Hour #7
Sitting on a blanket in the shade
With you next to me
Time passes differently
These are the days I feel closest to you
The girl in the Picture (hour 7)
From the picture, she smiled at only me
From underneath her eyes, danced not a fickle smile, men
Surrounded by family and friends, her smile was for only me
Her face is lined with million words, words of depth mien
She is a wife, a mother, a leader and a daughter
She plays these roles well and far better
I have always wonder
Why the maker
Made them this stronger
Do not know if I can role-play well
There is an assurance pretty yell
That the girl in the picture has the capacity
To sit
To fit
All of the roles now, later and hereafter
Prompt 7 (image)
The Park Bench
You stole a kiss and won my heart
You held me tight
Pledging never to part
You went down on one knee
And proposed to me
I cried and said I do
You cried too
Then you held my hands
As we made our plans
For better or for worse
Together forever come what may
And here we still sit to this very day
Medieval couture
The finest samite, for royals to adorn
My hands interweave the golden lace
I’m adorned to lesser degree
An accessory for her highness
12 Ways of Looking at Birds
VII.
Raucous Raven chatter echos across the meadow
from the tall trees of the wood stand.
The conversation between them goes on,
discordant growls and low caulks.
I mimic their language not knowing
what I’ve said and wonder if they are listening
to me – sometimes I think there’s an answer.
Love and Wisdom / Hour Seven
Flowers from branches above
murmur that one melody from
so long ago, their time before.
It sings now on the wind,
tones in minors yet so powerful.
Impetuous and wild-eyed while
pining and planning for excitement
the world over,
she saw his gentle smile and stopped
suddenly still in the madcap, open world.
He’d been to the world, called out in return when
he needed to serve and every night saw
home grow more focused in his wizened eyes, and
her boundless energy took ever more colors
with each dream.
Their first dances were on busses with
transistor radios, church galas with
crepe paper decorations, jazz dives with
grizzled poets scribbling to notes played
while the two swayed everywhere, anywhere,
each day they had together.
The songs play now in improvised notes,
a phrase wafting in on the breeze in harmony
with the rustles from above.
A lifetime of holding each other gently,
a tender blessing to each other,
they sit together and envision their next adventure
while their hearts dance in bliss.
Late Expression
I am sorry that I let you go.
I was young and didn’t know.
That the way you loved was free and rare.
I loved you back but couldn’t dare
to face the scorn and ridicule
the kids at school can be so cruel.
And we were both just kids ourselves,
still figuring out our lives.
Now my life is blank with loss
I wonder what this denial cost me.
I wonder if there’s any chance
that we could try once more with our romance.
Or if you’ve found your heart’s content
instead of living in regret.
Whichever way, I hope you know
I did love you deeply.
I just couldn’t show you.
Prompt 7 – I dissent
I dissent
and do not consent
to your violation of
my sovereign self
I dissent
and will always lament
the grief you have rained down in
the name of false gods
I dissent
and will not relent
until every law is torn
apart at its core
post #7: apart
We will not see another dawn together.
Nor will we watch the day deepen to dark.
And all those hours of wondering whether
we should have stayed, or left, or disembarked
are now behind us, as you too recede.
The chair you sat in moves within the wind
(I watched two chipmunks play tag at its feet)
and tried to conjure you rocking again.
It didn’t work: your place remains empty.
As does each room, the entire house, the bed ~
I don’t allow the memories to tempt me.
What am I saying?? I know that you are dead.
I know it all too well, but not, my heart,
just how to deal with all of this…apart.
Four pillars of corruption
When he mounted the saddle
He referred to himself as the head
And taught us the importance of the two shoulders and the heart.
We cheered and the governor went to work.
He appointed the Chief Judge and tagged him one shoulder
Then he influenced the choice of the Speaker of the House of Assembly
And said that’s the other shoulder.
When he brought a well known sophisticated pen robber and made the Accountant-general,
We asked, “Is he the heart?”
He nodded in the affirmative,
And suddenly we realized we’ve just been cursed with the four pillars of corruption.