scuffs in the pearl white floor
when she leaves the room,
for empty hospital hallway memories,
haze of sterile gloom
like snails, the chronic men
each slowly wear away,
their minds left to trail behind them,
their faces falling into decay
the grey walls with snake green stripes
always constricting them,
the dim fluorescent flicker of the fate
to which they have been condemned.
Categories:
sterile, crazy, dream, fear, humor,
Form: Couplet
Unhappily trapped
In a crumbling relationship...
The love that kept them intact
Through highs and lows
Eroded by doubts.
--------------------
Categories:
sterile, love hurts,
Form: Free verse
A polaroid, in
my drawer, under the junk
- a memory found.
Wow, I miss fun, it's
like there was another life
- a past life shared.
Remember parties?
Sweaty dancing then a plunge
in the cold lake?
I feel like an old
lady reliving childhood
in sterile pics.
Everything I thought
my life would be is gone or
on nebulous hold.
We're learning a dull
brand of patience - strange for
the microwave age.
Categories:
sterile, 11th grade, angst, identity,
Form: Senryu
Statuesque.
Cradiling mortality.
Watching drywall become
constellations.
~
Blue bonnet fields
taller than he's ever seen
the wind makes them all dance
~
Sterile conversations
Latex gloves snapping in unison
Clapping for the waking dreamer
"He's not out of the woods, yet"
~
Voices intermingled
Rushed movements
Erratic beeps.
"Steady"
Crimson trickles down his
chest. The only feeling left.
~
Smiling faces- blurry, unfamiliar.
"Rest now. We'll answer anything you
want. But, for now. You need to be still."
He fights the urge to break free of Intervenous
shackles. Run back to the blue bonnet field.
Where he remembered who he was.
-James Kelley 2019
Categories:
sterile, crazy, death, deep, horror,
Form: Free verse
The canopy was beaming beneath radiant stars, as whirling
wedding night dances swirled round and round the garden …
But her husband crippled, his manhood puerile,
Fate untied their sterile knot of desire.
The world seemed to shrug; she felt herself
scorned. Passersby avoided her eyes ...
Was it she'd been abandoned, deficient found?
Or had the clock just run out on her cries?
July 01, 2018
Categories:
sterile, children, fate, marriage, time,
Form: Prose Poetry
Cradled in her loving arms,
Swaddled in his cotton cloth,
Still Born.
Her piercing cries split through the air,
Thundering,
Echoing,
Behind those heavy doors, the sterile corridors.
Deafening silence
He bowed his head in disbelief,
Father,
Shaking like a leaf,
A lump,
A sore throat,
A whipping of the heart.
She took the baby close to her,
Peaceful,
Final,
Sleep,
“Breathe, little one”
“Wake up please”
She whispered
Denial
Hope
Evaporated like the morning dew,
Tears heavy on her cheeks,
She knew.
He knew.
Nothing any one could do.
Behind those heavy doors, the sterile corridors.
His grief, their grief,
A tear ran down his cheek,
He clasped his face,
Eyes red,
He sobbed,
Robbed,
Immense their loss,
His heart wrenched,
A thud!
He collapsed into a heap,
Behind those heavy doors, the sterile corridors.
Loath to part
She gave the baby up,
Her pain,
Anger,
Hate,
God,
Fate.
The nurse,
A job,
Her curse,
To Bare witness,
Pain,
suffering,
Loss,
Behind those heavy doors, the sterile corridors.
Categories:
sterile, child, death,
Form: Free verse
pit pat
pitter patter
pitter patter pitter patter
a playful LIGHTNESS WEIGHS HEAVY
defiant droplets dance
w
e
a
v
i t
n h
g e
i
r
w
a
y
down the outside of the window … pain
a heart FILLED WITH EMPTINESS
FRAZZLED AND RAW
bright sunshine is too brash
yet raindrops ...
so reminiscent of a sound
~l~o~n~g~i~n~g~
to be heard on the
(inside)
Categories:
sterile, introspection
Form: Free verse
An old church stands with a spired steeple
Amidst the townspeople at Fox and Main
Where the hypocrites pray for sinful souls
And clergy holds sermons that entertain.
Within this sanctuary lined with pews
And opalescent glass and glittering gold
Odoriferous breaths of morning booze
Betray inebriants among the fold.
The Sunday sermon lectures temperance
Its message they heard many times before
The spoken words make no difference
Because people don’t heed them anymore.
The pimps and sots, sinners all congregate
Buying forgiveness while passing the plate.
Categories:
sterile, forgiveness
Form: Sonnet