Best Powder Poems
Wherever we lived, summer meant
riding in the car ~
red clay, Georgia bound
My excitement grew with each state
trapped in Daddy’s rearview mirror.
Macon was relative love ground
where smiles were not lost but found.
I always sat in the back seat, heart viewing you,
knowing before dark came
I would hear your dear accent say my name.
After dark, I knew I would stay with you ~
not brother, or little sister, Pooh,
but me, snuggle loved in your bed
and you would care about all I thought and said.
Sweet, Grannie, for decades now I have missed you
I can still hear your voice, see your eyes twinkle
and
tonight I embrace space
seeking your dear, fresh powder presence
gentle words of love’s selfless attention
turned to silence way too soon ...
in my heart we still share love
Grannie, you were the softest light in my youth
Could you but rock me secure once more this night –
sing your comfort songs – gently hush my grown fright -
safe, sweet Grannie arms would shield me in love’s truth
I still talk to her
close my eyes with hopes she hears
~~ she believed in me ~ ~
her image never leaves me
my adult still craves her - here
Black Powder Dreams
Vast o’ the seas carry forth desperations
Lives cast aside in the faces of war
Rotted wood planks, salted skin aspirations
Wind tattered sails bound of endless explore
Black powder dreams aft the end quarter season
Cannons at wait, closer still to the bow
Manned by the weak, none in need of a reason
Chilled to the bone, never wondering how
Darkened the depths beckon angry waves crashing
Bound to the rail by a pitch and a shove
Visions of loves and the homeland a’ flashing
Prayers slowly drowned before floating above
Scar rippled flesh, leathered treachery flailing
Shrieks in the night causing laughter below
Tethered by fear o’er the desolate wailing
Shadows await harbors safe to bestow
Compass point dangers adrift in the distance
Forced to push on to the end of the fall
Death shrouds belief in a fractured resistance
Down on their knees longing nothing at all
Endless the journey for pittance bled wages
Deaf to the thoughts found alone in the screams
Forever lost in the unopened pages
At the expense of their black powder dreams
11/7/18
Written for the: Black Powder Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Anthony Slausen
the injustice of
the powder blue box
standing proudly
on the corner of
fifty-seventh and fifth
A symbol of division
extending the partition
between wealth and
everyone else
back around the way
the old shabby
half shingled house
was home to the
second hand charlie brown
size thirteen shoes
worn by
the size thirteen girl
sitting on the second
stair stoop
when she was just thirteen
no one heard her scream
no one saw her run
and hide in shame
under the rough wool
of poverty that had never
comforted or warmed her
her playgrounds were
clotheslines for volleyball
and cracked tarred side streets
for hopscotch
forced to scratch and climb each day
up through that
crammed and crowded pit
fighting to reach the light before
the trap was sealed shut on the door
there’s a quota, you see
only some will be allowed
a chance to be free
everyone knew
most will not make it through
the others doomed
to return and make do
forced to accept
false narratives and
live by corrupted rules
but just remember
the megaphone
fed down into the abyss
is an acoustic indoctrination
and it never ceases to play
“two plus two
equals four”
a deliberate
echo to trance
the suffocated poor
yet one percent
know the real truth
two plus two
equals anything
you want it to
entrenched in power
they refuse to let go
protecting the system
they must maintain
the status quo
so she stands in line
to make the climb
determined to reach
the top in time
she knows her freedom
is just beyond that light
as she hears the trap door
slam behind
she feels the warmth
of destiny on her face
knowing that countless others
are left behind
trapped in a sinkhole
of poverty and oppression
in a mental cage
that denies their rights
Once upon a time... a child celebrated
Colorful lights of Crackers...
Fluorescence of Fireworks.
The black powder bonfires in sky
Illuminated his darkness ..
Sprinkling showers of acoustic pops.
And then...
Demons ignited black powder to enslave his mind.
His cranium was detonated with guns and bullets.
Blitz of Bombs ticked his reverberating Time.
His black powder infested blue vest
Now singed and scorched..
A belt of Bioluminescence garlanded his waist.
How smart he looked.. ready to blow up the Cafe.
Aha! That Black Coffee Powder
Was Exploding Love of Joy
Aha! That Black Gun Powder
Was Imploding Hate of Joy.
Soon there will be...
Scarlet blood spilling in smouldering slag.
Broken Glass and Bodies in pulverized roofs.
Screams of Resurrect Dreams...
He hears a faint whisper..'Son, please don't die'..
But wasn't he a Martyr.....a Superstar?
A Black Hole full of Black Powder...Near and Far...
The Supernova* waited.... to be a Dead Star...
*A Supernova Black Hole is an astronomical concept: They form when a very massive star (at least 25 times heavier than our Sun) runs out of nuclear fuel. The star then explodes as a supernova. A black hole is born when an object becomes unable to withstand the compressing force of its own gravity.
Dated 14th November,2018.
Submitted to the Black Powder Poetry Contest
Sponsor Anthony Slausen.
PLACED FIRST IN CONTEST
Likened to a beast of burden
I groan with back breaking strain
weary laden and fraught with pain
working mightily in vain
under this black powder rain.
‘Tween strife, sweat and stain
I pour out my waning strength
time drags on for hours at length
while black powder keeps a'raining
down on me.
For lo’ my weary, calloused hands
are ever searching for black gold
a toilsome task to mine and claim
dark riches from hardened veins
as I labor under black powder rain.
Buried in a pit of purgatory
I hear the clangs and cries
picks and axes, unrelenting
grit and odors, foul, stagnanting
low bending, beneath this
ominous black powder rain.
As I suffocate in darkness
I hear sorrow's sad refrain
ringing loud and all around me
as I beat earth's unyielding crust
trapped in god forsaken dust
slowly drowning, underneath
this black powder rain.
Written on 11/8/2018
A powder puff moon
hangs in a languid sky
gathers stardust from the milky way
and airbrushes the faces of passing angels
The noose is a nightmare for any seafaring man
Especially those who thrive the best they can
Danger lurks on the waves like a mugger in the shadows
The only concern is the prize and the gallows
For the young pressed into service have two labors
Cabin boy or powder monkey are their favors
A fair share for those who survived
Though not to many lived to enjoy the ride
Mostly master gunners would employ the young ones
For the task of loader and powder runs
A grizzly sight to any mother of today
Blood spattered, powder covered, limbs severed portray
I dare say I met one intact and conscious
He was rude and quite audacious
No name had he just an X above the knee
His mark given by Captain of the Breeze
A sloop of war in Caribbean was this
Massacred whole crews drunk as piss
The boys attitude so moved my heart
That I had to set him free from his part
Before I saw him he was the only one left to be hanged
Port Royals mob clawed and fanged
I set to watch when I saw how young he was
I had to do something for his cause
I bid the court give me custody immediately
They awaited the response from the Admiralty
The response was yes almost to late
For the executioner just removed the safety plank
He kicked and cried for a moment then released
With the knife of the kings lease
A bruise found its way around his neck as a reminder
For a life against the grinder
I sailed him back to London to learn a trade
And go to school for a decade
I later named him after my name kidd
Later to be known as William Kidd
Pieces of heat scatter and scorch
Over the orange rusted sky
Wildfire season has arrived
Dense and thick, stern charcoal
Eyes capture and deny
Relief's cool rain, as tongues of flames
Kindles tender clovers red
Eating clean the succulent
Green laced gentle ground.
7/14/21
This or That Volume 4 contest
Sponsor: Edward Ibeh
Title: Powder Keg
damp powder puff drips
cool in the heat of summer..
fog rolls quietly fast
Swarm robots sing your dreams of snow angels.
They flutter in formation, flinging up flakes.
Engineered wings whispered together:
"Rise from the pack ice, wait for my kisses
of polymers and airfoils and programs - I'm pining to play with
persistence of vision and time...in time.
Watch what I've wished for rise from the powder in time...
Be mine... in time..."
I’m broke ‘n’ don’t think I like it too much.
Last night’s cab ride. No one turns the wheel now.
I stare through cathedrals whose glass I can’t touch.
I want to go home but I can’t see how.
Snow blind. A slow rolling conveyor belt.
Fresh plumes of spiraled smoke smoldering air.
A fire outside. Flooded roads start to melt.
I want to get out but can’t pay the fare.
Grey sparrows take refuge in candlelight song,
their throaty notes grapple Gregorian chants.
I’ve stolen music where short breaths draw long;
where spared by my own Dark’s draconian dance.
Slow down the belt. Thin tin buckles. Louder.
Churned poverty stops - returns as black powder.
11/13/2018
a pale blue heaven
sets the high temperature
in balmy tropic
6-10-2016
Sometimes I enjoy to eat fish
I even enjoy to eat powder as a side dish
At night I have to go find some in the trash
I usually end up finding some hash
I smoke it of course because i didn't want it to go to waste
It had some bugs on it, but hey, it added a pretty decent taste
Anyways let's go back to the fish
If only i had some powder, I wish
The times are rough but the days are good
Time to go buy some weed from the hood
A day later the cops showed up at my door
They said they saw me robbing a store
So to get out of trouble I offered them a joint
They handcuffed me and I said, "I don't see your point"
After all these years fish powder got me to jail
They said I couldn't even get out on bail
Turns out Offering the cops weed is illegal
They even took in my cat dog beagle
So looks like Im done with that crap
Doing the fish powder is a dang trap
I consider it ...
with indifference, at first ...
the black charcoal powder coating the sole of my boot ...
I slap at it casually and watch it drift off, spinning ...
Then it hits me ... my breath, gone ...
that drifting ash and soot -
the seemingly meaningless particles of 'nothing',
were once ... everything ...
Houses and cars and conveniences,
photos and keepsakes, necessities and documents,
lawns and trees and foodstuffs, clothes and keepsakes,
the million things unnamed that fill treasured places ...
The silly things that represent daily life and occurrence,
endless items of the mundane and commonplace,
made priceless for the memories and joys they represent,
And people ... actual people ...
Charred remains of the inestimable hearts that once thrummed here -
the embers of human beings, cherished ... irreplaceable,
that loved and argued and hoped and pondered,
Now tossed on the breeze like so much dust ...
The soot and cinders of souls,
caught in my lungs and eyes ...
remnants of Paradise ... turned to fiery, flaming hell ...
A mocking dance of black powder and ash ...
Homes and dreams and precious, precious lives,
carried to senseless, blazing oblivion
by the callous, breathy winds ...
of Santa Ana.
~ 9th Place ~ in the "Black Powder" Poetry Contest, Anthony Slausin, Judge & Sponsor.
Neck a smooth, cylindrical mold
As sheathe with fibers carefully rolled
Pale, satin sheen artfully scrolled
Grace on soft, silky strands doled
In light, silted hologram to behold
Calamus breathes through each fold
Herbal essence from tight pores cajoled
Swabbed cheeks cloud high cheek bone
Naturally brushed with light coppertone
Puffy mounds rise from savory scone
Cherry gum drops brim o'er mascarpone
Cherubic glow of a polished sandstone
Exuding savory Rose scent laced with pheromone
Nature's stimulants, a nurtured love to hone
Bosom, gilded vines on terraced grove
Sprouting cherries, fertile arrow of Jove
Dangling from chest sealing frothy trove
Coarse sifted mounds, plump kneaded loaves
Descending into a deep, musky cove
U-shaped funnel vents steaming stove
Releasing mellow aroma of a sweet clove