24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
I don’t mingle well with others
I don’t gather well in groups
I dont function well in crowds
And I don’t participate well in large activities
But what I do well in is filling my home with love
For the very few people I allow in
Bits and bites
the tib bits of news
no one has heard of the yellow pages
Go on your phone and tablet
and all is new.
Finding a city
who has heard of a road map
Google maps are what it is now
yesterday is gone today is now
and tomorrow?
Well, we don’t know yet.
That’s Bits and Bits
of today’s news.
Hello again God-
I’m sorry that I haven’t
talked to you much recently
Been thinking that I could handle
things on my own again.
I’m coming to you tonight God
Because I’m disturbed at the
recent turn of events in this nation.
In this world, everywhere you look
Someone’s upset with someone or
something else.
We have countries going after each
other because of differences in religion
in political views, and in the color of skin
Why can’t they just stop and look at what
they are doing to each other.
We have people hating each other
because it’s easier to hate than it
is for them to simply love another person
Why? Didn’t anyone ever teach them to love?
We have people going into schools
Shooting them up, killing people who were
simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
How was it their fault that someone was angry?
What did each individual person do to that one
angry person?
We have people playing the blame game.
Saying that it was someone else’s fault
that something happened. Why? Didn’t anyone
ever tell them to take responsibility for their own
actions?
God? I don’t know how much longer I can
personally continue to keep holding on,
when everywhere you look, there’s hate,
( I don’t like you for some reason)
blame, (This is YOUR fault, not mine)
anger, (You’ve made me so angry)
bitterness.
Why can’t you come home sooner?
Show people that they need to love
other people instead of hating someone
they don’t even know.
God, we could really use you.
I have all these questions and I have no
answers to them. We need divine intervention
We need you to come down to earth
and knock sense into us all
We get so caught up in all of the stuff that
happens, and we have all the excuses as
to why things happen the way they do.
but no one acknowledges your plan
for our lives.
You aren’t in schools anymore.
They took you out.
It offends people who weren’t brought
up in church.
Well Gee- Maybe if we had more kids
brought up in church- the world might be
a little different.
In the courthouse, your presence is denied
except for people swearing on your book
to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing
BUT the truth.
How can people tell the truth when most
times they don’t know WHAT the truth is
anymore?
In politcs you aren’t around
except for when people take your name in vain
because they want to make their point known.
Maybe if they stop taking your name-
People will listen.
You aren’t allowed anywhere anymore
because its always violating someone’s beliefs
someone’s insecurities. Their rights.
why? What are people afraid of?
You wanna know something God?
The biggest issue that I have with
all of the other religions?
You are the same God in EVERY religion
But no one can see it, you have over a 100 different
names-
No one cares.
Their God is better than my god.
No one GETS IT that
they are one and the same.
I heard your call before you appeared
mystical bird of the north.
Your haunting, plaintive song
echoed across the still lake.
Striking a regal pose, head held high,
in formal black and white attire,
your doppelgänger perfectly reflected in the water.
You called again, and your mate arrived
Together you dove for dinner
and I waited … and waited … and waited …
At last, you broke the surface –
right in front of me.
Your intense red eyes met my curious green ones
for a magical moment we connected.
IMAGE: painting copyright Wendie Donabie
A Manananggal is a half-bodied lady with a giant wings of bat
She hunts for pregnant women who are sleeping in the huts
A Tikbalang is a human with a body of a horse
I know that you’re already familiar with centaurs
And a Kapre a giant man who lives on an old grim tree
Smoking cigars and teasing women in their sleep
There are also ugly Tyanaks, unborn babies
Who live to seek revenge
Duwendes are dwarves bat there are Nunos
Who live in jungle mounds
These are the folktales passed to us to keep us inside the house
Beyond the pines, stars sail by as we spin through another night.
We ponder what lies out there beyond our myopic view?
Are there beings watching us destroy our beautiful planet?
Do we expect a space cowboy in shining armour
to arrive in his pure white spaceship
to save us in the eleventh hour?
Fools we be if this is our belief.
Our hope, our answers lie within us.
We must be the agents of change.
Where there is the will,
there will be a way.
and the time to act is today.
IMAGE: Stay Rooted While Reaching for the Stars, copyright Wendie Donabie
Poem 14: Imagine someone has sent you a text message at one am saying “do you ever think of me?” how do you respond < From I am Incomplete without you prompt journal
“Do you ever think of me?” comes across my
far too well lit screen for one am on a Tuesday.
In my delirium and awe I hold the phone like it
is all I well ever have left of you – regardless of
where this conversation goes or how quickly it
gets there. Of course, I do – especially in the winter
when the tea just doesn’t get hot enough to actually
warm my bones; nor does the ginger get flavorful
enough to erase the taste of your “how are yous”.
I mean, honestly, how could I not think of you
each and every day I remind myself that I should
write back to the people who have actually taken
time to send me letters and poems and postcards –
but just can’t bring myself to do it because I always
think I’m writing to you – and that gets far too personal
for the causal mail enthusiast. And really, what kind of
poet would I be if I didn’t let you cross my mind
more often than not, because you were afterall
my most authentic reminder when I could not tell
who I was trying to be or what all the fuss was about
anyway. It is one am on a Tuesday and I know I should not
even consider responding to you – not right now at least.
But I send back “with every new poem” instead and turn
the phone completely off, tuck myself underneath the
blanket with a little too much weight, and let Tuesday
arrive in the way that every day should be able to:
uninterrupted.
-M. Rene’
SincerelyBlueJay Poetry
Text Prompt
“Tell me an old story (like a folktale from your culture, a fairytale you heard when you were young or a story passed down in your family). You can give it your own twist as well.” Prompt submitted by Bhasha Dwivedi
Droping out to take my daughter to the hospitle
‘We’re gathered here today,’ he says
(you try not to roll your eyes)
you’ve better things to do, you’re sure
than to hear him eulogise
Like blowing out candles, or ruffling hair
and trying to make the most
of all the things you can get away with
now that you are a ghost
Photo by Eli Solitas on Unsplash