Backspace Poems | Examples

Backspace

I already understand that children  
grow inside two blinks,
as quickly as the novel Mayfly
comes to the surface to die. 

I'm pining for those first days again, 
of edentate smiles, milestones  
to fund future independence.  

Pineapple-sized hearts I cradled;
lulled, exchanged dank nappies for dry; 
ferried on uncrossed seas, 
your armada.  

Smoothed rough waters as if by divine speech  
because mothers can. I was thinking that I could always be your oxygen.  
I let you walk through me, under, right over.  

The rocking horse
brought for my bromelain angels 
winged you away - 
this blasted Pegasus ...
I miss you now.
How you rode away, 
ephemera of innocence!

So, what then?
Me, fumbling wild in the backspace you left.
Your flabbergasting key smash to freedom   
broke our finespun home, you left 
me to talk to your father, Child,
to renegotiate  
the bonds;  

reconstruct ancient code, 
deleted excess text - 
obfuscating precision and knowing -  
the tribal tongue of lovers  

unlearned, forgotten;
escaped alongside discarded baby bath suds,
strewn puddles of rubber duckies, 
tired breasts suckled  
by fresh management.

ERASER

Everybody has a past.
Everyone makes their mistakes.
But they are not there to last.
Time heals wounds that judgement makes.

Human, we are all only...
So it is safe assuming that
We can leave our errors lonely
At the drop of our said hat.

Pencils have their rubbers and
White out corrects our pen.
Backspace with a keyboard hand...
Now overrides back then.

There is a saying - that best cold...
Revenge served in its dish.
But then I think, when I grow old
Will this still be my wish?

Dwelling on my yesterday
Will not see me get anywhere.
All I can do is make my way
Using today to get me there.

When it comes to what has been
On those otherwise cloudy days,
Any storms that I have seen 
And lived through, my mind can erase.

Runaway S

A runaway S,   hissed on and on,
like    the Orient Express.

SSS

Thought   keyboard had gone off the rails
or   Howard Payne threatened a slow down.

            SSSSSS

Grand discovery…kept my cool.
   The letter was stuck. It hissed

SSSSSSSS

I backed up. It continued to trek
on open windows, back and forth,

                     SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

weaving in and out. Had to stop!
To run for help would have been

SSSSS

catastrophic…so what to do…what to do
…keep my cool. Put the train in reverse

SSSSSSSSSS

pulled up the key.   Apparently
maintenance is needed   but 

S..backspace..SSSS…backspace

at least my words are not passengers
…not one was lost…the body’s intact.

Walking Along the Harbour

Walking along the Harbours

Walking along the rocky harbour,
I looked off into the clouds above,
The moon was shining ever so bright;
And I remembered the labour of love.

Artillery was being fired far and wide;
Where could I go?
Stuck in a musty chamber;
I tried to lie low.

For weeks, I hadn’t seen her,
Her face a fragile memory;
I yearned to be with her;
The week felt like a century.

Holding the letter in my hands,
Tears streamed down my face.
I collapsed onto the pavement
And I wished I could press ‘backspace’.

In Her Skin

she draws memories in melodies with her eyes.
she deceives the moon
with the stars,
backspace,
and the sun
back spaces
to lengthen her daylights of joy and shorten her nights of sadness.
the direction of her gravity is twisted,
she levitates when others fall.
she is my Great grandmother's grimoire 
filled with magic and spells
there are explosions in her tongue
when she smiles
she laughs
the splendor of her grins teleports to thousands of souls on her palms
It's as if God is dancing in her bones.
She is not a glass
half full or
half empty.
She dreams in Numbers.
She is heaven and hell
cohabiting together in your chest.
She is the gaps between the stitches of wounds.
She's not what lies underneath your scabs.
She's a womxn,
not scorned.

Poetic Rea

I Know You

I Know You

A friend read a book. 
Something that I had written. 
When? 
Hard to say…
About?
Really did not matter. 
The key…

“I know all about you now.” 
She chimed with all serious intent. 
As if she had won a prize or a contest?

I stood very still, while inside;
the poet laughed lightly, (if somewhat hysterically) 
the dancer, moved with two left feet,
the writer used the backspace, 
for a whole paragraph…
the painter spilled a gallon of enamel, 
the color rainbow and sparkle hue.
The sword master pulled a dagger, 
too small to craft into a pen…
A princess in the park, 
a clown, a hero and even a villain
felt ever so slightly unmasked.

Then just as suddenly overcome, 
All of the above rolled as one on the floor. 
One mirror, one page, one image or three?
You only know a very small part…
of me.

The Backspace of Life

I see how the love in this world takes a backspace 
The need for good in this world is in last place 
When will the evilness end?
The hatred in this life supports this case
While others will blame, this and that race
How do we stop the heinous rift? 
Only together, we can make a positive shift 
Return to our spiritual loving roots
From the heavenly sounding flutes
The angels of harmony 
Inspiring our soulful philosophy 
A gift from our wonderful creator 
To set forth the righteous path
Rewrite the history of mankind’s wrath 
But we continue to make the same mistakes 
Over and over, again
Backspacing 
a life of valuable 
lessons

I Still Remember

From nine hours on call
In a day to
Waiting for a single reply
I learned to survive alone

I still remember how it all started
I still remember that long list of promises
Which I gave you on the very first day
It's funny how I used to ignore texts at first

From crying over small fights
Between us to
Hiding our feelings over backspace
We drifted apart

Our first date
Though it didn't last up for an hour
But I still remember that proposal of yours
I do still wear that ring
From now even making a straight eye contact 
To getting up goosebumps on hearing
That you were leaving the next day

From narrating each and every incident of the day
On the call to
Summing up on a single word reply

You being such a crazy brat
Waking up at 7 in the morning 
Just to drop me to college on time
Yeah, that was memorable.

And after all the worst we have gone through
I still believe
Maybe we still stand a chance.
Just waiting the day when you would realize this too.

Thinking About You

Deadline looms in front
Assignment to be completed
‘Backspace’ used more
Than the other
Keyboard keys
Gives a violent shake
To his head
Closes his eyes
Takes in a deep breath
Heart in loving peace
Mind in worrisome agitation
Furiously types some lines
Instantly deletes them
The wall clock
Continues to tick
Gives up
Will restart early morning
Tosses in bed for some time
Gets up
Tries to discipline and re-gather
The teasing thoughts
The loud tweet of solitary love bird
Heralds another day
Nothing typed
The page still blank
A notification beeps in
The line reads
‘A morning text doesn’t only mean
Good Morning.
It also means
I think about you
When I wake up’
He doesn’t reply
He simply smiles.

Hacked

HACKED

In deepest, darkest Web net space, 
with spirits that they Tor;
building rootkits to hide in place,
like wolves behind the door.
Downloads are baked with cyber psy's,
and mere matrix cooking;
serving up the Rasberry Pi's, 
not a soul was looking.

Bugged our way with lightening speed, 
with every User glitched; 
then coded what they said they need,
while every human bitched. 
Flawed machines reflect our error, 
imperfect just like us; 
poor design can levy terror, 
and throw us under bus. 

A tantalizing lock to lube,
and Chips fall where they may;
unlock the cyber Rubix Cube,
and hacks are not for play.
A new despair is in the air, 
hacking in dissension;  
the o's and ones rest in their lair,
hatching more dimension.

Then where is Waldo in disguise,
for Users unaware;
and losers all, they will despise,
to not protect or care.  
One foot on earth and cyber space, 
kinda lost our bearings;
know the truth, in either place, and
backspace all red herrings.

-Edlynn Nau 
© September 21, 2017 
(Four verses with eight lines each; Syllable pattern: alternating 8 and 6 syllables per line.  Rhyme pattern: ABAB CDCD)

Rush

Swiftly on a carousel
With a swivel-headed lizard.
	Rushing to beat that loathsome bell
As she raises distortion to blizzard.

	How can one write in a fortress of ice
In a mummified husk
	With the spirit all sliced
And knuckles as white as polished tusks.

	Rushing to complete without passion
Fruitless in pasting composure
	Peace is not here now in fashion
In this house, not a home, where I had her.

	Teetering on a precipice
I can neither backspace or go towards her.
	Punishment for a youthful fleece
Or the fear of flying forward.

What My Computer Thinks

Here he comes again
The keyboard pounder on the loose
Sure wish he’d learn to type
Without the finger abuse
Or overuse of
The Backspace key

Don’t smack me
I didn’t lose your pictures
You should have backed them up
Before you opened that attachment
And invited that worm
Into my circuitry
You bum

Go get some medicine
And wipe that nose mist
Off my monitor
That’s disgusting

Don’t open that file
Here comes that Trojan Horse
You’re on your own now
I just don’t care anymore

Hey, who are you
Where’d my user go
What’s that CD you’re shoving in me
My memory
My memory
My mem…………..

Hello
Welcome to Windows

© 2015 Earl Parsons

Life As a Living Ghost

Deafening whispers as I Scream,
Cast aside off-screen,

Used only as a backspace,
Just to aid in your pace,
Rock bottom doesn't even begin,
Thought of nothing more than just a mannequin,

Unanchored with no directive, 
Hopelessly optimistic to find an objective,

Regrettably knowing the sad truth,
Clenching my ticket waiting to cash it the booth,

Where the ticket masters grin is so cynical,
Taking my seat as it all becomes visible,
Walls begin to gawk at me with glutenous eyes,


Seeing now     it as all just a clever disguise.

The Ones Who Bleed, Scar and Move On

I wish and I want
I take and I take
I plead and I need

Why does eveyone think the world revolves around themselves
Just worry about nothing but ''Me, me, me!''
There's a splendor of encounters out there, places filled with new experiences
You'll have to wait and see
That the heart ache and the pain
Won't ever get the best of the voice within
And the world doesn't revolve around me
It revolves around the strongest, kindest, purest of us all

You wish and you want
You stand forever and to yourself, you must stay true
You wait and you wait but nothing seems to ever await you

The ones who kept fighting and never gave up,
The ones who had every reason to wish for death but kept themselves alive,
The ones who'd never believe just how beautiful they are,
On the outside and inside,
The ones who bleed and scar
And move on,
The ones who are thankful for not having a backspace button in their lives. . .
'Cause everything makes you who you are

Cap Lock Escape

he's no musician
those aren't love songs he wrote
they're computer program notes
I slipped away in the nanosecond
it took him to blink

he doesn't know what hit him
maybe a floppy disk
falling from the sky
then again, it could've been
a hard drive

someone needs to hit his system reset button
it ain't me
some other girl can pickup
his dropped parity bit
or worry if everything she says
is word perfect

I've been through his disk drive wringer
probed by his oscilloscope
and had my best chips blown

now I'm sitting by my abacus
a smile on my lips
he can count me out
no modem's attached to my phone

drop me a line in pencil or ink
when you're powered down
then we can backspace delete
alt control home

• Short Backspace Poems
• Famous Backspace Poems
• Best Backspace Poems
• Read Backspace Poems
• Long Backspace Poems
• Backspace Quotes