The second hand on the clock mercilessly drones on.
Surrealistic seconds spin dizzyingly.
Distorted colours of sagging sunrises melt into intoxicated sunsets.
Vapours of innocence dissipate into laughing
stars,
hysterically hyperventilating on sorrow’s torment.
The stinging dirt beneath my feet offers no condolences,
only festering deeper into subcutaneous wounds,
infecting every white blood cell until delirium overrides.
Shame and regret drip from screaming clouds
as a murder of crows gathers in the dank ambience,
criticisingly cawing between razor-thin lapses in time.
Frenzied winds obscure judgement.
Vines of poison ivy tangle,
dragging me down in the pandemonium,
whilst a growling ground begins to open,
exposing the truth—my festering grave.
Feel the accelerating pain of memories taking hold.
Already dead, drugged by denial,
a soul bound to a faded reality,
vanished within the cracks hidden
within the confines of time.
The blotted ink of sky engulfs my dream
While nightfall's soot and fog darken the shore,
And I , a tattered leaf, tremble midstream
Infecting my solace much like before.
Dreary this roam, this dreary roam so cold
Attended by a willow tree's limp veil;
Like ghastly air with sordid woes untold
Of slumber deepening... its tomb, my nail.
And in a haze, snow circles tainted blue
As forceful winds begin their groan, one howl
My tassels unraveling to imbue
This cry for life paling as woods befoul.
Yet, branches of hope , they rain down on me,
For spring redeems ...bright as eternity.
IN TODAY’S POLITICAL-EDENIC GARDEN
Sow liberty’s seeds;
Reaping fruits not spoiled by
Infecting trump-plows:-
I know for certain that memory’s a virus
We’re susceptible to in varying degrees
Infecting some, randomly chosen, like us
Memory drifts in on a gentle breeze
I’m switched to the channels of subtle perception
It’s due to the memory my life carries on
I flick through most precious of my recollections
They’ve been given to me until I shall be gone
Then I’ll be removed to the isle of the dead
There I’ll meet you, thanks to our memories
Something will be missing, though it must be like that
After long separations and many calls missed
But I reckon, subconsciously we’ll reconcile
With the loss of those lovely details, for we managed
To save some of them in our favorite style
Aren’t we also the details that time couldn’t damage?
Remember we gazed upon the green hills
From your bedroom window with breathtaking view
In our case they’ve been grinding too fast, those fab mills
So we’re not that exceedingly small to come through
Many trials and hindrances, daily calamities
All those stormy Mondays and Sundays alone
Here we’re bound to wait now, among the tall cypresses
For the ferry to moor, to deliver us home.
I’m the fly in the corner.
Clinging to the space, looking from afar.
I know what you’re thinking.
I know what words buzz and zip through your head.
I am the vermin infiltrating your home,
Infecting everything my bristled legs claw onto.
Leaving traces,
little bits of treacherous treasure for your eyes to never find.
You run at me
With your long gangly arms–
So tall,
So above it all.
The impending darkness consumes me before I can even feel your touch.
Under the vastness of your looming shadow, I can’t help but feel small.
One swat at me and I'm splat all over the wall.
The modern world has practically eliminated chickenpox
But now has an epidemic of the chicken sh*t.
From top to bottom we see it infecting society.
If you’re in a position of authority, and
Use that position to target and oppress others
And undermine the Rule of Law through lawfare,
You are chicken sh*t.
If you are in a position of power, and
Use that position to enable other’s corruption
You are chicken sh*t.
From parents, to school boards, DAs, and the FBI
Corruption is now tolerated and pursued,
In the name of some vague social justice,
But really only because those doing it are chicken sh*t.
Have you ever actually seen chicken sh*t?
It is repulsive, slimy, wet and foul,
But it is good for one thing
Fertilizing your garden.
(9/21/25)
Feeling dead
Nowhere to turn
Dead beat ex
I'm stuck
No way of freeing myself
Finances so intertwined
Like a tumour
Attached to something vital
"We can't operate I'm afraid.
Too risky"
How did I let this happen?
So insidious
So slow
A parasite. Unseen, leaching, infecting, invading, taking, taking, taking.
Eventually, clarity. The alternative.
So often dismissed now better than the present.
But I must pay for my blindness.
I must pay the price for hope.
I cannot be set free
Like a prison sentence.
And, by the way,
Don't bother looking up
Don't pray or ask for divine help.
Help,
If there is any,
Is ground level.
Friends, family, gestures, kind words, hugs, a sympathetic emoji in a motivational text.
You've got this
You are strong
I believe in you.
No choice. Hold tight, wait for better days.
Nothing is permanent.
Lean into the love and the sun will shine again some day.
Breathless,
words like cordyceps adhere to my throat,
Choking me as the unspoken wrap around, seizing vocal cords.
Sticking fingers down, I claw to clear closing airways,
Yet the more I struggle, the more entwined they become.
Disconsolate spores have taken root within heaving lungs,
Spreading to each chamber of the heart, systematically.
Transported through streams of hemoglobin,
Swiftly infecting Broca's area before moving to the primary motor cortex—
As all speech ceases to be.
Plastic.
To alter one’s image, appearance untrue.
Take control of one’s finance, or does it control you?
Container for substances, so varied, so many.
Buried in the earths crust - worth every penny?
Floating in the etha, microscopic to the eye.
Living in your brain mass, floating behind your eyes.
As common as daylight as soulless as dead space.
Infecting the water, in foods there’s its trace.
Perhaps it’s as human as you are or I?
Perhaps it’s our monster like Dr Frankenstein’s!
Well, we created it and rain brings it down from the sky.
We created a substance that never will die.
CDC muzzled
on a need to know basis ~
this dog person cares
My Creed
I live - a child -
Wrapped in feast days of divine whimsy
When the world outlines itself
In blue zircon sparkle
A child of the season
When glittering petals of snowflowers
Rest on barren branches
Casting shadows of bursting light
Into tumult
Where defeated darkness whines
In an ebony gloom,
Cowering
In the amber blush of an evergreen dawn.
Taking a holly branch in my hands
I choose to walk through the shortest days,
Into the longest midnights,
Embracing the fire of the Spirit –
Guardian of precious light
From all consuming blackness –
To stand watch at the apex of midnight bells
To celebrate
Heaving darkness back into its sneering leers
To walk in an eternal festival of the celestial.
I choose to embrace jubilee
Source of golden radiance
To make merry in an eternal gala
And join rejoicing joy
Infecting every fleeting crumb of time
Dancing with triumphant jubilation,
Ambassador to consecrated oblation,
Reaching
Always reaching to receive celebration
From eternity.
Antisemitism is back in vogue
thanks to a world gone rogue
Some say it’s a fairly recent disease
spare me the laughter please
It’s been around ever since Patriarchal Days
infecting all of history, an age-old malaise …
Why did Jacob flee Esau, journeying to Haran
Esau would have murdered Jacob, had he not gone
And who did Jacob encounter at journey’s end
none other than Laban, at first a ‘good friend’
Laban invited Jacob to stay for free for thirty days
though he eventually swindled his nephew in so many ways
Lied to him again and again, switching his bride on his wedding night
endlessly changing his wages and working conditions – slight after slight
Finally told his nephew: Your wives are mine, as are your sheep
expecting Jacob would bend to slavery without so much as a peep
But to Laban, Jacob never once did bow… instead he fled
then challenged Esau’s 400 men, backing them down…
Murderous Esau, freedom-denying Laban, cooked up twin recipes
for legions of antisemites down through the ages, into our century
Lost in the noise,
Chasing your shadow,
Like I have no choice.
I'm scared of the echoes
I’m done with the heartache,
Fed up with the pain.
No more hamster-wheeling again.
I’m clearing my story, wiping the slate,
Gone are the nightmares, lifting off weight.
I’m rebooting my life, erasing your name,
I’m burning the bridges, putting out the flame.
You don’t get to haunt me, you don’t get to stay,
I’m deleting your memory, and walking away.
I’m starting fresh, taking back control,
I’m wiping the slate clean, reclaiming my soul.
I’m rebooting my life, starting today,
I’m erasing you in every way.
You were the virus, infecting my mind,
A glitch in my system, I couldn’t unwind.
But I’m fixing the code, I’m rewriting the rules,
No more being played for a fool.
I’m deleting the data, I’m shutting you down,
You’re just a mistake that I’ll never let drown.
I don’t need your ghost, I don’t need your past,
I’m resetting the clock, I’m moving so fast.
You’re just a chapter, now closing the door,
I won’t look back, I won’t take anymore.
I’m rebooting my life,
And you’re out of the frame.
I’m erasing your name...
And I’m never the same.
(“I of the Beholder”, 2014, original pen and ink)
The Zombie Apocalypse
The zombie apocalypse began a long time ago
First as a slow burn
As it spread friend to friend, town to town
A mind virus contagion
Hiding itself within a politically correct smile
But now a full-on raging blaze
Crowning as it leaps and jumps
Rivers and mountains, continents really
In its global conflagration
Spread not by bites and infected saliva
But by bytes of an infecting propaganda
Once called fake news, now fatal news
Fatal to reason, and friendships, peace of mind
And a healthy future
Eating away from inside
Until all that is left is a shell
With yet another zombie hidden safely within
The zombie apocalypse began a long time ago
But only now is it obvious
Its course a long way from run
(11/5/24)
Falling down to my splintering knees,
Heaven or Hell, the stone will be cast.
Like whiplash, the ground beneath me begins to crack open
As my truth is played out against an apocalyptic backdrop.
Sins weighed against my empathic
compassion,
Caught in riptides of my darkness; will light save me?
Flames lick against my flesh as the vultures circle around.
Pleading to the heavens, I swear my truths are sincere.
I pushed back against those incessant inner
demons
As they flirted with the devil.
But my sanity assimilated, and I plunged down that pit.
Sins took hold, infecting, infesting; the damage that
was already done.
I plead for your unconditional mercy:
Don’t let the razor teeth tear me apart.
Sub Categories
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.