To a Certain Poet
by Frank Daub
Your modesty -- regarding talent? BECOMING to your SOUL.
The decision to embrace this thought? Belies your role –
As MESSENGER.
Long ago you took the mission
To tell beauty in words and lines.
Now time has blurred your vision.
Now doubt has wormed your mind.
Think about the adulation –
Deny those words are true!
It is you might stop creation –
It is you must see it through!
At first I was awestruck.
It was beautiful but my heartbeats raced.
Didn't know what was waiting.
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2026
I'm not very bright you see
So can you explain to me
Why if a certain child dies
Nobody cries
Is it based on their ethnicity?
Mud lines my way
In a field of concrete
Where you live and where I watch.
Let me walk - or rather writhe -
Past pillars of flesh,
Your flesh,
And sniff human smells
Of sweat and gold and sleep.
This is your garden of my earthly delights.
You squash me with damp paper.
I curl before your door and wait.
Will your door ever open?
I watch through fogged panes
Your daily life -
Perhaps when you lift your shirt too -
I do not think my head will regret
The sordid sights of my soul.
I ache.
Do not tell me my karma,
I too see my heart lift the feather.
O how I dare.
Dare to touch lips and dare to talk,
Dare to lock eyes and dare to walk.
Do not tell me my karma.
You squash me with damp paper.
You open your door above me
I scuttle through.
My wet cerci and my hard thorax
Leave no cause for concern.
I do not think you will see me.
Do not tell me my karma.
I am the yellow cockroach
You squash with damp paper.
the topic of conversation
always ends up the same
it seems we've become
the experts on
ailments, aches and pains
which type of treatment
works for what
which drugs work best
for this or that
which ones leaves
us constipated
which ones will make
us splat
the when, where and what
of pooping
some say it's a science
some say an art
which foods
give us gas
and how bad
it makes us fart
the one subject
that is guaranteed
of this there is no doubt
the person
not at the gathering
is the one the gossip
will be about
now that I’ve reached a certain age
I worry that every bill
I get in the mail
could be the one
that tips the scale
that drops my accounts
below nil.
Even though
I’ve cut all the corners until
it’s now just a straight line
to the poor house
sliced the potatoes so thin
you can read the past due
notices through them
and still don’t have enough
left over to pay
attention or buy that
lottery ticket to salvation
Now that I’ve reached
a certain age
I’m afraid
every ring of the phone
every knock on the door,
Might be telling me
someone ain’t on this earth
no more.
Dropped stone cold dead
while lying on the couch
watching reruns of NCIS.
Cops rummaging through,
the mess. Looking for clues,
of who did what and,
who knew who.
But a bit excited too
that maybe one of the kids
or the neighbor or
a stranger selling bibles,
Dropped by
just to say hi
and I end up
having an hour-long
talk
About how
my warranty has expired
or why I’m always
so tired anymore
There was a young man who knew when
yet likes the sound of the name Big Ben
with a certain ring to it which appeals
as a bell it will sell well he feels
and the knell wake the dead once again
Some intimacies are quite unique,
where two hearts mature together,
enmeshed in a web of love.
Guiding each other
with the light in the eyes.
Hope, in the dreams becoming one,
guess, that’s what makes separation harrowing.
Pain is caused not because of two hearts separating,
but one being ripped apart.
Yet, there lies magic in those memories.
They can bring two hearts
yet closer spanning the miles in seconds.
©Chitra Arun
nothing
appears as
this story
and that story
and when the
story involves
the me character
there may seem
a certain
pungency~~
Sometimes you’re certain that something is so,
So sure of yourself that you’d bet,
But if it turns out what you thought you did know
Isn’t true, you’re in somebody’s debt.
For the mind can play tricks and can make you believe
That you did what you meant to, instead
Of not carrying through what you’d hoped to achieve
When you thought up those plans in your head.
Thus it’s better to hedge and admit that you think
You accomplished your goal, but of course,
State it’s possible that, in the time of a blink,
You did not - and prevent a divorce.
Time is a journey
_ I, am open-hearted,
_ But what about the trip
at the next stop?
The_Certain sunset... void
of life
a specific case...
He cups the weight of her small breasts,
cradles them with reverential hands,
weighs the balance of gravity,
the pressure of pleasure.
He wonders about this passion
for the petite and elfin,
for the Hellenic perfection of rose and plum,
then recalls his mother,
the push of her tenderness
as she held his face in both her palms
as if he were the substance of her soul.
Now he holds this beautiful woman
bewildered by an artless wonder,
speechless, yet his mouth full
of a heaviness, a sufficiency now released
as the fecundity of rainclouds.
On certain rainy afternoons
I smell anamnestic perfumes
love... axiom or incarnation!
What if I have not answered your phone?
Maybe, it was due to my right ear but wrong tone.
What if I have not called you lately?
Maybe, I have been very busy.
What if I have not replied your messages?
Maybe, my phone needed to be deep cleaned and tidied.
What if I kept on making promises?
Maybe, I just wanted you to put my words in your diary.
What if I kept on breaking my promises?
Maybe, I have lost my memories.
What if I wanted to end all the communications?
Maybe, all I need was to press the mute button.
What if I want to leave you?
Maybe, I need to make the first move.
What if I no longer want to be with you?
Maybe, I just have to ignore and go through.
What if you want to be back to me?
You know where to find me. Maybe.
What if I never see you again?
Goodbye. Good luck to you, my friends.
What if I said all the above was what you did to me?
Maybe, for sure, every thing with you was all maybe.
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