PAD Day 3 Message Poem
Collected pain drips
from an assortment
of wobbly elbows
until this night’s convergence
of long island tea
and bloody marys
leaves their imprints
far too messed up
for any psychic to read
before the barkeep
wipes the stench away
gathering bits of their souls
into a yellowed sheet
now filled with their piss
and vinegar.
I Learned From the Best of Them
Bent over
in a mocking bow,
he should not
be jealous
of what I know.
For my fingers
know the quick wind
of a knife blade
taunting closer,
in a father’s control
of his child’s fear.
My eyelids know
the pain of closing
while trying
to look straight
ahead.
My back felt the spaces
welt between the bars,
the blackness of blood
on my white sheets.
I knew how
to hold it all inside
until my keyboard grabbed
my fingers tight
and forced them all
to fly away.
Poetic Asides, Poem-a-Day Challenge April 2014
Day 1 – Beginning and Ending Poem
You might see that first drop
hit the windshield,
that splatter of insignificance.
But one small annoyance
will merge with another,
converging into liquid trails
downward, ever downward
heavy with purpose
in an attempt to cover
the whiffs of manure
leaving the farm.
So my futile tears
feed your intolerance,
till there is only a glass
of silence
growing between us.
We ride.
You have become
your arrogance,
a soft dusting of ego,
a pile of hypocrisy
crammed in a jar
with blackened bitterness
and irreverent assertions,
the arrogant intolerance
you would not swallow
in life.
In the end
you are dust,
thick and choking,
a smothering
of all you were.