Published in The Guild, Spring 2011


"Pen and Paper"

What do you fear will be revealed?
I feel dread as I pick up my weapon
The whitest surface I’ve ever seen 
mocking me
Tooth enamel porcelain smooth
What dares to mar this precious luminous surface?
I look down
The paper opens wide
A gaping whole stretching from side to side 
“Gasp!”
A stab wound has pierced my paper 
Like a box cutter to the stat-icky white surface of a balloon
Like teeth ripping into a plum
Bursting with juices and fleshy pulp
the pen making my paper bleed
It’s oozing pain in the form of black-red paint 
this exquisitely rich blood 
drips down my paper
trickling
creating large teardrops like a weeping willow
It cries
for the martyrdom of the world and soldiers’ lives
and then it soaks it all up 
like a big warm towel over a baby's smooth skin 
It comforts
like a white sheet over a dead body it brings resolution 
There in bold black letters 
my words appear 
like a New York Times headline 
the blood has dried 

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .



"Marionette"


There are strings everywhere
I feel lifeless 
gout and time creeping in 
As I lay still 
My feet are tied to my hands
making it impossible to walk
These tangled strings hindering my every move
like a spider web 
woven with desire 
Bound by the sweet sap of a lie
If I raise my hand I’ll put my foot in my mouth
As I lay still 
In the darkness of this toy chest 
I only think of him
surrounded by play things 
Until he returns to bring me to life
My satisfaction is only the one I bring him
Without it I can’t feel human
I’m nothing
Nobody
How quickly I lose my value 
in the hands of another
As I lay still

                                                        .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .



"One Question"

Why didn't you say goodbye?
Now I think of you with a sigh.
You certainly left your mark
But you left without a trace.
This question runs through my mind,
Sometimes the pain can make me blind.

Running happily through the park
Reading bedtime stories in the dark
Father, I thought you cared
About the memories we shared. 
So sublime…
What made you lie?

I feel alone but I have grown
My heart is no longer stone.
Wait! One more thing before you go,
When you’re drunk and alone
Do you remember me?

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