30 Poems in 30 Days (Redux)

[todski28]

3-1

Hinetitama

7 months full, swollen
by planted seeds
as she speeds with her bleeding man
to another emergency visit

forced to pull over and stem the loss of blood
that has flooded over the balanced perceptions
of her everydaylife

the questions of
is this the life I want for my child
as he writhe in pain
she dresses the compression bandage
they head to hospital again

severed tendons and dreams
are never the same
when stitched
back together

 

[4degrees]

2/5

nightcrawler
wriggles and gleams
in the midnight sun
then quickly vanishes
burrowing into
my fresh grave.

 

[legerdemer]

1-6

Glass Houses

If I were to gather all the flowers
you've sent me in messages,
my hothouse would be more
exotic than any wintergarden,
the scents heady, suspended in
moisture trapped between glass walls,
amid strains of harpsichord.

I don't quite know whether I would
be the lady lost in thought, open
book neglected in my lap,
finger holding the page...

Or the one whose nose is pressed
against the glass, looking
at a world I can only conjure
but never truly take part in.

 

[Neonurotic]

9 - 2016

Kokuhaku

Raked ceilings, white walls,
black lacquer tables with cloth napkins
feels fancy, too rich, but I'm still here
people watching, watching me.

I’ve never seen such well-dressed,
beautifully groomed women as in Tokyo.

In some fashion, I've passed the test
wearing Armani, last summer's
Coeur d'Alene tan and a
Rembrandt movie star smile,
a D-Lister in disguise.

Kozue, high-glamour eats,
is where I meet an impeccably coiffed
dolly, tottering on impossibly high heels.
I seat her with a lusty growl,
her reply a girly, flirty giggle
sounding better than the jazz.

We sit in our own cloud nine
made up of her amber perfume
with lots of sake on the rocks
and my broken Japanese
and her broken English;
we find each other alluring.

I can taste excitement in the ice
crunching between teeth,
making a cool drink of promise
for a hot evening yet to come.

 

[todski28]

3-2

Hinetitama

shovels bite into soft soil
loss is cried into the afternoon light
a shotgunblast
face full of grain
another of the boys cut short
because death is the only way out
when the slums swim so deep in your viens
acid etched into the scars and bad tattoos

grit your teeth and pull the trigger
suicide is just weakness leaving the body
because its the last vestiges of pain that can be wrung
from the bones of depression
and bottled anesthesia

his brothers
get riotusly drunk on their sorrow
as they
beat the same pavement
with stumbling feet
following the path the weight of the multitudes
push them on
as they follow the generations before

she sits in the kitchen
holding the swell of her belly
idle chitchat that pass between the women
folk, the canned laughter chokes
on the cloying scent of cheap incense

day blends into night
cartons of empties scattered the floor
she waddles huffinf against the strain
of her bulge
bends and
continues to clean the mess
vomit, blood, the detritus of
men with no hope
silent tears leak

he staggers into the kitchen
Frank, eyes wild

Woman!
he screams
Woman, come to fucking bed
clean this shit up in the morning

 

[Piscator]

1-27

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Native_brook_trout.jpg

Brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis)

Dark green back with marbled patterns,
lighter side with red dots surrounded by blue halos
reddish underbelly and ventral fins
which have a leading white edge.
Denizen of cold clear headwater lakes and springs
where they can be numerous but
usually small with some exceptions
and one always looks
for the exception.
Often naïve and readily take
flies, even my hand tied flies
before release to swim free
again with some exceptions
which are tasty coated in
a corn meal/flour mix and
fried in butter.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

1-23

At full moonglow, still with a nip of frost in the air,
I shiver as the Vixen calls from the hill.
With arms wrapped tightly round my chest,
I turn from the window and head for bed
to the warmth of your arms instead.

 

[Remec]

9 - 7 One Moment on an Expedition

The wilderness is much
more vast than anticipated,
and we have had to camp
yet again outside of the comforts
of an established fort.
With a yawn, I awoke at just past
dawn--mouth gummy with the
salt of unwashed saliva, and my
chin bristled against my hand
as I passed it absently through
the prickly beginnings of a new
beard--and staggered among
the low foliage to relive myself.
Seemed such a shame to douse
the scent of morning honey-suckle
with that of my personal water, but
it passed my mind as I stood
in the brush and watched the way
dawn had risen in triplicate;
one bright and glorious sun shadowed
and reflected by a pair of lesser ones,
sun-dogs that we had been told
warned of change in the weather.
We shall have to ride much harder
throughout the day.

 

[Neonurotic]

10 -2016

Tsuri

There is an ocean of black-haired waves
but surrounded by the people, I still see
loneliness crashing down the boardwalk.

Sachi-chan gets lost in the dark waters
I search for her, dive under,
holding my breath, but I'm assaulted
by too many faces in my personal space
in a place where there is no room
to move. Too many conversations
makes my ears go pop in the ring of
cellphones and talking all at once.

She's quick in the waters, done this
swish and disappear more than not;
she likes me needing her in this din.
I think she probably laughs when she
does. Manipulative yes, but I've never
had a woman who didn't try to hook me
with a little bit of that in her sauce.

Must have air. I'm not a fish; swim
against current to press the glass
and rise for that precious commodity.

I've lost her for now, but will find her
again between crisp white sheets
in a frayed crimson kimono
that's been torn off so many times
it's merely silken rose colored threads.

Maybe I am a carp after all, her bait,
plied with yuzu cocktails and sex,
her golden fish in a pond but by now,
I'm so wabi-sabi with that, I'm her koi.

 

[legerdemer]

1-7

Sinuous velvet, mercurial, fearless,
green eyes like small saucers,
missing nothing.

What more could you wish for
than to be worn like a shawl,
caressed, loved, cared for,
as you careen wall to wall
up and down steps, catching
your shadow, your tail, your destiny?

Your purrs remind me
how unconditional love feels.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

1-24

Well really!!
I lost my balance and Ron said
"It's because you're top heavy, but
(patting me on the bottom)
this bit holds you down" !!

 

[Remec]

9 - 8 Can't Rain All the Time

I know it doesn't seem like it,
especially this soon after closing
things up and putting them away,
but you have to dry things off
and continue doing what you do
when you're going on about your day.

It can't rain all the time,
even when you think it will,
eventually the world has its fill,
and decides the Sun has to shine.

 

[todski28]

3-3

Hinetitama

The sun shone its effervescent
light on the oil slicked puddles
burnt out cars propped up on bricks
teens spray their pseudonyms in street
calligraphy on the fence lines

she smiles at the sun
eyes closed drinking in its radiance
despite the loss, the decay
because life
goes on
and the sun's warmth is beauty
caressing with gentle fingers
her upturned face
new life rising on the dawn

he opens the door,
sidles up behind her
hands to her belly
right arm a mass of stitched wounds
and semi-crusted blood
drags her to him
and they share a moment

 

[Neonurotic]

11 - 2016

Kisu

The sun this time of the day
sits low, kissing flowering elms
a pale gold, while the shadows are
ivory detail, like antique lace
on a spring bride's wedding dress.

 

[Piscator]

1-28

Life Experiments

“Any schoolboy can do experiments in the physics laboratory to test various scientific hypothesis.
But man, because he has only one life to live, cannot conduct experiments to test whether to follow his passion or not.”
Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Each week he's sitting
on his bench
his mangled arm in a sling
and musak on his radio.
I'll add a toonie to his cap
as I pass enroute
to the Farmers' Market
He'll say "God Bless"
I respond "Take care"
then continue on my way;
he greets the next passerby
and we each return to
our respective experiments.

About once a week, the phone rings
and its "John" on call display.
I pick it up even though I know
he will ramble for a while
before asking for the number
of my wife's sister, whom
he dated briefly, long ago.
I answer because I knew him
when he was an up and
coming med student who
introduced me to the
Fine Young Cannibals
not a borderline psychotic
with a drinking problem.
I'll tell him that I don't
know her number
and we each return to
our respective experiments.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

1-25

They're cutting down the tall, tall tree
and all the birds have flown,
my aching heart goes with them
as it dies I hear it groan.

Many years it's graced the garden
now felled at neighbour's whim,
dragged from the earth, now lying
to be torn out limb by limb.

Many birds are nesting there
Magpies and Jackdaws too,
lost all because it dared to sway
each time the wind blew through.

So now I view the empty space
and worry in my heart,
will my tall tree, magnificent
be next that's torn apart?

 

[Piscator]

1-29

A Capitalist Observation

If it takes money to make money,
why are you surprised that
the rich get richer
and we don't.

 

[Remec]

9 - 9 Sibling's Day Photo

My youngest sister thought
Sibling's Day merited a throwback
photo on her timeline today, and
I thought it eerie not how much
you could see our children in
looking back at myself and my brother,
but at the hint of prophecy in how
a cousin held up bunny ears behind
the head of my oldest sister,
who's known by close friends as
The Crafty Rabbit.

 

[legerdemer]

1-8

Spirits of Chaco Canyon

Rust- and pistachio-colored layers of rock
cragged mesas
topped with whipped-cream clouds in gray, blue and white
Wild flowers sprayed over ground dotted with Jerseys and Angus.

At night, Orion pointed the way of the Moon Walk,
when the people looked for light, and found it.

Not the first such journey, nor the last,
for people lose the light as often as not.

 

[Neonurotic]

12 - 2016

Adam and Eve II

Against the wall, we are locked,
formed in super-heated bronze goo,
now solid statues in erotic pose.

All around, gawkers and whisperers say
prayers I've long forgotten,
of a religion just as gone.

This moment lasts and lasts
as the time before it was ash
on my tongue once I found her.

Though we cast gold in shadows,
I smell apples and sin. Somehow,
we are an abomination
and once again, unforgiven

 

[todski28]

3-4

Hinetitama

Hangi

beef, chicken, porkand spices waft
on a gentle breeze,
kumura, she recalls from childhood
Her revery interrupted
by a mixture of laughter and revelry

it all floats with the scenst
as earth gives life

The men shirtless slicked with salted sweat
draped in soil from digging the pit
they drink down west end draught
as the women gently wrap food in foil
to be placed in cages

they drag in the river rocks
polished smooth pebbles that hold in
heat from the layers of coals
they prepared earlier
they bury the baskets
let it roast on
in the warmth of the earth
pregnant with promise

Robbie strums his guitar
and croons magic
enrapturing
those closest to him as they sing the choruses

later when they tear into the earth flavoured
meats that fall from the bone
raising their glasses
in salute
to the feast

she holds her
stomach
it wont be long now
the pains have begun

 

[Piscator]

1-30

Seven Dog Lives

It is easy to forget that in the main we die only seven times more slowly than our dogs.
Jim Harrison (1937 - 2016) - The Road Home

First Bobo, a cocker spaniel,
I remember only from pictures.
He ran way before we moved
to Canada when I was four.

Second Kizzie, a cockapoo , Mom got
when the family moved to Texas.
I only saw her on holidays and such
as I stayed in Canada. She lived
long and was with the folks when
they retired to British Columbia and was
into her teens before they put her down.

Third Sadie, 3/4 Newfie - 1/4 Bernese,
a big black dog, with a big appetite
for apples from a special tree and
the socks our daughter, a toddler
cast off around the house.
I still chuckle remembering
the scattered remnants lining
the farm lane that spring.
She was over ten, and in pain
when we put her down.
Her ashes remain in an urn in the garage.

Fourth Rizzo, a fencejump cross of
Gordon Setter and Belgian Shepherd,
my wife and daughter got from a friend
while I was off on a canoe trip.
A headstrong dog who would take off after
a scent or car to return when he pleased.
On leash, he'd almost pull you off your feet.
With age, he grew territorial and
after the third biting incident, I took
him to the vet to be put down.
But she gave him to an older lady
with a fenced yard who put thirty
pounds on him and he lived to
fourteen or fifteen.

Fifth Hailey, who was five when
we got her from the shelter.
A Border Collie - Shepherd cross
and definitely our daughter's dog.
She'd bounce foxlike through the fields
and on evening beach walks, loved
to fetch sticks we'd toss into the waves.
She was over fifteen and failing when
we put her down, days before
our daughter's wedding.
No urn this time.

Sixth Xena, a Shepherd-Collie cross
and beyond doubt a princess
but more sweetheart than warrior.
She has the canine equivalent
of ADD and a bark first policy
when something new appears
and will retrieve sticks or balls
until your arm falls off .
At over eight, she's running strong.

Seventh, Sam, a mostly Shepherd mix,
and the most 'rescue' of our rescue dogs.
She's smart, loyal and obedient
a wantobe lap dog with a feral streak
who responds in kind to aggression
and we muzzle her on walks.
Now five she'll be with us for a
good while to continue the tally.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

1-26

How to enter another dimension, if only for a few minutes

I suffer from Positional Vertigo
and if I sit for too long,
standing up is a whole new experience.
I guess I'm wired all wrong!

 

[Remec]

9 - 10 Resistant Lune

The fiery threat
from the pulpit provoked me,
"Go to Hell."

 

[legerdemer]

1-9

Koan for ∞

There is beauty in ones and zeroes:
horizonless midnights,
silence magnified to infinity.
Hearing galaxies with my mind's eye.