MARIONETTE
He wades
The shallow
Clouds at dawn
Sleep deprived
Hand covered yawn
Without pleasure
What may come
When days fall short
The nights grow long
He haunts the eaves
The window's ledge
A list, his eyes
An invite met
One deprived
Of love as yet
Has made her choice
And chosen death
In wait
His watch
The seconds pass
Impaitience
Draws
A weary breath
She may tary
Change her mind
Hesitate
Her one great crime
Second thoughts
A blade deined
To be, or nots
A rope untied
Poison berries
Mixed with tea
Brushed aside
With hemlock leaf
His watch with hope
Such waste of time
This marionette
In pantomime
Jars morning oyster
Pearlescent divide
Ebonic waning
Xanthene and pink pried
From overnight shell
Mermaid wades in sky
Tall crane wades the pond
he spears a perch and swallows.
Look out for gators!
Basking under moonlight glow
midst meteor rainfall wish
hearts struck with Cupid's arrow
soar high by love's blissful swish...
Enthralled around each other's warm embrace
their endearing gaze reflects partner's face
expressing care along joyous terrain
to conquer pain by compassion's gain...
As music wades, echoing grievous tone
they bend toward horrific end
turning like frozen bone
light* should amend...
now!
1 John 1:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
February 16, 2026
9th place, "The Vester Step" Poetry Writing Contest
Sponsored by Jami Patterson ; judged on 2/18/2026
Written: December 19, 2025, for contest: Sponsored by: Hilo Poet
******************
The mist paints a nascent landscape tonight,
I stand aboard, ready for yet another flight.
Today, as the sun wades to its final breath,
I watch the year exhaling up to its death.
I recall the tears and laughter on the way,
The memories drift somewhere farther away.
I remember the light, I remember the starkness,
And the days I was left alone in the darkness.
I have found my freedom, my wings are free,
Yet I feel uncertain, lonesome still to be.
As mist departs and clears my view,
I wish upon the last star true.
For a less chaotic world, that is my dream.
A wandering brook whispers gently, stream.
A hearty ovation for a task well done.
A year ahead, full of options, not guns.
I welcome dawn’s first tender hue,
A year reborn, with hope to renew,
A brighter path for me and you to pursue.
This twenty-six may have an unbiased worldview.
WHAT I LOVE-WHAT I HATE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PART I
love fiery sunsets bleeding amber and rose--
mountains, valleys, seas, and heaven softly meet
above horizon, molten coin dips and glows
world wades into warm, slumber--gentle and sweet.
you stood beside me, your hand embracing mine
daylight bled, transforming into liquid wine
clouds caught fire, gradually turned to ash—
dusk descended—our silence spoke what words can't match
&&&&&&&
PART II
chaos erodes the labyrinth of my mind,
a fierce ravenous beast that gnaws at the planned.
I hate its claws—untamed, malicious, unkind—
destroying the flawless blueprints in my hand.
I crave the calm, tranquil hum of ordered grace,
a steady rhythm amidst earth's frantic pace,
calculated steps, the path both clear and known,
cadence deeply set, authentically grown.
sans caffeine feasting, sans water; thirsting
growl of stomach - a rumbling roar
e
p
i
d
u
r
a
l
stabs me in the back by noon
will it serve me snacks
after patient endurance
of
walking through water by weeks
to strengthen the core; waiting
by wades back and forth,
forwards, backwards, do the course
r
a
p
i
d
heartbeat, hush
Great Physician heal
the ankle, shin, calf, thigh,
the source
In Springfield’s hall, a young man stood,
And spoke of threats that none withstood—
Not foreign armies, but seeds within,
A nation’s ruin born of sin.
Today, his warning feels alive,
As fear and doubt among us thrive.
The law bends under weight and strain,
And justice falters, flawed, profane.
Pardons shield the loyal few,
While freedoms erode as tempests brew.
Policies divide, compassion fades,
And fragile trust in darkness wades.
Lincoln’s voice still calls us back,
To mend the breach, to seal the cracks.
A nation’s strength lies not in might,
But in will to guard the people’s rights.
Wind lashed fronds whip a neck twisting air.
Florida bleeds green.
A large woman in a rainbow muumuu,
a toy poodle pushed tightly into her folds
wades into the storm determined
to bring a hurricane to heel.
The land has now flooded high enough
to expose alligator snouts.
The Cajun navy hoists its Jolly Roger,
golf carts are boarded,
elderly men in white and tartan shorts
are reluctantly rescued.
A badly shaken sunset dives for cover.
Along an invisible shoreline Tiki lights
twinkle on.
Beneath the fury of sun
Wades a wobbly nun
Stomping on thorns
Watch the teary ferns
Scars on her skin
Carrying wounds engraved
Curse devious grin
And snakes she once craved
She sucked and spitted
Bouts of venom in her blood
Tainted by flood
Of emotions she once knitted
Profuse tears of fern
They observe
Drip on her burn
Numbing pain so perverse
Weeped the clouds
In meloncholic ambience
Silence crept loud
Spotting redemption in defiance
Step out the vines
Adorning her bruises
Wind's penchant to divine's
Yearning, she refuses
Blanket of ferns
Ease her shivers
While the moon upturns
Bogs were her new weavers
Time passed by
Has been watching the sky
Fern decays
Her soul repays
Beneath the fury of sun
Wades a wobbly nun
Stomping on thorns
Her soul burnt and torn
Scars on her skin
Carried wounds engraved
Trust, her sin
So were snakes she once craved
She sucked and spitted
Bouts of venom from her blood
Tainted by flood
Of emotions she once knitted
Silence crept loud
In the woods still stern
Moon upturns
Summoning weeping clouds
Tears unfolden
The woven maze
Outside the haze,
Lies a fern pretty golden
Threads, now vines
Adored her bruises
Illusion's penchant to divine's
Were flood sailed cruises
Time passed by,
Venom decays
Has been watching the sky
The fern now sways
Holding myself not to fall apart,
I’m chauffeured by Dawn’s cart,
Each day with its fight,
It’s a tenacious walk into light.
A mysterious hand strives to reach for me,
I sail on a turbulent sea,
It’s a world in the dark,
I search for an escape footmark.
I have gone miles on this way,
Hope is an essential ray,
I look deep into my mind,
Searching for answers to why I’m a different kind.
No one speaks,
Though darkness seeks,
Redemption wades,
Until gloom fades.
May 11, 2024.
a hill stream flowing
a bottom lake fulfilling
a near sea rising
a hill stream in want
a bottom lake where they flaunt
the sea that boys taunt
a boy wades in stream
kids by a lake play tag team
the sea is a dream
a stream in a rush
a lake dangerously rises
rough seas off the shore
a stream rips its banks
a bottom lake overflows
a nearby sea floods
trees fall in the stream
lake closed signs flap everywhere
angry storm moves in
Flock Plus One
Crouching among a gaggle of
dabbling Canadian geese,
a brown skinned child pushes back
long black hair,
intent on building a tidal pool
of which he can be King.
Extending a ridiculously long neck,
a goose wades gingerly into the water,
snapping his wings forward in a fluster,
indignant with the cold.
Another approaches the boy curiously,
black eyes assessing the construction;
haughtily disinterested, it continues ambling
along the inlet.
The sporadic hiss and honking of a gander
whose life mate is being wooed by another
doesn’t faze the child,
methodically tapping his palms
along the outskirts of his pond.
Another goose watches him,
unconcerned,
from her nest on a muskrat mound,
tiny hatchlings in yellow down
chirp soundlessly.
Spittles of rain dust the child’s
ebony hair
and the gaggle’s black feathers.
The cluster huddles around the boy,
having seemingly accepted him
as one of their own.
Stars of Clarity 11-22-23
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stars of Clarity
Lost in ebony
Void of bursting astral intuitions,
Alabaster amber stolen,
Abandoned in delirium’s decay
Of dying brown dwarfs
Hoarding lavender purple leftovers,
Hidden remnants of disguised advent,
Ashen sojourner wades through impotent stardust
Numb in faded platinum insight.
Out of grey vertigo
Carmine dwarfs arise to overshadow ebony
In a giddy sense of spangled glitter
When enigmas and puzzles
Step out of nebulas into mystic purity.
Pilgrim, found in neon,
Incandescent cavalcades of exploding chartreuse
Guide ephemeral crystalline visions,
Burnished auroras splash across epiphanies,
Rounded shards divulge silver nativity,
When salient flashes nurture constellations of certainty,
Astral sparks of cosmic scarlet explosions,
And shrouded a-ha’s emerge like incandescent sextons
Leading to stellar sequins - champagne diamonds of clarity.
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