Standing on a rusted platform,
I look towards the looming, tarnished steel clock,
Ticking away my final moments of existence.
Oceanic eyes swell with liquid salinity
As a hollowing whistle booms in the close distance.
The scent of petrol mingles with midnight paranoia.
Placing a shaking hand upon my vibrating chest,
I can detect the trembling of a trepidatious heart,
Whilst the monstrous whistle is getting louder now—
Signaling the next, next stop: ruination.
Pulling up, two ghastly doors creak open,
Heralding me towards finality.
Stepping inside, all that surrounds is a blazing fog,
Like some surrealistic, dreamy haze
Engulfing my every gasping breath.
Choking on the ashes of all the sins
I have branded onto loved ones’ flesh,
I slam to the floor as the tempo of the train accelerates,
Jolting over a swinging bridge,
Taking my corrupted spirit
Over a modern-day River Styx.
Categories:
salinity, dark, death, gothic, imagery,
Form: Free verse
Did we meet when stars aligned?
Or when fate dragged our paths,
to coincide, to bump together,
sidled up, side by side,
by coincidence, in time and space?
Or did we slide into the same path by accident?
Enchanted to dance by chance,
with happenstance and serendipity,
on a path less traveled?
We met in a deserted park,
in a deserted ghost town,
on a path way off the beaten track
Both coming to see how rising salinity
in the district's groundwater,
through excessive water use,
had ruined the crops,
ruined the town's livelihood.
Everyone had left.
One of us came here,
to yen its cause,
the other with pen,
to write a report.
In the park was a swing
with a rusty chain and black rubber seat.
The wind made the swing,
swing to and fro, to and fro,
emitting a haunting creak.
Which drew us to share the
pathos of the scene.
Which to us, thus met,
made all the difference.
This path, this town, this park,
this swing, this wind, this creak,
by accident,
made all the difference!
Categories:
salinity, change, love,
Form: Free verse
c a l m salinity
sensory
d e p r i v a t i o n ~
a
d
r
i
f
t
in dead sea
Categories:
salinity, beautiful, deep, imagery, peace,
Form: Haiku
It is addictive.
Used to it
like the wicked bitter pills
that one swallows to numb the pain,
to block the feelings.
Lethargic yet nerve-wracking;
A tightness in the chest that
never goes away.
Faint, throbbing, persistent.
It is inherent to me.
the salinity of an ocean of tears,
the chaos of a storm wrecked ship,
the thorns of a lonely cactus.
Never clears away by itself.
Haunting like monsters,
nauseating like rotten hopes,
Appalling like oblivion,
Repulsive like nightmares.
One drinks it,
Slowly.
Like the morning cup of coffee,
Bitter, gone cold.
Yet addictive.
Mine alone.
-Ree
Categories:
salinity, deep, depression, endurance, feelings,
Form: Free verse
The suffix nut specifying the skull,
defining the coconut, is misplaced,
for it’s not truly a nut,
but botanically, a drape.
A salinity soaker, the prolific palm,
sultry sea-shore colonizer copious,
it’s sky-searching trunk with spiny leaf crown
holds the fruit, the traditional tropical icon.
In certain societies around the globe,
a notable cultural and religious symbol,
it’s a multipurpose fruit is versatile,
used as food, fuel and folk medicine.
Its tough shell is a strong fortress that guards
the treasure of water and kernel, sweet and pure,
like the tender heart hiding
behind stern persona façade.
Categories:
salinity, analogy, fruit,
Form: Free verse
Ripples of pain weave circles round her
Memories sad and stark crucify her
Ugly and soiled scenes blur her vision
The whimper of aborted foetus deafens her
At night she encounters mindless phantoms
Vampires who come to suck her blood
Vultures circling to feed on her flesh raw
Tear her and hack her to shreds
Dribble spittle into her parched mouth
She seeks a shelter where she could fall asleep,
Breathing dark secrets into her crumpled pillow
When questions rise from all corners,
Putting her into a dreadful quandary,
She longs to hide in the remote corners of her self
And wash clean in her own tears,
Dousing the flame in their salinity
In a quickly darkening world,
She looks for a candle flame,
To make her ashen heart once more aflame.
When torn with the whiplash of life,
She longs for a balm to kiss away,
The sting of her reeking wounds.
From the throes of pain,
She resolves to walk into the calm-
Into the serenity of a day’s end,
Not to be a toy again
Fit for heartless rogues-
The circling vultures!
July.7. 2022
~ Placed First~
Pick-A-Title, Vol. 31 Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Edward Ibeh
Categories:
salinity, angst, betrayal, emotions, hurt,
Form: Free verse
Tamas
I began in my mother's womb where darkness clothed me
still carrying taste of death upon my tongue I suckled and kicked free
there were dancing lights and tears in the Universe gathering me to life
it didn't take long I did forget, I pierced the veil and wailed like a knife
Rajas:
I drank the nectar of the wild flower consumed the salinity of my goods
entered into karma like a Gita in a wave of passion, no longer was I wood
pulsing into life I sipped the juices of my passion and enjoyed the rays
with third eye open I was guided through my living numbered days
Sattva:
Like a pear tree laden with heavy fruit, life began to take its toll
like Saraswati I let go, then held on to a mala and a palm leaf scroll
swept away by a joy so pure, I found the core of love's own goal
there was nothing else I needed so I climbed the lotus of extol
All lies melted away in the face of truth and revelation ,
I lost myself in worship, became a sweet oblation.
Date: April 17, 2021
Sponsor: Unseeking Seeker
Contest Name: Where are we headed
Categories:
salinity, faith,
Form: Rhyme
STATUS OF SALT
Our staple food demands salt: Compulsory!
Unavoidable!
To digest or to taste
making palatable.
Dessert or beverage
liked by average
sweet dish to relish
But of course:
Cannot be a substitute
of salt-based main course.
In Bengali proverb status of salt is well-said.
“Debt of SALT can never be repaid.”
AND
VANITY
of Ocean and Sea
exhibiting aqua opulence,
storage of salt in abundance.
Strong SALINITY
in water’:
Unthinkable!
Undrinkable!
03/09/21
HM
' Salt ' Contest Anthony Biaanco
Categories:
salinity, 8th grade, appreciation,
Form: Free verse
Lavender tinted
Two serpents of the sea
Chafing scales
Twisting through
Kuroshio Currents
Prancing Minions
Sirens of the deep
Bathing in rosen lilac
l'écume de mer
Frothing on the Horizon
Silken Goddesses
Submerged in Epsom salinity
Artfully teasing
Envisioning
A Better Tomorrow
Categories:
salinity, i love you,
Form: Free verse
CONUNDRUM
When I am that
What I am searching about
As vigorously as one looks
For one’s lover-pince
It becomes doubly tedious
To come across myself
From all the crusts
Lying within
A tinge of smile hanging on lips
Like relaxing dew drops
On gentle rose petals,
Sweetness dissolved in honey
As salinity remains in sea,
Serenity of lush green forest,
Calming allay under the soothing shadow
Like tranquility of restful
Crest of moon in lagoon,
Pinching of prickly thorns
As self gives a miss
Like one finds one’s embrace
Empty on coming out of trance
I must be seemingly
Talking of dreams
But these are ingredients
What do compose love, and
That is what I am
If I could very honestly
Search me out!
Categories:
salinity, allusion, confusion, crazy, introspection,
Form: Free verse
To be deep in thoughts
And wide in mind
They have never been enough
You need to increase your salinity
In the water of your soul
To eat up all the ill treatments and wrongs
To you meted out and done
As the ocean purifies all the dust and dirt
And returns back all purified
Into it whatever pollutants are thrown upon
It has never been enough
Just to flow like a stream
You need to silt this world
To make life more fertile
By the way of washing away the wastes
You need to clean your surroundings.
Categories:
salinity, wisdom,
Form: Free verse
You cannot harpoon a blossoming moon,
you have less light in the dark.
You cannot escape such sweet emotion,
or slide down a moonbows arc.
Through the dingy darkness
the glassy moonbeams burn.
Their intoxicating dreams...
each taking their turn.
The beams bounce from cloud to
cloud with that same old divinity.
Crashing into the murky depths,
deeper than the sea's salinity.
Look up at the stars
with your amethyst eyes.
The crystal seed that grows
is the seed that tries... and tries!
Categories:
salinity, emotions, growth, humanity, moon,
Form: Rhyme
I walk the sea
the sea walks me
along dancing waves
of green salinity
caressing my feet...
Towards the west
the sun sinks
off to New Orleans,
orange and red hues
paint my senses...
In New Orleans
beer drenched misty bars
host jazz musicians
playing a purple and yellow
Mardi Gras toot...
Back in Biloxi
the sea is breathing
rising and falling...
The moon is sighing
to a love lorn sea...
In my pocket
a picture of a girl
building sand castles...
Sister of the sea
pisces by birth...
the stars shine on my city
soon sky will open
sea green turning to sea blue...
None matches the beauty
I see gazing at you...
Categories:
salinity, beauty,
Form: Free verse
Each kiss was a long
awaited duel of desires,
twilight's touches send
through my spine a fire...
The cuddle was a whisper
so loud and clear,
oh the scent-- an echo
from distance-zero..so
near.
I heard your dance steps
scream in serenity,
the taste of your love was...
like sweet salinity.
You took me to the arms
of the mildest moon,
we ate on the platter of
pleasure without spoon.
Each song we sang gave
the stars wings,
we woke up at the
seashore, as dawn
sings.
Categories:
salinity, adventure
Form: Couplet
A person's mind is impossible to find
Their life experiences,
their knowledge, their emotions,
are like an ocean of light.
As soon as you reach the shore, you realize there's so much more
You can barely get your feet wet in their shoes
Your eye only withholds a limited view
because the ocean goes on endlessly, far off in the distance
We can only witness so much,
Until we walk past the boundaries of shallow
and sink below.
We can see only ourselves in the water's reflection,
Too naive to see the mind of the other.
We can't drink the water, too much salinity
Can't comprehend the person, for they are infinity
Categories:
salinity, allegory, ocean,
Form: Free verse
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