The Fountain of Forgiveness

My beloved: so dear and tender,
Soft beneath my fingers, 
Iron beneath your skin. 

I wonder how you render
My image into goodness
When I feel like a sin. 

My beloved: so bold and daring,
Don't fret about softness -
Steel is in your resolve.

I love your heart, your bearing;
Could I be so thoughtless
That your faults I don't absolve?

There is no cloak so opaque
As love, covering all things
With brightness and splendor. 

Love's appearance is not fake, 
But it must be maintained
Lest passion burn to cinder.

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

Unfillable Pit

Desire is merely emptiness lasting 
long enough for a dire span of fasting
to fade the sweetness of last time's tasting, 
leaving one breathless and for air gasping. 

Sinister my void grows, hunger gnawing, 
thirst enlarging despite ever drawing 
from the well that promises restoring 
water, but instead strengthens its calling.

I desire rich words like honey dripping. 
To simple phrases my ears stay gripping
in hopes of cheers and compliment sipping, 
but instead I fear connections slipping. 

Desire is merely emptiness lasting
long enough for a dreadful breakfasting
to prove there's no use in truly tasting
meals best kept sealed in condition pristine. 

This was written for no good reason. Just felt like it.

Photo by Philippe Donn on Pexels.com

The Devil You Know

A mouse snuffles through
A bag of bread crumbs.
It seeks grain to chew
And sate its hunger.
What does my stomach
Crave to digest and
Break down? I covet
Some form of rapture,
Like dogs with a bone
Or birds with a worm.
With this ache grown
To its final form,
I turn deep inside.
Will I starve before
I forsake my pride?
Of course not.
I cling, tenacious,
To my misery.

What goes better with poetry than a touch of depression and faking it ’til you make it?

Maybe some cake. Or things that will happen in about 4.5 hours following this post.

Either way, this was written for Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt #192, Tenacious. You should all just be thankful I resisted the urge to write about Tenacious D. Also I didn’t know what picture to choose, so I just slapped some nonsense I liked on there.

Photo by Kaique Rocha on Pexels.com

Leaf litter – #TankaTuesday

Photo by Ray Bilcliff on Pexels.com

Scent of falling leaves
Not quite floral, not quite musk,
Signals change to come

Ah, fall – I dread it because it means winter, my least favorite season, is coming. There’s a reason I live below the Mason Dixon line, and part of it is that I don’t like cold.

This was written for Colleen Chesebro’s Tanka Tuesday #198, poet’s choice.

An Anniversary Message

They say marriage is about sparks,
About that someone who in the dark
Sets your mind and loins aflame.
But isn’t that meager? Lame?

I’ve learned in this blissful year
That’s it’s more like cracking a beer
Open and accepting farts
Are made by those with good hearts.

So while I take a hot shower,
You grunt on the throne with power.
It’s the sign of your loving care
That you keep pooping and don’t stare.

Happy Anniversary!*

This was written for Chel Owens’s A Mused Poetry Contest for 2 October 2020. I got my idea from these stupid things online about how “I wish everyone would realize love is about little things like snuggling or getting to the point where you don’t care about each others’ farts!”

Yeah, maybe you’re right, but it’s also just not terribly fun to think about in terms of romance. So here I go, making fun of those things.

*It’s not my actual anniversary.

Photo by Designecologist on Pexels.com

The Standing Stones

 

He chased her through
the standing stones,
to catch, seize her
smile and laughter.
He crashed into
megalith‘s bones
to a place of
grass and heather.
Now he’s lost to
a world unknown
unable to tear
at the aether.
She laughs anew,
his pitied groan
feeding banshee’s
lustful anger.

This poem was written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt, Megalith. Because I didn’t know the word before looking it up, I thought I’d clarify that a megalith is a stone structure like stonehenge. Pretty neat!

Photo by Stephen + Alicia on Pexels.com

Into the Redding Clouds – #Gogyohka #TankaTuesday

Shimmer of sunlight
O’er twilight clouds.
Darkness in the east,
Hope in the west
Where lies the frontier.

This gogyohka was written for Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday #189, poet’s choice! I decided to participate this week because, as I was driving home yesterday, the sky was very brilliant. I wanted to contrast sunset, frontier, and the idea that west is “death”, the last adventure.

This picture was taken last year just before Hurricane Dorian came by. It’s not the same as what I saw last night, but a hurricane sky isn’t like anything else and I thought I’d share.

Adoption – #TankaTuesday #Haibun

The medicine man draws the marks of the chosen one on her forehead, her cheeks, with a muddle of red clay and pure springwater. The gourd bowl he draws from is stained red by years, decades, and generations of uses before. It is a holy day, and a gift must be flown to the gods. He places a bearskin cape on the chosen one’s back, the horns of a deer on her head, and precious shells in her hands. He commands her,

Stretch your holy wings –
the gods’ gift on sacred days.
Brave the daunting jump!

And so she leaps, the cape flapping in the wind, feathered wings of the gods sprouting from her back. She becomes the bird, the bear, the deer, and radiance as the child soars to her new, adopted parents.

This was written for Colleen Chesebro’s Tanka Tuesday #184, a picture and form prompt! We were to write a haibun inspired by Frank J. Tassone’s picture of a New York natural area. I went a fantasy route.

Gondola Dreams

Row me on your gondola,
‘Neath the royal bridge.
Marble, carved and hewn,
And rocks – just a smidge!

Row me on your gondola,
By the palace grounds.
Perhaps I’ll catch a prince,
Get yearly a thousand pounds!

Child, there’s no gondola –
We’re not in sunken Venice!
Now wash those dirty hands
Or you’ll be a public menace!

 

Then buy me a gondola,
And row me all around.
We’ll go see Nan in Manchester –
Daddy, how’s that sound?

We’ll paddle the waters:
Over the sea to Skye,
Across the pond to India,
To London for a pie!

How ’bout we cross this bridge
And see the other side?
Perhaps it’s the grocery shop,
Perhaps we’ll play seek and hide!

Sounds great, Daddy!

Hokay, so, this is a wee bit late – but the story in the poem came right to my little brain-o when I saw the prompt picture on Crimson’s Creative Challenge #81.

Birds Aren’t Real – A Poem

What are those creatures flying in the winds?
No other feathers bear, none else do dive.
They’re strange for a reason: The Man – he sends
These drones out to monitor our dull lives.

Yes – those eyes are cameras, watching you vent
While you eat, walk, play your video games,
Or plan to overthrow the government.
The birds, battery-powered bots, take aim.

Have you ever examined their “feathers”?
Clearly, they are just recycled plastic.
Feel them – are they scales, skin or leather?
They’re neither natural nor fantastic!

So while we wait indoors for Covid’s end,
Remember – their lithium batteries
Are charging now, then our lives they’ll attend
And tattle on our overdue book fees.

This was written for Chelsea Owens’s first ever Weekly Hilarity Contest! This week, the theme was birds, and I was astonished because birds aren’t real.

The citation says:

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

But we all know it’s just a government-issued photo.