Rust and chrome, a hand-me-down bike,
granddad’s grease still singing in the spokes,
each turn a prayer he hammered back to life~
the bent frame straightened under stubborn love,
the chain baptized in oil and patience.
Ten years old, I straddled time itself:
the saddle, cracked like his laughter,
the pedals, spinning secondhand stars
beneath my untested feet.
He said, Every wobble teaches balance,
and the road rushed up to meet me,
not as a stranger, but as a conspirator~
wind in my face, the world unspooling
behind me like a liberated kite.
Even now, the ghosts of those handlebars
twitch in my palms—how they trembled
before they learned to trust the fall,
before the wheels, like memory,
stopped fighting the curve.
O first flight, O rattling heirloom,
you were never just a bike~
you were my resurrection.
related memoir vignette can be read at
poetrysoup.com/short_stories/a_girl_a_bike_a_librarian_and_a_magical_spell_13645
.
i meant lisp
yeah i did
Anywho
whilst mine click
click
click'd
hiz trophiez
for the
script
'pon what my
once spoke in
gest ("laid mine head")
in hiz longhorn'd
haunt
hern purty
near bare
straddled locked
yup
mine
i meant
the marshmallow fluff
again
Smiles with grace
Prompt and refine
Pleasing all that’s what I do
Boundaries pushed,
never acknowledged
Voice silenced, opinions don’t matter
Never me, always you
Afraid of the me that I once knew
I am not what you want
Barely standing on solid ground
Egg shells I’ve walked
Abusive speech that’s your sound
Doing for you, is what pleases you
Straddled thin string
Insecure and depressed
Self doubt is a friend that hides within
Empty and overwhelmed
This was Never who I was
NOCTURNES
the
unquiet
street
of
autumn haze
illicit
circumstance
an
idealistic
illusion
a paradox
made manifest
in
precise in
precepts
of
intention
concentrated
attention
in
straddled
objectives
Damian watched her with a
Small smile spreading across
His face. She stood on the bed
in front of Him. Complex crucible
Calculations collected volcanic
Explosive combustions.
That was all There was.
They had one Another in
Succulent successive
Orgasmic stimulation
The only word
That crossed his mind was
"Daamn." He fell to the bed
Pulling her on top of him.
She straddled him, one leg on
Each side.
"Delilah." He
Whispered her name in the
Twilight morning. Complex
Crucible calculated collected
Volcanic explosive combinations.
Continued.
They had one Another in and
Out of Succulent successive
Systematic orgasmic
Simulation for half the morning.
Dawn was a slow satisfaction
Which she was so strongly
And stately susceptible to.
"Yesss baby." She breathed
The words. Damian could
Only watch her in awe. While
He breathed deeply with long
Slow inhales and exhales.
Delilah was ecstatic and smiling
Pleased with herself and
Pleased with him.
SHADOW STREAMING
irresistible
silhouettes
unswayed
&elusive
spaciously
bright
&shiny
seclusion
flourishes
is
savoured
cultivated
calendered
yet
always
moving
in
straddled
spangels
with
illustrious
outline
endless
shifting
beyond
bearing
shaken
wistful
NOTE:THIS IS AN OPEN(organic) FORM VERSE using spaces&breaks without grammatical symbols ,the ' open' relies upon 'the one breath limitation' & so inherently requires the 'reader' (reciter) to input and responds thus making this enigmatic form a two way interplay & interpretatIon unique to the moment& changing according to mood is inherently variable.
Oh, love of heart
straddled in the dark
I shall find myself
covered in it
beating for your love
longing for the embraced
yearning for a chance
for romance
shall we touch
let us dance
2/24/22
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr © 2022
Night goes wrong gone by gone
Eleven sharpened by bell tolls
Last wipes failed in scrambled line
Shake the grip till bleached
Squeezing of faith blows a worship dirt
Night closes sins by wrong summon
Twelve pointed by curved hands
Silence gasped with dark lullaby
Trivium lied about lines and curves
Engaged big rhetoric wrapping logic
Night designated as a place curse
No more clock numbers shown
The bell blinded all clangs
Agony straddled a hundred murmurs
Fro and prone wrecked in pieces
Ante meridian written out all loads
Sketch phobia noticed panic
Galloped dimes to the Lord
Mashed five fingers full of tones
Here you are debris clings
Belonging to the forenoon or moon
Since the first as scratches furs
Marked colors both kiss and prick
Breeches of crying goes blotto
Stoned drawing flashed hustle soul
Thrones and domes breed fleet
Grinding wave of anon pruned bristles
All red and reddish
Aware the morning lapped rest
Mopped silhouette of you
Their pounded wind
called our neighborhood.
We were children
who entered their work
like a hearth.
Electric wisk, whine,
sawdusted the cool summer
uder our trees.
From banded boards
basking in dirt
to skeletal hints
at form.
Their whistles were
crisp greenery out of
trees and earth.
They tooled and straddled
their working days,
leaving their plywood,
their drywall chalk
for our pictures.
In the last light of the trees,
we robbed scrap from their
silent structure.
And they were ghosts
still working after hours.
Our tree fort,
ropes, nails chewing deeply
into bark
was worship.
A monument to them.
Published Black Buzzard Press - 1982
I am only in love with the gem of your eyes.
he is gone.
the river,
waters that I straddled my legs in at night
it's just a river
when he is gone.
Gemini.
We were in love.
Over the fire
and across the coals
We made it to safety
our innocence tolled
The memory enough
to scare and profane
What fate never mentioned
—as we straddled the flame
(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015
Listening To Clapton’s ‘Sunshine Of Your Love’
from trikes to bikes
to speed needs thigh straddled ~
male toy cycle
I walked the countryside for miles
I forded streams, I straddled stiles,
Taking joy from every tree
Lost in nature's reverie.
A woodpecker's staccato beat
Put rhythm in my weary feet,
In the shadows there, a deer
Unaware that I was near.
Grazing quietly in the trees
A gentle creature at it's ease.
Just a moment caught in time,
A moment though, that was mine.
Mother nature gave to me
That precious gift, a memory.
A day I had of near perfection,
A day to savour, in reflection.
I Sat there straddled
Trying to solve the riddles
My mind too fiddled
I Sat There and buried my head
Not trying to move a Muscle instead
Way to scared
You know I sat there and watched
As You snatched every innocence left in her
Attached to the seat in which I could not move
I Witnessed you devour her,ignoring her screams
As you were in her wishing peaches and cream
You Thought of her as a treat you could mistreat and not try to retreat
I Don't know why you thought of her as meat that you could beat and eat
See You're A Cheat,Go Ahead And Tweet
Your Deed Will Lead you to your bleed
You made me Sit there and witness my sister become a hoe just because you could not handle her ego And how her glow made you feel like raw dough
But See I'm Stronger Than That,
What you did to her the other night
Turned me to a rough bite.So Don't Be Surprised When I Fight,i might set you on fire and do it right
Pushing through the carnage
That others leave behind
Straddled by emotions
When alone,
you will always find
Trapped by all your feelings
And shackled by the pain
Fighting through the heartache
In the hope,
you can start again
Drowning felt so easy
When you started to let go
Now you've learned to swim again
The sinking,
starts to slow
All this makes you stronger
Growing day by day
Courage grown through hardship
Helps you,
on your way
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