Goodbye cuts the air
with an odd, misshapen lance-
too sharp to swallow
it lingers on ragged breath
it's aftertaste scalds the soul
It feeds like a beast
clawing at the heart's locked gate
demanding more tears
its anger never subsides
its hunger never sated
Yet inside the wound
a new dawn begins to break
away from parting
sweetening bitter sorrows
with a palatable sauce
Goodbye has a seed,
to be cast in barren fields
fragile and daring
when given a chance to grow
now the stubble has been cleared
Kneading the old clay,
we shape what remains behind,
sculpting mementos
into what can not be done
before the goodbyes are said
Each farewell when made
to echo in memories,
fierce, bitter, and sad
can welcome what's to follow
by seeing sorrow as sweet
Categories:
scalds, sorrow,
Form: Lyric
craving to be seen
yet stray retort shatters me —
my glass mask splinters
every piece tilts my face back
at angles I can't endure
one word in print scalds
smoke sears my lingering thoughts
blinding tomorrow —
fragility weeps like wax
from a candle I keep lit
still, I sift slivers
threading them in songs and verse
knowing they might cut
to make strangers laugh or cry
it's worth each crimson spot
Categories:
scalds, angst, anxiety, emotions,
Form: Tanka
A bell tolls — with a single chime.
Igniting the spell of dawn’s regret.
It halts the breath, suspends all time,
Foreboding with threats you can't forget.
You flinch—one foot on the stepping stone,
The wind's first touch scalds your face.
Just one finger grips your hand alone.
You wait for relief from bell’s disgrace.
The silence palls where echoes die—
The ring bell toll fades with no reply.
There's no sign, no sound, no reason why,
You're left here dangling from the sky.
A bird attempts one fragile note.
Bashful in the spelled applause.
The breeze catches breath in its throat.
Afraid to continue through the pause.
You toll the haunt of some unspoken spell,
A pact with ghosts to stop the feeling.
While winds and seas rise on the swell,
Sending your hopeful plans reeling.
A lone bell tolls—no one answers now.
So old scars and doubts take the blame.
For dismembered memories you can’t avow.
In the flinching cringe that has no name.
Categories:
scalds, angst, anxiety, music,
Form: Rhyme
It’s not sweet as the Asian koel’s song.
The red-wattled lapwing voices its irrecoverable loss.
The bird’s sorrow scalds the night.
It was brooding in the serene scrape nest.
The black blotchy eggs camouflaged with the pebbles and sand,
yet they weren’t safe from the predator.
The motherese and the fluttering dream in the shell ended in an omelet.
The hunter never enjoys the art on its plume
and the charms of its black-tipped red bill and long slender yellow legs.
He mistakes everything in nature is for his pleasure.
The avian anguish doesn’t roust him.
His heart is so, the real and origami birds are alike.
Its doleful cry continues,
darkening the moonlight.
Who cares for it in the world of hunters?
First published in The Literary Hatchet
Categories:
scalds, bird,
Form: Free verse
This journey we all make
Through this winding path
Scorched by the sun's anger.
It scalds our bare feet
Already torn by thorns.
The rains make it slippery,
We fall and bruise our knees.
Like wool drifting in the wind,
We are tossed about
Until we reach the great sea
Where the dying flames of our torch
Are finally extinguished.
While the lonely buds
Manured by our eternal silence
Become the memorials
Of this solemn journey.
Categories:
scalds, death, life,
Form: Free verse
You plead my cause
Know that I'm not worthy
Note that I am filthy
And yet you came along
You came a long and you wash me
You know tat I was guilty
and yet as my lawyer
you plead my cause
I was lost in the wilderness
You plead my cause
I was blinded you took those scalds off mine eyes
now I see your wonderous light
I am so excited you plead my cause
8/3/22
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr 2022©
Categories:
scalds, analogy, confidence, encouraging, forgiveness,
Form: Light Verse
The rowan tree sees a light turn from white into grey colours turn
to shades of dust and claws of branches blacken against the sky.
Rowan made from feathers, made from blood keeping me safe.
The rowan tree sees a ghost with heat floating about a sodden
ground as night’s ghastly thoughts die down and give a rise to
the dreadful day. Rowan made from blood keeping me safe.
The rowan tree sees the sun make shimmering shadows as
brightness scalds our eyes and words shrivel on the edge of our
tongues like ash. Rowan made from blood keeping me safe.
Categories:
scalds, character, happy,
Form: Free verse
I once ate a secret, secret inside
That fester'd and sank deep into my core
Blackened and rotted, my gut it fried
Prodding my conscience, I just can’t ignore
Suddenly I am the worst of sinners
A secret! A secret! Inwards it screams
Burbles and boils and scalds my innards
A secret! A secret! From shame it streams-
The pressure doubled, despite my pleas
My flesh bloated with effort but alas!
Against my will, it retch’d upwards seize!
Burst forth from my lips, escaped en masse
Empty I feel, stain’d still and tainted
Mouth sick; regret bleeds dry; then- I fainted.
Categories:
scalds, deep,
Form: Sonnet
Applauded performers in dayspun course
Embezzled by orbit, to variance succumb
After venom scalds sun adoring audience
Moon's butter churns mother cow rotund
Accusations pacified behind eclipses
Rays of interrogation with dusk relent
Voyaging moon melts in mineral elixir
Ocean encumbered by dawn's lament
29th May 2020
Categories:
scalds, appreciation, moon, sun,
Form: Quatrain
Of late, nature moans inside a scraped womb
As her lush environ FLOUNDERS breaks out…
Played like a trusting NEOPHYTE from woods to rivers
She endures the BOMBAST of dirt through man’s crimes:
Awaiting kindness …amends remain undone
While LECHEROUS deeds persist without guilt, why, why?
More wrongs ravage innocent fish and flora
Infecting her very marrow, to drain away.
Loot, SMOLDER, rip a body ! Time runs out.
Mother Earth answers through bloodied jolts…
By will of PROVIDENCE, she whips a storm without INHIBITION
Halting indifference, her fire scalds air’s layers,
A battle citizens might grow DOLOROUS over--
Until her soul is nourished back, till she moans no more.
-----------
Eight Word Free Verse Challenge
For John Hamilton’s Contest 6/13/2019
Categories:
scalds, abuse, environment,
Form: Free verse
Close your eyes,
Plug your ears,
Hold your breath.
Imagine falling in love with someone.
Imagine a love so alive it burns your lips and scalds your tongue.
Imagine them gone.
Close your eyes,
Plug your ears,
Hold your breath.
Imagine you're a guest in your own mind.
Imagine walking to the darkest corner.
Imagine sliding your back aginst your fears and letting doubt wet your face.
Close your eyes,
Plug your ears,
Hold your breath.
What color do you see?
Categories:
scalds, imagery,
Form: I do not know?
Your hand
It fits perfectly into mine
Those fingers, they all entwine
So warm
They protect me
Your grip tightens in sense of danger
It is so hard it hurts me
Please don't stop
Never
See
Knuckles are the ugly parts
They aren't uniform enough for my OCD
They work their purpose
Oh so well
Release
Anger resides in your palms
You tell me they protected us
But not just that
Grievous bodily harm
I'm haunted
Right and left
They have lived many lives
Relationships with other skins
Not mine
It scalds me
Those hands are mine now
Yours only for me
My fingers and yours forever embraced
Protecting
Home
The bricks and mortar to my being
It lies in your chromosomes
A house is not a home
You are
Finger and thumb prints
Destinations to all my explorations
Gateways to the past and future
The present
Now
Your hands
They are an adventure and a comfort
Not just yours but also mine
Start and end
Hold me
Please
Always
Categories:
scalds, absence, first love, heart,
Form: Verse
Villanelle: Who will dare not love La Belle Dame sans Merci
Who will dare not love La Belle Dame sans Merci
Will she now dare budge from her perch in the clouds
No Knight-at-Arms her wiles entice sans souci
No belle dis-haunches curves just for a merci
Nor no beau fealty vows when she unfolds
Who will dare not love La Belle Dame sans Merci
La Belle Dame knows best why knights to grot go see
Best to keep armour on lest hell-met visor scalds
No Knight-at-Arms her wiles entice sans souci
Do knights her eyes gaze when they rout her easy
Nor think of fellow knights in arms she enfolds
Who will dare not love La Belle Dame sans Merci
Quaff not her cheap cheer unless from Holy See
Lulled not be by tales of woe laid by knights’ holds
No Knight-at-Arms her wiles entice sans souci
Serves whom right to fall in love with Heresy
No true love sits on throne when knights be cuckolds
Who will dare not love La Belle Dame sans Merci
No Knight-at-Arms her wiles entice sans souci
(c) T. Wignesan - Paris, 2017
Categories:
scalds, beautiful, body, love, paradise,
Form: Villanelle
"Oh that this too,too solid flesh would thaw
And resolve itself into a dew"
Water slips through our fingers ,so fresh and sweet
Yet a solid mass will smash all before it
Where scree sits,solid on the slopes,
Dislodged it will sweep down,wave after wave,
A sea of stones
That blanket of snow off piste lying still
Shudders into life thundering
With oceanic power
Drowning all in its path
How solid is cold metal until molten
And then its white hot stream
Spits and scalds and settles
Into its mould
Categories:
scalds, change, nature, power,
Form: Free verse
Your malignant image scalds my eyes like some strung out squatter in the high rise.
July 10, 2016
*For Silent ones one liner contest
Categories:
scalds, light,
Form: Light Verse
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