The Poetry Marathon

Self Portrait

Self Portrait

 

A dreamer by the day,

And visualizer by the night…

Qualified MBA had a blue collar job,

But quit off that, with my ethics very much in the sight…

Entered family business, to be support of the dad,

To rejuvenate and enhance the work, doesn’t matter even if its dealing with the dead…

Toil between machined throughout the day,

To lie by the books when its night’s peaceful way…

Thou reading ain’t the thing that sort me away,

Rather writing the feelings was a thing, differentiated they say…

Easy to go and the best one to trust,

One stop solution for entire family and friend’s thrust…

An achiever by the mind, thinker by the heart,

Always to finish the thing, that once do I start…

Got a belief as strong and high as a mountain,

Life is all about giving, only that would sustain…

(Hour 9 of 24) “infinity”

floating in water

this inconstant vista of

lights in the distance

 

© 2021 S Phua

Walking at Night

Walking at night without a sound,
Stepping so lightly
Over the cool ground.

What do I see looking up at me?
Two little peepers
Darting faster than I could see.

Around the corner I go
Until up under my nose
A firefly buzzed setting it all aglow.

What else did I meet
Walking down that street
A mean old bear with two left feet.

I said to the bear,
Tell me why is it so,
You’re wearing your shoes without any toes.

On further I walked
My shoes did clip-clop
Until I met a donkey and boy did he balk.

Oh my said I frightened out of my wits
No worries said he
Inviting me to sit.

So I sat down right there
With my nose all aglow
And shared this silly story about the shoes with no toes.

Hour 19 – If My Body Were a Game of Operation

If My Body Were a Game of Operation

 

Racing Thoughts – Remove the race car from my mind and give a motherfucker a rest

 

Too-Small Skull – Try and grasp the bone and force it through a passage that is designed for you to fail

 

Fawn Response Throat – Please, take it. I’d rather fight anyways

 

Broken Humerous – Remove the hilarity I built when I was eight

 

Backbone – You can’t have it. I grew it myself. 

 

Perfect Cervix – According to my gynecologist. It’s only weird if you want it to be. 

 

Dumptruck Ass – Grab a hold. Throw it back. 

 

Eject Button Knees – Give up whenever you want to, my knees do. 

 

Snap, Crackle, and Pop Ankles – Take away the cereal so I don’t have to hear it anymore.

 

Pointed Toes – Sometimes curled, thats more fun. 

 

Play along and build dexterity, all you have to do is take me apart and put me back together again. 

 

Hour 20: Night Honey

Passing beneath

Honied streetlight

Trusting the moon

the sweeten the night

Dark Hues of Blue

You’ve painted

every happy memory

I possessed

in dark hues of blue

making it impossible

with each passing day

to remember

the version of you that

still had a heart

now I can only see

you as you

holding a knife

slashing through the past

working towards the present

leaving shreds soaked

in indigo, cobalt, azure

leaving nothing for me

to hold on to…

 

Hour 20 – Faerie Dance

Rose petal skirts,
Rose water shirts,
Loose and rippling,
Pink and masculine
Wrap around their twists
And leaps, light as light.

There are no sparks,
No magic dust, but
How else their flight,
Their elegant powerful,
Raw beautiful,
Arcane intertwinings?

Feats of strength,
Ineffable trust,
Effortless extensions,
All softened into
Old paper pages,
Whispering, beneath
Braided bare footwork.

Watch for too long,
And fall in love.
Not with them, but
With the way they love
Bodily, entirely, physically
Sustained by one another.

The Edge of light

POEM 20

Pulling my sweater closer as I round the trail around Sherwood Mall on an unusually frigid, June night.

The sky is deep purple with a slice of silver moon. The constellations are pinpoints decorating the night.

My footfalls echo into the distance and the chill in the air deepens.

A cluster of fireflies in the grassy growth on the path’s edge, flitter and blink with cool green light.

So many sounds around me, crickets chirp, cicadas scream then go silent as I pass under the trees

bullfrogs croak from the shallow ditch. Zukey my faithful Schnoodle trots at my side.

The jingle from his tags filling any space left for sounds in the night.

The mall is closed but the stores are faintly lit giving the darkness a fringe of safety.

I love this time of the evening, as the world settles and breathes softer like a baby  put down for the night.

The darkness is like a void around me as I bid it goodnight.

 

The Pier – Hour Twenty

The Pier

I spent many a year catching fish by the buckets
Upon the Gulf of Mexico’s shoreline
From sand trout to sharks and gafftop to eel
My childhood grew wildly there
It kept me from trouble, away from that crowd
Special bonding time for Dad and me
That was, til the day that his health put him under
And stole from him his own liberty

After Dad had passed, I had lost the pier too
As a hurricane swept through its core
The grandiose place of my youth left in toothpicks
A large gaping hole at the shore
The owners vowed then to rebuild yet again
And I too vowed then to go back
To rekindle those glorious days from my youth
And to honor my Dad in return

The pier was rebuilt and life got in the way
I grew up, I married and moved
But deep in my heart, I held tight to the need
To go back to this place of my youth
So one day with my then husband in tow
I headed back to the pier at the shore
Surreal in a way that I walked off with Dad
And returned with a spouse at the door

I took in the sights of the sunset and waves
I spotted the birds and the fish
I smiled o’er the fact that I had in a way
Lived out my Dad’s own dying wish
To never forget all those days at the coast
Those days at the Gulf, long departed
For if one thing was true, it was love never fades
It remains within the brokenhearted

Never Stop Listening

Listen night and day
Hear the world as it tries to say
All is sacred under one sun
Nothing more special than another one
Each sings a beautiful tune
But it may well all be gone too soon

Listen with your heart
Listen with you mind
Listen with you soul
And know to never stop listening
No matter where you go