I found the old stairs..
The rickety ones.
You know the kind
dusty handrails,
onto cold stone, slick.
Every step may be your last.
Every breath feels like a mistake.
I’ve walked worse, I thought.
But for those wars, at least, I knew
they had an end.
This?
This just keeps on going.
Past the point of no light.
Down where the air gets thick
and the dark gets hungry.
Down where the only sound
is your own heartbeat, slowing,
like it’s tired of you.
Then
finally
the seemingly last step.
Not because you’ve reached the bottom.
Because there isn’t one.
Just into existence.
Just silence.
The weight of knowing
you can’t fall any further..
Home
So not to the dark,
not to the stairs,
nor the journey...
It’s this place
you forced me to find
Because from here,
there’s only one way left to go.
It’s from here
I say from the bottom of my heart
and with all my love,
FUVK YOU.
Categories:
handrails, grief, heartbroken, lost love,
Form: Free verse
A runaway growth of weeds alongside the road,
greenery gone wild,
a stagnant wilderness unwinding,
seedy leaves scatter
but cannot flee. Dust bowl squalor
chokes down scrawny roots.
A gray sugar rush from speedy cube trucks sprinkles
what wiggle room is left to sweeten ameciated tongues.
You Are
a coffin lid with nails
pulled out, a quake's handrails
the paws releasing snails
a Rorschach of Swiss trails
the comb still stuck in Wales'
hair pounding on my sails
You're you when all else fails
Categories:
handrails, strength,
Form: Free verse
Our B&B room, 2 flights up,
Was fine for us at first,
Until the freeze arrived and then
Those feelings were reversed.
For when we left our room to get
Some early exercise,
The stairs and handrails wore a coat
Of ice, a real surprise.
We aren’t young and what we knew
Quite strongly in our guts
Was that attempts to get downstairs
Would land us on our butts.
The hosts were not around and so
We waited ‘til we felt
The sun perform its magic
As the ice began to melt.
An hour later, we could leave,
The lesson paramount,
That age has consequences
We must take into account.
Categories:
handrails, age,
Form: Rhyme
This wooden bridge
Is photographed in black and white.
There are some such not so rotted down,
Barely wide enough for passersby
Or boys to ride their bikes upon.
Serenely seen in gentle arcs
From landscape photos from one side,
This point of view is dead on straight.
Its rustic planks make no apology
For lovers tripping unromantically.
I have heard that men
Who often go to war
Must break their stride
So as not to bring thins kind of crossing
Down with strident, marching feet.
Its handrails are approximate.
To touch for balance now and then.
It is unwise to run your hands along
AS even calloused hands can catch a splinter
Making hard work hurt, and harder still
Past the bridge, two chimneys are looming
Up among the trees; rake boards descend
Like vacant, ancient Roman ruins
Behind the furthest building.
Perspective lines must intersect..
Beyond what we can see.
Categories:
handrails, image, meaningful, writing,
Form: Free verse
1. Why are there so many of you? I get it, repetition is for emphasis but repetition also annoys me.
2. Why up? Why not another direction that may be more attractive to people like me who don't know when to stop walking down and start moving forward?
3. Why so steep? I mean I'm not complaining about being able to reach the next level but just getting there is already killing my legs.
4. Ever thought about becoming an escalator?
5. Honestly, you've never thought about being an escalator?
6. See how repetition can be annoying?
7. I know the handrails are for safety but why does it feel like it's closing me in?
8. Why is my goal to reach the top when there may not be a top at all to begin with? I don't remember learning philosophy in school so why in the world are you making me think like this? Seriously, stop.
9. Is the purpose of your existence to teach or torture me? Please make up your mind and get it over with because they are pretty much the same thing; it's just that one sounds nicer than the other.
10. Last question: Is heaven real and if so can you get me there? If you can't answer that, I understand; I wouldn't tell me either.
Categories:
handrails, life,
Form: List
Railroad Lullaby
I would rock myself gently
just enough to simulate
the rolling motion of the train,
imagining the click-clack of
weary iron wheels carrying me
off to some distant place,
someplace other than here.
Whistles from the distant switchyard
taunted me, lured my mind,
enticed me to run for the passing train
grab the rattling metal handrails,
climb aboard and sit, legs dangling,
rocking to the rhythm of old dreams.
Scents of wood smoke and oil
and steam mingled with the aroma
of fresh cut hay fields, newly turned
soil, rain just over the hills. Small
towns rippled past, two quick blasts
at the crossings, covered bridges roared
in protest to the intrusion.
The sun set behind us, giving the rails
the look of molten hot ribbons searing
their mark upon the land. Shadows lengthened
and were lost, a lone light sought its
way through the darkness of a child’s dreams.
7/28/2015
submitted to – Trains and Fantasy poetry contest
sponsor – Mystic Rose
Categories:
handrails, childhood, fantasy, , Lullaby,
Form: Free verse
visitors arrive
during Chicago’s snow storm—
warm fire inside
the Florida-boy
wearing short sleeves and jeans—
snow angels
mother and father
shouting, “Wear your jacket”—
pneumonia
ice on the front steps
beneath foot long icicles—
handrails
the oldest son
cooking jambalaya—
guests inhale deeply
the step-mother
staring outside from upstairs—
snow drifts
children and sleigh bells
laughing as they speed down hill—
sudden stop
The New Orleans Saints
playing on her wedding day—
Cajuns watch
the wedding party
lining up for their entrance—
the Saints won
© December 9, 2011
Dane Smith-Johnsen
FORM: Haiku Series
Categories:
handrails, family, wedding, wedding,
Form: Haiku
Lost at sea within myself,
No anchor no tie to keep me still
Floating and wallowing in emptiness
The darkness beseeches my soul
No light shines to rescue
Shadows grab and devour me
Left am i the empty shell
No help for the lonely
Solitude will envelope my soul
Tears of loneliness remain out of reach
Handrails of support exist no more
And the void consumes those left undefended
Categories:
handrails, confusion, depression, loss, sad,
Form: I do not know?
We start out taking baby ones when we are little
Some are on the left and right of the house and some are in the middle
We walk up them and down them to the other side
Some are mechanical and you get on them and take a ride
Some are made of wood brick concrete steel and sometimes carved in stone
Some lead to nowhere even though a sign is shown
Some are short and narrow others wide and steep
Sometimes in faith you push off one and take a giant leap
Some have handrails on them for your own protection
Sometimes in life we have to take one to go in the right direction
Sometimes we fall down them and its just fate
But we all hope to climb them after we die to get to heavens gate
Categories:
handrails, introspection
Form: Rhyme