Get Your Premium Membership

Best Poems Written by Michael Cahill

Below are the all-time best Michael Cahill poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

View ALL Michael Cahill Poems

Details | Michael Cahill Poem

A Daughter's Protector

quick! grab the soft rose
your hand now aching, bloodied
thorns unconsidered

life's dream isn't always what it suddenly seems in ice cream's melted hope
not when a yearning man is twisted; turning, churning curdles sweet milk sour
carnal captivity, the new little girl's horror, where slavery spreads her legs
life's little trick, survivals mindless instinct, plays it's vicious, ace in the heart card

a zygote's military resolve
an embryo doesn't consider
why

precious life somehow swims forth in a plastic, kiddie plunge
the wet nurse has no degree, but life hangs, by an umbilical balance

dreams are reality thwarted by circumstance

time bides, love does not divide, it grows feral strong with fowl gazes ever watching
forced sharing, twisted family time, memories remain, an anchor in deepest abyss
forward, for a daughter's faint, possible, distant. infinitely small, maybe someday
light, a pinprick, blind chance, endured, survived, conquered with love alone, hero

Amanda Berry:
"You've been looking for me;
Hurry, I'm free now!"

Copyright © Michael Cahill | Year Posted 2014



Details | Michael Cahill Poem

A Mother's Lament

I dream of snowflakes
they are each identical
my mind is frozen

Two-years-old and contorted, monstrously white-eyed, bloody-lipped and snorting,
gasping for air, as in drowning, but there is no welcome, wishing-well's water. 
Do you seek the warm, languid liquid of your benign, pre-birthed beginnings from which 
you were mistakenly and recklessly released? 
What teeth-gnashing ghoul would bring such a pitiful, helpless, hapless, innocent 
creature into a world of screeching suffering?

Autumn smiles in kaleidoscope colors, tossing rainbows
through the trees upon little gusts of laughing giggles.
Every shimmering, shaded hue has cart-wheeled to the peaceful riot.
My precious son communes with every chirp, cluck and click,
as rivers deftly dance to the bouncing beat of his steady footfalls.
He looks to the squinting sun and smiles, with a wink.
I look to the horizon with foul, hatred-filled breath
and curse the conniving clouds that await.

gran mal seizure seeds
horizontal trees are born
nature's brain                   misfired

Copyright © Michael Cahill | Year Posted 2014

Details | Michael Cahill Poem

You Are My Guitar

I'm not really alone. This is my voice, The one that sings, and you are my guitar. A mute, without my music, not by choice. Crippled tongue shyness, keeps me afar. My midnight dreams of perfect melody; This is my humble voice, on whispers flown, and your voice together, in harmony as it would be, if our souls were our tones. Sure, my heart is breaking, no words to say Yes, I feel like crying, my love is true This is my only voice, the only way is in this song, that I can be with you On silver winds, hear what my heartsong brings. My voice, my guitar. Listen! Touch the strings.

Copyright © Michael Cahill | Year Posted 2014

Details | Michael Cahill Poem

Stardust In Her Eyes

She sees me as a lustrous light of celestial origin a blazing-blast, blistering-fast, free-flight beam to thrill the sky's wide-eyed gaze this little bright eyed boisterous boy that spins and runs on Saturn's swirling rings chasing marbles 'round and 'round against the wind She thinks me powerful, an invincible protector my flesh a shield from all danger slayer of mythical-horned-armored-broaching beasts this silly small boy that skims rocks from shore to distant shore unseen watching ripples write adventures on the water's flustered face She deems me the roguish romancer with soft steel arms to faint safely warm within securely spent this foolish little boy that steals sweet kisses laughing that she allows such brazen boldness while standing on his head to just amuse she proclaims me champion of her heart and soul the one…the only…the everything there is nothing that this lucky little boy would not brave for her, his beloved blind with love and stardust in her eyes

Copyright © Michael Cahill | Year Posted 2013

Details | Michael Cahill Poem

Rusty Bucket

I lower a bucket, rusted through, slowly into
the absolute absence of rational arousal
that is my mind's abyss

my heart claims, capriciously, that 
it is a well

the rope is frayed and laughably short
every dream has long ago 
poured out the rotted bottom

the metal clangs like a dull bell
bouncing off the hopeless despair 
of your betrayal

my soul thinks of the Blue Danube Waltz
and dances four beats to the measure
will you not join me?

I think of a joke and begin to laugh
I begin to count sevens
and contemplate shards of mirror
and a fools myriad reflections

and you all just stare at me
expressionless
and think me
too pitiful
for a metaphor

Copyright © Michael Cahill | Year Posted 2013



Details | Michael Cahill Poem

From Alpha To Zeta

A beetle contemplates death- with babies, each one, him reborn. Fortunately, love's peace, gives no yearning or felt angst. Hell arrives, in a spray can's mist. Instant genocide, heaven's unreached. Jury is out. Are we thought, chosen ones? Knowledge born, burdensome considerations; love, death, heaven, hell, words to ponder, ever on. Many black sleepless nights, given forth to glum despair Nothingness envelops thin stratospheres of our nightmares Only the smallest, yearning, wet, wisp of faith, forces breathing. Perhaps our knowing is the endless curse that haunts the waiting tomb. Queries beget more queries; answers spread through this cold blind universe. Restitution gnaws our psyches. Payments owed; is our birth's down payment due? Shall I nest, and invest in dreamed endeavors. What might this cost of faith become? Tell the damned author of this foul agreement. Compensate me for my heartbreak's dirge! Universe be damned! What are my rights? The sweet repose of an insect, now dead with peace? Venus lured me, walking like a lemming, strait into her soft, intricate, deceitful web. With hot, glowing heart and boyish grin, I felt the sticky, cotton candy of her lying smile. Xenophobia strikes me swift, while I view my reflection within my lover's hot demon stares You, this life's ultimate reward, this drab, unasked for existence; love, vicious and unrequited. Zeus! I see you in the fog, no more myth than I. Let me join you in the pungent mist, a happy beetle.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Copyright © Michael Cahill | Year Posted 2014


Book: Shattered Sighs