24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
Have no doubt
You will have to go
Unless there’s something
I don’t know
As we say
All days above ground
Offer us all
Another go round
Sure it’s tough
And sometimes hard
We all have problems
With fewer cards
Piss and moan
All you want
About those folks
You’ll get to haunt
Bury Me in Georgia
Now my favorite song
Though not a country gal
I could belong
Beneath peach trees
Lay me to rest
As I sing alone
That I did my best
Calmness, a tranquil for concentration
It’s a meditation to some souls
It’s a frustration to some souls
Where thoughts, inner feelings
Breaks out the quietness
Silence is a peace point
For healthy living of time
Of stillness, build strength
Silence remembers as
A white paper without words
of quiet knowledge,
silence stands as guiding light
if silence covers your heart
You are in your dream world
Silence is sleeping pill
Silence is the sweetest chill
Silence, a death tax
For every human’s breath
Prompt -22
Hour – 22
Heron standing
steward overseeing
beckons me near with ancient eyes
great and blue
like his name supplies
the recognizable shapes of someone long laboring over thought
I came to him with joy and the weight of questions from years past
the hope of every birder to speak with this beast
prehistoric and wise
but i did not get to ask
it was his turn to speak
“Do you know why the land chokes?
Why smokestacks billow and coral reefs die?”
Taken aback, my gaze shattered like falling glass
down his immovable spine
He stabbed into the water and came up with
Debris
And set it down at my feet
Not blaming me but
Filled with decades of sorrow
I felt obliterated
for I love the ground which supports him and the
sky which holds him aloft,
but he asked of me still
impossibly hard things
he mourned
“Why are the seas overfished?
Why is enough never enough?
Do you know why the ceaseless wheels of progress
bowl over the unfortunate?”
I stood mouth agape
Head shaking like I could erase the truth
I asked through tears
“What can be done?” but his long beak like deep nights stayed persistent in its slumber
and I had no choice but to ask
“Why does this happen?” I pleaded
and the heron turned to me
amber orbs unchanging
“Humans think they’re better.”
How would you define love?
What do you seek? Could I be
the answer to your prayers?
Could I be the apple of your eye?
A Friendly Reminder
Not all Native Americans were headdresses
and live in teepees
smoking peyote
and waiting for a vision.
Some live on top of Mesas
in pueblos.
Not all Indigenous people
speak the same language.
Just like not all Asians
have the same language.
We are the Indigenous people
of this land,
with different tribes
and our own set governments.
Here’s a friendly reminder.
Don’t dress up as “Native Americans”
for Halloween.
It’s all about respect.
Untitled
I am the poet laureate of the beach just before dawn.
Of the moon and the tide dancing- lovers destined to never touch.
Each wave that laps at the sand is a cry to hold the moon;
longing to wrap their arms around her.
SILENCIO
For going on twenty-two hours
I’ve been quiet about the state of our country
but I’ll be damned if I’ll write about pizza now
rather than address what needs to happen,
especially with this highly perfect sign appearing
right now, as if to say, like the old hymn,
“Here I am, send me.” And so yes, I want this sign,
SILENCIO, not just silence, but SILENCIO to be in
every courtroom, every corner of that man’s life,
so that everywhere he turns he is reminded, STFU.
We do not want to hear one more peep out of you,
not one word. Then and only then may justice be served.
Slipping between
What’s real and what’s a dream
One moment you’re gone from me
The next you’re here
Smiling pleasantly
I know what’s real
Reality is that you’re gone
You’ve been gone so long
I sometimes forget
What you were like when you were here
But then it happens again
I come home and there you are
Making dinner or on the computer
As if nothing has happened
To you at all
I try to tell my friends
Convince my family
I keep sleeping so easily
Between the two it’s getting hard
To remember what’s real
It feels to nice
Seeing you again
I just want to hug you
To talk to you
Tell you how I’ve been
But reality sets in once more
You’re not real, I tell you as much
Tell you, “This is just a dream”
To which you reply, “Yes, it is.
“But you can stay if you want.”
I jolt awake
Heart racing
Mind wondering
What could you have meant
When you said I could “stay”?
It’s been years since then
And some days when reality
Hits too heavy, too hard
I think about your offer
And wonder
Should have taken you up on it?
Fireflies listen by windows
Swooping bats sneak a peek
Buzzing bugs want a taste
Mouse in the corner waits
Embrace summer happenings
Hide n seek with your pals
Games of tag before dark
Gotcha last won’t last
I’m falling swiftly
I don’t know
what to do
how to say that
where to turn or
even why
Every time Someone
asks me
I know the right words
to say-
the ones that won’t
raise suspicions
I’m fine
ok
everything’s good
no problems
nothing’s wrong
anything I can
so they don’t see
just how broken
I really am
asking for help
is not wrong
I know that
but you turned
me this way
Where asking for someone’s
help is like betrayal
We should fight our own problems
and not talk about them
to anyone
You had such a problem
with my talking to him
you hated it- loathed it
Said why did I need him
I had you
Having you is great
It’s one way to cope
but when you are the problem
You need a third party
for a sounding board
Why am I even explaining
myself to you-
You don’t care
Your only concern is
you con’t control me any longer
You can call me anything
bitch
whore
slut
loser
crazy
anything at all
I don’t care
I know the truth
I know that I’m not always there
I may not be the sharpest
tool in the shed
the prettiest crayon
in the box
But I’m me
A mixed bag of
crazy
sweet
quiet
mouthy
loud
sarcastic
and so much more