24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
Hello my old friend
It has been forty years
Man that will bring you to tears
How long has it been since we talked
Or even long, together walked
I miss you
Our friendship was true
How has life, you, treated?
Are you seated?
I am sorry I stopped writing
Mom and dad were fighting
And I ran away
I have just come to my senses today
Remember where we used to play after school
And how we thought we were so cool
I hope to hear back from you
Because our friendship was true
Wash Day
Use a wide-tooth comb and warm water to part
the mountains of black coils into manageable sections for detangling.
Light a candle, grab a towel, spread coconut oil for good slip
Put on a movie or long-awaited series.
The mind needs an escape from the repetition of spraying, raking, unlinking, and twisting.
Run the water in the kitchen sink until it feels like blankets from the dryer against the skin.
Pour the shampoo into your palm ignoring the quarter-size suggestion on the bottle.
Rub you scalp until you are convinced that you love yourself deeply
No hurried motions. You’ve given yourself the entire day for this.
Rinse and wrap your hair in a tee-shirt to prevent tangling.
Use a wide-tooth comb and warm water to part
The mountains for black coils for deep conditioning.
Use a plastic grocery bag to trap your body heat and activate the conditioner.
Pop some popcorn and dance to your favorite songs for 30 minutes.
Run the water in the sink until it feels like blankets from the dryer against the skin.
Rinse your hair and embrace the weight of all that makes you purified.
Write, child.
Write as it flows.
Do not let form hinder you.
For poetry is but the word
Encapsulating powerful feelings
Uninhibited by form or shape.
So write!
There is just something about carrot cake
that seems to almost let me forgot
Forget that I am constantly at war with my brain
and that even the good days include skirmishes
And just for a moment not dwell on
all the ways I have managed to fail myself
It is as if the warmth of the spice cake
can entice me into ignoring the chaos
The chaos that exists between bipolar and trauma
that has left my brain looking like London in 1942
To ignore the disarray that comes from
never knowing why my brain is angry at me
As if the lusciousness of cream cheese icing
envelops me and keeps the despair away
Despair of knowing my diagnosis will not change
and that there is no respite from this fight
To shield me from the disheartening reality
that I will not be free from a hell of my own making
Hour 8, Prompt 8
Gigan
Unfurl
the unsettling rose upward
with tumult unfolding within
pressing, pushing, unfurling
frozen potential caught swirling
amid darkness and frustration curling
a great, dark swelling of intent
mixed with cellular structure
rent asunder and over under
held against pressure of eons
as if the ground could reach into
the unsettling rising upward
with great, dark swelling of intent
in the depth of dirt and mud and crust
reaching, stretching for what it must
with melting snow giving way
to purple crocus unfurling to the sun
Gigan
Gigan
I know now how to say it.
I tried and tried
My brain is fried
There’s just no way to play it.
The instructions tripped me up
after a very slow re-reading.
I’m not sure just immature
My brain feels like it’s bleeding.
I’m mean and clean
Full of healthy protein
But I really have to stop.
I’m in trouble
so on the double
You better call the cop.
Who I Am
I wander through this life, a tourist.
I try to be sincere, a purist.
Sometimes events are happenstance
and there are times I want to dance
but mostly it’s a game of chance.
Be kind to strangers I try to be
knowing it comes back to me.
Keep track of news to some extent
but too much of it can cause torment.
Keep away from what’s securest as
I wander through this life, a tourist.
Be kind to strangers I try to be.
Don’t come off like I’m bourgeoisie.
Look in their eyes, not absentee.
In the end what seals the deal is
show the world my best cartwheel.
My love for you is as strong as steel,
it would not erode, corrode or repeal.
You are more precious than any gemstone.
Your beauty, a category of it’s own.
Your scent, fragrant like a perfumed cologne.
Oh, my dear sweetheart!
From you I cannot be apart!
Our love, in poetry will be sung,
it’s beat on the lips of old and young.
My love for you is as strong as steel,
it would not, bend break or kneel.
Oh, my dear sweetheart!
Loving you is like possessing a rare art.
Loving you makes my heart stop and start.
I love you, and you love me,
until eternity!
A waft of freshly baked pie is carried by the cool evening breeze…
The autumn air turns a bit nippy as the sun sets,
The farm dog lets out a howl just before it starts to get darker.
Chickens clucks and gabbles about in their cages,
Two cows lower their heads and takes a casual munch of hay,
A young child and his elder brother run into the house with mud stains all over their overalls and childlike laughers fill the atmosphere,
A creaking unoccupied rocking chair set on the porch;
Once again nighttime at the countryside approaches.
Flicker flicker
Bicker Bicker
Blessed be and
Cure what’s sicker
Fan the gospel
Fan the flame
Praise the Force and
Sing her name
Wonder Women
Equal. Free.
Carrie Fisher and
RBG