Just A Dream

The best dream
Is where I wake up
With someone in my arms,
A warm body pressed against mine,
Heartbeat to heartbeat,
Cool breath on my skin.

The worst dream
Is where I wake up
And realize it’s just a dream.

(41 words)

Friday Night

Friday night laundry
Is tinted with the scent of
Aches and pains chamomile salt
And post-ninjitsu tiger balm.

Friday night supper is
Handfuls of cheerios
Between staccato bursts of typing,
Fingertips on flat silver keys.

Friday night romance is
Harvesting memories from YouTube,
Liquid crystal music and lyrics and
Two boys with guitars.

(54 words)

Mal a la Tête

Lightning in the temples
And storm-clouds in the brain-stem -
The imperfect end to an otherwise
Normal day.

Hammers on the cranium,
Tap-dancing on the occipital bone,
Sharp flashes of sunlight
On bare optic nerves.

Darkness is the answer,
The skeleton key in a rusty lock
Of a treasure chest overflowing
With moonstone and dreams.

A blanket over the face,
A shroud over the corpse.

It’ll be gone in the morning.

(73 words)

Hiding From

There are so many places to go,

but today I’ll hide in a song.

Let the lyrics be blood

rushing through each vein,

ringing true in both my head

and my heart.

Let the beat slide neatly into

place, a pulse to push me

on.

I’ll move to the melody,

animate my lifeless corpse,

nerves twitching with delight.

My soul knows that

tomorrow

I may not be able to breathe

deep in harmonies and chords.

But today I hide here.

I pretend that life is as simple

as a solitary song.

(91 words)

Forgetting

One weary step following another,
Pressing forward day after day.
Rest on one hand, toil on the other,
Restless feet, I can not stay.

Something drives me forward,
My joy left far behind.
Ignored.
As I journey in my mind.

Deprivation

It’s lead in my bones that
Creep, creep, creeps up my limbs
To press its fingertips against my eyelids
And push them closed.

It’s the whisper of dreams in my ear,
Of castles on clouds and knights
Advancing on ranks of shambling zombies.

It’s the gentle, easy slide
Of Morpheus’s arms around my waist
To ease me down, down, down
To fall asleep.

On my laptop.
While my palms press random letters
Across the screen of my survey report.

It’s the groan of malcontent when
The rest of my brain reminds me I’m at work and
It’s my own fault for staying out so late last night.

(107 words)

Stream

Every part of me is

breaking

and the words refuse

to come out right

or wrong

or none at all

I wish I could fix it

I wish I could tell her

how stupid she is

for giving up a gift

that I sometimes wished

for

but that is not what he

needs

what she needs

I am a force caught

in

between

fighting a losing battle

with no way out

but to listen

and offer precarious

words of wisdom

that I do not know

if I even believe

so bury my heart

next to his

because sympathy

is all I have to give.

(104 words)

Childhood

In my heart of hearts,
When I was a child,
I too believed in love.

When I was a child,
I believed in the kind of things
that just don't exist.

Dragons and Unicorns hiding;
just over the hill.
And a knight in armor to save me.

When I was a child,
I believed in the fairytale.


(Again, not what I really wanted, but it's just not flowing today.)

Afternoon Contentment

Afternoon contentment is
The warmth of a laptop against my thighs
While the screen flashes
Arena lights
And crystalline guitar notes
Spill from the tiny speakers,
Rock’n’roll thrum and the teenage angst of
I don’t want you to want me.

Afternoon contentment is
The slick slide of needle between fingers
And coloured cotton against fingertips
A string of knots to form flowers and suns,
Stars and a smile.

Afternoon contentment is
The clacking of keyboard keys
And rhymes coming alive
Black on white,
Stark and bright.

Afternoon contentment is
The city skyline against a periwinkle sky
Peeking through blue curtains
And sunlight shining on
A day’s work done.

Never Fully Bloom

It unfurls in my chest,
A shaking, shivering
Blossom,
Blue petals curled and
Heavy,
Wet from the spring of new life.
It sighs in a breeze of
Want,
Sudden and unexpected
As a ray of sunlight between storm clouds.

I water it with smiles exchanged and
The subtle warmth of his elbow
Against mine,
A chance glance into blue eyes and a casual
I’ll walk you to your car.

But it will never fully bloom,
Will linger, withered and bent
Beneath the weight of
Pages and words,
Statutes and precedents.

Beneath a shower of velvet-striped robes and
Flying caps
It will breathe its first - or last.

(107 words)

The Ghost

Ethereal, floating

on the wind,

nothing could touch you.

Nothing to feel.

And nothing would hurt you.

A ghost,

you slip past existence.

Pushing through,

passing on.

With no one to say your name.

Keener senses

cannot lie.

A muffled cry,

and whispers in the dark.

I can still feel you.

You search for something

as I, unable to fill that wanting

void,

stumble quietly through grief.

Do not despair, you will say.

For I am neither living, nor dead.

Just a ghost.

(83 words)

Uncertain

How to express all that I feel;
to make myself understood.
Would you understand,
if I just came out and said it?
A delicate waltz of hints that
protect a fragile soul.
Faltering steps, drawing near and pulling away.
Shifting like a tower of Jenga;
one false move will send it to the ground.




(I'm not sure what is expected from this challenge exactly, so I am expecting the first few days to be a bit rough before I fall into the swing of it.)

Project Assignment #35 - Nothing More Than Feelings

Let's dive back into my element once again... poetry.

We should each write a poem every day conveying a different emotion. I seem to get stuck in a rut of only writing poems that are sad or confusing, etc. So let's branch out. Let's write some happy stuff, some angry stuff... you know what I'm trying to say.

Let's cap the word limit at 200 words. It can be shorter though if you want. Some of the best poems are only a few lines long.

Sorry for my constant disappearing act...

Overview #34: Hands

This week's assignment was hard. I think I did learn from last week's assignment, because I resisted the urge to go crazy detailed on a set of hands. I returned to the Carolyn-verse even though, in sudden retrospect, it would have been much easier to go mainline Dagaz because I have more than enough characters to fill up a week. By the time I got to the end of this week, I realized the problem with having six days in a writing week and only five main characters, so I had to take a quick readers' poll (thanks to Jade for deciding that Clay needed some love) and write the final piece.

I learned how to focus a very short, tight plot around a single image without (hopefully) letting the image override the plot. I took this as a chance to explore the brothers Summers in their lives now that they're no longer Four Times Summer (although any helpful hints for a more decent band names are welcome). It was fun to explore what they do, even though it would seem that none of them are really all that happy. (I do have a problem with that sort of thing, don't I?) I surprised myself with some of the hand uses I came up with. I honestly think I liked Scott's the best this week, but then I have been listening to Allegory of the City all week, so I probably had a better grip on him as a character (I really can't find anything from Lights Out Love to use for Dan. >.<)

We'll see what happens in the coming week.