Contest: Boulevard of The Beloved
Sponsor: Ink Empress
Prompt: If time turns, will the scars
Stain the sky?
Written for contest: 090426
My dear friend.
It appears that you have set your musings
To the large arena of time and space.
You asked, "If time turns, will scars
Stain the sky?" To your impassioned
Question, I am inclined to say 'Yes'.
Time does indeed move forward in a
Continuous mode: none stop, no waiting.
In so during, time unfolds and reveals the
Naked nature of mankind. Such exposure
Of nature's scars is so penetrating and dark that the clear blue sky will Indeed be severely stained.
However, in spite of the scars and stains,
There is hope and a future for all mankind.
Those scars and stains will not harm the
Rainbow in the sky. That is because the
Rainbow is a prime party of a covenant that
God made with Noah after the destructive
Deluge.
Indeed, time will turn until time shall be no more.
And unfortunately, scars and stains will result.
But we have good reason to be hopeful and
Comforted, because God is forever committed
to his Word, and to the best possible outcome
of mankind.
I met her in a dream at a washing station in Bangladesh
I might have tried to hold her hand by the thread she held
Which passed through the interior of a manicured shrub
Severely cut into the form of a dense sunless topiary ball
So tightly was it manicured to create a studied appearance
Of formal stability and calm that no air or sunlight reached its interior
And you could smell the rot from inside at a distance
And hear the screams of a six-year-old child from inside as well
Calling out desperately from the rot for attention and care
That I might follow the thread and see into the plant I dare not go
For there were broken off rotten limbs of its trunk lying by its side
From those who tried to reach the centre of the shrub before
So, I held back my desire to reach the centre and stopped out the noise.
I sat in the sunlight of what was once northern India and wondered at life’s destruction
Where none of Shiva’s many arms could penetrate into planned obstruction for aid
And the course of fate finds its way into unexpected dreams on night pillows rest.
the metropolitan library has a legacy of hosting unknown entities
reputed to be severely haunted since the early eighteen twenties
is it Goth? Celtic? what is her story I asked my eager brother
He wanted to go there on Hallows Eve, but did not invite our mother
Ghouls, goblins, ghosts and gremlins have been seen there
There might be vampires or cricket bats lingering in the air
a witch or two might be stirring a cauldron bright
we don’t know what to expect on this rare night
I thought it odd he did not mention book or a story
But decided to go because I am my brother’s sister, Glory
around the corner I saw an open book with sitting creature
she gave me the evil eye, with a gruesome face, an evil creature
it is a baby bat, my brother said, no reason to worry
But then we heard scratching and scratching, and something scurry
the bat transmogrified into a vampire with evil intent
spilled the cup of tea, and proved he was not heaven-sent
We ran out screaming, my brother and I
I yelled really loud “I thought I’d die!”
Then I noticed my brother had not made it out
I could hear him screaming as he was thrown about.
I'm here now in an unwanted place
The place of reflective sentiment
No hiding it's written on my face
And there is no sign of resentment
Here it comes....it's the hurtful goodbye
Goodbyes are meant to be remembered
I wish there was more time to buy
But there is no time left to be surrendered
Just remembrance of beautiful moments
We shared in happiness and in sadness
But that was a small part of this component
With even elements of complete madness
But you were the reason it was worthwhile
It was your smile that kept me in this
The reason I strived for that extra mile
Because in your happiness, I found bliss
You were so beautiful in so many ways
Though you would deny it to the end
Even when I was lost in just your gaze
You were always more than just a friend
And a friend who I will miss so dearly
With your absence too difficult to bear
And it's destroying me so severely
But there is no way for you to hear
To hear this heartfelt, hurtful goodbye
Because you never gave me the chance
Your death left me with absolutely no reply
My tears are the goodbye in this circumstance
My name is Sergeant Humpty Dumpty Crandall.
You'll see, if, your pardon, I may beg,
that I'm shaped a little like an egg
if you hold me to a candle.
I don't consider myself stern or strict,
but there's one thing you must get straight
to avoid the thing that I most hate,
or you'll be severely pummeled and kicked.
Take care not to place me on a wall,
for should I start to wobble,
there'll be a mess a horse can't cobble
(or the king's men). At ease, boys. That is all.
I fled away from your grasp
Confident till I breathe my last and my complacency isn’t vast
I have completely relapsed
Had to relax and satisfy me aside from my mindset of the past
I really have to go…
You don’t know me and you don’t care to
If you loved me so,
You’d be here with me and you’d be you
You trespassed my boundary space
You took away my saving grace…
In front of my face, I feel like a disgrace
I’m keeping pace on this race…
I really have to go…
I have been unappreciative lately
I’m not your sunlit glow
I haven’t let go and let live frankly
Severely slid backwards
I lost my track of words
My thoughts fly like a bird in the sky
I watch them catch clouds, passing by
I cry and I feel so high today
I’m feeling frivolous and full of dismay
I don’t know why I shy away
I’m feeling marvelous and I want that feeling to stay that way…
Mesmerized by your intimacy of illumination
I really have to go on the merry go round of misery’s company
Just to feel glad again…just to feel joy again
I really have to go home but I’m stuck in the bar’s captivity
Observe the garden ninja
on the attack
a leaf blower
strapped to their back
and a lawn mower
but no sack
to collect the clippings
let alone picking up and putting in
the garden waste wheelie bin
merely making noise
severely reducing weeds
and flowers alike
'til they're nought but seeds
and when they strike
producing fumes
from badly-burned
fossil fuel ill-consumed
on the wind to be returned
from whence they once were
all flora is sadly doomed
Mind's minute mirage may muffle,
But biding by blinding brings burns.
Severely she'll sunder, so scuffle,
'Til tomorrow, tomorrow turns.
To my face you are kindness itself:
cheerful, always upbeat,
but in your anonymous blog
you rip me apart.
You press your thumb and forefinger on each side,
hold, pull and rend,
and rupture my very innards.
You focus on me,
my life, my words, my actions and my body
like you are a Celestron Telescope
searching for every single crater and irregularity.
With an Ultima Barlow lens
and your Leica M9 18MP
You grab each natural image
and then rearrange reality with
your precious, perversely persuasive, periscopic Photoshop technique.
poetic liberty has leased you a license to assassinate,
humiliate,
decimate,
invalidate,
severely lambaste,
and mockingly castrate
everything that I identify as me.
literary freedom allows you to liberally fabricate,
mutilate,
denigrate,
incriminate,
scathingly castigate,
and maliciously urinate
on what others think of me.
To my face you are kind beyond selflessness,
but on your online beat,
your anonymous malevolence
sets you apart
from all the others
that have ever wanted
to write me up,
put me down,
and publish me out.
— Zumwalt (2011) (used by permission from zumpoems.com)
While the universe is ever-expanding
life on earth becomes even more demanding
despite a few one or two
world-shattering improvements
man is still wallowing
in the proverbial primordial
and if this road he insists on following
our future looks severely bleak
as where once we were happily winning
we're now all on a losing streak
yet history has taught him nothing
that and his memory is short
no thanks to his stupidity
between rocks on a hard place we are caught
but what about our children
those innocents who go unsung
there's not a lot for them to look forward to
that bell can't be unrung
as the genie is out of the bottle
what with plastic and fossil fuels
here's one last thought
I'm glad I won't be around to witness
the final endgame result
of what we silly fools hath wrought
Normally silence is what makes most people miserable
But if noise brings pain then silence is a miracle
The best words are the ones that are left unsaid
The battle is with yourself and the words inside your head
No one can hear you and nothing is written in permanent ink
Your thoughts exchange one to another faster than you blink
Can you imagine a world where silence dominates
It would be less fist fights, black eyes and heartaches
The world would be beautiful just as I said
More fathers around, no wars, less people dead
Silence is beautiful in arguments between one another
Decreases the mental abuse of going any further
Loved ones die and there's guilt from past words spoken
The white noise called words leaves hearts severely broken
Motion-activated caught on camera
while cookies for the kids I was cooking
a collared cat crept into the kitchen
when I stepped outside and wasn't looking
his potty break was well-timed
as, sadly, I'd left the door unlocked
onto the counter by the sink he climbed
bared his butt and crapped in the crock
tho' he gave new meaning
to vanilla chocolate chip
if I ever collar him doing it again
his mangy tail end I'll severely whip
as, if he wants nine lives to live
he'd really best think twice
or he'll sleep with the fishes
(not eat them)
as such behaviour is just not nice
Before a misty morning mirror
above a half-filled basin
such cold water was I braving
simply to lave my face in
but the coldest cut of all
and it only hurts when I smile
I severely slit myself while
I was busy shaving
but did my frozen fingers fumble
or was it just a rusty razor
which sorely needs replacement
that figured in my defacement
as there were many a slip
'twixt blade and lip
I havea zillion things to give utterance severely about.
Been there
Don't quit on yourself, Considering it will be distractions
Along one's travels of plots and traps. Been There
The visage of pieces of puzzling scars. Been There
Mental and Physical Violations, Familiar faces
Switching lanes, Unfamiliar places, coins tossed
aside where it lands no one knows. Been There
Greeted by disappointment surrounded by tears
overflowing, no reciopcrity not a victim of this
foolishness, pride tossed aside. Been There
A bar singer asked for a request
But all he got was "give it a rest"
He said "I know that song"
"Please all do sing along"
In that moment he felt truly blessed.
He started to sing and he got jeered
His eyes then filled up in floods of tears
So he ran out the door
Was not seen any more
Till he returned much older by years.
Customers in the bar sat and stared
“His singing's out of tune” they declared
They all went from the room
Left the singer in gloom
His ego was severely impaired.
He said to himself, “that’s it, no more
I’ll ask if I can just sweep the floor”
The manager said “yes”
“You can clean up the mess
But don’t sing when doing your chores.”
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