Lambs…Slaughter…Repeat
nine lives lost to the cost of living
eight days a workweek never done
seven times survival screams
six souls cannot be fixed
five more left alive
four bodies found
three ran down
two left
one…
The Reunion – Hour Twelve
I awake to find a ghost in view
And jump when it looks at me
A familiar face forms
One I have forgotten
It has been so long
I am teary
My heart smiles
My world
Dad
BEE (Nonet)
Its flight was one brave and bold attempt
Flying flying swirling with ease
Hunting looking finding target
Aha a beauty one so sweet
Off he glides to the side, front, back
With all his might he did what’s right
To the flower of choice so bright
Its nectar was sipped, happiness
Off to the next one off he went
Candle Light
NONET-POEM 12
A candle burns bright with flame full of
life and death drawn from one breath so
slight but powerful with fight.
It waves and flickers with
sight. So sure to see
it end then draw
it quickly
again
life.
2021 #12 – Faux
Feathers of red, orange, and yellow. Reborn from ashes yet again. Comes to those who are loyal. Taking to flight once more. Maimed a Basilisk. Tears of healing. Immense strength. Phoenix. Faux.
inked gumboots [prompt hour 11]
he leaned forward, vape in hand, onto his storefront railing
eyeing me as suspect
thin, bubbly, too goofy and far too old
still, he ushered me inside and spread out his samples.
periwinkle florals and fluffy clouds were shown to me.
I raised an eyebrow, this is not what we discussed.
his fingers beat a tune on the countertop, and he slowly pulled out his sketch.
I planned on shrinking it, so it’s not all skyscraper size,
he really did not know me yet.
my eyes alight, it is everything I wanted.
I jiggle in delight.
in that case, I’ll go set up my needles.
Adulted Too Young
Adulted Too Young
Virginia Carraway Stark
It didn’t take long
As a little child
To see that adults
Needed lots of help
When I was small
My mom crawled into my bed
She said, “now you have to take
care of me, daddy left.”
I held my mother while she cried,
Knowing I wasn’t allowed to cry myself.
My heart was skimmed over with cold
Abandoned and alone,
She stole my comfort for herself
Years later:
My mother died while I was gone
I hadn’t spoken to her in years
She couldn’t take care of herself
She couldn’t take care of me
And my little brother called me,’mommy’
He cried in my bed,
I taught him to swim
How to read and do math
I read to him bedtime stories
Shakespeare, Plato and other classics
The other boys didn’t get
It took me years to learn how to cry
My own tears for myself.
But I wasn’t there when she died
Somehow I should have known- they said
She drank too much water- and died
How could a daughter have known?
Why was I the one to blame?
all those years long ago
She crawled up my leg
a monster in the dark
she put the adult curse onto me
an infernal game of tag,
‘you’re the adult now, tag,
no returnsie!’
Adults everywhere with abuse
But no power to help, or no will to help
(the same thing, aren’t they?)
But old people would shelter me,
Feed me, and hide me, teach me…
There was something to look forward to there?
I thought the old were wise
Until I realized they could be cruel
Perhaps crueler than the young
They can be kind as well, but
Like every human under the sun,
Or over the moon
They must choose love over hate
Not covet the youth of the young.
you live life and learn many things
Ways to make things look better,
Work better, grow stronger, all the things
We strive for in life
Some have a pocketful and some a wheelbarrow
But each lifehack saves the generations a world of growing and pain
Some are generous in their sharing,
Others are stingy and unkind
Cruel that you don’t already know
What took them a lifetime to live
I realized this, when I saw a very young girl
Bring in some art, she didn’t know a few easy tricks
I had only recently learned
I thought, ‘oh, she should have–‘
Then I realized, how could she have known?
If I didn’t tell her(in a kind way)
It could take her a decade to learn what I learned
If I was cruel as people can be, and chase her away
How awful for the arts and what a loss that would be!
I knew then that ‘wisdom’ wasn’t any different than ‘lifehacks’
and the old are only as wise as they learned
There first lessons: to be good sharers in grade K!
With the internet we are all each other’s elders now
We all share our wisdom
We may have lost our families
But we have life hacks
We have supports our parents never dreamt of
We know we don’t like adulting
We don’t make our children adult for us
We own our lack of adulting
We share our lifehacks
WE earn new lifehacks
The selfishness of the elders is on their heads
If they want a captive audience
To turn away
They can keep their pockets full of secrets
We will learn another way
I thought wisdom came with age
That was before I became friends
With the old
I thought adults knew everything
That was before
I adulted too young
HR 7 – Text Prompt
Text Prompt
Write a poem exploring the word normal. It could be in the context of pre-pandemic life and the present, how normal needs to be better, or about how normal has always been different within your family. Any interpretation or interaction with the word normal, works as a response to this prompt.
I was never “normal”
and I was made painfully aware of it.
I survived in a household of narcissists.
Eventually it was time to choose,
– end it
or
– diverge
I became an imposter to myself,
shutting down the pathways and patterns that made me different.
I became wrong in my own skin.
I learned the art of people pleasing
and like a light, I drew the abusers and narcissists to me.
A continued symphony of wrongness.
Depression and anxiety came next,
then PTSD,
then an older desire to choose, again.
I am proud to say that I am 31 years old.
I am still here.
I was diagnosed with ADHD.
Nothing was normal,
but,
I finally feel normal. 😀
A Nonet about our Community Action Agency
Prompts Hour Twelve Text Prompt For this year’s first formal prompt the challenge is to write a nonet. This poetic form requires that you write a 9-line poem. In the first line there are 9 syllables, in the second 8 syllables and so on down to final one syllable (ninth) line. You can learn more and read an example here, but it’s origin is unknown.
Working to help poor families rise
Easing their debts with PIPP and HEAP
“Getting Ahead “ gives true facts
Head Start for preschoolers
All to raise their hope
Maybe climb out
Of the snare
No more
Broke
By Nancy Ann Smith