What I know
to be true,
the proven facts,
sit like anchored stones
in a wild river.
Here, my steps
are certain, placed firm
on a familiar stone.
Other times I tread
with faith, a fashioned,
well worn hope
held together
with a rebar of reason.
Both get me across.
But it's the unknown
that sets nothingness itself
below my feet, the path
I mostly tread,
trusting in something
to hold me solid
on sacred ground
that is neither up
nor down
and I have no need
to cross.
Categories:
rebar, faith, spiritual, trust,
Form: Free verse
Mostly it's just gluing bones together
ones found in a well furrowed field
a scattering of empty joints,
undetectable until tripped over.
An iron-age rebar
can be dug for
it will girder one socket to another.
The framework reconstructs itself
emptiness becomes whole
yet still see through.
There are sharp edges and blunt sounds,
they will clang like cowbells if not polished
into a ringing voice.
Sneak up on yourself,
rattle an echoing skull until teeth chatter
in a free-floating mind.
Whatever tumbles out of that
will be a loosely connected osseous process -
dead on arrival of course.
Pull the invisible strings - make it dance.
your bag of bones just nailed it
but what is it?
Categories:
rebar, poetry,
Form: Free verse
It is the only time we get to laugh at black
So de rigeur at funerals and stogy old photography.
Take Dixie Land at home in New Orleans
Parading back of happy brass from marble sculpted sepulchers.
A mansion in mirage, a wavy misty rambling of rooms.
Their mirrors: windows to another, conjured world.
An agitated specter's greasy lipstick pleads.
How silly in its backward gibberish.
Flies frozen in some floes of ice cube trays
Or eyeballs docked adrift along a punch bowl rim.
In morgues, contracting muscles practice sitting up.
Fingers twitch impatient to be dressed in Sunday's best.
Around grave yards are cemetery stones
Jauntily askew, a sporty take on plumb
Due to a lack of rebar steel or poured cement.
More foundational than wood and bone alone.
Masks flash from unknown alley ways.
Our innards struggle up inside our throats
Suffocated quiet, still, we ache to catch so thin
A claustrophobic breath to be made so easily afraid.
Categories:
rebar, anxiety, celebration, death, fear,
Form: Free verse
just a tad
bit little
late but
still in
a way
migrating
my grating
worked on
work nerves
are severed
several even
oddly have died
being cut off
and left
right
where they were
isolated thoughts
not supported by
trusses or beams
or rebar reinforce
ment meant to
sustain or at
least suspend
any attack upon
my heart
so though after
winter has set in
i'm flying out and
down south below
the equator
liquidating my assets
melting in an un
dulating sun
and a face
that always
smiles
Categories:
rebar, muse,
Form: I do not know?
Gray clouds open for business at five
Pour out concrete with rebar rusted
Along with asphalt for a nice touch
Steel never felt so good under construction
Building a better tomorrow on solid nothing
As guard rails pile up on each side of life
Something hard is falling from the sky
Fallen bridges, highways paved in gold
Covered over by weak foundations
Infrastructures fold like a deck of cards
Collapsed houses and trees snap like twigs
Concrete fills in every hole in nature
All mistakes and imperfections paved
Including oceans, valleys and little fishes
Birds are covered in heavy coats from rain
Become crushed by the weight of flight
Along with cars, trains and yellow buses
Trying to avoid the toll booths up ahead
The Earth becomes one big parking lot
Another pavement made from cosmic dust
Minutes away from everywhere on a road
To success which is always under repair
Under construction going nowhere fast
On rush hours overpass moving slower
In a strange rain on an overcast day
Categories:
rebar, business, conflict, crush, endurance,
Form: Quintain (English)
A LITTLE LAUGHTER FIVE
Betty bring venom
Curly bimbo lemon thigh
Rogue queen Jacky Denim
Vague swoon droll, droll, untie
Ninja gnome Rebar watch
Makes ramen bacon olive sushi pizza
Spoon vying maple onion grass gumbo-bauch
Jimmy heard Kathy cryin meets munch
Liter laugh fived break bread
Quick syrup cocoa sweet drink
Betty think droll vying slide lauch dariN girls
Jacky, Kathy party broil eatin twist candy stink
Water crush years later heart dance
Eatin drink party piece gnome release
Every vague swoon droll human unite
Ninja gnome,Jimmy, Betty, Jacky, Kathy, Rebar watch
Liter laugh fived break bread
2/19/18 2018©
FOR CONTEST: A LITTLE LAUGHER FIVE
SPONSORED BY: Edward McCall
Categories:
rebar, appreciation, dance, engagement, food,
Form: Free verse
I still walk your streets
for the untended curb,
the flattened can,
the half-opened shade.
I am in the dark,
unspilled light,
uninspected.
I am caught
in the city of cautious regard.
I am not violent
but I wonder what it would take
to crack the cement
and bend the rebar
to let a man out.
Categories:
rebar, humanity,
Form: Free verse
Two shadows where thousands of ghosts,
Saw their last moments so high up in the air.
Everything stopped, no one could move,
They couldn't speak, they wouldn't dare.
Few ran in as others ran out,
Many died in graves of rebar and concrete.
Too many were never found,
Too many never walked down that street.
Some say the world stopped turning,
For some, it seemed it had.
Too many felt the pain, too many cried,
More and more dead, the world was sad.
This is for all those who died on September 11, 2001 and their family members. You're in our hearts and prayers. Many people have forgotten and moved on but those who lost family and friends that day, it will never end for them.
Categories:
rebar, death, murder, tribute, violence,
Form: Free verse
Six days she lay beneath the rubble of concrete and debris,
Pinned down with little hope of survival, just faith that God would send help to set her free.
Six days and five nights, in total darkness, her weak voice called out but no one came,
A billion thoughts ran through her mind, but every thought ended in Jesus’ name.
Her faithful husband stayed at the site,
Looking, digging and listening, each day and night.
And on that sixth day, after many tons of concrete were moved away,
He heard a voice so weak, I’m here, help me, I’m O.K!
Still trapped beneath much debris, an after shock now was feared,
Much steel rebar and concrete still had to be safely cleared.
But with time running out, and few power tools at hand, the outcome looked so very dim,
Then like out of the blue, a U.S. firefighter crew shows up, and now the outlook is not so
grim.
Three hours later they pulled her out,
And gave her back to the loving arms of her husband who never had doubt.
Call it luck or call it what you will, but to me it was a miracle this woman got free,
Six days without food or drink, trapped beneath tons of concrete, it was truly a miracle
for all to see.
Categories:
rebar, faith, inspirational, natural disastershusband,
Form: Verse
And here we receive his hugs and
groping
grasps,
We are here
standing around,
waiting –
now used to the spectacle
and we are
ignoring him.
Now a woman
wearing scrubs and
a flowered white shirt
notices.
She approaches
the group and
says to us: “Morning,”
and to him: “Come on,”
and she pulls his hand away
and leads him to an adjacent building
through a door
made of bars
with a wrinkled paper sign
that reads
“Please Keep Door Closed”.
The yellow paint on the outer walls
fades at the top
in dripping cement streaks;
the roof is topped by
ominous
weedy
sticks
of rebar,
their placement
apparently haphazard,
their meaning
and
purpose obscured,
crookedly pointing
upward
toward the
clouded
sky.
Categories:
rebar, sad
Form: Free verse
Morning coffee, read the paper, brush your teeth and make the bed
Start the car up, drive to work with endless chatter in your head.
Rhythm’s just a decoy, really, structure faked for social poise
Must pretend, must feign an interest. Wouldn’t want to lose the toys.
Just ignore the yearning, silly, only fools have dreams these days.
Shoulder to the grindstone, Buster, don’t you know what really pays?
Over obligate yourself then hurry to the next event.
Don’t take time for introspection, musings never paid the rent.
Reinforcing concrete walls with rebar to protect from storms.
Cyclones of emotion dashed to bits before reaction forms.
Hold her steady, make the grade, ignore distractions, toe the line
Numbness is a good sign, keep it up and soon you’ll be just fine.
Can’t afford admission to tonight’s seductive shadow play.
Vulnerability and nakedness too high a price to pay.
Courage is for sissies, only children should be reckoned tears.
Safest bet’s to keep pretending that you’ve conquered all your fears.
Categories:
rebar, business, life, on work
Form: Rhyme