mayors and saviors

its local voting time again

so they’re on every corner

dancing with signs for their

chosen candidate

on Fridays there’s a family

at a different intersection

noisy about Jesus

trying to save us from hell

i’m leaning on pessimism

towards mayors and saviors

i can’t tell the bullshit 

from the bible anymore

i usually crank up the radio

and roll down the window

to drown out their proclamations

... i don’t like being yelled at 

Ol' Delta Blue

Color me blue, Blue baby blue
Talkin' front porch Delta style
Mississippi blue
Talkin' six string finger pickin'
slow rollin' blue
Talkin' tradin' your soul at the
Crossroads for blue
Robert Johnson, Willie Brown
Talkin' old school blue
Talkin' gut wrenchin'
up-from-your-feet
Let-it-out kinda blue
Don't gimmie no sunny-sky
happy-day blue
I'm sad baby sad
Just blue baby blue.

Forever Love (for a loyal heart)

I’m trying to find balance

An equilibrium

But I’m lost and
my rhythm is breaking

I’m trying to love you
I’m trying to forget you
I’m trying to restart, reboot my
life from
pieces of heart that
never knew you

You are my center
A sun of sorts
Too close, I burn
Too far, I freeze

I survive out here in
orbital confusion
My loyalty sustains and
destroys me the
same

Forever Love
Your intangible gravitation is
the only Constant as I
swerve and sway

Forever Love
Until stronger stars grab me
And Forever becomes just another
quick tick of time

(sciencefocus.com)

Broken Meteor

sometimes I put a condom on diversity, splintered bone fragments on floors of mind mansions, my own servants petty thieves themselves born of third-world hunger & heirarchy

                                         have I told you I’m all over the place?

a stone thrown wind blown or gaffed, pulled snorting onto this boat or that, I’m recyclable print on newspaper trash by the curb of inner-city streets licked clean by addicts without needles to inject

the blind girls in the windows of rubble apartments seethe lustfully

aware of the rose-bush that pretties this up with: my love, you’re a flower but I fear the hidden thorns…I’ve rushed here to see you left condoms on window-sills melting peacefully by the candle dripping wax smells of romance

the mind is a meteor in changing revolutions, evolutions of beatings & smooth cosmos sailing, twist-a-little lose-a-little gain-a-little smash cash while universe salesmen tip brimmed hats in passing

Naked

I fall naked upon these naked pages
A sea upon a sea
The drift is quiet
Smooth
Unruffled
The varying depth is measured in miles

Life is everywhere
Words abundant
The haunting abyss
The endless sky
One pulse of Thought stirs all to Chaos
  Ask why I write?…

  for Order & Survival

Morning Minutes

Blurred morning minutes mixed with
caffeine bliss and
ambidextrous driving
Imaginary timers blaring
irritating beeps of
you-gotta-do-s and
now-you’re-late-s

Smiles in the rearview mirror
And little voices singing
happy songs

Nothing’s really wrong
Just a frantic panic stress attack
that disintegrates in time
into joys and loves of
life’s smallest moments

Mostly measured in minutes.

In Any Field

Love me in the grass
amongst weeds,
The thickest brush

Or in any field
within the gusts of
steady winds and
streaming sun

Under skies of
blue or black
Promise your love
the same

In any field the
desire to grow
breaks through the
covered decay

(ByronJorjorian.com)

Selfies

Selfies

It’s the new disco in
closets bathrooms bedrooms hallways
Anywhere the floor is yours
Crystal iball spins at your command

Someday we’ll look back and
be really embarrassed by the
clothes we were wearing

And I can’t imagine what
those without clothes on at all
will be feeling then

My Lucky Sandbox

Gunfire & Thunder sound the same
in the child’s sleep

They say repetition numbs the pain
Quells the fear
Conditions the mind

    Some are born on the bloodied frontline
    Cribbed by the chalk lines
    Nursed in the trenches

    I was nurtured in a lucky little sandbox
    Below our pretty flower box
    In the shade of an Oak

The acoustical waves
The cracks & pops
never really bothered me or
disturbed my sleep

unless it was raining.

A Message

Does it matter
The efforts of the wind
blowing a seed from 
here to there

Does it matter
The pushes and pulls
The tugs and throws of
life
The anchors
The sails

It matters not
It’s a matter of
landing
Of planting
Of growing
Of struggling to
survive

Wherever the wind blows us
Wherever the seed lands
No matter how we got here
No matter how it ends.

Drowning In Myth

The ambient air is moist with you
Little droplets bathe me
Mist on skin
Billions of them
Foam from Cythera’s surrounding seas
All of your wetness
Even there
All of your Beauty
Yes
Even there
Beads of you fall
Absorb
Collect
Rise
Collect
Rise
Collect

 I suffer the flood
To witness the birth
Foam of the sea
Aphrodite incarnate
Even here
Discernment’s clear
Even now
as I accept my fate
Your poetry remains

The myth is
real

Lessons From Love-bugs

Tiny little love-bugs
flying solo
Unaccompanied
Ready for mating

The unaware hit the pool and
find out quickly
how it’s harder to fly
when your wings are wet
And what reflections look like
when you’re in the midst
of new found fear

The experienced
hover & flutter
inches above
enjoying the breeze
With one eye keenly fixed
on jaws of lizards
awaiting their catastrophic
mistake of
landing on the patio
concrete

  How exposed we are to
  so many dangers while
  looking for love

Those little bugs are
fearless
I should be so
courageous
I could stand to learn a
thing or two from
Spring
and lesser
life forms.

Big Talker

Cherry stems ain’t nothin’
My girl knots tree trunks with her tongue

When she talks dirty her chartreuse words glow like a
homing device in
murky waters

Oysters squirm from their 1/2 shells,
Aroused by her presence they
slither off raw bars to reach her plate

Whips & chains
Handcuffs &; leather
Huddle together quietly in
corners of closets like
scared children
Afraid she might find them
Afraid she might use them for
something obscene

Little black dresses?
Naughty lingerie?
Trust me, That ain’t nothin’
I’ve examined her wardrobe
That’s nunnery attire for chaste little ladies
I kid you not

    Quiet! she’s
    comin’…
You never heard nothin’ man

I’d better get outta here 
She can smell my confessions
You’ll need a good autopsy of me
if she senses the
slightest treason

Hey
but call me,
She’s got a single friend
and I think she’s lookin’

- a morning poem

It’s the gentle way the morning breaks through,
Leaves the night to sulk in despair as it turns

It’s the joy of waking up next to you
Leaving all my dark sorrows in the past

www.stevehanksartwork.com/

Writing With Fire

She was whiskey brown death
Old No. 7 green label
Poem maker, poem taker
Poet savior, poet pest
Fire-water liquid esophageal flashover
Her warm amber flame
Volatile, capricious
I slept in her burn many times with words
drowned drunken sexed & sloppy
Mortified,
Mornings would sometimes find us
Mixmashed,
I
the few drips in her bottle
and she
the one splayed burnt blood on my bed

She’s forgotten flames now
I wonder where she burns
Whose tongue now wakes
sodden ash
muddy words.

unknown original source

Jewels

Cerulean skies a glaciers age
Schematics of the sun the same
The oceans tongue an islands gift
Alone we dream a loners wish

Out here below the faultless stars
Come night Come day Come night they are
Unwrapped Uncaged Pure dreamers jewels
Inlaid by crafts of unknown Truths

Illusions keep us in the drift
Resplendent wings & diamond ships

Alone we weep for jewels obsessed
And reach like thieves before the theft.

A Kiss

A kiss,
My lips on the tiny little hairs of her skin
Every inch a new kiss
Even twice where she
moans the most,
A kiss that will throw her
head side-to-side,
Even twice when she sighs

A kiss,
My lips on the curve of her chin
On the pulse of her neck
On the slope of her shoulder,
A kiss as I hold her
pristine lips upon mine,
Even twice when she
moans & sighs.

unknown original source

Under Pressure

Storm swelling
Prison cell
Accumulating ammunition
Bunk-mate derision
Jaws-of-life or a knife
Contemplating escape
Another murder
A murder/suicide
Push Pull Pound
Fists through bars
Mindmuck misanthropy
Viral decay

The coming day of freedom will
bring a violent release
The next named storm of the season on
every news station in town

I’ve always known him as
Bill
He was just another neighbor
A husband A father
He used to cut our grass

Nobody knows what broke that man
I guess eventually
your fuse just runs out

- BOOM -
and it’s over.

Phone Call

… I know
I miss you too…
Last night was some funky-junk wasn’t it
We fucked the word fuck a new meaning
torn tangled scratched & screaming
Your nails left staggered syllables of your writhing
across my back
slapped tracked marked & bleeding

My lats are sore, No
My cats are doing fine
I said my lats
Those large back muscles that pulled me deeper into you
Felt like a Viking rowing over roaring seas
Plundering
Pillaging
Battle horns were blaring
I cared enough to save you - love
Or the Norse gods were on your side

Either way…
I miss you, Just
doing laundry today
… not much

Faith

The world is good, I’m sure of it

Yes - I know it bites and it has ugly dog days
There’s too many salesmen on too many porches
vending crapcakes & shitbars out of trenchcoats & backpacks
And too many militia self-appointed as saviors
under flags of crude stitching from the hairs of those beheaded
And too many theories
And too many formulas
I’m giving  X  a zero & negating them all
- don’t even know if that’s valid -
but too much explanation just fucks up the Pretty

 So I’m telling you this now

- The world is just good -
See a smile See a child
Spend a moment joined in laughter
Just simple it all down
Turn off your kitchen light
Tie the trash up in its’ bag
Open every window wide and
Let your house breathe

Feel the winds of Faith rush in.

Memories

oncewewere
i thinkiwas
i thinkyouwere
whenwefirstmet
so youngandfrail
of smiles and thrills
of skininskin
new sinsconnected

i thinkiwas
i thinkwewere
inclosetooclose
youme youme
when once we were
but   sooner     became
a           memory              kept
for              days                  like                  these

- from Death

from Death
in magnificent capacity
with vigorous tenacity
brought forth and placed here
at our feet
this blessing

the promise of a
swelling soul

Reduction

I bet you still sleep on the
right side of the bed with
cold sweats & shivers waking you
    up now & again

I bet you still reach for the
rind of my body
wanting to peel your way into the
    fruit of my soul

Your drug, I always have been
What will you ever do without me ?
Your addiction already reduced you
    Look at you - you filth !

Love or lovely demon
Frenzied little-one accurst
I see you now in the slops of hell
    And pity you at your worst.

Risen vii

I have come here now to be with you
I have escaped through the barbed wire fencing
I have eluded the high night watchmen
I have snaked through the grass on my belly
I have swam through swamps of shit & piss
I have doffed my tattered clothing
I have cleaned up nicely to be with you
I was down
I have risen

Reclaim me.

Risen vi

Proper Sunday best
Not an empty seat left in the House
Elbow to elbow along the walls

The good Reverend and his choir
Preach from the hip
Sing from the gut
The congregation praising &
proclaiming
absoluteness

Room to dance
Room for hands to
exaggerate an angel’s flight
Exaltations
Elevations
Not a single soul left grounded

When the choir hits Hallelujah
Half the city block explodes

    He has risen
    Glory, Glory
    He has risen
    Hallelujah

Risen iv

I was there at your birth
begging you to breathe
And you did
And we cried for the
first time
together

I was there when you
spoke
begging you to stretch those
sounds into
words
And you did
And we smiled

I was there when you
thought you could
stand
And you did

I was begging you to
hold on

I was afraid
you might
fall

And you have
And I’m here
And I’m begging you
Sweet child
to Rise

And you will

I’ve seen you
do it all
before.

Risen iii

The innocence of you
stirs from sleep
with hums & purrs
and overtones sweetly
pitched in fifths of
morning’s wavering roots

A prelude to an opus
I’ve entitled: The Rise Of You

Risen

It’s a time of
rising
The volumes of the
city
The early songs of
nature
My body from its’
ashes

Rise again
slowly
A feeling of
recovery
A new freedom
found
From the shed of old
skin

karimfakhoury.deviantart.com/

The Palm of Your Hand

I have no fear of Death
I’m cupped in comfort in the palm of your hand
The winds aloft swirl violently above me
Your blood’s in magma flow below

Maintaining root, I bloom here often
A valley of one in elysian peace
But clench your fist if I should wrong you
And the palm of your hand becomes my grave.

- poetry

poetry
she awakens me
it wasn’t a dream
after
all

Daydreaming

It’s best to let someone talk
when they’re hurting
So I didn’t say much,
I just sat there and
listened to her…

" My thoughts don’t dance when I miss him…
  When we're together  - yes, they do
  They dance, they twirl, they get
  giddy and lose balance…
  But when I miss him
  they seem to retract to the corners,
  reside in the shadows of uninviting places…

    - Is there a color for Hope?
  I saw yellow once
  but it was only a flash…
  I wound up staggered,
  left eddied in its’ residual…

    - I want to have Hope, I just
  don’t know where to grasp…
  Maybe in the summer - yes!
  I’ll see him in the summer…
  Summer is always filled with
  long flowing yellows… "

And with that, there was silence
And eventually…  daybreak
Without changing an expression
her head fell towards the sun
  She was the light
  She was a shadow
She was a neutral state of Beauty
entering daydreams filled with color
desperately detached from
black-n-white.

used with permission/source: elisabethlaurenisalive.tumblr.com

Mother's Hands

I held her hands as a child
I had to reach up for them
Sometimes I stretched so high my
feet left the ground
Little skips or flying over puddles
Over bugs
Sometimes I think
I even pulled her down

I shoved them away as I got older
Sometimes I shoved so hard they
must have felt broken
and bruised
I never turned around to
see how she was
I never asked if she was hurt
I never offered to help

Those hands never quit on me
They kept reaching out
to lift me over troubles
to help me take flight
They healed from my abuse and
came back stronger
Time & time again
They kept coming back

Sometimes I dream I’m lying in a field
There are no flowers
No wind in my hair
No sky up above
No hills, no valleys
The field is made smooth
no matter where I lie

Just smooth,
And a comfort
of perpetual warmth.

Highlights

Nothing but the past right now
Old cards
Memories
Mementoes

I tried to highlight the
words you wrote that
meant the most

I was blinded
by
yellow

http://www.buttoncompany.co.uk/media/catalog/category/Mac_Yellow.jpg

Bloom

New flower
now
I see you bloom

With all my heart
loud
When with words
fresh petals perfume
& scream your name

Love !

Was there
ever
anything
else?

skytiger.deviantart.com

Describing Beauty

Every artist ran to their craft
the moment she entered the room

Beauty blended blithe musings
   music to poems
   poems to paintings
   paintings to sculptures
   sculptures to dance
Inspired silence
Caught up in her draft

She left us
still undefined.

unknown original source

Truth

the Truth is, Truth is transient
Glorified Beliefs on mobile pedestals

the Truth is, Truth is preceded by
parades of doubt before it’s declared

the Truth is, Truth’s getting smaller
Quarks & photons now oscillating strings

the Truth is, Truth is a liar
I used to love you, now I couldn’t care

Truth is oblique
Truth’s a ghost made of sulfur
Truth’s a spiral
a maze, an implosion

the Truth is, I have
no idea what the Truth is
Maybe, the Truth
just isn’t

original source not found

Snow

Come to me on a Sunday morning in Winter
Come from a traveled distance I’ll never know
Come through winds & depths of snow
  that’ve withered your smile
  and weighed upon your boots

  Flushed & famished
Keep coming to me
As the howling wolves pick up your scent
Keep coming to me
As your heavy steps crack the thin ice
  Keep coming to me

I will be waiting for your brumal whisper
I will be anxious to lighten your load
I will reclaim your ice-blue heart
from Winter’s grip & Calamity’s bluff

I will be waiting
Keep coming to me
I will be patient
Keep coming to me
I will be holding the
  first days of Spring
  for the sweet sight of you
Keep coming to me

  And as you arrive
See the hillsides melt
Feel the crisp air soften
Hear the cracklings of thaw
  Know that you are home
And good love’s still waiting
In the last drift of snow
In a depth you’ll never know.

http://butterflyjman.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/3062807-lg.jpg

You, the sea

You, 
the sea

It’s your shallows that
allured me

Charmed me to your
middle
where I sustain an
equilibrium

Intrigued by the
mysteries of your
d
e
e
p

source: caitlinworthington.com

a Journey into you

Journey across intercostal spaces
Centering to the sternum
Down linea alba
The white line south to a
roundabout navel
Feathery kisses and a
circling tongue

Invoking a moan and the
first signs of surrender
I position my thumbs over
inguinal canals
Resting palms
Wrapping fingers
Breathing warmth upon
unfolding petals

Mons glistening
silk cavern
anticipating
my arrival

I
do
not
disappoint

- for Tara

At night we were a flock heading east away from everything

(This isn’t a simile, no Like or As, This is fact)

We were a flock in fighter formation
V-shaped wingmen
An arrow through the city

We settled for smokes on the Broward County beaches
I caressed your thigh before the rise of the moon
I can still smell your neck
Still feel the blond curls of your hair on my face
And the reach of your hand

We isolated ourselves in sea turtle bunkers
No flight plan submitted
No intended returns

The rest of the scene was a glow from the moon was a sheen on your breast was a soft place for tides

The rest of my life’s been a memory at best been that moment your lips couldn’t incarcerate that sigh.

unknown original source

Hired Help

I hired a few shadows to 
cover me this morning but 
they’re letting me 
down
I can still see my toes & there’s 
sunlight on my
scapula
The heat of it is 
scorching with
blowtorch
precision
Like the accuracy you 
displayed when you 
peered through the
scope
Took aim at my
heart
and shot those 
bullet words through the 
center
I’d hire more shadows but
morning’s depleting the
talent pool
Just enough grey lines to
bandage the 
wound you left open from
Goodbye.

marileekeys.com/shadows on bed

Dirty Sexy Hunter

No, no pretty love today
Let’s dirty sex it up a bit
Tie it down Lick the rim Bite the center
Splash in sins we’ve yet to break
Slip over me Slip onto me and slip away
Recover quick
I’m ready again
The hunter & the
hunted.

wallpaper, unknown original source

Refill

a poem
a scratch mark
pulling skin makes it
bleed
truer words trickle out
fill the cartridge
better ink.

my photo / my stuffs

If I Fall

If I fall
I want to fall from the
highest point

Crush the ground
Absorb the shock
Feel the pain
Get up, brush
off, and get on with
life

Back to the 
climb.

http://hdw.datawallpaper.com/space/mountain-top-space-walk-297950.jpg

Entrances

photo: Thomas J Abercrombie/National Geographic

To flow like a

river

Down from wet

mountain

And fuck the

sea

To burst like the

sun

Across clean

nothingness

And ignite the

seed

To penetrate a

heart

Rephrase its’

chorus

And amplify the

beat.

Not Well

The next time you see me I will
not be well
I’ll have aged a hundred years for each
day you’ve been gone
My eyes will be turgid
Inflated with tears
My body will have atrophied
Been reduced to limp flesh
My nights will be horrific
Filled with agonies & torments &
restless hours longing for your
voice, your
smile

My dreams will be
hell-guided flights through
vacuities, Great
voids, Great
distances will be
keeping us apart

Come sit by my side when you
see me this way
Pray for me, Stay with me for
just a little while
And when you must go, please
walk away firmly
Before your sweet scent
fills me once again
with new
life, new
hope

I have no desire to
live like this
again
And suffer
twice.

Agony by Liz Viztes. source: fineartamerica

In a poet's mind

It's nice around here
I wish you were here to see it
There's a different way the moon glows
A different temperature to the sun
The stars are stars, Still
shining where they should
But each one's a Concept, And
at will, in reach

Come here
Let me show you new
neurons of pleasure
Come exhale your existence and
breathe in new life

Look now
See how your
eyes have abandoned these
fallacies
These borders

Isn't everything now
infinite?

capturedphotos.tumblr by Paolo Nacpil

Somehow

Somehow
like the sound of little voices
breaking morning air
Or simply just the thought of it

Or somehow
like the quench of tepid sunrise
Or just the sight of it

Ensconced between a pillow &
a dream

Somehow the ocean moves
or simply just the feel of it

Or somehow
simply
you.

Rondiscenza.com_peaceful

Just Once

Bloom for me once

Just once,
  stolid Love

And all of my seasons
  shall sustain you.

Maria by MPL Studios photographed by Alexander Feodorov

3 poems for A.K.M. in PSL (if you're ever here)

No Fault Of Flowers

It was a fledgling's wish
& I should have known
better,
A cowardly attempt to
summons your
attention

Believe me,
Love,
If we ever come
together,
A kiss will
explain what those
flowers tried to
deliver.

http://data3.whicdn.com/images/107532784/large.jpg 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I Shall Be Yours

Talk to the

wind

To the slightest

current

The formidable

gust

The narrowing

trough

Speak of your

love

At the base of a

funnel

In the lift of an

updraft

During storm

formations

Claim me as

yours

and sweet words shall

part

Like dandelion

seeds

from a gossamer

ball

Talk to the

wind

Speak of your

love

Claim me as

yours

And I shall

be.

unknown original source

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One Word

I only need to hear her say

one word,

It's a simple word,

It's the first word I ever knew of her

It was there next to her picture

It was a tender, compassionate picture

It was a picture that told me 

everything I needed to know about

who she was,

where she had been &

where she wanted to go

It was hurt and longing and desire and hope

And it was a simple greeting

from a trained fighter 

looking to take on the world

But it was that word,

That simple word that

said it all

And if she ever speaks

It's the only word she'll have to say

to enter my heart

a simple "Hey".