Images from a cogged box.
A camera reveals
hips and ankles, ribbons
decorously draped
over a contrived modesty.
An artist has added a color tint,
their cheeks are rosy,
their lips red,
a patchwork of painted glow.
Half revealed bosoms flush and bloom.
Pauses in an upper room.
A warm lamp licks,
feathers and brocade are adjusted.
The girls choreograph
next moves.
A gentleman photographer
toggles knurled brass knobs
throws a veiling drape over
his head and mind.
The models are beyond
this moments capture,
they are sealed by silence,
yet their images,
their one-act legacy,
is an amber inclusion
raised up as a photograph
for all to admire in secret.
Categories:
toggles, poetry,
Form: Free verse
He had a duffel coat once,
so did she. They must have looked
well-matched
walking in Regents Park
that Autumn.
In time
the coat shop on Oxford Street
died of old age.
Duffel went out of style.
They wore them still.
One day
her duffel was neatly folded,
into a labeled, cardboard box.
His coat developed Alzheimer’s
in a tumble-down closet.
When they unhooked from each other,
he packed only empty pockets,
and a small bundled
of toggles and loops.
Categories:
toggles, poetry,
Form: Free verse
Gone digital
begun/beginning
Networking with me-self
Can't find a full-stop
to stop
What yer looking at fish-face???
Yer know
since yesterday
I can't find me thumbs
falling feet first
in-ter sub-monkey skills
I need more,
more white widgets
and black toggles-
got the wobbles, a bit keyed-up
Mind knitting its own computer
flashes of clever clogs,
clumps of soft-drive
in me ear-holes
got no cookies cooking
just a blinking memory
Dot-dash-board doodling,
screening plasma for bugs
and sneezy-bits.
Me lights are ticking
think I'm thinking
Blimey, will you look at that!
I got a virtual nose to pick
feeling sick of it
even though
me lid is plastic
Beep...
Categories:
toggles, poetry,
Form: Free verse
Boost the gleam and dazzle
sibylline embers shine in the gnome jade
spangled goddess sparkle
It meshes cosmic toggles of
golden clusters
on the burning dusk of a phoenix's wings.
chorus tunes that croon kudos.
peel away.
shepherds and seraphim
translucent term chorus
with cerulean rhythm
amidst the ictus of an elfish presong.
my pulse quickens.
fresh dawn awakens
happy new year 2023
Written: January 03, 2023
YOUR CHOICE 2023 Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Brian Strand
Categories:
toggles, appreciation, happiness,
Form: Free verse
At 11,000 feet, open the door
Right hand, left hand, hold onto the frame
The skies spans forever, the wind does roar
Right foot out, left hand to the strut of the plane
Right hand next out, left foot on the step
Adrenaline flowing, try to slow your breath
Sliding hands further out, get a good grip
Relax, it's not like you're falling to your death
Feet off the step, you're a kite in the air
Push your arch, hold your position
Wait for instruction, jump master stare
He smiles and says GO! This is the mission
Hurdling down, hold your arch, keep your count
Stay symmetrical, now reach. Now pull!
Don't forget to take a look around
Your canopy flies, stay in control
You check up above, the slider is down
Reach up for your toggles to steer
Checking the wind, you spin slowly around
Up here in the silence, there's nothing to hear
You see the horizon, are one with the clouds
There's nothing quite like this, nothing so grand
First flying, now floating, you say aloud
I wish I would never have to land.
Categories:
toggles, adventure,
Form: Quatrain
One eye opens quicker than the other, so cute,
but who'll spearhead you home, me or the Neanderthal
host? Party goers head for the exit.
I seem to have sat down on a preset remote;
your laugh echoes the empty house mute.
White rain is a flat-screen,
crystalline-chilled, melting pixels.
Your other eye, I swear, winks at the storm.
A breaker, somewhere, thumbs a ride to the red zone.
Shadowy reflections of his indoor lighting
vanish from his TV
and abandon the glass of his aquarium.
Goldfish swim undisturbed
above the sediment of jagged, tiny stepping stones,
footholds for drunks to surface when bubbly
as with our host, brushing 'gainst you.
He toggles your dress by its fished out price
tag. Not my place to scan,
I blink like a readjusted lens off focus.
He sets us both out on the porch;
he's done with milking you to compliment him.
We're Banner milk bottles, side by side on the stairs.
Rain pelts milk-shiny, glassy sides. You shiver instead of going
numb and bottled up in reflections
Categories:
toggles, anniversary, friend,
Form: Free verse
Weebles wobble
but they do fall down.
Once without windup whimsy weebles wobble writhing in wistful wiggly wattles,
they bubble, bobble, boggle, bottle and boondoggle coddles and dawdles;
a colossal ensemble debacle joggles and toggles the toddler's throttle
waiting on wafting waffles the twaddle and goggling the toppled pottles.
Just google that old fossil's nozzle schnozzled squabble.
Tongue twister:
without windup whimsy weebles wobble writhing in wistful wiggly wattles
Categories:
toggles, children, word play,
Form: Blitz
A king aged by years of toil and triumph, failure and tyranny
His hair white and wispy, a crown of mist over a weary head
His lips blue from the winter frost, no warmth remains
The king who sits upon a throne of iron and stone, cold and barren
Lies his land, ravished and raped are the memories of what once was
His head drops over a chest of bone covered with a white skin sheet
Failure has consumed all he was, and all he could ever be
For in a tattered past there were flowers and fields, a radiant sun
The sun has been washed out by tendrils of black cloud
The flowers stiff and brown, the earth dry and cracked
Nefarious imps plot and scheme for meaningless toggles and gems
A world broken, as the man, retiring from this life
Categories:
toggles, dark,
Form: Free verse
Too elevated for sleeping
I crave agape' pleasure
Totally slipped up
Down I go
Tripping on dream steps
Each one with its own
Pleasure and pain
But good pain
Falling as in the season
Into you deeper
Ever closer to the bottom
REM, the flicker of it
Toggles between here and gone
With hands beyond, outside
Morbidity I grasp a melancholy melody
A still small voice of reality
You whisper " I love you, sleep good."
Categories:
toggles, art, love, lust,
Form: Prose Poetry
On a dark dewy dampened night
Stars sparkle above my campsite
A thick brisk breeze blows through
Toggles my tent nearly in two
Hunched I stand to unzip me out
Tent too cramped without a doubt
Wind blows my hair against my face
Zipping it closed with precise haste
Stepping on top of fallen pine needles
Barefoot I pray there are no beetles
Marveling the stars unerringly strewn
Against a black sky accenting the moon
Inhaling the crispness of the night
Decreases my grief with cogent might
Exhaling those troubles kept deep inside
This evening drenches a dreary façade
Loquacious crickets chirp steady songs
Forcing resolve to end the day’s wrongs
The scent of jasmine lingering on
Allows my spirit to sing its song
Undoubtedly camping feels so right
On a dark dewy dampened night~
Categories:
toggles, inspirational, nature, peace, places,
Form: Couplet