Three walls of plexiglas enclosed a trashcan and a wooden bench.
As streetlights sharpened shadows grim, the shelter seemed to welcome me.
I heard rough snoring as he dozed and smelled his alcoholic stench.
I didn’t want to waken him while waiting for the Number Three.
Though sheltered from the autumn breeze I felt a quivering of fright.
Would I be safer in the cold? I tried to think what I should do.
He sat up with a cough and wheeze as I retreated to the light,
my shivering now uncontrolled. What if I left, would he pursue?
I dithered a few moments more—the bus stopped as its air brakes hissed.
It felt so bright and warm inside, although my heart still beat quite fast.
I’d never been so scared before; a fear I finally dismissed
as I continued on my ride. Relaxing, I felt safe at last.
Categories:
plexiglas, autumn, fear, night,
Form: Rhyme
Immodest mouse (though sheepishly I drive):
Cheese-poof ambition traps shred Plexiglas;
Life’s tint is circus; freaks pedaling thrive;
My spinner’s stopped, feline-stripped out of gas.
Cradled in moon’s ambitious pseudo-shine,
Not that I could, see I’ve nowhere to go;
Clawed dizzy by stars she hangs as a shrine,
Marathons end; unfinished lines won’t glow.
Out of fuel. Out of road. Locked out of car,
Stained trips on oil-leaks cadaverous spilt;
Climbing the gallows I’ll soon be a star,
Thumb-tacked eternal; pierce sharp lunar guilt.
As I ascend, I wink once at the moon
Just to remind her - she’ll come down real soon.
Categories:
plexiglas, divorce,
Form: Sonnet
Doors: Psycho-history 101
by Odin Roark
Doors absorb history
Whether by knocks
Slams
Shuts
Or slides
Doors have felt it all
Boulder
Metal
Wood
Plexiglas
Steel bars
Making different walls
Fences
Entrances
Exits
We are the users
Without us
There’d be no need for doors
Animals would run free
Without us
Nature’s light would permeate
Without mediation
Without welcome mats needed
How oximoronic this structure
To keep out
To keep in
Because we can’t handle what…?
The innate hard-wired thing called right and wrong choice?
Perhaps
Some would argue we are victims of circumstances
Ever take notice of the happenstance
Making up the most inventive
Resourceful
And permanent life on earth
Those pesky ants
Roaches
Rats
And lest we forget
The tribal depths of the Amazon
Where doors don’t exist
Where the uncivilized
Understanding of psycho-history 101
Grins no memory loss
Maybe something to think about
Next time you confront a wall
Without doors
Ask how you’d survive
Categories:
plexiglas, fear,
Form: Free verse
He stood at the edge of his lost dreams.
Tears like waterfalls fell in streams.
Looking down into the abyss.
Could his life turn out worse than this?
He had been told that dreams come true.
Sure some did but way too few.
Instead of a cloudy sky he wanted blue.
He wanted seventy and only got two
His crystal palace made of plexiglas
He wanted first place and settled for last
A teachers pet locked inside the class
His life winding down unraveling fast
He throws himself into the abyss
Dreams to nightmares his lover's kiss
He gave up too soon he lost his bliss
Life does not get much worse than this
Life makes no promises we know that's true
Some things are not up to me or you
So take the gifts that come your way
To get your dreams you need to stay
Categories:
plexiglas, suicide,
Form: Rhyme
Bars on loved ones Addiction
the . can only beckons
windows, wonder if for one
if there is he is safe more hit
a window while . one more
at all. incarcerated. draw to fill
Visitors Hoping the soul
for only the . and cloud
thirty . sentence the mind
minutes will be of
per week, reduced personal
viewed over time. demons.
through a Horrors of Rehabilitation
Plexiglas mistreatment to be a
peep . fills our fine
show and minds citizen is
converse though a pipe
through an praying for . dream.
electronic salvation Mama
device. No and a cries and
physical changed hopes for
family heart. a better
contact till Addiction tomorrow.
the sentence beckons Healing for
is served. its prey her son
Categories:
plexiglas, dedication
Form: Shape
Large enough for two
Big enough to unfold within
Spread out like a starfish
Stiffened by the shore
A sign, a name
A warning to come
The bed is old and dead
The springs used to b-beat
The stuffing around the underside
But now they stay silent
As you collapse within and
Perish the thought
You are quite alone
A reserved sign upon the left
A do not disturb and a rosary
A Plexiglas frame, for we have neighbours now
We are landlocked, no ankle can spread across the
Border, so clear; clear enough to see as
We place our reservations and keep
Safely to our sides, two states of being
And a bed dissected into two with a Plexiglas wound
Categories:
plexiglas,
Form: Free verse