The Panic Tide
The pulse begins its frantic drum,
A breathless rising of the tide,
As all the silent terrors come
To strip the peace away inside.
The palms grow wet, the cold sweat breaks,
The color floods a flushing face,
And every tethered muscle aches
Locked deep within this sudden space.
A jaw is clenched, a lip is torn,
The desperate teeth bite down on nails,
As from the throat a gasp is born,
Where every steady sentence fails.
The fingers curl to tight-bound fists,
The hands fling upward from the fright,
While trembling through the limbs persists,
And knees will jerk against the night.
The breath comes shallow, hard, and fast,
A heavy gagging stalls the air,
The body tenses to the last,
And screams aloud in its despair.
In reaching through the blinding storm,
The frantic fingers stretch to find
The safety of another form,
To anchor what is left behind.
I conclude I was conceived hard-and-fast,
Misfortunes rain on my parade, downcast -
Bad Luck to date
Fickles my Fate,
I now bet on Hope, that they say, dies last!
The line "Looks like a good night to fly"
last words of a Reddit user's great-uncle referred to as Gillybilly
Gillybilly's great-uncle was a Navy pilot in WW II who flew jets for 30 years
I've been behind bars for way too long
each time a prison warden sings that same old song,
"When you've done your time Bub we will release yous"
I'd shuffle my cards then let them fall, hadn't I paid my dues?
They called it psychosis, a personality disorder that distorts reality
it seems to me I have been in here for Oh! a mere eternity!
"Unable to understand his wrongful actions, cuff those guys!" they said,
I replied, "Its a good day to die" in my killer clown's disguise
When the Commissioner said, " go ahead release him " to the guards
I washed my face, combed my hair, and played my last trump card
Sitting on the grass watching the last shards of light, I was glad I didn't die
I came to realize that I was now alone, ... "Looks like a good day to fly"
I whispered to a bat as he soared hard and fast against the sky,
"Looks like a good night to fly," and then I began to cry !
I never thought of it as more than a side stream
a rivulet of minor proportion and influence
until the miracles and blessings appeared
always about me and more and right now
centre of the universe deserved pole position
up to the time disaster struck hard and fast
today I have resolved to take nothing for granted
am grateful for the privilege of being alive
for food water sheltered abode and love in abundance
an inner war has abated and peace has arrived
sobriety in body mind soul and great spirit
grant me the vital force of existential existence
what cannot be changed I am able to accept
that which can be I try to alter and amend
and I am beginning to know the difference
in the here and now of today
I am thankful to feeling gratitude
now life flows on its own appreciation
As the music played, eyes strayed,
She moved; she grooved...On fire!
Her hands explored, own flesh adored,
She read then fed my desire.
Together we danced, eyes romanced,
Lust slipped its script to her.
My body baked, hunger ached,
Lips brushed, blood rushed, a blur.
We left the hub, the seething club,
Outside my stride was strong.
Her pad was near, intentions clear,
Clothes ripped, she stripped to a thong.
Fingers dived, on fervor arrived,
Keen hands took command of me.
Fell to her knees, desperate to please,
Die cast, hard and fast her plea.
My hands found hair, torrid affair,
My mind was blind from bliss.
She pulled away, a game to play,
She crawled then called for a kiss.
Clothes were gone, two became one,
Inside my pride did swell.
Hard and deep, heat's tempo we'd keep,
We'd fight for the right to excel.
A war was waged, a battle raged,
Our cries the prize we shared.
I felt it build, almost fulfilled,
Not yet, her threat, eyes glared.
I did respond and went beyond,
I tried, we cried and won.
Together we came, eyes aflame,
Enraptured we'd captured the sun.
My dice answers all questions; just take a roll.
Absolutely right; do not doubt yourself
You are looking under the wrong rock
Your heart is in the right place; keep going
Run hard and fast, do not look back.
Is that really your question?
I chuckle a bit when someone gets that one.
You have the answers; this die cannot help you.
People keep running up to my table begging me for help.
I hand them the die, and smile.
October 30/2024
Miracle Man
With age came the realization,
that most good times lay in my past.
Often these become a temporary fixation,
and I cling to these both hard and fast.
My want to do useful things has remained,
but ability no longer shows its face.
My mobility today is now restrained,
and I dream of life in a better place.
Desire and Ability are two horses
with different pedigrees.
Tom
"Visions"
Poetry must speak to you
you must listen
not to what the mind speaks
but to what the heart delivers
some have the vision
some do not
this is truth
sometimes the truth is too hot
you think you are getting close
too close to the other who is touched
you are not for getting that close
to such insanity to be touched
by a poem that holds no rhyme
and so the story goes
life is a never-ending poem
with no hard and fast rhyme
the soft valued curves come and go
there, in that place of listening
time has drawn no hard line
you will feel
that you must bargain with reason
logic in that place
holds no importance
you will feel, and
you must listen,
not to what the mind speaks
but to what the heart delivers
Poetry must speak to you
the better part of you must listen
some have the vision
some do not
there in that place of listening
logic, like the mind, holds no importance
Candide Diderot. ‘24
I formed in the heavens; they built me in a pure overcast
Concrete looks far too weak to break my fallings contrast
All flower petals decreed a landscape grown to everlast
I will nurture them; in Sun to Moon, this time lines passed
Are you the reapers breaking their stem via fatal dismast?
I will defeat you with relentless moisture unsurpassed
Nourishment is my very gift to the fortifying fibroblast
I am not one, I am Legions found in the storms forecast
Absorbed, watering them and feeding until all are colorfast
From springs Allium till autumn's Zinnia falls hard and fast
I am raindrops acting out the script for which I'm typecast
Draw me in my friends before we are just pools amassed
This time I'm doing it
Release...out from me
Snag, pivot, swirl
Up, over, next to,
....around
Where am I found
Lost in the dark
Or maybe the light
Following hard and fast
After LOVE's guide
...REVELATION
Void, pain, agony
Tomorrow, again
Sick of it all
Can I die, already, please
...hope
Film removed
Like the optometrist's lens
Fear, doubt, unbelief
Removed in the cleanse
...BEULAH born
Open and pure
Let all things be
Growth will come
Shedding judgment
...restoration
In the BELOVED
Written by Trudy Schrader on 04-03-2024
Note: Beulah (House of God) Marie (Beloved)
I have never seen children who cannot listen as hard as these students
They could if their mouths ever shut, but they are perpetually open.
Words coming hard and fast, for they may have never been listened to.
At home, or anyplace else. And now here they are, babbling away.
Thinking their opinions are more important than the teacher’s.
I feel like I have fallen upside down into the Twilight Zone.
It is a world that I as a child could have never imagined or fathomed.
Kenya’s Goddess came in hard and fast
With wind that ruffled the grasses of the savannas
The trees felt her presence and cringed
Wondering if she would uproot them
She is all powerful they warned the animals
The lions stayed to watch, but the meerkats hid
Kenya’s Goddess came in hard and fast
With wind that ruffled the grasses of the savannas
The trees felt her presence and cringed
Wondering if she would uproot them
She is all powerful they warned the animals
The lions stayed to watch, but the meerkats hid
She met him when her heart was young,
Fell hard and fast, but it was a feeling unsung.
Time would take her down so many roads,
Where life seemed so hard as darkness explodes.
Breathless prayers led her to stop her mayhem,
Her road turned narrow, but life wouldn’t condemn.
When she met him again, so many years later,
Her heart was improved by love from the Creator.
Together, they shared a journey – memory’s elation,
Promised to write their story of love’s amazing sensation.
As time passed, for them, the story grew more perfect,
Bonded by love growing wild in hearts who know respect.
She met him when her heart needed a friend,
And, he was certainly her feelings greatest godsend.
Although I can’t tell you if and when their story might end,
I know that their love story is one my words will forever defend.
I’m thankful that I know this story, which was grown by my soul,
It is a story built by God’s great gift, love that makes hearts whole!
What is that? I asked staring into the rainbow mist.
There was movement, and it was coming hard and fast.
Others did not see, but I ran toward the rainbow.
Determined to see what I thought I saw.
No one ran after me; people consider me strange.
Pixies, elves, faeries and a leprechaun greeted me.
Where are the others? The leprechaun asked.
He handed me his pot of gold too.
I kept it a secret for years and years.
Being childlike has its advantages.
Not only did I meet pixies, elves and faeries.
But gold comes in handy.
The only downside is that the leprechaun lives with you.
He moves in and does not move his feet when you vacuum.
He does not bathe, and his teeth are decaying and smelly.
But the gold was nice while it lasted.
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