In purpose to uplift the spirit
I got up and said hey ho
I thought, if you could hear it
You’d likely say, hello
I heard your muffled cough
Through the ajar kitchen door
I dashed to see you, love
I passed the corridor
I popped into the sitting room
And checked the bedroom too
I smelled no Gatineau perfume
I saw no sign of you
It wasn’t a trick of tired mind
I’ve heard your cough, I swear
But you were out of sight
Just when I thought you’re there
Inside a room, or maybe
Out in the pretty wild
My garden on the balcony
It could’ve made you smile.
You sighed...
... but none heard.
You were angry,
Met only with stares from innocent minds.
... Then you cried
In the mystique of the night,
Muffled sobs escaping to the horizon.
You longed for the company of a muscled arm,
More than sympathy from tale bearers.
You wished for a warm bed on winter’s morn—
... but there was none.
Like the runaway proverbial son,
He abandoned you for another,
Leaving in his wake four likenesses of himself.
And suddenly no trace of you to be found
can it be that you have vanished
erased etchings in the sand
The tide of time ruthless
leaving my heart of stone beached
like a distraught whale
weary and life depleted
While echoes of yesterday still resonate
fading into the distance
of love gone awry
Silenced by the endless waves
that called your name in vain
AP: Honorable Mention 2024
A muffled sound
that I knew not
as it echoed
across my lot
It spoke in code
to primal fear
seemed to cry
Get out of here
O, how I wish I could
make out the words
Tho' that success
would rob my guess
the all-consuming dread
beneath a veneer
of equanimity,
impenetrable
by eyes of keen observers.
by all appearances,
all is copacetic,
but under his smiling mask,
unmitigated disarray.
a cauldron of caged anguish
simmer
without boiling over.
his screams of helplessness,
muffled;
registering below
a whisper.
he's at his wit's end;
a beast of burden
with his world of troubles
sagging d
o
w
n his shoulders.
a victim of circumstances
beyond his control,
yet treats his helplessness
with utter indifference.
heaven only knows...
why.
You Select Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Brian Strand
Date written: 01/21/2023
some muse 'hicks'
be as...
sounding
some gut...
tar getting
as trapped...
stan sand
Never spent signs painted hue
Conspiring challenges never proved
Aloft the addicts spreading 2x4 beams
Clouded streams broken dreams
High ceiling roofs attire
Shingled hay and wire clay dirt
In the window pane
a threshold mange panes
we both shingles that closes the eyes
Views of the painted skies
Blue white smoke gray hues yet remain
A muffled haze
12/14/20
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr © 2020
within the shadows of dusk
the sky bleeds itself dry
like the blood of my muse
in inkless stages of darkness
whispers fall through summer's trees
in breathless little sighs
muffled beneath the hover
of hummingbird's wings
as they suckle nectar nearby
i am lost somewhere
in their distant chatter
and thunderous roars
rumbling the hillside
as clouds loom above
swirling like thoughts
in the depths of mind
only to be lost again
as momentary rains
spiral downward
then vanish
as quickly as they came
i watch the prismatic wings
swiftly fly off into the distance
as the sky erupts in an arc
of vibrant colors
then fades beneath the gray
becoming a blank canvas
much like this mind of mine
as the shroud of darkness
blankets my muse
in silence again
June 26, 2020
STRAND COMPLETELY NEW POETRY (1) any form any theme Poetry Contest
In the quiet stillness of vast empty spaces in time _hums the rhythm of my body.
As my inner hearing rings vibrations of the beating heart in steady motion.
Fading laughter and muffled sounds of distant voices slurs to unrecognizably mumbled words laid to waste. Decreased the thinking of the mind_ halts the plans made in haste.
Unquickened muscles release the tension down deep of spine. Slows the movement of my hands as all energy yields in decline.
Close my eyes in submission to the heaviness of night. Lying quietly suspended within the symphony of my plight.
Exhaling a shallow spirit of life as I leave another day behind.
~~~W12152019
winter is becoming
my new best season
o how I’m loving
retired life
the hibernating months
of self-indulgence
the muffled nights
of glittery fallen snow
the soul-stirring feeling
of blissful seclusion
Published in my 24-page photo/anthology ~SNOW WHITE~ 2020
AP: Honorable Mention 2020
Here I m standing at the bay
Feeling the slipping sand beneath my toes
Only colour dat my eyes can c is blue
Everything seemed so surreal around
As if I cannot get anymore quite
But wat r those noises dat fill my ear
What r these screams bringing me fear
Though there aren't any waves lashing the shores
There aren't any high tides hitting the rocks
But y does it all seem a chaos
Is it dar my eyes can't c the reality
Or is. It dat they r blindfolded by the agony
It seems dat a hullabaloo is dwelling inside me
I tried to silence the noise ringing in my ear
I tried to wipe out those unseen tears
I tried to scream shout out loud
All in vain I wish the muffled tongue
Could speak for itself
Is this pain running in my blood
Or is it numbness rushing through my veins
Here I stand been the two infinities
Few steps ahead I become a memory
Few steps behind I become a legendary
Impregnable fortress, my mother's womb,
Beyond all evil reach, no one can intrude,
Bundled with joy, I rocked and rolled !
Little to my conscious , did I know of the plot,
To kill me inside, even before my birth,
Just because they knew that I was a girl !
Small family norm, families you design,
Male dominance, a unilateral align,
Do you think female foeticide is no crime ?
Although I am no threat to a man's being,
Doused my ambitions, catered to his fragile ego,
Suppressed my desires, closed my thoughts !
I covered myself as if guilty of being a female,
Transformed myself into an art that fascinates,
Yet reave me of my right of being born ?
I will now equate myself, my dear mother,
Let me once breathe in the same air,
Tears in eyes, heavy heart, a muffled cry,
I will expand your world, procreator I am !!
Written on 18/5/14
' on menace of female foeticide prevalent in society'
Unhappy, unappreciated, underestimated.
Born to be weak.
Breed to be inferior.
Cursed to be abused.
Governed by emotions.
Enslaved to the kitchen.
"This is your life,"
she was told.
The injustice hid behind
that grotesque phantom-
CULTURE.
Centuries of rotten tradition
smothered her development.
The woman with no voice.
She screams within.
The sound jailed
behind the bars of her lips
An inaudible plea.
Earsplitting silence.
Shrieking tranquility.
But- one day.
Her song will jail break.
The beautiful butterfly entombed
in a soundproof cocoon,
will emerge.
The woman with the muffled voice
will transform
into the woman with a deafening roar!
Everyone gets to choose,
The magic word is “choice”.
Only the defenseless lose,
Wombs muffle their voice.
muffled cries wake me
town dwellers slip on the snow- -
my pillow stays warm
muffled, wake, dwellers, slip, pillow
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