His tired smile felt genuinely warm
It's the daily norm since he was born
Life is an endless loop of closed doors
Searching for hope among endless pores
Born into seaside harbor
Felt the wave of endless labor
Shouldering pain and liability
Sailing for honest security
Touching the mild ocean breeze
Smiled tiredly along freezing sneeze
Homecoming after relentless work
Grabs and sighs at dinner fork
Looking upon paled door
Grabbles within open pores
Shut the lights hoping for relief
Dreaming upon hopeless beliefs
A continuous cycle day and night
A tired smile without light
He asked me to kiss him today like he usually did….
Dabbing my back like an impatient kid needing the loo
I tiredly turned slowly to his usually soft forehead kiss….
… but today his lips tasted like mistrust.
The kind layered in smirks of betrayal
Mucus sounds and other disgusting visuals
for his twisted amusement...
Mr. Smith sat tiredly, long hours at his desk,
by an old vacation photo, picturesque,
and a stack of papers; another twelve-hour day,
slowly, draining his lonely life away.
He looked at the picture and thought he heard
the voice of a tropical hummingbird
that lived inside that aged picture frame,
and, strangely, called him by his childhood name.
Could this be a hallucination?
Some out-of-control visualization?
He wondered, "Should I laugh out loud or scream?
I mustn't worry. It must just be a dream...
Or maybe it's a reverie, not a dream?"
The voice said, "I am His Majesty Supreme,
by needle beak, and by rotary wing,
I am the hummingbird fantasy king.
Smith felt his grip was growing flimsy,
when the bird said, "I also deal in whimsy".
"No! bird", you are my imagination!"
he screamed at the bird who forgot his station.
Mr. Smith disappeared, some say lost his mind.
Others say he left the world behind,
and he's living in a tropical dream
with a hummingbird, His Majesty Supreme.
Endless hallways stretch ahead
A weary traveler hanging by a thread
Meetings blur from dawn to night
Late dinners then another flight
The city lights are far from home
In empty rooms my thoughts comb
Another deal another grind
Peace and sleep are hard to find
Family’s voice a quick call
Tiredly I saunter through hotel halls
The days are long the nights are brief
From this journey I should seek relief
The world spins on yet I must stay
Until I’m home where I can lay
In quiet arms which welcome me
Letting me find some time to be
My optics are fooling me,
Intuition eluding me,
Life is confusing me.
I step inside to see,
Whats off with my energy,
As this feeling pulls at me.
Facing everyday tiredly,
Fighting to get ahead,
Hurrying to be dead.
As Money drowns all i did,
Keeping me in this pit,
Fighting my Spirit.
I've had enough of it,
I don't even like it,
It's only creating conflict.
No one else sees it,
Feeding all of us in the pit,
Stepping over others just to get it.
Leaving those behind in need,
Filling Pockets full of greed,
Just to prove you succeed.
A system to make you bleed,
To earn something to feed,
A family that needs you to thrive.
Its foundation will falter,
And they'll poison your water,
To keep you on your Dollar Collar.
Lately, I've cut away hectares of tumors.
That engulfed confidence, happiness, self-worth, and well-being.
With surgery, a bit of the good stuff was sacrificed:
A few shallow laughs, some adventure, and mostly harmless mischief.
The mirror is filled with scars of the heart, excoriations of spirit.
Along with other, yet-to-be-discovered damage.
Though somewhat deformed, I like my new look.
I feel tiredly refreshed.
The scalpels are dull and quiet for now.
There's work to be done.
Some of the newly homeless tumors are mentoring new ones.
I'm no fool and fully aware that I'm also a tumor to others.
White snow squalls shift to frigid icy sleet and rain
Coated tree limbs dance and sway, crackling in the wind
Sleet pellets pummel metal rooftops like a steel drum
Desolate roads glisten like mirrors under streetlights
Night winds loudly howl and angrily sing away
As Mother Nature’s roaring nightly chorus
Tall pines tiredly surrender and fiercely fall in booms
Early morning sun calms as amber rays peak out
Slowly warming silver frosted trees and roads
Birds chirp and perch at frozen feeders pecking at seed
As tree branches awaken and emerge toward the sun
12/25/22
Contest: Winter Storm Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Kim Rodrigues
His
Twinkling
Kiss hisses
How he will miss
princesses when homeward tiredly he plods.
We see his sweetest farewell kiss; so I'll,
Letting them kiss
As they wish,
Gently
Pass.
Picture 2
Syllable Count: 1, 2, 3, 4, 10 - 10, 4, 3, 2, 1 http://www.howmanysyllables.com
*3rd Place* in the following contest (judged on Oct. 1, 2020)
Sept. 21, 2020
Double Tetractys 3 Poetry Contest
Contest Sponsor: Eve Roper
trying to
sleep counting
the proverbial fence
leaping endless rainbow
of sheep
passing time
tiredly trying to
induce slumber but
notice
as each
ovine leaps
the next has less
wool then
the one before
so forgetting about
REM now i need see
for sure
how nakedly
shorn if there is
a last one will be
Freely forming metrical mainstays
poetic occasion to phrase
the fairer and gentler sex,
thus the following turns of phrase
to bestow acknowledgement
regarding wonderful wise ways
of collective she who assays
to create safe/secure home/ hearth
as bedrock and fount of ample
maternal duties tiredly sashays
with keeping house receiving praise
the second Sunday each May, her
tired body sprawled on chaise
lounge, perhaps basking in solar rays
communing with Gaia, who whiz
bruiting with sky goddess
defying forecasters prediction, no slate grays
pose dampening effect on huzzahs
regaling torchbearer diploid as amaze
zing newlife, where loving labor pays
more than fine spun gold cherishing
offspring in her nurturing ways.
Paean dutiful daily deference, I dole
ensconced with pineapple getup
surfing the cyber sea, this hyperbowl
lee, yet deserved dignity deifying dames,
who bear brunt whole
ding potent biological reproductive role
de facto duty honorably decreed
tribute paid despite commercialized
money making hyped up rigamarole,
nonetheless yours truly accentuates sole
sans, progenitor of human race
saddled with disproportionate/ unfair toll.
Trials
each day
test my faith.
When will it end?
Tiredly, I inquired.
All these things shall give thee
experience, my daughter.
Tribulation worketh patience;
patience, experience and then hope.
Hope in the Lord never makes me ashamed.
Tiredly here I heave
My weary tortoise head
Over the pillow
Ready again,
Not sleepy....
I am
delicate air,
catalyst for
Alchemy
At the turn of clocks
I wonder,
Breath calls
And
I respond to
light of
Lucid iconography
Were I to dream,
To dream
Of making water flow
At the edge of desert days
Content
at
Peace of mind
The first day we saw you, tiredly
So thin and full of woe
You sit there with curiosity
We said ''you are, our kitty''
Serenity, Serenity...O' how we love ye'
When we brought you home
You fell asleep on our comfy chair
Then you roamed, pranced, and danced
We watched and rewarded you treat after treat
Serenity, Serenity...O' how we love ye'
Electrifying, absorbing, in fresh innocent way
Night sashayed, when you were prancing
Fly, frolic, hop, jump 'til end of hour
Cat mind wandering, without delay
Serenity, Serenity...O' how we love ye'
O' love is filled with affection
Our heart wells up with cheer
Love for you is everlasting
Heart melts for you, our loving friend
Serenity, Serenity...O' how we love ye'
It was a miserable existence,
that of a battered wife
It was a never ending cycle
of a hurt-filled violent life
She always walked on eggshells,
avoided direct eye contact
Did nothing that would get him balled-fist riled up
She always spoke in a timid voice,
deferred on every household decision
Never did complain when the sex was too rough
Ofttimes it wasn't even her
that would get his pot boiling
Get him steamed and hopping mad
It could be the telly news,
the neighbor's cat
Or the photo of his mum and dad
It was a daily chore,
washing away the pain
that was mixed in with the bloodstains
It was a daily chore,
rinsing away the tears
that was mixed in with the whiskey and beers
And each night before turning out the light,
she has to take her daily dose of verbal abuse
Then tiredly arise with swollen, sullen eyes —
rehearse to neighbors another recycled excuse
And for a few hours she gets to enjoy
a quiet space that is blissfully sweet
Escape in daydreams before she faces
the daily grind of wash, rinse, repeat
*Beasts of burden*
Then I couldn't grapple the hand
that held onto what I hinged upon
Never 'ld, instead I reached for its head
Mortal-minded, neither soldier nor lord
or rather, faux,feeble, too torn
Long I stood, living in graced faith
Nature denied me a knife or dagger
But a soldiering destiny waited for death
at hefty times when all didnt query, yet,
these souls ran Godly errands afar
In the morning we equally laid tiredly
Thought I was gone too long to return-
nooks 'n crannies, moonlit-sanity.
Me, death with feud on a bale of hay
discreetly left on a tomb for liason
Strongly gave out , solely a sacrifice
We passed!, Feute'de'mieux, to die
looked down as far as I could, just ice
under the haystack, I failed to age.
Death entertains beyond prying eyes
*(LANCELOT)*
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