NaPoWriMo Challenge - April 1 - April 30

[Lyricalli]

It's April 1 some places, so I'm opening up the thread now.

The goal is 30 poems posted in the month of April. You can do one a day, or you can do multiples some days and take breaks on others. If you're playing along, it would be great if you could post your first poem on April 1, but it's not required if you decide to join us a little later.

Numbering your poem in the title or somewhere in the post will help you keep track of where you are, especially if you're not posting one poem a day.


If you feel a little stuck some days, maybe some of these links will help:

Challenges
Here There be Challenges thread. Also stickied at the top of the forum.


Poetry Prompts
22 Poetry Prompts from Read Poetry
101 Prompts from Think Written


Forms
168 Poetry Forms - Writer's Digest
The Poets Garret


Have fun!


Stats:

Angie - 30/30
Calli - 30/30
Champ - 30/30
Lev - 30/30
Mer - 2/30
Moochie - 30/30
Neo - 6/30
Pisc - 30/30
Remec - 23/30
Todd - 30/30
29words - 31/30
Tzara - 35/30

 

[todski28]

1-30 what am I doing here (facepalm)

If only she were stardust and impossibility
romance and cliche
the type to follow Prince Charming after
mediocre courtship
and a bland roll in tousled hay

but she’s a dragon
charcoal breath
untameable savagery
wings that allow her to soar above
pettiness and ruffled coats

into a sky where moon And sun
never embrace
leaving pin prick stars glowing
a patchwork tapestry of connect the dots
trying to find forever in goodbye
as dawn rises

she beguiles me
besets my every intrigue
and the only way it seems
to make her stay
is to tear her down
to the level of men
and I find I’d rather
watch, than try to subdue

as she slips away into a place I
can never go
Pulling shrouds of clouds
about her shoulders
kissing the sky

 

[Lyricalli]

1/30

Seventeen years
and I still wonder
if calling ever crossed your mind

Did you consider me at all?

It's selfish
but I want to know
if I had a place in your memories

One day, maybe
you'll have answers
to questions I never ask
when you visit me in my sleep





Who Knew - Pink

 

[legerdemer]

1/30 Annie, Adieu

I see your body rocking gently into night, a boat
carrying its years away into the waning light,
waves lapping gentle to the sides, as if
to say, “I kiss you one last time,
and then again, once more,
I hardly can let go.”

Sweet traveler Annie, your steps light on this earth,
your light guiding, with laughter
as your constant friend,
and will remain henceforth.

Rest in rhymes, Annie.

(I haven’t been here for a long while, and was so sad to discover that Annie is no longer. I’ll try this challenge in her honor, though my poetry nibs are rustier than ever.)

 

[29wordsforsnow]

1/30

Some time
as drops became streams
the grit and dust of brokenness
soaked and it -
the Thesaurus is wrong here,
'cured' or 'bonded' don't apply
- hardened
like the concrete in this wall
keeping the world outside
from my view
and my heart

 

[Neonurotic]

RLS B!tch - 1/30

It starts on the left,
the undeniable, irresistible
urge to move.
If ignored, it gets worse.

That creepy-crawly wakes
me up and keeps me up
at night. I have not found
a good mother’s remedy
that keeps me sleeping
other than ice cold milk.

It hits a hot stomach over
hot nerves, sometimes it settles.
But I still feel squeamish Ma,
maybe right about being
lactose intolerant after all.

After all, I need to be
tolerant of the weird
angry-scared looks at my waifu,
or so my tsuma says so.

I say, keep your eyes to
yourfuckingself,
gotta itch to scratch to
put a foot in some racist’s ass.

 

[Piscator]

I/XXX

Not Your Everyday Fool

April 1 is special, today I’m not your everyday fool
but Microsoft changed my Outlook and I’ll have to retool
and we are all again in lockdown, pandemics getting old
yet I’ve got a month of poems to write, I’ll start with couplets bold
and there’s the line by line challenge, this month it’s number eight
which will make Octavia happy, give her something to relate
to, it’s a deep dive, please excuse me while I catch my breath
for my meter is ragged and only rhyme I find is death

 

[Moochienanu]

01April2021

The sky knows

It’s as though it feels
The impatience
The need
As it lowers clouds into the sunrise,
That pleasing warmth of colours
Spreading down below,
Waiting.

 

[champagne1982]

Not A Proper Sonnet 1/30
for Annie

At last I have shed proper tears for you
to mark the days you're missed,
right here inside this hollow heart
painfully beating in my chest.
I have let this mourning loose today
with the sobs so long owed to you.
You were a friend in this lonely world
where good friends are rare and few;
but I take solace that now you rest
asleep against all torments past,
tomorrow I'll smile at shared memories
and hold the beauty of goodness fast.
This is not a proper sonnet, I know
but for you I needed to rhyme, just so.

 

[Remec]

1/30

Not Just in April

I'll admit it, I'm oft times a Fool,
not just in April, but every day;
it began with clowning in class, then not just at school
but at home and work, often I play the Fool
it's like my mind thinks of it as cool
to let my words and actions do as they may;
There's no denying often I am a Fool,
in each month of the year, on any given day.

 

[Levitating_Bed]

1/30

The Same Yes

And when my hand finds your throat
your eyes close
from opposite sides of the same yes
you cannot see my smile

 

[todski28]

2-30

the full moon reflected in the rear-view
the hum of the tyres
glide over asphalt
reflecting summers stored heat
letting it seep out
in a sad indictment

grape vines entwined
reach out to each other in the dark
twisting together
the stench of blood and bone
coursing through the window

wind cuts through
and I have to wind it up
to stop the incessant thump
against my temple and the stench
of life ground into paste to feed the plants

she had her red dress on
before it slipped from her shoulders
her lips pressed to mine
the glide of skin beneath
my calloused palms

is enough for me to grind the accelerator to the floor
and drown the thoughts floating
like ethereal clouds
purpled by a dark sky
and iridescent moon

 

[Tzara]

1

Intercourse Paradelle

Your nude body shines in the firelight.
Your nude body shines in the firelight.
Lush nipples, so rosy and beautiful.
Lush nipples, so rosy and beautiful.
Beautiful nipples in the firelight—
Your lush body shines, so rosy and nude.

There, the wet petals of your sex.
There, the wet petals of your sex.
Your eyes fetching, wicked with desire.
Your eyes fetching, wicked with desire.
The fetching of your wicked petals there,
Eyes wet with your desire—sex.

You shudder at my hungry thrust.
You shudder at my hungry thrust.
Then come the low moans of your pleasure.
Then come the low moans of your pleasure.
Your hungry shudder at the low thrust,
My moans of pleasure. Then, you come.

Your petals, so wet with sex.
Moans of pleasure. Your beautiful, lush shudder—
Wicked and hungry. Then the body shines,
Fetching my thrust in the nude firelight
Of your rosy nipples. There,
The low eyes desire you, your come.

 

[Neonurotic]

If Not Your First Your Last - 2/30

Humidity
when it’s cold is strange.
It’s clammy,
it’s hot then it’s not.
I breathe through triple-thick
face masks pressed too tight
against nose and mouth.

I’m sick of these masks
and distance, are you?
You? And you too?

I got my number one
and waiting on number two,
maybe then, masks off?
No. Too many fools
playing doctor listening
to other fool anti-vaxxers.

What?
What about your rights?
Fuck you, fuck your rights.
We are where were last year
because of your rights.
I got rights too.

I am tired.
I work too long,
too hard trying to keep
you alive
when it finally gets you.

You want to breathe?
I want you to breathe too.
That is your true right
as a human being,
to breathe, to love,
fucking be free.

Not brain dead, not stone cold.

Go, run across the
white sandy beaches
on some tropical island,
vacation in summer-hot
real humidity.

 

[Angeline]

1-30

Foolish Triolet

April baby please don't be cruel;
Just whisper with a gentle breeze
And please don't take me for a fool.
April baby please don't be cruel;
My aim is true: I'm not a tool.
Don't put my muse in the deep freeze.
April baby please don't be cruel;
Just whisper with a gentle breeze

 

[Lyricalli]

2/30

He sings to me
and I'm the only one
in the room

The slow breaking
of my heart begins
while I listen to him
unravel my memories
sounding so certain
that you loved me
but I'm hard to convince
determined it was all imagined

Surrendering to my preferred form
of masochism
this submersion
into confusion and pain
and I'll let him have his way
until the last note is played

It's what I came here for

 

[29wordsforsnow]

2/30 - A vibrant question

how
do you
sculpture
something
to rock your
susceptible
midmost
and still pretend
it's just innocent
Easter bibelot?​

 

[Piscator]

II/XXX

Intrasex

The answer lies in the XYZ’s
genes XY and Z the factor
which muddled the birds and bees
as explained by the Doctor,
though Mama deeply missed her,
it seems my stillborn sister
exposed her fraternal twin
to excessive estrogen.

Thus, Ma raised me as a girl
in pink petticoats, I’d twirl
and as I comprehend it
my orchis nae descended
so now my little wee wee
is only good for pee pee
yet the enduring whoremones
from sister make me moan
at sight of swollen member
and this year in September
I’ll complete my transition
to feminine position.

 

[Piscator]

III/XXX

Whatever

Whatever does the future hold,
can it be found in ancient verse?
Or with science can we unfold
whatever might the future hold?
With this knowledge could we reverse
damage we’ve done to Mother Earth?
Whatever doth the future hold
future science or ancient curse?

 

[Moochienanu]

02April2021

A Next Time

In the end -
After the elevator,
After the room door,
After the meeting eyes,
After the first kiss,
After the peeling of clothes,
After the wandering hands,
After the passion,
After the lustful sounds,
After the climax,
After the slow breaths,
After the soft words,
After the shower,
After the promises -

Crossing fingers
The future always holds
A next time.

 

[Tzara]

2

Lingerie

This was back when, in the old house,
we sometimes did friends' laundry
because we owned a washer and dryer

and I was left one Saturday, sorting
my wife's friend's underwear, warm
and lightly scented from the softener.

The clothes were her cotton panties
and some T-shirts and other soft things
that I folded gently into the basket

to take upstairs, but then I fished out
her black lace bra, the underwire one,
and somehow that had me imagine too

clearly Carly's flesh bound in its cups
and it was like I could suddenly smell
her body, fresh from the bath, barely

toweled, barefoot, walking toward
me, innocent and smiling, and I
was so wired with lust and desire

that I was afraid I would have torn
her skin in my eagerness to get at
her. But. But. But then I reminded myself

this was just lingerie, and my Joanie
had some red things, lacier,
and I already knew how the clasps

could easily be opened on those.

 

[champagne1982]

Living In The Time Of Covid-19 2/30
a companion piece to Love In The Time Of Covid-19

The only thing that marks each day as new
is the repeated queries from the cat
as she paces between my pillow and my chest.
Her dainty paw presses my cheek, impatiently
insistent while her brothers nip at my toes.
Time bestirs my bladder to acknowledge
the kitten clock and rouses me out of bed.

The routine of caring for creatures blurs
the distinction of weekday, weekend, or holiday.
This is why the aged are surprised when
time has gone by and it's been a year.
A year since they've had a meal with friends.
Twelve months since they have travelled.
Three hundred and sixty-six days gone.

Naive optimism of early weeks has been replaced
by fear, horror, dismay, and frustration.
We are still afraid and horrified by the death toll,
dismayed with the selfishness of the few,
and frustrated by our impotence to change anything.
Yet, hope surfaces more often now, to quash
negativity, nurture promise and validate patience.

Maybe this will be all over a year later than we thought.

 

[todski28]

3/30

I tell her no chocolate
before breakfast...

she folds in on herself
like Mimosa Pudica
and I think to myself
well
it is Easter

 

[Neonurotic]

About Some Birds - 3/30

Mister came to the feeder first
then his Missus. This year their nest
must not be haphazard in the
courtyard's overgrown bush.

When I first moved here
it sat askew made with
plastic wrappers, string and twigs.
The winds easily tipped it, dumping
one egg at a time. I tried to help them,
knowing they would abandon it.
The pair sat side by side
in a nearby satsuma tree.

They watched the two remainders lay
cold on the ground all through summer.
Mister left with the Missus days
before the hurricanes came,
tossing what was left behind.

This spring, I welcomed
the cardinals return with delicacies:
black oil sunflower, mealworms,
peanuts and safflower seeds.

The roses are better left for the aphids
with their lady beetle nemeses,
I hope instead, that gigantic fig tree
was more appealing for a new nest,
a new clutch for the birdsmates.

A couple can’t make a home so weak
and expect to weather storms.

 

[29wordsforsnow]

3/30 - ends with -ex

The table still laid
where I didn't get an answer
before you left
considering it's time to go on
it must be four...
glasses still on the table
where has the wine gone?
I remember some mediterranean
and my prepared words
I wasn't able to say
what was it
something...complex
The table still didn't get an answer
considering you left that wine
four years
ago
red dried
sitting there
not com...apoplex