Crawl In Poems

The house with no lights

One,
Two,
Three,
Four...
Shadows crawl in hope of escape.
Five,
Six—
Interrupting thoughts and fear demand attention.
“Hello, I'm here.”
The mind cowardly answers the call.

Life unhinges — unlocking the greed of depression.
The door opens, welcoming the darkness into the house with no lights.
Allowing the destruction to flood centre stage.
No spotlight needed.

He's strong, surrounded by the blackness.
He's seen. He's heard. He's felt—
He's home.

His cravings satisfied as he feeds on the vulnerability,
The instability that’s nested in these walls for so long.

Laughing at the echoes of loneliness,
He unleashes the pain that was suffocating behind a smile-shaped mask.
The pain that was locked away for a reason.
The pain he knew would not say no.

His easy target.
His prey.

Hugging one another, depression smirks and leads the way,
Knowing he’s conquered the land of the house with no lights.

He settles in. It’s his house now.

There is no more counting.
There are no more shadows.

It’s quiet,
Dark,
Finally home.

Nightmare

Dark
         shapes
       twist and
      crawl in the
    corners of my
   mind. Silent
    whispers fill
     the air, cold
    and choking.
     A breath
     catches, then
     slips away as
    I reach for the
   light that’s too
    far to touch.
     Eyes watch
       from the
     depths of the
     void. I can’t
      move, can’t
      scream. I'm
    trapped inside
    the suffocating
      storm of my
     own fear, lost
   in a place where
     shadows never
     leave and hope
       fades to dark.

Tossing and turning

I have a lot on my mind lately and no one to talk to
I have a ton of reasons why I’m tired of life but I was taught to keep your head up
I can only control what I can control 
Everything else I’m learning to let it go
God works in mysterious ways and he always comes through for me
Every night I crawl in my bed 
I allow my brain to go empty
No worries and no stress 
I’ll just lay here in this bed until I have to get up again
All I ever want in life is to win and succeed at everything 
Sometimes I allow things to eat me alive
A lot of times I hold so much in but when I hit that pillow
There’s only tossing and turning going on
Thankfully my brain is not on and I can breathe again 
Sometimes to relief myself I need to think of nothing

Hey Mom

“Hey, Mom”

Hey, Mom! 
I can’t sleep.
I’ve been awake for hours.
There are dragons at my door.
        “Come crawl in beside me,” She said 
	“I’ll chase them far away.”

Hey, Mom!
I stubbed my toe.
It hurts really bad.
       “Let me see.” She said
       “Oh my gosh. I think it needs a kiss.”

Hey, Mom!
Johnny said I’m fat.
He makes me mad.
I want to clobber him.
          “Come here a little hug will do,” She said
	  “You’re a diamond in my eye.”

Hey, Mom!
Can you take me to the park?
I want to ride a merry-go-round
And play in the sand.
       “Let's ask a friend,” She said	
       “I’ll pack a lunch.” 

Hey, Mom?
Could you tie my shoe
And button up my coat?
It’s cold outside.
	“I’ll walk you to the corner,” She said
        “And see you on the bus.”

Hey, Mom!
Can I stay up late
And watch TV with 
You and Dad?
       It’s time for bed 
       My little one
       A little kiss will have to do.

Hey, Mom!
Would you read me
A bedtime story?
	Sure, my little one
        Now, It’s time to turn out the light.
       “Sweet dreams,” She said, “Sweet Dreams.” 

That’s what Moms do.

Hey, Mom!
   “Happy Mother’s Day”

Inside-Out

Body rejects itself,
Bone-dry and like a furnace,
It burns alive, kill
It is sand, dead

Dig two graves,
Refuse to rot,
This isn’t revenge.

Hate the body,
It’s nothing but problematic.

One ear open,
Stay somewhat conscious.

Maggots crawl in the body, tearing under the skin,
Refuse to rot, feel it inside-out.

Fling a rope,
It will not reach,
YOUR BODY isn’t strong enough.

Testing Deoxyribonucleases

I should have listened to my nieces,
they said it would fall into pieces,
when the temperature decreases.
Then all those dirty rats and meeses,
will crawl in through the cracks and creases,
and its effectiveness then ceases.

The False Conviction

It sits heavy, like an iron weight
that’s held in my gut too many years,
longer than the son of God trudged his days
through dust and spit and bitter wine.
and who am I to think I’m different?

I’ve carried it past innocence,
dragged it through beds, through bottles,
through empty rooms with broken clocks.
I knew the lie before it learned my name,
and still I let it crawl in me,
make a home from my bones,
turn my heart to rust.

I’ve heard them whisper,
seen their glances dart and pierce,
and yeah, it should make me burn,
should twist me with rage
like a rag wrung out for blood.
But here’s the sick part: I forgive.
I let them slander, I let them sneer.
Maybe they think it means they won.
Maybe they think they’re righteous.

Me, I just keep on,
empty pockets, empty hands,
carrying the weight alone.

The Oracle of Necromanteion

(A lone voice whispers)

He who walks without the most holy of ways

Will never return
Until they have learned not by sin be swayed

As true as new trees are made

By lay played
In so many wet insidious ways

By those hidden in the chasms
In the faraway stars

For people like you gathered here should be careful 

For without faith
In any form 

The nearby Darkness can always open a small gateway to sin

And if that abyss is opened

Revealing 
Desolation's
Fatal sandstorms

It gets so much harder 
To let hope crawl in

So O ye
O Ye 

On the yellow beaches
Beseeching

O ye 
Gathered round me

To the worthy few
I summon by the power of the Purple Flame

Virtue 
By the Divine Will of your choice of God

To guide you
Amen

Through Acheron
To the blue Stargate 
So you can 

Once more
Run

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

SLIVER OF SPACES

Can you connect the gaps 
With me, nonetheless? 
Will you spread yourself thin, 
For the few and far between? 

Fill the crevices 
No matter how deep 
Bridge the chasms 
Even if its jagged at the seams 

Do you see the sliver of spaces? 
The look on our faces 
meaningful gazes 
Try as you might 
And hug me so tight 
Even if you bleed through 
I still feel the sliver of spaces 
Between me and you 

We sit on conversation chairs 
Not speaking, not saying a word 
But all is heard in the palpable 
Elbows abutting, yet not touching 
But feeling everything in the tangible

Misconstrued what you overheard 
Misunderstood my every word 
I crawl in spaces between worlds 
I find your wounds in places 
I've never heard 

lying here aching in my bed
waiting and watching 
thoughts of you humming in my head
waxing and waning
hoping I'm not dead

You prod, I poke 
you push, I bleed
The tracks you played
 Salvation I prayed
I felt the emptiness
Of the sound as it fades

Falling in love, falling out of
Falling in the ravine
I still see the sliver of spaces
between you and me.

2

How did he instantly knew to choose the right words to make me crawl in my bed again.
He didn't even knew it.
Just a sentence: ,,your project is ugly"
Made me knowing, 
That I am doing too much, that I am cringe, handling things unfairly.
Things I always need to look at when I truly put effort to.
He doesn't even know me.

rethinking his naps now

Santa’s sleigh house is his latest invention
If he needs a quick nap, his reindeer can keep the flight going
But he can crawl in the back and slumber a bit
This idea has been in the works for a long time
He can barely wait to see if it works
The reindeer stop for a little potty break
Long enough! Santa says.
Now they are eating M and Ms off a roof
We need to get going! He says
Rethinking his naps now

Mirror in heart

If there’s in heart a small mirror,
What need there’s for a wall mirror?

Heart would reveal  your veiled intent, 
Let no dust befall on mirror. 

One that conceals human conceit,
We never can call a mirror.

But who in heart and if at all
Would ever install a mirror? 

Let man as a life tree on bank,
See his image crawl in water!
__________________________________   
Ghazal |19.02.2024|mirror

Poet’s note: Image of a life tree crawling in water, the reference is to Bhagavad-Gita’s verse (15.1): Urdhva moolam…

Way too soon

I see the night crawl in. Covering all the colour with dark. I hear the wind whistle its hymns and see trees dance to the eolian tunes and distant dog barks. 

The fading light sees the end to so many fading lives. The tears out there being cried to pain now known and suffered long throughout this night. 

I close my eyes to the dark sky. I listen intently to the winds. I hear the creak of metals in sway and loose lids banging on garbage bins. I hear the power of the breeze skimming over the fields. The rush of water in rivers deep and it’s just such a privilege to hear and feel these things.

Then I open up my eyes to see stars and a cold arc of white moon. I realise that this life is so precious, each breath, each thought, memory and love - because they’re all gone way too soon.

Humility

The suitcase carried all the reckless years
The wind suffered alongside a troubled trek
I want to ride back into the sunset
In the back of a pickup, 
high on the blessings of yesterday
Bury the blame, shave off the solitude,
 and cut the contestable bull$h*t
 One may arrive earnestly cloaked in brilliance
Others may crawl in unnoticed except for their hint of humility.

JB 12/2/2023

I'M

I'm the writer of my yarn
I am the painter of my doom
Thousands of phantoms here me warn
From opened window of my room

They walk and crawl in lane in hall
As if they from the heavens fall
They gazed and gazed but can not talk
As if there is an icy wall
Between the time of mirth and me
That not the wounds of soul can see

My haunted haunted lanes of heart! 
Thou haunted by the soul divine? 
O lines of hands He on thee wrought
And filled The eyes with Eden wine
I'm the scent of Eden blooms
That faint with fear of horrid Dooms
I'm the sheen of starry beams 
That paint on canvas all my dreams
I'm not sad, not I  complain
Of patching lips of lack of rain
My rein is in the hands of God
The first last, the Eden Lord 
By Eve and Adam lost in pain
O angels we should it regain
That seat in dale of mirth and Glee 
Where soul will pray in sun in rain
And float on gusts of wind so free

I'm the part of soul that gives
The throbe to heart the life to death
I'm the heart of all that lives 
On earth in winds in ocean depth

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