fragments of memory cling to my skin
like wet cigarette smoke -
rumors of midnight rainstorms
in the flashes of a gaudy neon sign.
mangled wing unfurls like a twisted umbrella
on a desolate highway,
misty landscape of shattered dreams -
foggy-eyed fairness, luminescent pyre, loitering.
phalanges grasping for purchase
on the slick precipice of a ruptured drainpipe,
as the pipe's raucous laughter echoes threw
cypress-lined alleys and deserted highway margins.
blackness of a darkened peep show captious,
a dolphin's perverse smile glint in the darkness,
an afterimage of unadulterated ecstasy,
as it slid its sleek flesh up against the cool glass.
promise of forbidden pleasure,
an octopus's silky tentacles
guiding the dolphin's exploratory tongue,
a slow waltz of surrender.
then snap—!?
punch spine.
floating up before being brought under,
eating its own seed.
The red sky became a dark fading light
across a darkened meadow
where our hands were still visible
as we tried to touch the sky
a star fell cutting through the black canvas
vanishing as quickly as it came
leaving an afterimage in our eyes
we made a wish, but neither would tell
as we lost ourselves in laughter and wine
knowing that tomorrow was far, far away
In this place where joy was captured
the rush of life slowed
and we came to know the quiet bonding of two souls
It was there our lives changed forever
and all that was before became unimportant
as tomorrow was not that far away anymore
I am at a wedding
in Iowa.
She called to tell me
that the orange afterimage
from that afternoon five years ago
has filled her brain for the first time
in years.
I don’t have the heart
to tell her I am at a wedding
in Iowa
& that the memory of her sits
in the front of my mind each day
like a scarecrow in a corn field.
It wouldn’t break her heart
or anything—nothing would,
but I can’t bring myself to tell her that I
have stolen her likeness,
I have hired a gardener, someone to tend
the apricot trees she planted,
someone to prune the ashen dust
from the perennial flowers
that grow in her stead.
Each day I pick one,
and her hips move through the grocery store,
her laugh echoes in a vinyl booth,
her hand moves a pawn one square forward.
I stick it in the windowsill, right
behind my eyelids and slake my thirst
on tepid water.
None of this would break her heart, of course—
nothing would.
I don’t tell her about the wedding, the one
in Iowa, just in case.
with the first peek of dawn
over the marsh
nature rubs the sleep from her eyes
leaving splotches of red, blue, and brown
as an afterimage.
Just so,
the finches, cardinals and jays eat
an early breakfast from the birdfeeder
flying off before the sun
casts the image away with a warm push
Memories of you left an afterimage in my eyes
I found blindness to be a comfort
where darkness dressed in dreary black
and my soul laid its head on my heart's grave
to weep about wishes withdrawn from love's breath
when your footprints faded away
and an open door swung back and forth in the wind
leaving nothing but yesterday's dim-lit realms of shade
in this darkness, I heard Angels cry
from our love's broken bliss of beauty
where tears dropped from eyes of sadness
onto empty palms, that once held love and roses
could that I have cried to someone, somewhere
to be so empty, so helpless
as to dissolve away with every emotion that fled
until my heart became an empty husk
and my world an unwanted withering stem of dead petals
that slowly bent and crumbled, falling to Earth
to land on my knees, brokenhearted
it's where you'll find me
but, you won't find me, for you have gone
and I have become nothing more than a weeping shadow
of shades and sadness filled with memories
that left an afterimage in the eyes
2/25/22
contest Some Broken Hearts Never Mend
sponsor Faraz Ajmal
Sensuality is the wellspring
that feeds passion to the soul
through the deepest depth of desire
that pauses in quiet solitude
before leaving an afterimage in the eyes
where it burns the boundaries of higher senses
when music soft, caresses the ears
through the amber light of dawn, rising
awakening every sense as the eyes search
the welcomed realms of imagined expectations
so the beautiful face that pauses
can look back in joyous yearning
as it becomes the artist that paints the glorious renderings
of a longing gaze that fills the unmeasured distance
between the eyes of lovers
It is the understanding of wants and needs
when passion is worn by the soul
to warm the eyes of love
when they are submerged in the solitude of silent surrender
6/26/20 contest Sensuality
Consciousness filled me.
The dream evaporated from my eyes,
Leaving behind an afterimage of nonsense.
Soon after,
I found control of my limbs;
Wiggling my toes
This way and that.
I stretched my legs as wide as I could.
And that’s when I hit it .
My naked calf brushed
Ever so slightly upon the
Hard
Dead
Creases of
Flesh.
All of a sudden –
I hear exhales unlike my own.
Icy stabs like a harsh, dry rain
Pinching the hairs on my chin, erect.
Faster and faster
The essence escaping my lungs
Climbs through
Muck and gloom
To become another’s oxygen.
A gritty smile
Scrapes against my thin eyelids,
Bundled shut-
Afterimages melding with creeping shadows.
.
“That-
“That nonsense. It was not a dream…”
“It wasn’t.”
"i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go..." ee Cummings
In the silent wondrous wonders of my yearning,
you appeared
as a lasting vision burned deep into my eyes
In the flaming quiet of this moment,
my heart trembled
and love rose like a glorious glow
breaking the darkened horizon of my yesterday's loneliness
like a rising sun that splayed warmth so timeless
as to nourish my soul
and lead me to escape the tideless shores of emptiness
where my lost barren heart had dwelled
for so long
Before the world turned
and your gift of love begets love
to leave an afterimage in my heart
Where promises are laid upon the altar of life
and poems were etched into my soul
to be read like a haunting melody
from the lips of your passions that need to be held
like a precious jewel...forever
11/1/19
contest Writing Challenge, November-Some Kind of Love
Poetry Contest
sponsor Dear Heart-Wiishkobi Ode
It’s the point of no return.
Eyes dive in, swim, drown, refuse rescue.
Denser than black,
fiercer than blood,
a telepathy of purple,
a saturation of half-remembered yearnings.
It’s an incest of shades,
blue impregnating blue a hundred, a thousand times,
until light is aborted,
but its afterimage persists.
It’s a blue cocktail in a blue bar,
into which a lone teardrop
from a woman’s face falls,
but whether of sadness or of joy,
none will know.
It’s a mystery too deep,
an ecstasy too blinding,
a feeling that sears like a dream.
Last night, the "wolf moon's" crepuscular aura glowed.
A luminous peach orb, it hung in its abode
so spectacularly, that I silently slowed
my weekend walk through the willowwacks, while words flowed,
as molten lava from volcanoes would explode.
Its afterimage was like a handsel bestowed,
bewitching in a pulchritudinous yellowed
radiation that etiolated, 'twas stowed
in the recesses of my mind, an episode,
a pageant suspended in mythopoeic mode,
that called out in its classical clarion code -
thoughts emanating from moonlight, my path had showed.
01/14/17
I know you have to leave, so go now, love
I'll be waiting here for you, it's okay-
And missing you doesn't start instantly
Since your presence lingers, for a short time
Like the afterimage on your retina
When you've been looking at a light too long
And see it even after turning away
But after blinking a few times realize
You've been standing alone in the darkness;
Somehow the shadows crept in unnoticed-
They must have snuck in with the cruel silence
That mocks me every time I'm without you
So hurry back to me soon, my sweet love
Come back to me, please, come back to me
You know I wonder, what's our position look like to you?
The emotions we felt for eachother, to you were they ever true?
Nah, you were looking right through, searching for a place to nest
You found my weakness, piled the sticks and layed down for your rest
I gave you my best, at least give me a little recognition
I'm still trying, as you watch me limping, stuck in this position
My skin's itching, find me a cure or leave me to ache
The weight that you've already given is more than I can take
Through my eyes, I saw your presence as another apendage
Now the colors are black and white, the shades of an afterimage
So I stay in this orphanage, hidden behind these walls
I lost the spark to my flame, and drank the gas to it all
How did I fall? I could've swore I was standing straight
But if it's not meant to be, let it be 'cause its fate
And open the gate, to better things let the wind blow
When people step on the fallen leaves, hear the crunch and let go
It's destiny, so let me be free, to fly high
I wanna rest in Heaven, and when the times right I'll glide
But until then, I'm gonna have to learn to survive
And someday I'll feel no pain, until then, I'm alive