A musky, burnt haze sears slowly into my nostrils.
The twilight hour pulses steadily, bathing stark walls in an eerie gloom.
Too awake to drift to sleep, yet too tired to drag my bones off this sinking mattress.
Thoughts cyclone like a tsunami within a withdrawn mind,
picking at scabs; the half-life of my darkness pools in red droplets.
Licking the wounds, the taste of metallic and melancholy blends.
Loneliness wraps its arms around my dejected shoulders like a winding sheet.
A howling wind rattles the paper-thin glass making up my windows,
as I ponder how I became the living dead.
Traumas poisoned my sanity,
slowly paranoia replaced reason,
delusions became my nightly bedfellow,
whispering sweet unpleasantries into tainted ears,
leaving hallucinatory trinkets in my repeating nightmares.
The world is shrinking, withering,
yet as I am becoming paralyzed by fear, I am unequipped to stop it.
Like a freight train derailed,
bellowing at full speed towards the inevitable,
I too am racing at the speed of light towards oblivion.
Categories:
unequipped, angst, dark, death, gothic,
Form: Free verse
untended urgency
unequipped for service
ungirded for battle
utterly regretful
unattainable prize
unretrievable loss
unquenchable laments
How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?
James 2:3 KJV
4-30-2021
Plieades U Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Kim Merryman
Categories:
unequipped, bible, god, heartbreak, loss,
Form: Pleiades
I walked without her through a tentacled forest. Skulls broke beneath butters. A scarlet-and-gold clad Legionnaire, unequipped for darkness, richer than Deutsch chocolate. A lance bogged in moist marsh. Stripped bare and skull dragged, I broke free, into the forest. I walked there, without her.
Categories:
unequipped, abortion, absence, analogy, angel,
Form: Blank verse
Keep digging trenches,
Enemy bodies piled in ditches,
No intuition for this is no heaven vision,
Where is God in wars religion,
Indecision, nervous flinches, Napalm bombs on all divisions,
Stoic mission, missiles hissing,
Men in anguish hate to listen,
Crosshairs within and cowards prisoned,
Reapers laughing no repentance,
Superstition is omission,
No surrender in fears secretion,
Wage extension that hallow pension,
Shell shock stock all ammunition,
Peaceful fission the last redemption,
Death so vital in attrition,
Nuclear assistance,
End of existence,
Vision intention of nations decision,
Sanction schism, bomb in rhythm,
Open up lets make a difference,
Now the world is a burning pit,
Legions of generals worship it,
Reason the guilty of dying unequipped,
Bleeding lesions in war never for the innocent only belligerents
Categories:
unequipped, conflict, corruption, fear, future,
Form: Rhyme
Sometimes it is tough
When you walk in the light
Along brightened pathways
Summer sun warming your face
When you know
Your friend is sad
In a dark place
Guilt overwhelms you
How can you be so happy
Strolling along
You call out to your friend
Come walk with me
The path is not too narrow
I will take your hand
Yet they ask to be left alone
You feel unequipped
You are here
They are over there
Worlds in opposition
If it would help
You would change positions
Yet that is not your decision
You try to mute your joy
Somehow your happy annoys
It's hard
Light in contrast
Makes theirs a darker place
You see it on her face
Contrasts can amplify
There is no ryhme or reason why
So in the end
Feeling less is just pretend
You must grab on
Before your own joy is gone
One day you will face your own night
Maybe a friend traveling in light
Will take your hand
Bring you back to this land
A place of joy
Where maybe you'll see
Someone waiting for you
Perhaps
Hopefully
Prayerfully
Me
Categories:
unequipped, emotions,
Form: Free verse
Sifting through the rubble of my past
Lingering along the wayside
Hoping for a passerby to answer questions why
Before long night falls
Unprepared for the darkened journey home.
Alone, wandering upon the path less taken
If only I had a photograph to keep me company
Afraid, I know not where my journey will lead
Unequipped for what lies ahead
I hold steadfast: pressing onward
Hopefully with time I'll be able to figure things out.
Categories:
unequipped, allegoryjourney,
Form: I do not know?
The hunt begins, the sovereign had spoken,
We search for every man weak and broken.
It doesn’t matter what and why we destroy,
The order has been given by the viceroy.
We pillage and burn everything to the ground,
The bishop said: Take all, including each hound.
In peace we be, before all will be dead,
That’s what went on the wise man’s head.
The attack begins; the fort is under siege,
The goal is to kill each and every leach.
The soldiers unequipped and unfit to fight,
Yet they must spread the unholy light.
And in front of the line general will be:
The peaceful teacher, the wise one… me.
Categories:
unequipped, death, passion, philosophy,
Form: Rhyme