Mike Bayles
Get Well Card from a Writers’ Group to a Friend in a Physical Rehab Unit
What is important is what we lay on the table.
Poems and stories we write find new life
on the third floor of the library in Muscatine.
We read our works, listen and make suggestions.
We argue and laugh, but we’re just trying to help
every writer make their work better.
each night
We are working or retired, poets and novelists
sharing our lives and points of view. We have
driven highways and city streets to be there.
Every third Tuesday of the month we sit at the table.
in quiet skies
You are the eldest, many books written
and every meeting we look to you.
We look for revelations and for how
the pieces speak to us. Works shared
bring us together.
a shining star
*Braided Haibun Form
She looked at me calmly opening her narrow lips
Luis the name brought an ache to my wounded ego
In my pride I had ended up shipwrecked in the rehab
...You can make it even when they all say you cant
I swallow my pride and prod,..
I like you Merc.. Can we be an item
Were the circumstances different yes
It's not a maybe or well see its a Yes
So my Journey is not in vain
You find the charmed ones now so often
With humans ever so accommodating
No unlike Peter Petreli I wont try flying
Unless am a hundred percent assured
I will land on safe shore where the waves
Beat ever so slowly and names like pirates
Voyager and black pearl are uttered
I have the soul; of a Sojourner
#Jewels of Time
REHABS
Doctors and nurses
QUIET!
They say.
We live like mannequins,
Think like
Man kneel
KILL!
We are like zeros.
They prove to be heroes .
Real help or real herbs
We stay confused,
Civilization so we hear!
Real helps or rehabs
Drug full or drug free.
Cardio-Rehab is an exceptionally good thing to do
I keep up with machines better than walking with you
With the newfangled treadmills I can see the world
While I am getting nowhere fast, my sails unfurled,
Yesterday, I walked a gorgeous park in old Indonesia
Finished, I thought they should give me anesthesia,
For I was completely tuckered out and needed a nap
My blood pressure told them to give me another lap.
I so enjoy the camaraderie of the old fellows like me,
Who are exercising together instead of taking tea,
If I had equipment at home, I’d likely not touch it
It’s always so relaxing to grab a good book and sit,
But now, I look forward to our gang at the center
Working the machines until I’m forced to surrender!
Written August 1, 2022
Nerve chemical is a toxic chemical..
It is colourless and odorless..
It dissolves in water..
It can be delivered in food..
It can be injected to cause plegia..
It causes paraplegia and quadriplegia.
Supari killers use it as silent weapon.
Note.Stay away from Psych Rehab.....
Join hands with don to inject drugs..
Cat wants to guard milk from who???
Note.Big Game???
Haris Sultan,
Bahawalpur Multan..
He told me look back at it
Got him comin back like a crack addict
He says he's got a craving
Body aching
Hands shaking
He's a fiend for it
Plot and scheme for it
He gets what he gets
Still throws a fit
He can't quit
He's got it bad
Rehab
Tun teka menu laya
Pinda dukan tay aya
Tun vich meray paya
Nashy da adi banaya
Vich pa pa pa zalima vay
Me thak gai ahn ahn ann
Mein ak gai annnh...
Being alone is not something I fear.
Now that I’m stronger,
I won’t shed a tear.
I have to tell myself,
“Mind over matter.”
Somedays,
When the lonely blues hit,
I really struggle
To combat the latter.
Some nights,
I dream of home
And I have to remind myself of
Why I’m here.
The friends I have lift my spirits
And make my “journey home” easier.
It’s been a long road so far.
Somedays I just want to drive
With my windows down in the car
While I tune out life’s noise.
Most days I can’t get that far,
No car,
Locked doors,
Not left ajar
Damn repercussions
Confining me,
Forcing me to abide by the rules.
Some days are
Really, really hard.
When using dreams
Flood my nights
And I can’t relate to God,
When I look past the stars.
I find it hard to stay asleep
When drugs test my faith
And infiltrate my mind.
Those moments
Are just speed bumps
In my recovery,
Moments where the devil tries to test me.
My journey has never been easy.
Every day is hard,
But at the end to
That chapter of my life.
I know the struggle
Was worth it,
Because I made it.
I’ll drink it down, neat in one go
Drink it down, with nothing at all
Straight up, knock it back
Straight up, knock down the wall
I don’t need, any mixers
Diluted crap, don’t do it at all
Hundred percent, no fifty fifty
Line the lot up, against a wall
Wanna feel it, burn my stomach
Strip the lining, from the walls
Rocket fuel, killing brain cells
Moonshine with craters an all
Sick and tired, of being sober
Fed up looking at walls
Rocking back and forth, uneasy
Gonna eat the bottles an all
I need drink, more than ever
Sobriety is killing us all
If you like, join in my battle
We can throw up, against a wall
Don’t care, if I’m an addict
Sit around, and beg at a wall
Gave me valium, sent me home
Ha! I’ve got no willpower at all
By
David Kavanagh
I once had a Lazy Susan
Adding confusion to choosin'
I gave her a spin
But never could win
And that's why I turned to boozin'
Day old coffee
in its maker
a cold witness
sometimes
to broken dreams
and war stories
and proclamations
of
getting well
of
new beginnings
of
hearty hope.
Solemn stories and
cloudy memories
and Joe
laughter’s echo
at some obscure
joke but
the window
knows
how schemes get
distorted
deformed
disfigured.
Some have just
flown that way
inevitably
some do go
without ceremony
without fanfare
no hoopla
simply vanish
and all that’s left
are
empty seats
empty room
empty maker
waiting for
the next batch
of sunshine.
(click the picture to buy my poetry book!)
They unload life’s lead
into unseen enemies
machine gun memories
flying rapid fire
recollections and musings
spent shells amassing
mental turbines spinning
smoking the room.
And they yawn and doodle
ink stains for amusement
their purpose loosened
without caffeine courage
meetings adjourned
aimless wandering down
immaculate hallways
wounded reflections
in thoughtless pursuit
of quiet relief.
And they nod gingerly
with grim understanding
lives in the balance
teetering on a wire
as the bird careens
by the smokestack
somehow in
silent recognition
of lives interrupted.
(click on picture for Angst & Anger)
No matter how good we are
Most marriages have a wall,
That divides war and conquer
The barriers we erect affects us all.
Cold and calm two lifeless form
Lay side by side will not always chide.
Passion is a demon in the storm,
cruel torture willing to hide.
Reality is a plague lived out best,
Through images of songs and poetry
We create; when we are at worst,
fiercest disgruntle disguised enemy.
Seeking rehab, to quench the soul
temporally release finds a moment of peace.
The welcome propitiation of parole
That our natural laws set beyond reach.
Truth, for the present, is best to confess
Attributes to be a candle of the future.
Rehab walks through the test of forgiveness,
honesty always dispel the fate of failure.
Summer and winter day and night,
Shadows in the mind arrive and forecast
The spring of hope a ray of light,
You take your chances and leave the rest.
Let the past go through the atmosphere,
Take the heat and all the heavyweight,
Work and form a bridge to cross back over
From harm and the snare of hell’s gate.
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