Waiting to catch the bus I looked around.
Our eyes locked momentarily.
I knew he felt it too. But as I boarded
I tried to ignore this deep unexplained feeling.
So, I sat and just stared ahead.
Stop it I said to myself, but my eyes wandered to his
My heart raced, then he was next to me.
Silently reaching over he kissed me.
A stirring passion engulfed our desire.
The bus stopped, and as I stepped off
I saw her smiling face as she greeted him.
Without looking back, I walked away.
With a tingle of a stranger’s silent kiss on my lips.
I thought how random but then smiled.
7 lines /7syllables
______________
she was touched by a phantom
becoming a phantom too
both boarded coral carriage
wheels grate cobble streets in mist
opera seats were waiting
then to swirl on dancing floor
she relished escaping hours
Unwritten page
An unwritten page on a Word processor, I ought to leave it this way
look and dream of what I could have written on the page
If I delete words I have written, the page will be blank again
No history, a crumbled-up sheet of paper for the waste basket
For now, it is too late, but when coming to the end of the sheet
My wife was in Johannesburg for surgery. Born in Congo, she is
Light-skinned, but traveling on a Portuguese passport, she
Boarded a bus for the blacks, great consternation, the police
To go on the bus for the white people
Racism and ignorance, now it is the Muslims who feel the
Ignorance, we want them to be like us, not insist on doing
Their own things
Israel is a racist country, a thistle under the saddle of
And an Arab stallion, and can’t last the way it is ruled
The sheet is fouled by an opinion no one wants to hear
What now, erase the page and write about the moon
Calling over a blurry video,
As much emotion as static would allow,
Natheless I knew you missed me; your kiddo
I can see it in your eyes and wrinkles now.
Ever since I boarded the plane for distant lands,
Venturing zealously for a better life
Excitement eclipsed the price of my plans;
Repenting now I didn’t kiss goodbye.
Recalling sweat and all the pain endured,
Even as I build another life anew,
This house lacks warmth and I'm insecure-
Underneath it all I long for you.
Rooted to home only in the tongue I hold,
Now I'm counting the debt which I've long owed.
Late at the airport, in haste we arrived.
Rumbling plastic wheels rushing in unity,
from tarmac to marble to carpet;
the shuffling queue dispersed, finally.
Luggage swept away, adorned with labelling.
Black and white tags mark a future, awakening.
A marathon sprint to the gate, a race against time
but a man dressed in opaque black approaches
and with regret explains
how just one seat remained,
a voice I'd never forget.
You spoke longingly of your mother's dearest day
and I swayed,
watched as your shadow boarded
naive that I had just sealed our fates.
Now I sit, staring blankly
at your unopened case
wondering if we could've opened
a different timeline in a different space.
If only we'd chosen to stay, chosen to wait.
Regrets waft through the cy air,
a melancholy echo of what could've been,
remnants of a longing to a love unseen.
After a tired
labor of love day
got on the Trane
and after a few Miles
I reached Monk
later laying
back travelling
towards Sarah
and Nina
and after
getting Dizzy
headed West
boarded Bird
flying onto Art
leaving me
to ink
this poetic flow
I’m sharing with you
before my melatonin
MJQ disembark
to peacefully Cannonball
deeply into
poetic gigging…
there was a young man named Dennis
who staggered from a pub in Ennis
he thought he boarded a train
but woke up on a plane
and found he was headed to Venice
A cold, comfortless park bench
an empty subway train
A bed of leaves, trending damp
a knoll of grass behind an exit ramp
Long-abandoned shacks
or railroad tracks
Boarded-up homes
no-trespassing danger zones
All these serenade me to sleep
echo the music, all night I weep
Wind lashed fronds whip a neck twisting air.
Florida bleeds green.
A large woman in a rainbow muumuu,
a toy poodle pushed tightly into her folds
wades into the storm determined
to bring a hurricane to heel.
The land has now flooded high enough
to expose alligator snouts.
The Cajun navy hoists its Jolly Roger,
golf carts are boarded,
elderly men in white and tartan shorts
are reluctantly rescued.
A badly shaken sunset dives for cover.
Along an invisible shoreline Tiki lights
twinkle on.
The streets are quiet,
no waves left to break on the shores of the silent,
No blood on the curb to draw the stray dogs.
A stray wind blows through the darkest of alley's
like you it forgets where it was that you came from.
And the boarded up windows watch where it is that you've been.
Death doesn't care about your great name.
You think it was clean—
and as one door shuts, the other never opens.
But the dead don't lie still,
they rattle on in your head
when you bite down on all your immoral sins.
They creep through the purple walls,
Children eating lead paint,
Their brains soft as their forgotten prayers
grey hollowed out eye sockets.
You can't kill any of those dead,
but they can kill you,
if you would only but let them.
My daughter
From the seeds of my heart
My child was born
So young was she when she bore her own
Too young they said to know what’s best
So wrong they were
We laughed at their jest
She has the three girls
And I just can’t lie
All three of them angels
The apples of my eye
This morning the youngest
Boarded a plane
Going to Hawai’i
All on her own.
I marvelled at her courage
Felt nervous for her
With a last hug and wave
She walked through that door
Gone not a day
Yet I miss her so
When she’ll be back
No one knows
Your such a young woman now
I still call you babe
I love you my darling
To the tips of your toes
Be safe and be happy
And know where you are
You’ll have my heart with you
Wherever you go.
Overcome by hurricane or tornado?
Ran over by a train or a big rig?
Will I be flooded over or burned out?
Avalanche or mudslide? Which will it be?
A friend boarded a plane when close to 80.
He was afraid of dying in a plane crash.
Some years prior to his first flight,
I said to him, "We are all going to die".
His reply? "But I will not die in a plane".
Sometimes, we are able to choose our way of death.
Sometimes, unfortunately, all of our choices are evil.
Sometimes, we have no choice but to pick our poison.
When such is the case, our best choice is to pray,
"LORD, DELIVER US FROM EVIl. AMEND".
092724PS
No ice cream
In the night, I whispered no one love like us
entwined we’re one body, a mass of sated lust.
Her room above an ice cream parlor was
an angel’s boudoir.
I left for work in a cloud of pink infatuation
and felt benevolent to all creatures in the world.
Nothing could touch me, now underwater reefs
Suddenly changed, a boyfriend, a fisherman
came back from the sea, it was him she loved
in our throes of climax, her thought was of him.
A fall from grace, total humiliation, the beauty
fragmented into thousand pieces of the utterly
repugnant memories.
She and her lover boarded a ferry to Denmark
and that was the end of our love affair.
Cannot sense the time
There's no need to report
And nothing's left to find
For the days are now too short
No one did remain
To see the final act
The author went insane
When his Face book page was hacked
Curtains have come down
No encore has been called
No refunds will be found
Since the ticket sales had stalled
Actresses have cried
They're quickly unemployed
No sympathies supplied
For the careers destroyed
Doors have been boarded
The streets are empty now
Old flyers are hoarded
Though not worth much anymore
History will fade
From this old part of the town
Mem'ries been waylaid
Since Broadway had been shut down
God Holds Tomorrow
Miracle Man
8/10/2024
Yesterday is a boarded up hotel,
where memories seek their rest.
We keep them locked up tight,
but on review at our behest.
Today is the sidewalk where many,
are forced to pitch their tent.
Added to capacity daily,
by each clock tick that’s spent.
Tomorrow is mere uncertainty,
which never sees the light of day.
For each welcome of tomorrow,
we see it quickly become today.
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