Willing moths
my flame
wishing
for a shooting star…
Upon my
aster came
an Asteroid!
(moth caterpillar)
I gently washed my breakthrough.
Blood drained out. Colour faded.
Every single cell dissolved away, becoming
the architectural skeleton of a heart.
Every single cell dissolved away—
put up no fight, no rejection,
no more life of drugs needed.
Perfect.
Every single cell
waiting, waiting, waiting to become
“the most important medical breakthrough of our lifetime”:
the architectural skeleton of a heart.
Beating with no fight.
I googled "Hell Is Where You" and got
Hell is where you are.
Hell is where you watch me burn.
Hell is where you find it.
Hell is where you make it.
Hell is where you want to be.
Hell is where you keep my heart.
Hell is where you're headed.
Hell is where you go when you die.
Hell is where you're supposed to be.
Hell is where you belong.
Hell is where you wind up.
Hell is where you don't want to be.
Hell is where you'd rather go anyway.
Hell is where you're sent for eating clams.
Hell is where you came from.
Hell is where you meet the person you could've been.
Hell is where you set celery on fire and shove it up your ass.
Hell is where you begin.
The stupidest one:
Hell is where you go to unite self-assertion and self-deception with its original source
My favorite:
Hell is where you hang your hat.
A Requiem for the Dovekeepers
We went walking through the orchard, toward terraces where ancient olive trees and huge, twisted grapevines grew.
The birds were cooing. I felt a pulse in my throat, remembering how I had waited for my prey in the wilderness, how they had come to me and how I had destroyed them.
He vowed that the color of my hair was shared by all the most beautiful women in his land and, he added slyly, in mine.
I recognized Ashtoreth, the mother and warrior, whose presence has been long outlawed.
Chayei ‘olam le-‘olam. Eternal life, forever.
Sometimes people imagine I am crying, they believe they’ve spied a tear, but they’re wrong.
I now understood it was our duty as human beings to see behind the veil to the inside of the world, to the heart of things.
I wished to be forgiven.
(Lines taken from The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman,
Pages 83; 92; 130; 157; 220; 242; 289; 377)
Green tree
is in the Kingstown Property
in Alexandria
with her mother
and are tended to Jeff
my mother in the wall
is berating jobs for some reason
to handle
and tell my mother to calm down
as Jeff has a temper problem
job is getting very angry
Juppe pulls out a gun
and serves the shooting of my mother
the mall and should serve five or six times
in the head
my wife forays into a closet
and Hans hoping that jobs
will not find her
and she wonders
what would happen know
that her mother
in all my mother’s death
and the she wonders
what will happen
because im not there
at the time
and she fears Jeff
shooting in the wall
and that is the end
of the current in that age
My life is true because
It showed me the world.
Wandering, showed the world to me.
I didn't know that life would
love me in such a way.
The clock has struck twelve
You know it deep down
Deep down in your soul
Because I am your soul
There is no escape
No matter what
You are small
You are weak
You are a hollow shell
A rusty trap
I burn you
You try to quell me
But I smolder
I flare, bright, hot, and beautiful
With all your wine
With all your vows
and the weight of age
You cannot stop me
You always run
You try to drown me out
Still you try
Still you are weak
Accident occurred
Destroyed my tender right arm
Nerve damage is diagnosed
Life is changed around
Left me with just one good arm
Painful outside, and inside
With this being said
My life was changed forever
My arm, but mostly writing
I found poetry
And I wrote to rid of pain
It worked, I healed, I live on
Russell Sivey
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.