah… Not so fast Rob
I do not know her anymore
I once played cymbals in her honor
I learned percussion to
compensate
for the beats she made me skip
after eight months
I loved her body
although she was
deficient in attendance
I thought if I held it
like I did in my memory
her reality would grow
out from my palms
that my palms were seeds
and her hair would
be branches
but I am not strong enough
to father roots
or nuture a love
that was between me and
a person who
grew into a habit
__ar.
(Addictions poem from the perspective of the lover of the addict)
Locked inside a strangers mind,
they wait.
In search of treasured memories,
they wait.
Speaking to loved ones they no longer recognize,
they wait.
Playing a lone game of seek and find,
they wait.
Scared the second control loses grip,
they wait.
Masking forgotten words with clever tricks,
they wait.
For someone to hold a mirror up,
they wait.
To accept themselves as never to be the same,
they wait.
The answer to the question, why me?
they wait.
Circle dance
And circle round
Then circle back again.
Life is a circle
Circles in
Then circles out again.
Two circles joined
And crossing through
The flower of life
Begins.
Morning rays of liquid gold
wakes me up from dream of darkness.
As gems of silver trickle down my cheek
I see my death and life in reverse.
I am forever falling, bedazzled by
the shimmer from a thousand lanterns in the sky.
Got to thinking today
If you had lived
If I had carried you to term
If we had finished what we started
You would be about 14 now
We’d be worried about sex
Fighting over curfews
And doing your chores
I would be practiced at being a mom
You’d be lost between being
A small child
And a blossoming adult
I would watch you with pride
Be disappointed if you failed
You’d be thinking about driving
Wondering about high school
Imagining your wedding day
And how many kids you would have
Your dreams would be Oscars and Emmys
Grammys and being president
You would be dreaming of long travels
To foreign lands
You’d be learning to be brave and generous
Selfish and timid
Reckless and responsible
You’d be looking in the mirror
Conscious of your clothes
Worried over a pimple
Brushing your hair over and over again
If you had lived
If I had carried you to term
If we had finished what we started
You’d be 14 now
You would hold my imagination
Rather than being a figment of it
You would be beautiful and smart
Awkward and helpless
Strong and dependant
And I would smile and worry
You are the child I never knew
But who lives in my heart
Every single day
For fourteen years