Poem – Page 29 – Poétique

Returner

I am the harbinger
For those around me I seek the message
To return with what happens outside
Of the village we live in Mon Dieu,
Je suis vieux, je commence à être aigri !
Says the man who cannot stay up
Past midnight or wakes up with
A dehydrated tongue and warm brain
Will he be lenient with himself he asks?
A debt of treason to behold yourself
On the shadows of your heart
Without the clever memory
Of recalling that we are not only
Our thoughts from today
We are also our memories of tomorrow
I woke up yesterday believing
There was one way to do things
But today feels like the body is
Vibrating at a different frequency
How are we surviving and in what color?

Curiously displaced he pushed his way
Out of the sadness and nothingness
Into the reason for continuing on
Without the pressure of something
Coming up behind him
Was it an echo effect of a past lover
Of the silhouette of some other
Emotion that was hanging in the air
From time spent in old bars
That had seen the life of writers like
Kerouac and Ginsberg?
If their ghosts were keeping him company
There was no need to disinvite them
Some say it was only the sun casting
Shadows on his back before the return

Junkyard Heart

People maurading through the streets
Every dance floor in the city
Has seen his feet seagulls cry
In morning light and ferris wheels
Are tempting stories of making out

We aren’t going anywhere
But we aren’t children anymore
The water is only one hundred
Feet away and the dream of
Remembering how to kiss a stranger
Is an easy one to stake

In the tree there were so many birds
Small and large tiny ones too
I was chasing insects up the bark
To feed them all when I noticed
That their size was comparable to
Some of the smallest fledglings
At first I was nervous that
The bugs might score but then
I witnessed the birds enjoying one bite
After the other they were winning!
Had it never occurred to me
However that everyone needs to eat?

The wharf was kind of perfect on
Mornings like these observing
All the wildlife filling up their gullets
With a cool drink of rainwater
While nothing stopped the harbor,
Ever pressing courageous sensitivity
Was showing up at every corner of his heart
Starting from the north point

There was evidence of a struggle inside
But the gentleman driving the vessel
Hadn’t quite given up on the want for
And desire to abridge his destiny in love
When his brain came to it was
A waking life of friendly misbehaving
That enticed a little memory of adventure
Something he never quite gave up on
But somehow lost sight of in his masonry
To build a safe home inside his heart

Ducks

He was forgetting because
Change was pretty stupid
After finding the formula
And being perpetually bad at math

No one stopped to ask him
How things were coming along
Everything looked so put together
Peering in from the outside
There was no need to wonder
If it was working just how he did it

Maintaining a smile while
Keeping the peace he had
Perfected his ability to find reverie
Stepping around, not beyond bounds
As well careful not to mince words

No more questions to others
About how people end up so guarded
Now that he was older the reason
Made presently obvious
Yawning was even a pleasure

He could see the grass crawling
Up in between the cracks of the sidewalk
It felt like nature was winning
In some way though the human intrusion
Was grossly apparent

No lobbying for amnesty
Just a brush on a canvas
Chatter from any bird
A duck’s quackery
Could answer his call
In the lifelike pond he faired

Roadtrip

Everyone has to be awake
In a unique way in traffic
A collective consciousness of
Being aware as an orchestra might be

I noticed the little red trees
Sparingly they were positioned on the
Background of a hill that reminded
Me of a roadtrip I took once
But the weather was not the same

I’m sorry that I couldn’t stand your heat
In many ways we were perfectly suited
Such a familiar face I can almost see
You everywhere like some anti dismal
Gesture of a once treasured canvas
Awww, suppose we always ache
For the sweet natured side!

It wasn’t like I’d never heard a woman yell before
More so the act was something I was
Trying to escape or run away from
I’m not sure that I intended to completely
Isolating myself from you; but my body
Always knew there was no guard
From a woman who screamed like that
Tantrums for adults one could say

In the resistance the push back was
A bit more like attempting to sing
Something I’d been practicing as a soloist
To a woman who was truly unable to
Appreciate my identity so the voice
actually fell flat and she mocked me
A bit by not staying to share her opinion

Really trying to do your best is
A bit like purposefully failing yourself
Without actually knowing that you
Might have been better off with
A performance that was worth
Much less in your mind
A note I wrote down permanently
On the inside for safekeeping

A little of this and a little of that
Built up overtime and though I
Felt resistant to the storm at times
I had only myself to keep me warm
Or take the brunt of dissolution

What a beautiful shame to be
Surrounded by such adversity and
To also misunderstand its love
I always said thunderbolts and lightning
Were better for the theater of heaven
And dramatic bitching so much
More divine to take in on a silver screen

Even though she was on edge
Until we got home;
Car rides weren’t completely unbearable
But they sure did leave a mark

Hopscotch

Wake up and the point is moot
What a relief no need to harp
Or uproot any more of that
Ridiculously obstinate tumbling

Found a rock in the street
I’m convinced that it’s magical
Powers will carry me through
The rest of the week rain or shine

Hopscotch chalk is melting
On the sidewalk underneath
What’s left of the pale green
Tree moss and pine cones
Rolling around like the neighbors
Kids did late summer

Winter is bringing a peaceful
Blanket to cover the chaos
Of people shouting obscenities
One more concert of roses left
To behold a chorus of color
Emboldened by their last
Opportunities to celebrate romance

Squirrels hanging upside down
Like bats in trees for the remaining nuts
The neighbors dog is still barking
Fixated on the possibilities
Of something’s to come apparently

A toast for tomorrow’s unpredictability
A magic punch for everyone to drink
I love the way the traffic lights reflect
After a downpour in the asphalt streets

No one likes the construction
Holding up everything especially
After a good nights sleep

Trickery

You didn’t know she would be so clever
So innocently you are watering the flowers
The garden is your wishful thinking
And then behind your back she
Makes moves to ruin your life for you
You still befriend her and send her things
That she absolutely does not want
But you continue and you never know
That all along she was conniving behind
You and she was planning your demise
Revenge against what you took away
Yes even tarnishing her wishes
She was plotting to kill your happiness
Because for you to experience joy
Made her feel like she was dying
I was only the one she used to see
Her plan through and I didn’t even
Know that her animosity was so strong
That it could cut up also the slightest
Most innocent part of me but
She made it easy to dice because our
Traumas were the same and the history
Was to blame for everything you did
To me you did also to her and it
Made it too perfect to run the blade into
A cavity that was waiting to be
Leveled out like a massacre for love
That was lost on her front porch
Where you left all those memories
In some hot sudoric town in Florida

Feign

Darling, dance like a dragonfly
     Even when narcolepsy sets in;
Fireflies will keep us awake,
     Watch me get lighthearted.

Moonlight over some pretty blue grass,—
Or the way the clouds hang like coral cauliflowers
In the sky when I see the world through different eyes,
     Notice how the praying mantises have so little to complain about outside?

Of the people who live there, I realize- the forest leaves will turn around,
     There is a new rule that you are breaking but you didn’t know existed!
Trees might yearn to find a carpet of herbage to magically fly away on.

Blue Snake

Blue snake you are sweet
You are like my dog I carry you
With me everywhere you are
Not dangerous although people
Fear you I warn them that it is ok
With a smile you search around to
Investigate from my pocket and my
Hand still trying to stretch away from
Me your neck gets smaller and smaller
Thinner and thinner but I don’t want
You to leave back into my pocket
You go and then I search around
And you are detached you have
Become a blue rope and twine
Where is my pet! Where is my snake!
Now you are red and not so long
Squirming a bit around like a bent stick
Of dynamite but still soft finding now
Who you are figuring out what you’ve
Become and I carry you away
And I carry you home to continue to play
And I am out in the field with a peachy
White colored dog who is happy to fetch
I am hitting the eaten up tennis balls
Now some of them only rubber
Throw them into the air for you to
Catch and the timing is everything
As I toss them up and bat them out
And the day is warm and the sun
Is bright and the lawn is luxuriously green
And the two men on the grass sitting
In chairs aside from me in sunglasses say
You’ll probably hit your target
If you just swing

What do you mean? Blindly I swing

Grandiflora

With a grandiloquent tongue
The boy could not tell a tale
Not even one could go unspun
Without the flowery need to
Spin the words forth hence
Were always chiming out
With eloquence for even in
A wake of abrogating tide
His inner workings pushed
A gale of winds with currents
Positive and wide and so the
Outbursts became inbursts
To protect the shiny smiles
And his sense to make the best
Was what he wore to yield the
Wilds but still with all the
Gorgeous things that could be said
There rested stories left unshared
Inside his head and thus he
Needed safe passages and places
To commune and let the words
With ease flow out to not implode
Find a place wherein the sagas
Could be shared that he did hold
So unsaid words were trickling out
Unexpectedly he found them
Eventually creeping and seeping
All about the tiny cracks between
His tightly fused upper and lower lips
His feelings were determined
To be heard and oozed unhinged

All Along

Luminescent water
Reflecting colours of tomorrow
Tells the story like tea leaves
Manifests resilient decadence
At any pace without a metric
Need to arrive at any specific
Time just when it comes
So in the interim the immeasurable
Divine mechanics cohere their
Turning and we show up
As the curtain opens in
A foretelling destiny had been
Predicting all along