Best Assuming Poems
I awake with the question "Am I like my predecessor?"
Automated and fabricated to slave for the oppressor
I join the procession yet I am an orbate transgressor
Dissipated and attenuated with no clear successor
Then I drift into much more lofty domains
With greater rewards yet more precarious terrain
A place where answers can not quite be explained
Where the mind is confounded but the spirit ascertains
Then I shower and shave; I sigh and greet the day
Will it be my chagrin or triumph I put on display?
In my head I have a tempest, in my heart a bouquet
I must choose which one to portray, which one to obey
Audacious by nature
Arrogant idea
Acquiring wrong notions
Assumptive with expect
Argue with someone’s thoughts
Anchor to one's beliefs
Accept without logic
Pleiades - A - Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Kim Merryman
Date Written: August 10, 2016
There once was a man named Keith with perfect lingo
‘Till an unassuming stranger changed his name to Dingo
It blew my mind
It’s so unkind
To fabricate, that he’s an ape, with me she scores no bingo!
I followed the poet thought I was on her team
The naked eye, it makes me cry, that which is unseen
She had me thinking
That he was stinking
Some poets call that feisty, but I call it really mean
Hope was there is seems to me
had i pretended to believe
that out of nothing will appear.
And soon as fast I start to try
to justify things I don't know why.
But my heart it ought to break.
The words you carry were nothing but fake.
now i knock my head on steels
to wake this dream I found so real
I stepped into a church today
And I somehow did not burn.
The congregation looked at me
And I at them, in turn.
I then simply started laughing
And I could not stop the flow.
The situation humored me
Far more than they could know.
I expected God to smite me
And to strike me where I stand
For they had always told me that
The church was holy land
Where outright sinners had no place.
For in church good Christians dwell
And being gay is the sure way
To claim a seat in hell.
I’m assuming God was busy.
Or those Christians got it wrong.
Perhaps they boldly told their tales
And strung the world along.
I guess we’ll never know the truth,
But I somehow now surmise
That even God does not believe
In faulty Christian lies.
I worked 25 years for a company that taught me several valuable lessons, but one has stood far and above all other lessons learned from that company. They taught me to 'check and double-check' and always 'assume nothing'.
I once had a friend who never realized that maybe her preconceived conclusion was not only subconsciously prejudicial but also offensive to me, and whereas I could have been righteously indignant toward her, I chose not to be. She never knew because we never discussed my beliefs about the subject matter. She was an older person set in her ways, and when she spoke in such an uninformed manner, I did not want to set her straight. So both in mind and in my heart, I forgave her of her serious 'lack of understanding'.
Barack Obama was running for president, and my white friend assumed because
I was Black like Obama, I would be voting for him to be president. She assumed wrongly. She lacked understanding about the fact that there are 10% of Blacks who vote 'Republican', unlike the 90% that traditionally vote 'Democratic'. She therefore lacked the understanding of me and my beliefs. She passed on several years ago, never knowing that she offended me. I knew her to be a good person and a personal friend with no offense intended. If I chose to correct every person that offended me, I would be overly busy.
I tell this story because it is very relevant to the times we are presently experiencing. These times are not new, but they continue to surface because we never solve them. At best, we conversate but seldom communicate. We investigate and facilitate, but we fall short of compensating with justice. I learned more from listening to my friend's discourse than I ever could have by correcting, arguing, or debating with her.
I've learned that we humans serve up more division and bigotry when we fail to listen. My friend falsely assumed that I was in a certain group and therefore thought the same. Racial injustice is nothing new, but there are times when egregiousness becomes a tipping point, a neon sign that compels and forces the world to take notice and act.
061220PS
the intense pain, the hurt of love
i feel my body fill with blood
the crash of skin, the ending shove
why did this have to end with us
Broke Rules Are Assuming
Old Post Office building has much rooming,
That surely does now appear to be booming;
Were afraid of looking;
Finding over-booking;
Trump broke rules again we are assuming.
Jim Horn
The one who watches,
Who sees me,
What I do and think,
Judging every move I make,
Cannot be me.
Yet the third one inside
Who sees the second one watching me
Might be me, but I doubt it
Because there is a fourth
Looking at the third who sees
The second one watching me.
Assuming I am the first that is.
I guess I should lay off the speed.
Assuming a future
The evidence is in
Preparation for the future
Is well advised..
Although the future
Will likely be different
Than visualized..
This is the old story
Often repeated which
When appearing empty
Reflects no freedom
And no bondage...
Bricks through windshields,
Darts through hanging pictures of me
And cracks in the photos, framed on the shelf
But they're not there physically
My trust makes a run for the hills
As the rumors start to spill
And I already turned the car around in my head
But my feet kept trekking forward instead
But it's not the steps I'm taking,
It's the cliff I'm headed towards
And it's not the drama-club romance I'm exaggerating,
It’s the other half of the book that you're not sharing
Between you and the everest I'm climbing towards,
The upward resistance leaves me floored
Between the green and the grave,
Remained the notebook paper I gave to you in which my heart was poured
This isn't a conversation,
It’s a notification
I’m surrendering to the serenity within the nicknames you call me
It’s a sickness I’m grappling with
I’m pausing in the realities I keep flowing in between
For dopamine and admittedly for attention
“Maybe from a hospital” she said
The skeletons are snoring in the closet,
My last chance suffocated in a locked garage
With carbon monoxide oozing from its edges
But I am the room I confine myself in
And why does it still feel cool to be doing this?
Like burning cash for a paper tube of toxic ash
My inner child's praying for an ounce of rebellion
But why do I still think this is an appealing part of me?
I've lost my shield to the sirens
They haunt me with an insidious passion
Come to me with a plan and say “we're doing it my way”
You have an empty mind bank with a hose for a throat full of words to spray
Run to the hills and see if I care
There's too many to die on
Where I can’t see you defending me over harm
This isn't what I wanted
And I can barely even feel you in my arms
How far am I from going back in time and holding your hand?
“Maybe from a hospital bed” she said
But I am the room I confine myself in
And so what if I have to do it in a gown?!
I like to escape to where I can manifest things
And in a heartbeat, I could conjure a blinding linoleum floor
With breath in the form of beeping sounds
You couldn't even wait until I drifted away
You couldn’t even wait until I drifted away
YOU COULDN'T EVEN WAIT UNTIL I DRIFTED AWAY
AND NOTHING I COULD’VE SAID WOULD’VE MADE YOU STAY
But you couldn’t even wait until I drifted away…
The one who watches,
Who sees me,
What I do and think,
Judging every move I make,
Cannot be me.
Yet the third one inside
Who sees the second one watching me
Might be me, but I doubt it
Because there is a fourth
Looking at the third who sees
The second one watching me.
Assuming I am the first that is.
I guess I should lay off the speed.
Presumably assuming,
Presents peculiar perspectives,
Within our collective,
As a selective few move through,
Unabated,
Unafraid of the path laid before them,
Restoring glory to an old story,
As we climb assuming the truth,
Teaching our youth what's true,
Sharing the beauty of the view
As we stew the pot,
It's getting hot and ready to boil,
The soil ripe for sowing,
As we keep growing as a whole,
Giving love the control,
Governing our own soul,
Presumably assuming the best,
We have passed the test,
You guessed it,
I'm talking about you,
I assume you already knew,
Just what you came to do.