The Poetry Marathon

Learning to Float, Hour One

Learning to Float

I was six when Jaws the movie was released.
We lived in Florida,
a short bike ride to the beach,
and not too far to a favorite drive-in theater either.

Tinny speakers hung from the windows
of our ’76 full size van,
the scent of popcorn wafted through
partial openings, and technicolor gore
splashed across the enormous screen
in front of my terrified eyes,
my sun browned body hunched in the back
between two much larger brothers.

Our next trip to the beach
no way on this planet would I go in the water.
My frustrated father
peeled my iron rod body off his neck,
laid me on the water’s surface,
and spoke gently to me.

My rigid little body
slowly relaxed into the waves’ rhythms,
lulled by the rocking motion,
the flickering sun flirting
with clouds beyond my closed lids,
outer sounds distilled
to just my heartbeat,
as I dreamed
and felt his hand
beneath my back.

Prompt 1 (being in water): The Explorers

Drowning out the world
they descend
Explorers of the Deep
with goggles over eyes
and pursed lips
that smile, now and then,
and whisper bubbles

They know the treasures
they will find
but imagine them
unknown
marvelling at the
myriad possibilities
of what they could be

Great discovers of trinkets
lost and found
with pruned fingers
and hair, slick with bubble bath
They babble and beam
in the aftermath
and will dream well, tonight

 

Photo by Josh Cea on Unsplash

DogSpeak Hour 1 2022

DogSpeak

Sometimes I wonder
about these humans –
their manic mood swings
about the least important stuff
like what to wear and where
to go, what to eat, who to go
with or without, who pays, who drives…
it drives me out of my canine head
to think they are stressing themselves.

My buddy has some sage advice
about worry; after all, He made
the lilies in the field to sprout,
grow, bloom, and die. He gave
birds wings to fly, skills to build
nests, multiply; to forage for food
for their families and the sense to
stay away from felines. He may
have made these peoplekind …
though some aren’t too kind…
in his image but we are a reflection
of Him. It’s what we are. God. Dog.
It makes us, well special and we love
everything about Him… just maybe
questioning his judgment with
these human beings.

So what happened when it came
to humans? Life is good, plenty
to do, to see, to experience first paw,
umm, hand, so who cares who has
the bigger house or truck or paycheck?
They are worrying themselves into
a shorter life and then that big boat
bopping around the bay won’t mean
a thing.

I hope they get the message soon.
After all, this is an important time.
It’s time for my dinner.

~ J R Turek

Long Awaited

Waiting for days

everyone waits,

patiently

or impatiently

everything is waiting

farmers, gardeners, workers

crops, lawns, gardens,

 

Finally.

First, I shiver, just a bit  —

it is just a bit cooler.

The sun has nodded off,

the clouds no longer white puff balls.

Something is different.

On the edge of something.

 

Walking from the garden to the house

there had been nothing to harvest

even weeds are wilting.

hot afternoons, — how many in a row?

The first drops are too strange to recognize.

My mind is on a pasta salad,

without peppers. tomatoes, green onions.

 

OH!

I finally feel the distinct wet spot

on my bare arm.

Unsure, unfamiliar,

I have to double check

Is that brown ground truly speckled?

YES!    Thank you, Lord!

 

by Nancy Ann Smith, Poetry Marathon, June 25, 2022

Upon Awakening This Morning–Hour 1

The cat strides in

pawses beside the bed

chirps, announcing his intention of jumping up on the bed

He launches and alights

effortlessly as he is known to do

My hand reaches forward automatically

is surprised by proverbial cats and dogs in his fur

a postcast of the weather

I cover him with a towel

I rub and stroke

He struggles, indignant

but not overly so

for he knows this ritual

and its importance to humans

I move to the window to confirm that the street looks black

shining under streetlight

As if it can’t be true until I say the word

I say to myself

rain

 

1. Pride

As the light shine through
all the broken pieces,
that you asked me to fix,
which refracts them
into a million shades
of life and love,
I wonder,
why would I fix them,
or was it ever broken?
Why would I change it
and go back
to the grey cubicles you made.
I’m proud to be here,
and I’d rather stay here
flying through the spectrum
as I want.

Nine O’Clock AM

I open the front door.
The air is already hot, humid, 
close. A watery sun barely makes
patches of light on the green
trees overhead before it's 
gone.

In a fallen brown magnolia leaf
A few drops of rain have puddled. A
damp patch outside the door and the

black car stops in front of the house and
drops a young man off. He opens the garage door
across the street and sits
waiting.

faint memory of a crash of thunder
in the middle of the night are all
there is to show that it rained.

Learning to Float/ Hour 1

 

Inhale deep, lean back

Lapping water clogs my ears

Lift legs from slippery lake floor

 

Father’s hands hover

a cradle beneath me

Enveloped in water

 

Tilt chin to blue sky 

arms spreads wide, a water angel

“I won’t let you go.”

 

But

 

He does let me go

The buoyant force of water

Pushes against me

 

 I do not sink

 

 

The Tide (Poetry Marathon 2022 Hour 1)

Tide (2022 Hour 1)

We spent too much time
Sitting on the beach
Soaking in the sun
Sprayed by salt
As the waves licked the shore
More a bay than an ocean
Large enough for the tides
To be controlled by the moon
And swept by the wind
The water ripped back
As it needed some place to go
The seagulls dove
Picked the clams
And dropped them onto the mud
Hoping to crack them open
A few blocks from the beach
The heat overwhelmed
Here the sea breeze
Cooled us
We didn’t have
An air conditioner in our apartment
So we borrowed the breeze from the sea
More a bay than a sea
Yet large enough
For the moon to control the tides
And the wind to blow the salt
And the sun to evaporate the water
I turned to my side
And asked you
If you wanted to join me for a swim
We both swam very well
Those days
When our apartment
Had no air conditioning
And we used the sea breeze
To cool us
And we used the sun to warm us
The sound of the white noise of the waves
Drowned out the random sounds around us
It didn’t matter how crowded it was
We could hold unto each other
As the sun set

Gray – hour 1

Gray (haiku) (from prompt 1, hour 1)

 

snowfall heavy cloud

slushes thickness polluted

under heavy cloud