You enter my being
Like a sober euphoria
Sideswiped by a rogue wave
I fell into your higher grave
Coursing my veins like a lethal injection
Your love is like a sober euphoria
My warm blood now a cold sensation
I’m taken to the lover’s utopia
You devour me with your evil desire
Your eyes consume my secret soul
I slowly melt in your relentless fire
In you my half is now made whole
At the end of the meeting
You’re a sober euphoria
Just another swinging fling
In the true lover’s utopia
“Stay in your lane and do not veer”
A warning that I’d always hear.
With guarded glances, signals shown,
I steered my way, no danger known.
But fate, it struck with sudden might,
Sideswiped, my world spun into night.
Grasping hard to steer the wheel,
Out of control, a new ordeal.
Flat tire, airless, veering wide,
No chance to steer or turn aside.
Brace for impact was my plan,
While drivers dodged my wild sedan.
On this road, my path askew,
Some slowed down, while others flew.
I rolled uphill until motion ceased
Then climbed from my vehicular beast.
No crash, no bang, just sudden still,
A quiet end to fate’s fierce will.
And in that calm, a thought took seed,
Perhaps the edge is what I need.
Over the edge, I found my way,
Not bound by rules, nor led astray.
In wild ride’s end, I saw it clear:
The edge I feared brought freedom near.
Her groom started to speak but bride interrupted him
Guessing what he wanted.
This happened often
Wife always got the last word
Trying to figure out what husband wanted
Before he could tell her
Reading his mind
Giving him her idea of what he wanted daily
Husband tried a few more times
But wife slapped him down, pooh-poohing his ideas.
She knew his mind better than he did.
She could meet his every need without words.
Years later, Wife was angry when Husband left
She had spent years trying to please him
She was totally sideswiped by his lack of compassion
Never realizing she should have listened at least once.
My son-in-law took my 15-year-old granddaughter for a driving lesson.
She has a permit so she needed an adult.
On the way back they stopped for ice cream, and she wanted to eat hers
so my son-in-law was driving back.
A truck tried to get in between my son-in-law’s car and a new Camaro.
This is a two lane road, but the truck was driving too fast to stop, so it sideswiped
them both.
My son-in-law said he watched the other driver in full police uniform get out of the
brand new Camaro. He thought “This is going to be good!”
The driver of the truck pulled out, squealing his tires.
The police officer told my son-in-law “I can’t go after him.
I just got off duty. Did you get his plate number?”
My son-in-law said, “It happened too fast. Didn’t you get it?”
My 15-year-old granddaughter held up a piece of paper.
“I got it,” she said.
Proud?
You bet.
We learned later that the hit and run driver is also only fifteen.
It will be years before
he drives again,
and I cannot imagine his parents’ delight or
the enthusiasm of his
uncle when he gets to make that phone call tonight to the child's parents.
A difficult lesson.
Especially when you hit-and-run.
My Freeway Angel
Caught between two cars
There was no lane between them
Who guided my hand?
Steering crazily
back and forth between them both
It was harrowing
At another time
I was sideswiped by a rig
on that same freeway
My car went sideways
to the front of a man’s truck
I had no control
I was being pushed
as the trucker slowed his pace
in his middle lane
Before the truck stopped
I wondered is this the end?
I felt strangely calm
My car then emerged
faced against the traffic but
on the embankment
A few other times
my tires had big bad blowouts
I came out unscathed
I’ve stayed uninjured
through all my mishaps but not
so lucky - my cars!
Have I been lucky
or is a freeway angel
looking after me?
For the Senryu on Angels Poetry Contest of Marvin Celestial
True story written with senryu syllable count. I would like to think I have an
angel, but I can't really say for sure!
Contest Description: 1 original, poem on the theme of true encounters with Angels
Only Senryu form will be accepted with the title "Angel / Angels."
the Octopus is strong
no longer lies beneath deep oceans
but lingers all around
tentacles flail through keystrokes of the fool
unaware
sunk
shipwrecked with ***********
we hear her diabolical roar
seeps under
stings with mighty suckers
we swim away only to be sideswiped by her medicine
her unholy device
no match for her biology
tangled in that
eight armed sinister swim
can we win?
eyes
not completely sure
but there's hope in our human resiliency.,
X. insects that are impossible to see with the naked eye
crawl through what is left
IX. knocked by accident off the mantelpiece &
spread all over the shag
VIII. burnt in a crematory, stuffed in an urn & set on the mantelpiece
VII. people may come to see the remains staring up lifelessly from a casket
VI. found dead on the scene by semi-interested law enforcement official
V. sideswiped at stoplight: hit & run by a wasted teenager who just got their license
a week ago
IV. late by a few minutes, hop into vehicle, step on the gas, don’t drive too
fast, but not too slow either: must get to work on time
III. step into shower: shampoo, lather, rinse, apply moisturizer, scrub with
soap of choice, brush teeth, rinse out moisturizer, towel dry body, dry hair
with dryer (cold outside)
II. stuff food into mouth, wash it down with caffeinated beverage
I. woke up with bags under eyes, choppy sleep & no time to catch up on it