Warping Poems | Examples

Warping the Mirror Inside Out

Last night I drifted between dreams.
The dawn was too weak to keep me awake.
I closed my eyes with intention—
to step back through the curtain.

The dream re-opened lucid,
not as I had left it then,
but as I wanted it to be.
I warped the path of the flowing stream.
Its waters following my lead.

I called to the spirits,
the half-seen and half-forgotten,
and they came in up close.
They hummed their mantras,
their eyes enlivened with flame.

Their fire did not burn.
It melted old dregs away;
things I had clung to.
Renewal rose through my chest,
bright and oddly burden free

I pressed through the ashes.
Sought not to awaken but to reshape—
To change what was fixed.
The dream became pliable.
A soft-clay under my breath.

I felt doubt and concern as,
I opened the door, entered the space,
feet bare on the floor.
Each corridor was pliant for me—
the walls redrew with each sleepy sigh.

When morning awoke and returned,
the dream’s pulse still beat in me.
As my eyes opened, I knew,
that we can rearrange whorls,
when sleep and waking coalesce.

The Seed Of Fear - Cinderella

Ominous bays of hellhounds thunder in the bleak night
As a shattered glass slipper is found amongst powdered ivory snow,
The glint caught within incorporeal warping moonlight—
Leading to a blue grey corpse, mangled with frozen tears cemented in place.
Hands clenched around a copper timepiece,
The minute hand paused at one past twelve.
The putrid scent of desperation still hangs heavy in the air.

A note, scribbled in vermilion, is tucked within her bosom:

I'm sorry. I was overwhelmed—and so very lonely. She came to me with promises of grandeur. All I had to do was make a pact: be home by midnight, or my soul would forever be hers.

How could I resist? She seemed so innocent, with the smells of childhood lingering—conjuring up all that is glorious.

Besides, you, my dear family, seemed not to notice, nor care, about the pain quietly consuming me. So I took the deal, inked in blood and sealed with a poisonous kiss.

If you happen to find this note, I never made it back in time. And my fate lies within her mercy.

Alarm Clock

An alarm clock. 
On the edge of the nightstand. 
No one came after me the whole night.
Except the skin of my thoughts. 
Shaking but nothing. 
It’s like I woke up and ate gravity and passed out again. 
It’s all about time. 
Wrappers crinkling underfoot. 
More and more trash scattered. 
Warping. 
The sound of the garbage truck is blending into everything…
And no one calls me anymore!
An alarm clock. 
Which cooks up seconds for us. 
And burns us. 
Feeling unwieldy when I stand. 
Getting up even though I’ll be late anyway. 
Being strong is doing things to make yourself later and later. 
Uncooking the toast. 
Unbrushing your teeth.
Creating more places to be. 
Places which are just outlines. 
There’s still that alarm clock. 
That goes on.

Paid

The thing about killing Angels
you have to remember is always go for the kill shot
Most of them can easily take a grenade to the face
Those arch ones usually stay put and watch
Basically on tap with God
Seldomly they will make an appearance
Demons are tricky
Disguise themself basically animal vegetable mineral
One time my electric razor tried to bite a clump from my cheek, huh still makes me smile
He turned towards the boy
His crumple of a face
grimacing
The book boy learn it well

He turned hunched over
Bent and snatched the head from
the prone child at his feet

The sack boy open it
Without the head
We won’t be fed….

The boy pulling a single golden strand from his pocket
the strand warping reality around it
air forming the sack

Please
Just once
Not a three point shot…

Another 3 seconds he chide only infinity to go
At this rate we will be working long after the end

Wondrous Words

w o r d s 
wondrously wielded
warm wenches
wise with witless wet with woe
w i c k e d
weaselly wolves
w i z a r d s
warping wills
watering wishing wells
waylaying wishful 
w o m e n
who wanted worshipful watchmen
when winters would wrest wealth
!

Scream

I can feel the darkness creep in. 
The chatter in my mind is getting louder and stronger. 
I steady myself as I know it’s coming for me.
That inner voice has awoken again,
like a starving beast, wailing for its fill. 
It takes hold of my reality.
The rage flows into me like the poisonous venom from a serpent bite. 
The pain takes hold. 
like a bullet as it leaves it’s chamber.
my inner self twisting and warping 
in the vortex of chaos.
I stare out into the world 
The twinkle in my eye I once had, vanishes. 
Replaced with numbness and a single tear sliding down my lifeless face.
I want to cry and let it all out.
Release the pain and hurt but I can’t. 
It won’t allow me that merciful wish.
I am trapped. 
In my mind I am screaming for something to take away this painful dread I feel. 
It consumes me and becomes the only thing that lets me know I am still alive.
How much longer can I keep fighting this invisible invader. 
It’s taking away everything I am. 
My dreams, my love, my purpose.
But when the darkness fades away, and it will.
I still have hope, that one day 
I will be released from its grasp 
and allow my soul that peaceful silence It longs for.

The Authentic I

I cannot see untainted,
The world without the warping windows.
I fail to make, for I am merely 
An illusion of inconsistencies
Stolen from society.

I wonder how open a mind can be before its brains
start to
spill.

The buttons on a blouse, 
the proportions of her face, 
the rules of a tennis court,
Lost in this familiar place.


The simple essay makes me think.
A pen out of ink.
We shrink.

What will happen when I experience
The real world?

Get a grip
And grow up.

Roadkill

He hears again
the far-off jiggling of keys,
the throaty cough of ignition,
recalls strafing lights
on a night-blurred road.

Moths, like pale flowers,
crash against the windscreen.
Over-reaching branches
whip back and forth, warping
a transfixed retina.

A gritty sleet, then,
the bloodied head, the matted fur,
the flaying shanks;
a frozen shock laid bare.

Returning to the garage,
warm metal ticks,
he stares at a dark windscreen,
the dead
spread across his mind
still looking for a way out.

Bonding

Dozens of glass pieces glittered all over the floor. 
A photo of their
wedding day lay bare between her feet. 
She felt its nakedness warping it
gently in the soft breeze breeze, 
blowing from her mother-in-law’s room. It was
an omen. She painstakingly collected 
all the pieces, and meticulously
joined them together with superglue. 
Once again the photo was vacuumed
away from the sands of time. 
The bonding though, looked as though it was
disintegrating.

Witnessed

Dots have been connecting lately
Picking up on a common theme
Everyone pursuing a similar goal
We are all just looking to be seen

Wrapped in a web of old wounds
Warping our view of present day
Ultimately want to be understood 
For who we are despite what others say

Swept

He took my hand gently
his skin soft velveteen
i think he smiled
or at least the corner of his mouth arched
in synchronicity with his perfectly lined eyebrow
as his fingers entwined them selves in mine
and he pulled me slowly closer
his aftershave dying apples and caramel past its point
a trace of his fingernail
as his hand rested
in the nape of my back
Behind tables and friends
disappeared in snarling mists
the music warping squelching
into a single pounding beat
spinning me
as my feet
broke it promise to earth
No bead of sweat
no catch of breath
waiting for some benevolencey-i know this is wrong but i like the sound
to try to cut in
Jesus i can't breathe in hear
but still keep the beat that i here
feel his heat
from his burning chest
Now pins of light peer from the darkness
Tendrilled horny shadow beast
that beg to watch our wanting
wrapped like a slithering
denrut around
he draws his hands through my hair
tucking strands behind my ear
his breath singe skin
eyes refuse to close
lips pursed in forever increasing lines
that splint of light that spits and spills
across lips of ruby named.
He whisper are you mine
nope but soon

Selling Serenity

The internet has morphed
into a fickle friend,
warping reality
in many subtle ways
that no one could foresee.

The internet has morphed
into a worldwide web
that influences you;
bombarding you with posts
that tend to tout one view.

The internet has morphed
into a confidant,
with sympathetic ears; 
like an omnipresence
crying emoji tears.

The internet has morphed
into a platform with
its own identity,
in a fictional place;
selling serenity.

Zero Turn

Zero turn, dual stick,
deftly blasting grass with a high speed hover deck:
very slick!

Without delay,
warping time, phasers on trim, trek
away!

At last,
hope-you-dont-wreck
fast!

Zero turn, dual stick,
warping time, phasers on trim, trek
fast!

Ingenious

Ingenious, sin deceives by taking right
and warping slight, its plumb no longer true,
till what seems good to man in dub’ous light
is clear maligned, askance, to be eschewed.

Subtle departure from divine decrees
occurs near unperceived through loosened bounds
on that which God ordains, by small degrees,
till far from what is written one is found.

Confusing Father's love with that which sates,
or, willful, grants the creature more accord
till our Creator it subordinates,
thus we turn gifts to that which is abhorred.

The heart, with sin infected, beyond cure,
seeks evil with each beat; detests the pure.

----------

for the 2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 3 Poetry Contest
sponsored by Mark Toney
written on 04/30/2022

Abandonment

I tried to write a poem to prove to you I could.
But time and distance got in my way.

I tried to write the perfect prose to demonstrate my skill.
But the memory of standing before a rose-covered coffin
Left me silent and enraged!

Isn’t it odd how time and distance distort what we perceive?
Warping sad memories, blackening our feelings
Where our unworthiness dwells.

It is not a type of weakness when we broken do not overcome.
Or some self-imposed prison of us seeking innocence lost and gone.
I suppose it is latent forgiveness that stays this poet’s pen.

And I fall to my knees, bowing my head,
Seeking God’s Grace again.

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