Black clouds writhe, winter dancing Waka Waka
tumultuous River flows where rainbow trout jump
far in distance she waved with our babe
now both are gone with orange Spring daisies
my legs become logs in this turmoil of liquid
Remembrance ~
Remembrance ~
let legs do the walking across the dried up River
where orange Spring daisies bloom nevertheless
women with babes walk slowly along its banks searching for buried Love letters
primitive trout have laid down their backbones
Waka Waka is unnecessary ~ the war is no more
Wars continue across the planet unabated
human spines under bushes or frying eggs
Love still rules the roost at varying depths
babes are both fat and starving
daisies but for one day orange and white
Rivers run torrents of tears at Spring
he watches rugby team doing a Waka Waka
Remembrance ~
woven into nervous networks with dances
____________________________________
Jazzy brassy voice
I scream in blue tones
I dance to fill the void
Buttons like backbones
I’m the woman you love
Can’t get me off your mind
I sing with your every touch
Improv I drink like wine
Word choices: Nouns - Yoke, Heart
Verbs - Eclipse, Erase
Adjectives - Tender, Cold
Carrying yokes on their necks
To erase the hereditary poverty
That eclipsed them for so long,
With strong will in their hearts,
Hiding pain under tender smile,
Struggling together day and night,
Indifferent to heat and cold,
Minding not hunger and slumber,
Our grandparents and parents,
The backbones of our family,
Burning their lives like candles,
Taught us an invaluable lesson -
“In the midst of darkness, light persists!”
2nd place
Baby birds
Tucked in warm pew-nests
Mouths agape to catch
masticated lies
Rather than growing
Mature enough to bake
The bread of life
Frightened animals
Leaving blinders on
So our blind leader
We can trust and believe
Rather than being
brave enough to look
At truths before unseen
Scorpion stung prey
Backbones turning to mush
With the poison venom of
What we want to hear
Rather than standing strong in
The boots and armor
Of Truth we should wear
Feathery clouds, cotton candy castles, whispery wind,
My heart craves for the state of mind and existence as Clouds.
Giants asleep, guardians of valleys, backbones of earth,
My wisdom craves for the state of persona as Mountains.
Whispers through canyons, the lifeblood of the land, journeys without end,
My energy craves to embrace life like gushing Rivers.
Sapphire giants, cradles of life, canvases for sunset,
My passion craves for the whispers so deep as Oceans.
Burning, broken bridges
are fixed when fighters faint.
Learners lothe their limits,
but painters pick their paint.
Builders break their backbones
so we can wonder and wait,
but city skyline sights
ramp a ridiculous rate.
Waiting wasn't working,
so someone sings a song.
It hurts the hearts of heroes
and those what wanted wrong.
We win this war together;
on devils, don't depend.
No one here knows nothing.
Fight with us 'til the end.
You can draw with the yellow ink
while I draw with the green one
Take your yellow ink
and you will sketch the islands of:
Grand Bahama, Abaco, Cay Sal Bank
Bimini, Berry Islands, Andros,
New Providence and Eleuthera
against the dark skin of my backbone
Now I will take my green ink
and will sketch the islands of:
Exuma, Cat Island, Long Island,
Rum Cay, San Salvador,
Conception Island,
Acklins, Mayaguana,
Crooked Island, Samana Cay,
Ragged Island, Little and Great Inagua
against the light skin of your backbone
Finally we both will take our inks
of azurite shades of blue
will shade in the bodies of:
The Great Bahama Bank
The Little Bahama Bank
The Tongue of The Ocean
Exuma Sound, The Bight of Acklins
and the Florida Straits
against the flesh and backbones
of each other like human canvases
together forming a unique
little archipelago chain of our very own
to embrace the proud Bahamians
we are both on the inside
January digs deeper into snow drifts.
Chill fingers cripple backbones,
make us walk like matchstick men.
February is just a name we give to tomorrow,
as if we could open that icebox
to see if the sun still rises over un-seeable horizons.
Time drags, then of a sudden, pushes us into snowfields
sprinkled with concrete daffodils.
very early right after I lost everything
that day was born with me scared in the woods
refuge of one who has forgotten the padded way
of his own sanity
feeling cold without sun rays or comforting thoughts
the menacing shadows freeze your soul
every sound is a monster that comes to get you
the falls wounded legs and arms
the back in pain is nothing
when the hunger erupts absurd
on the chaotic horizon of your needs
I fell to the damp ground were dead leaves rot
centennial elm sap flows and writes in its crimp trunk:
"Calm down because you are in your home
you can assume a fetal position and cry alone"
the anthill right there was teeming with life
the ants near my mouth I ate
while the others I chased with my eyes
maybe spend the rest of the worlds here
turning me into an old trunk
in the carcass of a wild animal
in fact I am and we are backbones
I am and we are in our deserved place
may be astounding
often gets the heart pounding
this life which we lead
spiraling onward
in expanding cosmic sea
the planet and we
we carry the backbones
our genes allow to be grown
free standing not prone
eschewing timeworn
helping concepts to be born
egos we adorn
rehashing the past
brings relief which does not last
anger rises too fast
beyond good reason
some humans hope to squeeze in
a full afterlife
searching for a role
wanting not half but the whole
how fragile this soul
life but one small blip
upon eternity's tip
a truly short trip
no one avoids death
everyone takes one last breath
reference Macbeth
and yet in the end
while there is still time to spend
this life pleases me
households lurch
creak unmoored
hulls rocking
the twang of whip lashed rigging
as electric wires stretch
pull up clods
yards of plantings
where once roots clutched
bricked-up aluminum
long jacked-up boards
swirl and bloat
bed-springs shiver off
unwinding sheets
the dumbfounded foaming
of absconding pillows
bedrooms fall out
of plunging submarines
chests and draws
shedding a put away sundry
then the roll and billow
baffle and muddle
the face-up exposure
of everyday innards
sweeps by
riding the backbones
of the up-turned
the bowled over
hard to fathom
that a river of storm clouds
could move all this
manifold clutter
the cheesy and cherished
dumping down clumps
into wet clay models
of any new address
Glorious God that grips and grabs the heart of great grandees
Who wangled on the walk-way of war and wastage
They truly troubled me and I trembled tremendously
But HE breaks their backbones bits by bits without blinking
Salute shrew sire for saving me from shackles of slavery
Darkness dig deep distracting and dragging me to death
Praise the potter who put past pest problems to rest
Father of faith fraternized freedom for fraudulent friends
Covering and cleansing concise minds; cutting corrupt cabals
Made me mode my life much more than male mugger ..
8-28-2020
Yes, yes I forgive you.
I reach, eyes closed, for your naked paws;
for are you not faithful? Like a dog you wait
and I bless you now for your patience.
Mother comes out of you, father to,
and my son makes a cradle for me
with his elegant fingers.
Many backward facing faces
lead me to our surrender -
I to the undercroft and unknowable clouds,
and you to these steps I have carved
into my ancestral backbones
where time has climbed its hand-made ladder.
Yes, I see you now,
you are no longer mist or miasma,
but clear of eye as an infant,
for yes, you are a mirror.
Let me not die this night, and if it must be night
let it be your tomorrow night.
Soon I must pass into that looking-glass
where all is birthed, even death
and all that I have known
will be recorded there, and all that I have forgot
will be remembered.
I will not call you: future, present or past,
If I so thought, or did so call
then there would be no womb for me
in the ever ripening cosmos
of that which has yet to be yet.
JOBLESSNESS!
Oh joblessness, you aweful, aweful thing!
I know you again and the misery you bring.
Never do you keep away for long, do you?
You evil doer, a form of a devilish
mind, you seek to demise the good of mankind.
You are not a child of the Earth, but a weapon
against it. You shall not grow and those who nurture you
reap what they sow; they too, your fodder and foe.
A pacer you made me, from door to door, besotted am
I to even the score. But, whoa! I am not poor! Be still so
the great book does say, for I am God, and will make a way
Your enemy will triumph over you, you evil thing!
Employerbility! Rear to my mind, but I kept you away,
The slander, the lies, the witchhunt, the callousness of your way,
your masters, without backbones know what to say.
Bitter am I for the future is bleak, they chose my words
And I could not speak. Friends do say, you come and go,
How long you last, I shall never know.
Alpha and Omega
The reality is that I love men.
They are perfect, just as they are.
Not always doing as they are supposed to do.
Not paying attention to fears that are false.
Strong backbones, fierce fighters for right,
and assailants to all wrong.
Fixing things, making things, creating.
God loved Adam,
and he was made in His own image.
What a glorious fact.
Woman, taken from the side of man,
to be close, loved and cared for.
What a precious gift.
The two become one.
A circle is complete.
A family is born.
Children the blessing.
For some if not all.
The greater gift,
the spiritual walk,
with each other,
through life,
and its ups and downs.
Depending on God in all things,
knowing that He is with you...
both.
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