BRAVADO
Braving loosed missiles
Reeling from loveless shots
After Love's pain-filled exit
Vain hope let me down
Again I'm rejected,
Dejected and forlorn.
O stand up, My Heart!
First posted:27/11/2015
Just like that Flaming Phoenix, I have picked myself up
time and time again from the ashes. Some natural flora areas need wildfires
to release seeds that bring new life to devastation.
If someone pushes you in the mud, it's their fault.
If you stay down, it's not their fault. I decided to do whatever was possible, not impossible.
O Stand Up, My Heart!
Never-ending bloodstained boots tossed on top
of the growing mound of vignettes
around so many young men
seeking a name to boast
courageous conquests
facing the best
gunfighters
just to
die
NB: A nod to Robert Hinshaw and his poem ‘A Stroll Through Boot Hill Cemetery’.
One has no more fuel left in tank,
One more dare not give army tank,
With little air in tyres
Bravado of West tires,
Cracks seem to show in NATO rank.
_______________________________________
Happenings |21.01.2023| limerick, humour
Poet’s note: New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern has announced her resignation: ‘I’ve no more fuel in the tank’, she says. Germany, worried of Russian reprisal, is scared of supplying battle tanks to Ukraine. After 11 months of war that still rages, everyone seems to be tired of it mentally and materially. West seems to fight a proxy war at Ukraine’s cost, the latter literally left in lurch.
I AM READY
I am ready because I'm free
Free to face the enemy that was me
Sabotaging gifts
Deep envisioning
Believing
I'd rise from sleep-ins to sit-ins
Oh yes! I rise on sculped lawn
The American flag flapping on breezy Summer night
I was ready to depart wintry days of New York
My dream job in mid-Manhattan forsaken
Profit sharing shared,
I had share of the wilderness
My voice once feeble hushed.
Now, I am ready
Ready with a voice for the good of us
Ready because this verse stood solid
From diamond dust, that
In the heavens, glows and grow.
*
Feeling a rush of false bravado
though uninvited
I pitched a tent deep in your mind
there were many beautiful things
but the price was a menacing beast.
There were also ruby-throated hummers
meadow and flower surrounded by streams
but always just behind was the tapping hooves
of that menacing beast
I was enchanted and thought about staying forever
but the perils were a little too much
pulling up stakes-leaving your mind
just as I'd entered, in a false bravado rush.
I used to be brave,
But that was just carelessness.
Now, I fear death you know,
the blackness beyond the light.
My child and discovery,
Going hand in hand.
She’s two now,
And is always smiling.
Misery's my masterpiece
I'm a Rembrandt of the blues
My bucket list, only consists
Of a pair of worn out shoes
Nashville spit me out
And that's a hard pill, to swallow
Much like my Backwoods
Bravado
My backwoods bravado
Helps me write these songs
It's also the reason
Why I'm still alone
I'm hard on myself
Because pride don't pay bills
And living helped me render
These skills
I like my twang with
A big side of whiskey
I'll take my heartbreak, with pain
It's all the same
But my backwoods bravado
Has kept me
From becoming
One of Nashville's greats
My backwoods bravado
Helps me write these songs
To often about hurt
And love that's gone wrong
I could wallow in pity
Or write it real strong
But my backwoods bravado
Lives on
The hills sing their song
From the breeze in the trees
And my backwoods bravado
Is like a disease
Wherever my heart goes
My life leads me
And my backwoods bravado
Just grieves
My backwoods bravado
Helps me write these songs
The truth's in the lie
That drags me along
Maybe someday should tradition
Come back along
My backwoods bravado
Can live on
Yes my backwoods bravado lives on
Wonder what joys may we proclaim
Endure love, happiness, peace and freedom
Whether it be through storm, struggle or strife.
Inhibit not your pain; temporally numb
Limit only nothing
Partake among the otherwise eluded
Articulating silence
Regret not, revel now—present tense
Today may you last all through tomorrow's night
Yell in tongues at everyone about everything excellent
Land fear; collect with them
It feels what they feel
Kindle as one like bundles
Exclaim freely without shame
Terify us
Humble us
Entertain us
Respect us
Enjoy us
Show us
Never give up faith
Over foolish doubt
Touch magic
Observe miracles
Manifest judgment
Order infatuation
Redevelop belief
Rejoice collectively
Objectify all fear, release veracious bravado and,
We will party like there's no tomorrow.
11/05/16
Julia Ward Contest
How long can I pretend? my facial expression is blank
But my thoughts are competing in a race
and it always separates into four different worlds
There's no bravado or confidence, maybe coincidence
but it's only confusion in the state of missing
a break from all of this is all I hope to achieve
but there's only one instance...
Once or twice I've held a dream of once in a lifetime
It was the blue eyes that dealt me in
I had high hopes but they came out empty wishes
But hey, you can't always get what you want
I'm speechless but I have a means to say something
I only saved one dance to a song because it's all I ask
with words, I've obtained romance status
but within my actions, I'm just dead weight
For how long can I pretend, well what can I say
my facial expression is blank because life is a bullet
My thoughts are competing in a race
since for the life of me, I can't shake the image of us together
a break from all of this I need
but I've only found one way to help keep you from me
I guess I was wrong
there's only way that I'd be doing something right...
but what's right for me is having one dance
since it'll be you and me in a fond memory
Trapped in my mind, taking refuge from scurge who annoy me.
Mouths move, words understood but sentences simply defeat me.
Over my head like live ammunition a garbled blurb shoots out a round.
The talk I hear must be important from the nods and expressions I see.
I try to engage, say something clever but I'm out of my depth in this room.
All eyes on me, "be confident man" my inner self tells my good self.
So I speak of the graphs and figures projected but have no idea what they mean.
A silence then follows, then a few nods, nobody in this room has a clue.
It's full of hot air, boardroom bravado and who can talk the most gibberish.
With poker faces and arrogance aplenty my time in that room makes me sick.
The nausea continues week after week, next time I'm chairing the Board!
She had never seen a real torture,
picture a gentle breeze entering,
the walls were smooth and white,
and the old rule was ignored,
to terrify
you need to look terrifying.
She felt her face collapse
into surprise,
her legs parted,
and there was no bravado,
sterilized instruments used.
There were tables with straps,
all clean, and nothing to redeem,
but she still didn't know what it meant
until the doctor stared at her,
offering her a chance to vent.
She stared back steadily,
torture ran through her mind,
but how?
The room was clean and disinfected.
" Your First Abortion?"
My first torture
replied the soul of the fetus.
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