Black cinder carpet
Laid across fiery coalfields
Skirting infernos
Poetry form: Hexasonnetta
Able baker began
Biggest affair ever
Displayed downtown never
Drinking champagne again
During desert best man's
Finger, he did sever
Featured flowers hurting
Husband's increased adverse
Effects, fainted, inversed
His calm nature skirting
ER person alerting
Finger saved by a nurse
Baker now basket case
Budget affairs showcase
On The Wind
Never feeling
more alone
I could taste
the remoteness
As it lingered
on my tongue
Teasing hunger
most tart
Never being
more unknown
The detachment
left my senses
As I drifted
on the wind
Like an echo
— in the dark
**
Ancient Bodies
Fixing
what wasn’t broken
My crusade
soldiered on
Past bodies
killed ancient
On battlefields
— long won
**
Taking My Hand
Where does the moon
try to lead me
that orb of reflection
and light
Taking my hand
its will to command
time ...
—the servant of night
**
New Truth
Skirting the line
of wrong and right
Scaling the cliffs
of darkness and light
Climbing upward
not one look down
Perched and waiting
the truth — unfound
**
Writing in verse
my voice
deep within
A rising
butterfly
skirting the wind
Piercing
the silence
in harmony flies
On wings
beating meter
— rhythm and rhyme
(Dreamsleep: November, 2025)
Everybody
wants to go
to Heaven
(but)
Nobody
wants
to die
Everybody
want to change
the truth
(but)
Nobody
wants
to lie
Everybody
wants to bend
the law
(but)
Nobody
wants
to get caught
Everybody
wants to fall
in love
(but)
Nobody
wants
— pain and loss
(The New Room: August, 2025)
The white vinyl plastic skirting waves at me
There is a discarded orange peel
Halfway down the driveway
From a mailbox walk.
I stepped over it yesterday and smiled
thinking of Ryan.
He loves oranges.
There is a curly blonde little boy
Smiling at us over a baby gate.
Soon, we will make breakfast.
Dad is on the couch with a throw blanket
That doesn't quite reach his exposed feet.
The house is waking
Everyone stretching
Yawning.
I exhale a good morning.
It is 70 degrees in August
"It's RUBY TUESDAY night" declared Charlie.
Why do yer call it that when it's ruby murray for curry?" retorts Steve.
"It's coz we 'ave it on Tuesdays that's why mate" replies Charlie.
Steve shakes his head "But Charlie, we do 'ave it on Saturday nights too."
Charlie laughs."Last one your ANGIE cooked, my guts felt like WILD HORSES were stampeding inside and lets say it wasn't quiet the TUMBLIN' DICE coming out the other end either."
"Too much info there Charlie boy and if she hears yer say that you'll get more than a clip round the ear, bunch of fives more like. You still helping me decorate Jades bedroom this weekend? She wants us to PAINT IT BLACK" asks Steve.
"Black? ain't that gonna be dark and make it feel smaller?" Charlie asks.
Steve sighs "Yeah, probably, it's her space so she can have it. Not my choice but YOU CAN'T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT even in yer own house when yer surrounded by HONKY TONK WOMEN. Anyway, gotta get this splinter out that's UNDER MY THUMB from sanding down the skirting. Sort that, grab a beer and play THE ROLLING STONES cd the Mrs got for me birthday. See ya later mate".
orchid blooms skirting
elegance high on a stick
~ vanity rainbow
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
I’m skating on thin ice;
I’m just skating by and I’m gonna fall,
and that’s alright;
I’m skating in a figure eight,
I’m just skating by on a decrepit lake,
and that’s alright;
It’s better than something new;
I’m skating around skirting hazards,
I’m just skating by in an endless circle,
and that’s alright;
No need to make any changes;
I’m skating at a familiar pace;
I’m just skating by not being pushed,
and that’s alright;
No need for a little bit more;
I’m skating below unseen visionary,
and that’s okay;
Said nobody ever.
Touching
without feeling
Looking
without seeing
Talking
without saying
Lost
— in the dark
(Villanova University: February, 2024)
Just nodded yes, when my ego had said no
Lost all consuming forces, simply let go
Met you halfway, instead of skirting the square
Perhaps sat down, when you brought over a chair
Found quantum entanglement, not just sheeple
Its herding force, far away from the steeple
Magnetism in both poles, pulling from all sides
Positive and negative, filling vast voids
Overcome the burden, in self surrender
Let empathy conjoin, and love engender
Gone outside my comfort zone, where truth persists
Quelled year old hate, encouraged alternate bliss
Lived together, stop digging at empty space
Found peace together, ending human disgrace
Believed together, without losing mere face
Came together, with all consuming embrace
But then again, (I wish I had) lots of things
Not just a pair of arms, but fully fledged wings
I’d fly ‘cross Nepal, meet and kill the Buddha
His words incanting, Shoulda Coulda Woulda!
In realms of cyberspace, I fly
searching out treasures in disguise
skirting advertised merchandise
the ordinary, the overemphasized
to anatomize the marginalized
values overlooked otherwise
on the dusty, neglected, virtual aisles
of small sites not over-commercialized
or google ranked and over-publicized
some unexpected payoffs materialize
glittering swag, patiences prize
“Oh, my God - Look!” I vocalize
My girlfriends can’t believe their eyes
“You can find anything,” they surmise.
Bending a breaking point
rupturing time
Eons of history
skirting the line
Paradox native
our true D.N.A.
Truth as a concept
forever in play
Yessing and noing
transfixed in between
The jester in transit
all canons demeaned
Freeing the moment
the first wedded last
a twist to the turning
—where memory contrasts
(Septa R5 To 30th Street: August, 2023)
"Norma Jean"
stuck out Einstein's
tongue sticks out
as being among
one of the most
amazing things
to see but then
when i saw
Marilyn's
skirt skirting
that grate that
was
greater
and so it was
or would seem
so they say
Monroe's
IQ was
higher
than
Albert's
after all she
never bombed
at the box office
Quietly
The hum of sunrise
Awakens the day.
Cutting the familiar wake
Of an old butter knife
Un-noticed
Silent swans
Skirting the lily pads
Pass sunning turtles
Wary eyed muskrats
And bug-eyed frogs.
John G. Lawless
©5/30/2023
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