Wading water, my foot falters
This freezing feeling is seeping, stealing
Healthy heat from foolish feet
Now sliding, slipping and trip, tipping
Swimming swift so legs lift
Scared stiff in the water wishing
That fish found this folly fitting.
May 28th, 2023
Alliterisen Poetry Contest, sponsored by Joseph May
Any noise, any sudden movement
Any voice calling me,
A step outside my door
A shadow in the street
A creaking stair
The rustling of fallen leaves
A tap on my shoulder,
Sets my heart pounding
My legs growing roots
My blood turning cold
My soul beginning to freeze...
I play possum!
~12/11/22
~Contest: A Brian Strand Premiere Choice #54
The day is dying
The half-moon is faltering
In its nocturnal crawl
Across the gloomy sky
As the sleepy village goes to bed
Under the inky dark African sky
Stragglers are home-bound with trepidation
From another day of disillusionment
Lonely drunks lost in alcoholic world
Stagger home on the sandy paths
Boastful about feats known only to them
As the alcohol ebbed with their fading dreams
In the barricaded walls of wealthy mansions
Glittering outwardly and lit by obscene chandeliers
Lay looters and scoundrels of our commonwealth
Wide-awake scared stiff of night marauders they have created
As the gulf between the leaders and the led continues to widen
The day of reckoning has come for African predator overlords
Like Macbeth they have murdered sleep
They shall sleep no more
His scarlet head droops
towards his soulless emerald chest.
Perched upon a fruitless branch,
his spiritless eyes stare
at the emptiness of freedom.
Above, streaks of ruby hints
flow among coral flamingo shades,
as golden streaks swim through
crystallised kaleidoscopic skies -
but he feels no enthusiasm to fly.
What he thought would set him free,
has left his heart a companion-less hostage.
A lovebird without a purpose,
he is unable to warble a melody,
nor whistle for the love he left behind.
Raindrops splash his forlorn feathers,
he is too scared stiff to spread his wings.
His heart thumps like thunder,
as flashbacks of sitting, singing and locking beaks,
with feasts of berries, apples and seeds,
are regretful reminders of his misjudgement.
As he falls,
his last thoughts -
maybe freedom is not all that it seems..
Silent One
22 September 2019
If I weren’t afraid I’d have embarked once again
on the journey I had since long abandoned in chagrin,
on life’s pathway crowded by hostile strangers,
and held their hands, walked the empathy together.
On my uphill climb of the formidable mountain face,
summit of success lying beyond slithery failure called cliff,
I’d have reached at the end of effort if I weren’t scared stiff,
and if I had relied upon the dormant strength of self belief.
The gale of dark night carried to me your enticing call
from across the swollen river in surging spate of turmoil.
I’d have sailed to your eroded bank with loads of dream,
if my latent love could build a boat of courage for me.
As our paths cleaved at the edge of the trying times,
when I departed at sunset you were in debris of broken heart.
I’d have returned from the nascent horizon of sunrise colors,
if I weren’t afraid to slip and sink in your tears.
Written : September 13, 2019
February 12, 2020
Contest : Strand Select M, Any Form, Any Theme
Sponsor : Brian Strand
A Monster Calls
A monster calls,
But I do not respond.
The frightening voice enthralls,
But I feel as though forewarned.
Down the ages and across the hours,
The fiend has shown emboldened powers.
A shadowy presence stalks within,
Bringing with it feelings of chagrin.
I hear its sound, but I do not listen,
I only strive my indifference to christen.
Truth to tell, I confess I feel scared stiff,
When the evil force awakens, I get a whiff,
Of what it means to be truly afraid,
To uncover things of which I am not made.
The terrifying fiend lies within,
Securely hidden far beneath the skin.
Our duality walks along a sharp knife,
Within us lie forces of good and evil rife.
We think we are free in whatever we chose,
With no fear of consequences for what we lose.
What use is the good of being completely free,
When in choosing the wrong thing we do not see,
That unlimited freedom comes with a steep price,
If we lose our souls when the clock strikes thrice.
The midnight hour will have long since gone by;
We cannot gather up the pieces even if we try.
Our hearts will now be carved with a ragged edge;
The monster gladly calls when we offer our pledge.
Between a castle and a moat
One small goat
Strays too far, too long
But nothing happens
Yet scared stiff, the goat is scared stiff
To see this beast, this terrible monster
The medieval lands have made him out to be
What can this beast do to prove
There is beauty beneath his sharp teeth
Beauty behind his scales
Beauty beyond the smoldering ash belonging to the distant corner of the cave
This goat retreats and the animal escapes again
For the fleeing goat will bring enraged villagers
Local pillagers who think it’s an ultimate title gain
To slay the beast which breathes in coal and spews the hottest fire
But the beast, far from majestic, contains neither dark deeds nor twisted motives
He is not part of his parents’ disgraceful lineage
The violent overtaking and burning down precious fields and wildlife
He believes it to be intolerable, unimaginable
And if he could, he would change his complicated anatomy
And happily breathe water, become a different animal of peace
But this is a curse from a destructive dragon lineage
That refuses to stop haunting a mercy-filled being
We were strapped in ready for take-off,
the engines churning all around us.
We'd longed for this moment,
but when it came we were scared stiff,
wondering if we'd survive.
"Countdown to take-off!" the captain roared.
Gritting our teeth we made ready.
pushed hard into our seat backs with stomachs
turning cartwheels we were off at last!
bright lights and bogus noises
surging from under the blankets.
There was a wobble and a whistle,
the signals to burst out at warp speed.
Our bodies felt the rush, the rumble
and finally the jolt of the touch down.
"Look out the peephole! We're on the moon!"
the captain cried. And sure enough, we weren't
in Kansas anymore. The moonscape was
strangely full of familiar looking objects,
Grandma's afghan flowing like a river,
what looked like the pillows
from Jimmy's bed, crumpled like space debris,
and my school project, a volcano
puffing out baking powder.
Yep, this was the moon alright.
"Imaginations still intact," Jimmy yelled,
but how are we gonna get home?"
Corruption the putrid core
Of the crop that cripples
Trust that create crucial hold
Between ruler and the ruled
Greedily troubled equivocal thoughts of the cruel mankind
Equipped with massive power over naturally resourced terra firma
Die many times hopes and aspirations of the destitute.
Amandla! Ngawethu!! Really?
Sons and daughters of the golden continent
Come to life and reclaim the immense power you possessed
Reclaim the dignity and wealth your leaders traded for personal enrichment
It’s time we make our leaders comprehend
The significant detail that WE people govern
And they should be scared stiff by your growl.
THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT
Often times things go bump in the night
We shake and tremble, filled with fright
Tiptoeing softly in search of the sound
Nerves on edge making our heart pound
Suddenly in the parlor, what did I hear
It sounded much like the scraping of a chair
Peering intently where the shadows lurk
Wondering if someone's watching me with a smirk
The parlor is empty of goblin or ghost
Then the thing that I dread most
A sound from the kitchen like pots and pans
Being banged together by unseen hands
I creep across the living room floor
Gently, I open the kitchen door
Nothing scary greets me there
The anxiety now is more than I can bare
I break out in a cold clammy sweat
Afraid to keep looking – but yet
I want to find out the source of the sound
Worried beyond measure at what may be found
I'm wielding a chair in self defense
Still filled with fear and great suspense
I flip on the lights to find out that....
I'd been scared stiff by my neighbor's cat
22 September 2013
for the Everything Halloween contest
Summer night, scared stiff
Trying to pay for condoms
With a rubber check
Trapped like a mouse!
Squished like a bug!
Stuck like glue. Eeeew!
Scared stiff like a deer caught in the head lights!
Shaking like a leaf.
Sick as a dog.
Dumb as a doorknob.
Blind as a bat.
Mad as hell!
One thing I'm not lately is,
sleeping like a baby!
He cringes in fear, his legs wobble, his young wings scared stiff;
below the nest yawns a dark, deathly chasm of what if;
plunges into space,
flaps, slows down the pace;
ah, new-found freedom of flight, across, around the home cliff !
Blissfully sneaked into zeros,
the mind was playing zero sum games,
permutations and combinations whirled in maze,
calculating gain was tough,
scared stiff of the loss,
mind began seeing loss,
where it was to gain,
it was so over worked,
that it did not feel that it worked,
working had becme a habit,
as if it was a carefree frisking rabbit,
rabbit collapsed of exhaustion,
and loss was immense,
zero sum game was lost,
for some time,
when it got back on track,
now the brain looked back,
saw the futility,
and overall loss,
whenever it went untoward fast,
it preferred to close shop,
and hit the sack.
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