The Poetry Marathon

Hour 22: Late Night Delights

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.

Hour 22 text prompt – Pizza

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.

Hour 22

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.

Hour 22, Poem 28: The Baby Mat

(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.

Hour4

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 hour 22

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

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

Hour 22

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

Hour 22 – Appian Way Pizza

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.

Prompt for Hour Twenty-Two

 

Hour 22 – Divorce (Limerick)

Divorce

There once was a man from Houston
With a wife and a home to roost in
He called her a whore
She called him a bore
And he now begs for change in a loose tin