Poem A Day Challenge – Day 24

I’ll Be Trimming the Tree

Not for me Black Friday
Commercial hordes saving a buck
I’m staying home that day
You’ll find me listening to Christmas music
And trimming the tree
The one I purchased on Christmas Eve
Three years ago
Because the thought of doing without Christmas
Hurt too damn much
Let the masses trample the aisles
Let them spend their credit and dimes
I’ll stay home and drink hot chocolate
Watch Scrooged on TV
Eat popcorn sprinkled with lime
Retailers will just have to wait
I’ll be home trimming my tree

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Poem A Day Challenge – Day 23

Alone Tonight

Alone on a Sunday night
A dog at my feet
Two kitties dream of mice
As I watch flickers on the screen
I contemplate Christmas
Smell the roast cooking in the kitchen
Think of summer
I conjure up together words
Like I’m sorry
That won’t happen again
I love you
I’ll be here when you get home
But there was no argument
Nothing but work that keeps you away
I know you will be home soon
Still, it feels like decades ago
When I was lonely on a Sunday night
And I didn’t know you yet
And I couldn’t whisper any words at all
Except to my heart
Who hoped you would find me here
Alone on a Sunday night
Waiting for you

Poem A Day Challenge – Day 22

Please Release It, Let Us Go

Let it out slowly,
I said.
Make sure you push on the accelerator at the same time.
But Mom!
He said.
There’s a car right in front of me!
Won’t I hit it?
No, I said,
You’ll roll backwards for a bit.
We’re on a steep hill.
But Mom!
He said
There’s a car right behind me!
Won’t I hit it?
You could,
I said,
So you make sure you are accelerating.
But Mom!
He said,
I don’t want to do this!
You have to,
I said,
There’s no place for us to stop.
Now release that clutch slowly,
I said,
And go!

Poem A Day Challenge – Day 21

east

i thought it was a coyote
howling at the moon
that woke me

i thought it was the middle of the night
as dark enveloped me
like a blanket

i nestled into my dreams again
painting the same feathers
that i always paint

but what was a coyote
doing in my studio
calling me to prey?

it was her plaintive cry
the ‘where are you’ meow
of early morning

the clicking of nails on wood
his dogness in attendance
both begging me to rise

i felt the irritation
of deep sleep interrupted
but woke to greet the dark

i let the dog out
and the sky reproached me
dragon fire lighting up the east

i breathed it in
awakening a song inside

this is what I should be painting

 

Poem A Day Challenge – Day 20

I’ll Never Know Them

I sit at the computer for hours
Searching
My ancestors whispering from their graves.
I see two who died together of Spanish Flu;
A queen of France, a Danish king;
The bastard son of William I of Normandy
(Yes, that conquering hero who
never acknowledged his own son).
I see Puritans, Mormons, miners, preachers
And farmers
Salt of the earth people, good people, I’m sure
People I wish I knew.
But, for now at least,
All I can do is guess at their stories
Make up their stories
Write down their stories.
I’ll never know them
Except in my own body where they all live
And where they whisper to me.

Poem A Day Challenge – Days 17-19

Yes, folks, I got behind in my poetry-writing.  So today I bring you three short poems to make up for my lapse in versifying.

Affliction

Her back is broken
Heat rises up to shake her to the core
Wormholes bore into her from without
drilling for her black blood
We exfoliate her skin
Poison the air she breathes
Use up her resources
Until she, sick and tired,
*Implodes*
Taking us with her

—————————————————–

糖醋酱

She is like that sauce
Sweet in your heart for a bit
Then sour after

——————————————————

The Kitty Ate My Poetry: A Terzanelle

The kitty ate my poetry
She thought it was a mouse
And threw it up beneath a tree

Then ran behind the house
To ponder what she had just done
She thought it was a mouse

Which usually is fun
But didn’t taste good this time out
She pondered what she’d done

I saw it all and gave a shout
I tried to save the words
It didn’t taste good this time out

It tasted like warm birds!
I spit it out and rewrote it
I tried to save the words

That is why I had a fit
The kitty ate my poetry
She spit it out; I rewrote it
While sitting ‘neath the tree

Poem A Day challenge – Day 16

image by Hugh MacLeod (gapingvoid.com)

No Other Way to Explain It 

There are three deadly sins that devour me
and each, in turn, plot to consume my soul,
leaving me wretched of heart, anomie
preventing exercise of self-control.
The first is SLOTH, my laziness a sin
of major proportions. I hide it well.
But this trait is major. It underpins
much anxiety that I cannot quell.
The second, GLUTTONY. I eat to slake
a thirst for life unattained at most times.
The third is LUST, the desire to make
myself feel better, to taste life sublime.
I must forgive myself these deadly sins
for without them I know darkness would win.

Poem A Day Challenge – Day 15

Holy Wholly Holey

What should I make from these three words?
A song I used to sing in church

A lovely cheese from Switzerland
A poor but pious preacher man

The socks that I wear every day
Green olives in my Tanqueray

Your bones from decades of hard life
Excuses made to your dear wife

Your body pierced without the rings
Bagels, donuts, other things

Holy Moly! I must say
That’s a lot of holies . . .  eh?

 

(just having fun, folks!)

Poem A Day Challenge – Day 14

i will follow you

you sit on the bookcase
next to my cat
all three in limbo
waiting to drink the wind
spread your wings and fly
onto your next adventure
like the stories in the books below
i will let you go sometime soon
feather your ashes on the pines
say a silent prayer
for what you brought to life
the life you gave to me
together on earth and together in death
i know not where you are now
but i know that i will follow you there
with love

(Dedicated to my mother and father…who are waiting for me.)

Poem A Day Challenge – Day 13

 

Not An Option

I remember dawn

Longingly —

Open windows bringing first rays of yellow

Night shadows disappearing

Gentle warmth flowing through my veins.

From my darkened cask, I daydream about

Other lifetimes, eternities ago, when

Running out to greet the morn was

Taken for granted, when

Heat was generated by the sight of your face at first light and

Everything took on a golden glow from the

Sun’s warmth. If only I could taste daylight again! But

Until I wake myself from this dark nightmare,

Nightlight will have to do.

(The above is an acrostic poem.  The first letter of each line, reading down, spells out the phrase “I long for the sun”.)