My lungs fill as I inhale the smoky haze of the September breeze.
Overcast skies stare down on me until the guilt drenches my bones.
A puppet to the pressures of most I cannot control, gnawing at my ears until the only thing I hear is the deafening sound of my own thoughts.
I no longer wish to be another pawn in this unjust game.
I will grow my wings and wander far beyond.
I shall not be influenced to abide by social acceptance, for I am simply over it.
I am over the influence.
September moon,
celestial skinny-dippers,
sangria soirée, so soused,
starlight swimming,
summertide celebratory,
singing soon sepia snapshots,
streaming in soulful sisterhood
psyches of sorrowful separating friends,
sadly, still scattered,
sweetly soliloquizing of
September of ‘76. ~
A month named after Maia
A transition from spring to summer
24 rotations on its axis
19 circles round the sun
a boy born, his future uncertain
years of hardship, keep enduring pain
Heart shattered at 16
and haven't recovered from the loss
her body cremated and ashes in the river
never got a chance to bid farewell
turned 17, oh what a miserable life
school life turned to hell, full of rumors and lies
At 18, graduated from school
his efforts and work never came to ripe
I hope you're okay on this fine Friday
accept my regards as this poet turns 19
Cause I haven't given up yet
What is the cost of one space toilet, dear?
Nineteen million, the price point is clear.
Why is it so costly? What makes it great?
Astronaut waste is stored for a later dumping date
Sent into earth’s atmosphere where it burns up
Urine is recycled for drinking. Go fetch your cup.
Rockin' tough
Rockin' touch
Rocket rock star's
Still in love
Hallowed halls of
Doobie's lair
The Sunset Gang
Played air band there
Mr. Salty
Zimmer-cam
Winkles and
The Ramel's jam
Wildman
Screaming Me
Pounded sounds
On Adams Street
Check us out
On cable TV
It's Sticks Rambo
and Company
Again its
Nineteen Eighty Three
I am nineteen
but I look seventy-two
weird maybe
to those who are not here yet
in my heart I am singing and dancing
my arthritic ankles are laughing at me
I do not hear them
choosing to be young me as opposed to old me
my heart is full of joy
I am not cynical
only grouchy with one person
my husband, who must not mind
he has been with me for fifty-two years
with him I am fifteen
and he is sixteen
the ages we first met
we scoff at our seventy-two-year-old bodies
they are nothing like the real us.
Mardi Gras of twenty nineteen
Was the best parade I have ever seen
If anyone can top it, it will be New Orleans
Where I hope someday to become the Mardi Gras Queen
She was just a teen girl
When she got to know this cruel world
And now her friends are only five
That charming girl is no more alive
She looked in the mirror
As she knew mirror never lie
Finds herself lonely in the corner
And wanted herself to die
The pain she endure is not reel
She's just hiding how she feel
The smile on her face is just a mask
Like artificial flowers in theflask
People told her keep yourself neet and clean
Now she need to behave coz she's nineteen
And then she realised this cruelty has no brake
The world is brutal and people are fake
And I would be twenty in a month
with the confidence that I had the world to explore.
I could see the horizon out in the beyond
and time was most assuredly my ally.
It was a time of opportunities ripe for
expanding my imagination and unfurling my wings.
Youth was this verdant time of potential
and I felt like a magician's apprentice.
I remember the sun and how it shone on my shoulders,
how it would make everything glitter around and about me.
But mostly I remember how I'd look up and the warmth
of the summer sun would kiss my face as if I was blessed.
I remember the endlessly lazy dreamy summers,
how they were full of whimsy as if they'd go on forever.
But soon enough, summer would ripen to golden days of september
and I was nineteen, the carpet of my future unrolling ...
AP: Honorable Mention 2023, Honorable Mention 2023
The nineteen fifties were an innocent time.
We could buy a comic book with a nickel and dime.
Our dances were lively, but girls wore shorts under a dress.
Being tossed by the boys, who never went around shirtless.
Malt shops were on corners, and we could have a cherry coke.
We were protective of each other. Friendly, we always spoke.
Maybe it is because I grew up in a small Iowa farming town.
We watched out for each other, and we helped up who was down.
The nineteen fifties weddings were simple and quite sweet.
We served cake, punch, mints and nuts, it was a lovely treat.
The bride and groom were thrilled with each gift, showing appreciation.
We knew how to uplift each other and enjoy each cherished celebration.
U K minus queen, where All's not as it seems; the crowds Will Gather, there will be much piety and blather, shoulders
To be rubbed, as people dive into the hub-bub at the
Shop restaurant golf club or pub, has something been
Forgotten? that prior was reported ; of ad-nausem top
To bottom, covid nineteen! prevelant on radio TV screen
Of an era with the Queen, remember; don't go getting it '
Is it still on the scene.? Or is just I'm confusing it with
The prevelance of reports on the dying of a queen?
Of course you will not catch it.' Socially if you mourn
The British Queen.! I mean how could a dose of covid
Ever so tasteless be regarded important; next to the wake
Of the reigning queen? So go, out to the highway and
Gather on the strand; wave your flags don black cry on
Others shoulders, in some anti-quarrantine.' And how '
Way too easy, when you look at
me
like you can see
words wade in slow
draw in breath, like a magic
key
two eyes
and all the wonders they show
For me it doesn't come so easy
the specter of nineteen
dealin' in failure wins
and winds my tongue
Never knew where it grew
between the creased parlor
lights made to start
What I do know
when my fingers touched yours
bright and beautiful
the spark
that ripped right through
my heart
Forever is a long time
far too long never to say
I love, it's love, you're loved..
so if you never want to hear it,
don't look at me that way.
She was just a teen girl,
When she got to know this cruel world.
And now her friends are only five,
That charming girl is no more alive.
She looked in the mirror ,
As she knew mirror never lie;
Finds herself lonely in the corner,
And wanted herself to die.
The pain she endure is not reel,
She's just hiding how she feel;
The smile on her face is just a mask,
Like artificial flowers in the flask.
People told her keep yourself neet and clean,
Now she need to behave coz she's nineteen.
And then she realised this cruelty has no brake,
The world is brutal and people are fake.
To be swept higher and higher
On the breeze of a pink-salmon dawn
Troubles and cares? Swishhh
All gone!
And what’s this?
I’m neither young nor old
I’m eternal and glowing
Ecstatic and bold!
There’s a poor,
Huddled family with no food on the shelves
But—Viola! Here’s your banquet.
Now, don’t stuff yourselves!
I see an old man in grief
His life’s nearly done
Presto-chango!
You’re young, so go out and have fun!
This New Year’s dream surely can’t last
The time for childish whimsies has long ago passed.
But—I’m still soaring with glee in a world so enchanted
My Covid 19 New Year’s wish
Has really been granted.
See the glass as half full,
even if it feels empty.
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