i'm talking world war three blues
and how the baubles resemble the planet neptune
one kid has trashed the grotto
flameless LED tea light candles on the mantlepiece
another exclaims, 'can we stop talking and just take
the photo?'
a girl says she wants a telescope
a boy says he wants a crane
another says a fraggle stick car
helicopter parent and coo coo bonko
my daughter doesn't recognise me
tears of a clown stuff
a kid claims the beard is fake and i say, 'look...',
i tell a family from germany
we can take a hundred photos, i don't mind,
i will get the son that red double-decker bus
you're wonderful people
they leave
the boss pokes his head round the door and says,
'brilliant, boy.'
Forget those words, cold, distant calls
Penned to lead you o’er the falls
Toward blank white emptiness below
Hush now, your gurgled snarl
vile drool of fettered rage
Your words have not yet come of age
Yet they burn in flameless fire
Purging all but one desire
One word, that word, that perfect tone
Leave it there, a diamond lost,
Upon the edgeless yellow page
An ember’s light amid the frost
Autumn, and the smolder
of inert sap fills every nose,
ignites flameless fires.
He buries his nose
in a pile of russet and gold-flecked leaf,
a squirrel scolds him from a high branch
but he’s a sniff-happy hound
and does not care.
The woods are falling
under a death-cheating spell,
Spring will awaken them
with a whelping lick.
He, on the other hand,
will fall sick and die.
The path veers this way and that,
man and dog
crisscrossing a landscape
until as scant as autumnal smoke
they drift homeward.
Alas, there lingers deep within
a war that neither side can win
while the vanquished ran and hid
those triumphant forgot they did
and history, that lying vamp
would seat an angel with a tramp
so lives within the soul of men
an urge to fight the war again
for age and “wisdom” oft conspire
to reignite a flameless fire
a dream of victory’s charade
flag draped coffins on parade
John G. Lawless
©4/16/2022
Beware the Fireworks of Joy
It’s 9:30am
It’s Saturday
The winds of time have changed
Smoke is obscuring the future
Of a nation of dreamers.
Nightfall is lost.
In a darkness of righteous rhetoric
Toothless dragons spewing flameless fire
Exhale the remains of previous failures
In noxious nuances of hope’s lunacy.
Daybreak is muted in the gray pall
Of hatred’s hangover
Coating the pond in anger’s angst
Banning the flight of migratory species
Coating the lily pads in distant dust.
Time is meaningless to those
Who speak of “when”
For past and present are
And are not. And yet
They must be joined
By the now, in the now,
Or they will be condemned
To a never changing present.
Science has proved
And disproved itself
Erred in its “infallible” wisdom
Swept the detritus of its denial
Into the graveyards and landfills
While claiming innocence and immunity.
Beware the fireworks of joy
For they may ignite
The spark of a rebellion.
John G. Lawless
©5/1/2021
Give me something I can feel
So that I know Love is real…
Living in my world of numbness
and night,
Sometimes i wonder if I'll ever see
the light.
Wish as I may
Wish as I might
I can't unwish
What has already been granted,
despite my fight.
And I can't care
Cuz I'll care too much.
And I'm pretty certain you won't feel
The explanation in my touch.
Give me something i can feel.
On my front deck, he comes at night.
It kills me to watch homeless, shivering cats.
What do they eat, whence do they drink?
When rough winds blow, where do they sleep?
My cat looks at him with her tender green eyes.
The flameless Christmas candle in the window,
flickers as they softly communicate...
Watches them as they stare with love for each other...
He just comes to visit and departs.
Both act like long, lost friends.
It's almost like a scene from a magic theatre.
A scene, I am blessed to be part of!
He smells wood smoke in the air.
It is autumn, and the smolder
of inert sap fills every nose,
ignites flameless fires in shrinking roots.
Now he buries that nose
in a pile of russet and gold-flecked leaf,
a squirrel scolds him from a high branch.
He’s probably ransacking a winter store,
but he’s a sniff-happy hound
and he does not care.
The woods are falling
under a death-cheating spell,
Spring will awaken them again
with a whelping lick.
He, on the other hand,
will fall sick and die,
this is a future walk I take with him,
an autumnal wake.
Luscious sweet smells blanket my soul
A carpet of daffodils swaying one and all
Melodious sound croons Kindle my core
Soothing an undefined long-lasting sore
Crimson flavors furnish my hunger
Satisfy a crave that for long has lingered
A velvety touch awakens my doused fire
Igniting a flameless desire, a cold fire
She was the white horse of the Himalayas
Purity Smolder of flameless skies
Then, chains of conquest -
A half-century of human Inhibition
The Neophyte's arrogance of consumption
Would Flounder to stain and slay the wind
Her Dolorous pinnacle lies, littered with
Debris dense Lecherous ego
Immaculate essence siphoned
In the name of
Vainglorious Bombast
For sanctity, for healing, for reverence
Let Everest rest, in Providence.
5/31/19
For Eight Word Free Verse Challenge contest
Sponsor: John Hamilton
Required Words: Smolder, Inhibition, Neophyte, Flounder, Dolorous, Lecherous, Bombast, Providence.
Poet: Ken Jordan
Poem: Tomorrow
Edited by: Sparkle Jordan
written: July/2018
Tomorrow’s dawn is flameless
It’s a silhouette, camouflaged
by an oasis of stars in the
Universe
It’s a hidden ball of fire
surrounded by
the mystery shadows
behind a Silver Moon -
Tomorrow’s breath lies
in the birth of Dawn’s
Divine Holy Light;
Prayer, faith, and hope
maintains in the belief
that a Nu Sun will shine -
Rise tomorrow - Rise (!)
Copyright(c).,Ken Jordan 2018
To kiss your eyes with mine, my eyelids lift
And find emotions rise, in flickering trace
Warm and flameless fires smolder with their gift
To capture heartfelt needs from their embrace
We will sigh as our lover's eyes unite
To drift away in a silent tether
Hands held tenderly, as our hearts hold tight
So our dreams and wishes dance together
We'll cross unmeasured distance in-between
And drink from lover's orbs amorous wine
To share a kiss so deep in time serene
Our flame fed souls burn as the eyes entwine
The only sacred space where love concedes
When it melts the eyes with its flaming needs
7/7/17 contest The Eyes have it
This life is a silhouette of dancing flames,
A jelly of a million billion shapes, a fathomless illusion, a plotless sequel.
There is more to see for the blind and less to say for the wise.
This life is a carpet freckled with splinters,
A sofa of countless stingings, a flameless subway;
There is a floorless due for every seen sun,
A tear rolling with every dawn and a smile ebbing with every dusk;
But these bonfire eyes see the world for what it could be.
This life is a soulless sea of mindless malice,
A banjo of a broken taut, a loveless disco;
There is no blue in the skies of reason
But pangs native to the heart, and a haplessness relative to the soul;
But this bubble-gum heart holds no resentment.
Every tongue is a needle living in a scabbard of flesh and bone
And these staggering legs walk the sass of nameless faces,
For my elephant ears choose what to hear
And the fount of this mouth speaks only what the heart feels.
Every turn of this screw, every moment of this gear
Every shade of this my buoyant life is written in crayon.
03/12/16
Toxic State
Endless endeavors embryonic embrace
Finite forever’s in a platonic place
Silently searching with afflicted affections
Of love’s misguided daunted deflections
You can not penetrate this superman soul
Love can pour out but not fill the hungry hole
Isolated illusions dismantled desires
Terminal toxins within flameless fires.
Dec.03.2016
Toxic State - Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: FJ Thomas
I tell myself I do it for the birds.
They gather together
around flameless fires
feeding on warmth’s memory,
chattering amid the blowing leaves,
feathers puffed against the cold.
Their beauty undimmed by the
stark dark and light of barrenness
their songs no less beautiful
in the echoless emptiness,
their presence – undiminished.
Quietly, I leave a gift,
mixed seed to welcome all
sustenance to those who share
a loneliness in winter,
a scarcity of caring
the fading heat of flameless fires.
I tell myself I do it for the birds.
10/18/2015
submitted to – For the Birds – poetry contest
sponsor – Anthony Slausen
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