Hour 7 Gaze
Gaze at the days
from this public bench
awaiting in anticipation
for the day to yield
it’s colors back to the night.
2022 Poem Three
CW: Mild potential body horror throughout the poem
Untitled
I don’t plan on having arthritic bones to dig up.
No anthropologist will be able to answer
if my hips belonged to a boy or a girl.
Instead, my ribs will grow a tree.
A strong oak tree whose branches stretch in the morning sun.
Cellulose stronger than my collagen ever dreamed of being.
Squirrels will dance along the branches of my memory.
Birds will build their nests with the remains of my heart.
What society deems as failures in my lifetime
won’t matter after I nourished this tree. Fed this forest.
I don’t care who remembers me
so long as the forest still whispers my name.
Sunflower – Hour Five
Sunshiney days spent outside
Unlearning all the rules I made for myself that were
Never needed, never wanted
Finding myself in freedom
Learning to love myself again, knowing I
Owe it to myself to be the type of
Woman I’ve always dreamed of being,
Ever confident, giving to myself what I’ve always given away
Radiant in my new superpower, I turn upwards to the sun, and breathe.
Enormity
What is more lonely
than a book on a shelf?
Whether read years ago and not opened since,
or purchased and forgotten,
the pages contain worlds.
But those worlds are hidden—
unrealized.
Days turn to weeks turn to years
as the enormity contained in just one shelf
remains untapped.
Only this building pressure can explain
the power that is released as—
finally—
the book is lifted
and turned to that first page.
Hour 6 – If Only
Hour 6 – If Only
I know you miss me
you need to know
I look over you
following you were you go
i hear your prayers too
even though you skip mass,
You have kept the band going
in which I’m very happy
one day we’ll talk again
you still have much time
be the best you can be
remember, I’m very proud
Hunting Mermaids, hour seven
Cocooned in coral, long fins glitter and gleam.
Cool, sweet oxygen filters, and I breathe deep
the dark, fathomless waves above.
Lights sweep above, too bright, flashing,
and the metal beast descends.
Brood-mother tells me they are humans,
like us, but land-dwellers. They do not understand
the singing stars and the pulse of the moon,
they sink and search, but for what?
Their ghosts linger everywhere now, and I swim on,
though every now and then a bright light pierces close, and I dart,
letting them catch a glint of my tail before I flee,
alone. Soon, the ocean will be mapped, and I will be the last.
Remind You
May I remind you,
that every day is a brand new day?
Filled with lots of love, all around.
May I remind you,
The sky is blue
with white puffy clouds.
May I remind you,
that a walk a day,
keeps the doctor away.
May I remind you,
that the sun only sets
it doesn’t fall.
May I remind you,
that yesterday is gone
and tomorrow is very near.
May I remind you
that you can smile
a thousand times
and cry only a few.
May I remind you
that you are who,
you are supposed to be.
May I remind you
that there could
be tons of more.
A letter
Hi
It has been a while
Cliché but it’s all I have
forty years is a long time
I don’t know what to say
I don’t know why I’m writing
I don’t know why you care
I know you want to know why
I know you want to know how
I know you want something
I know I can never give you
I know that must disappoint you
I know I disappointed you then
I don’t know why I would think
I don’t know why you would think
this would be any different than
when I left – no, not left – went
away, went back home, went to
where you weren’t and I could be
away from you and away from us
away from the places, memories
away from the pain I inflicted on
myself for walking away from you,
us, then, the future, the past that
I couldn’t deal with that had you
not understanding my story and
yes, we were young and we were…
yes, we were.
You needed time that
I couldn’t give because I wanted what
I couldn’t find from anyone but you
I couldn’t bear you telling me goodbye
I couldn’t have that guilt so I opted for
Goodbye
Goodbye again
I opened this email account to
write this email and once I send it
I will delete
this account and never look back like
I did back then only this time I know
I did the best I could and
you did the best you could and
we were just kids but oh man
what would we have done…
…if I hadn’t not said goodbye and
if you hadn’t not heard it…
And I know closure doesn’t mean
anything that people think it means
but I just wanted you to know.
In closing, let me just say that yeah,
love was a part of it all.
Had to be.
Or I wouldn’t be writing you today.
Love,
Me
– Mark L. Lucker
© 2022
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