24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
Round or square
don’t really care.
Just add tomato sauce and cheese
pepperoni, buffalo chicken,
ziti on top, any pasta would do.
A salad slice is pretty nice
as long as the dressing’s right.
It’s all about the water
in making the dough.
A New York Pizza
is the only way to go.
When it’s so late at night that
all other restaurants are closed.
When I’m sad and the leftovers in the fridge
just do not speak to me anymore.
When I really, truly, really, just want something
spicy and loaded.
I walk out the door, down a dimly lit street,
Towards the harsh, but welcoming lights of my local pizza parlor.
I wait eagerly as they prepare my order.
Always around fifteen minutes, never more, never less.
I feel myself smile as they hand me the hot box,
with the soft drink I had asked for on the side.
And I bite into the pizza,
cheese and curry sauce overwhelming my taste buds.
It’s no culinary masterpiece
But at that hour, it’s everything I need.
Round and many circles
Cut into triangles or squares
I really love my pizza
From Greco-Roman chairs
Perfect in simplicity
Pizza from the city
Cooked in gas or electricity
Tastes great and looks pretty
And while cheese can be a mess
While bread can leave you bloated
I’ve never seen it turned down
When the idea of pizza is floated.
I’m rooting for you,
Know that I always have,
My intentions are always good,
I hope you know I mean well,
Sometimes your reactions make it hard to tell,
I want success for you so bad,
I can feel it,
Prayers so hard for you,
I can scream it,
Visualizing it so clear.
It’s more than a dream,
We’ve played different positions,
But always on the same team,
I need you to believe in yourself too,
Have a little faith,
Just as I do,
But faith and prayer without work is dead,
Yes, you’re trying, but try harder,
It’s what we all do,
When we know someone is rooting for you.
(I tried writing about a baby mat but it didn’t quite land. Will be revising it when I am more awake.)
I saw the first steps of the baby
Also when he fell and cried
Then got up again to try take his own steps.
I felt the tiny baby teeth
Trying to bite my edges off
Just two of them but really sharp
I heard the giggles and bumbling words
That made no sense but still told
Everything that ought to be heard.
And now here I am in a corner
Of a room full of toys and books
Dusty yet still there for whenever
I am needed for the support
and safety and as a teether
And to catch a baby taking her first steps.
Do you worship your ego?
Do you only want to please yourself?
Then, stop contacting me because
you are not the one for me!
Juncture
I am on purple time
my watch, clock, phone all set
10 amethyst minutes ahead because
I run 5 lavender minutes behind,
always filling in every magenta moment,
fitting commitments in with a shoehorn
of heather determination.
I thrive on purple time
mingling poetry with purple images
to radiate orchid metaphoric soundwaves
through tapestries of aubergine sonnets
silk thread woven with tanzanite haiku,
plum love songs bordered by renga quilting
sestinas together in tapping beat time
with my heart.
I am purple on time, in connecting inner
and outer worlds for clarity and concision
in stripping away bark of falsifications to
let truth breathe free, to metronome in sync
with the universe with wisdom and power.
I am purple time, balanced between two worlds
secrecy and mystery, a transformation that defies
minutes and hours and instead embraces moments
bursting with undefinable matter wrapped in soft
sheets, cradled in creativity, swaddled in security.
I am purple in time with you.
~ J R Turek Hour 22
scraping the barrel here
asking me to write about pizza
most of which I’d rather not
but then I remember the glorious pizza of my childhood
Shakey’s Pizza Parlor
oh the world has never seen pizza in all its potential glory
unless they experienced pizza in its American infancy
large viewing windows, the better to see the miraculous thin dough discs flung into the air
by white-aproned teenage boys hiding their pimples under a full-on toque blanche
thin crust, thin crust, thin crust
and black-and-white silent films looped to the timing of a player piano
ahh, pizza was never so grand
Out of all the prompts I’m surprised pizza was this inspiring. But it was fun to write this up quick!
Hour 22 used prompt
Piece of joy covered
In cheese and mushrooms
Zapped in the oven to bake
Zipped into a delivery bag
Arrived at my home to eat
Appian Way Pizza
Not to be confused with the road in Italy,
this Appian Way came in a box.
Not a pizza box, but a box right on the pantry shelf.
“Make your own for only 55¢” was one of their slogans.
It was always a special night
if our parents were going out
and we got to make our own pizza.
