Author: poetryfest

I am a predator of brackish waters,
paddling between sand and sea.

I live in the middle space, the fingers—
Outstretched hands holding back our tides, protecting in quiet, serving without ceremony.

I prey on snails and worms. Hard to find these days.

I am like the rest of us.
Vulnerable. Conditioned.

Vulnerable to the changing wetlands,
Conditioned to keep calling them home.

Branches tether their leaves, speckles of galls
litter the underside of the fiery green maple
neighboring a rough brown cocoon, soon to
birth the mourning cloak, its wings eggshells.

Like the cry of an impending war, the sky grew
dark and howled with calamity, a thunderous belch.
The maple’s hands turned upward, unveiling the
pale green beneath the fire, mites dropping to the mud.

Soft stems and pea veins become drenched in the
early July rainfall, the gale’s raspy laughter ripping
through the unmoving tree trunks, the creek cascades.

The papery swaddle stills, tightens, surrounding the butterfly
as the downpour and cruel breeze battle, a heavy twig snaps.
Plummeting down, the branch strikes the wet dirt, the
delicate cocoon cracking as gunfire erupts directly above.

Within a passing hour, the earth was quiet once again,
maple leaves returned upright and the cardinals whistled.
The mites creeped out of hiding, peeling through the damp
soil, congregating toward the feast, one which once yearned.

Little critters surge, remnants of the mourning cloak
finding repose within their unforgiving teeth.

Fear in the eyes
of a girl who can’t stand
being sent away
again.

You are beauteous, my dearest, you are beauteous.
Your mysterious gaze spreads
like a quilt over a spring meadow,
and if you look deep within it,
you will see astral flames and my soul floating.

In the hidden shadows that outline
your shape,
one seeks rain,
but your radiance blinds
every curious wanderer.

A bare hand rests upon your hair,
– velvet, weightless, amber strands.
The other on your hip,
on your curves,
on your scars,
a bucket descending into the deepest wells.

Cyanoglaucous.

A fever dripping sweat,
connecting pores and chains,
slowly upon your lips appear
two butterfly-like stains.

Refrigerator lights cast shadows
on a hollow face.
Her tongue salivates at the thought of bread;
blueberry bagels with cream cheese,
waffles with peanut butter;
hamburgers with fries on Parke Avenue.

But pants fit tight,
when she wished they were larger.
Smaller than this–
the thought consumes her mind;
manacles of her happiness.

She always skips breakfast,
a busy bee without time for something
as simple as nourishment;
small not an extra small,
such a terror in her eyes.

“You should exercise more.”
a phrase that should NEVER
be commonly used in front of teenage girls.
running hurts her lungs, blessed
with asthma, she ignores the pain.

DNA passed from parents to children,
patterns of leaves in the wind.
unhealthy habits,
too much then too little.

she closes the stainless steel door,
trudges down the creaky stairs
to sprawl on an unmade bed.

Ed- I watch as he stumbles, a man undone,
A poet once soaring, now falling—done.
His words like daggers, sharp but not kind,
A tortured soul with a fractured mind.
“Nevermore,” he mutters, his eyes vacant, cold,
A genius’s madness, a story retold.
I wish I could save him, this hero of rhyme,
But he’s drowning in shadows, lost to his time.
The drink in his hand shakes, spilling like rain,
Echoes of sorrow, more poignant than pain.
His fame is his shackle, his gift a cruel weight,
Ed’s brilliance too bright for this darkened fate.
He whispers his secrets, too soft to be heard,
Yet in his silence, we’re haunted by words.

It was already past midnight when she came back home
and put her boots in the fridge
right next to a newspaper from months ago
Twelve months ago. From January.

She had spent the day hiding in cinemas

After washing her socks, she went to sleep

Oh, how she loved sleeping alone in her bed

It meant nobody sweaty beside her

nobody whispering some rich kid’s nonsense

She liked to be with somebody like her. And there was this one city that felt like her. And it wasn’t the city she lived in, it wasn’t the city she came from, and it wasn’t the city her parents came from. She had only seen it once, for about three days.

She often wrote silly little texts that grew into heavy words. And after finishing a text, she always felt like disappearing.

Float away with me, baby
it’s our destiny
God has given you wings to fly
As do I
Have beautiful angel wings in God’s eyes
Remember that time you put your hands in mine
and looked me in the eyes?
Ooh, I wish you were mine
So, float away with me, baby
It’s our destiny
God put you in my path, and he makes no mistakes with me
You’re favored by God
And that’s why you are here
Near
An earth angel like me
So, earth angel, you see
You’re just like me
So, float away with me
It’s our fate and destiny
You see
If you’re just like me
God makes no mistakes with me

I bent over backwards at your demand.
You want nothing more than for me to be better than I am
And as weird as it sounds, to this day, I don’t question this extant.
Though, we both know no matter how much I change you want

Something different,
That’s what you want cuz I’m Different,
I can change what I want,
Won’t make a difference –
Cuz you don’t give a damn.

Even if you told me that we’re even
Could you tell me that it is Eden
That we can imbibe?
And will I be able to
Ask and bear your answer to
‘How am I
In your eyes?’

Take the piss out my clothes, my hair, my face.
I’d love to say that you love me
But even if you did it’s just in your way.
That’s not enough for me, okay?
Hung up on you? –
Who are you
For me to call, anyway?

Again, it’s
Something different,
That’s what you want cuz I’m Different,
I can change what I want,
Won’t make a difference –
Cuz you don’t give a damn.

Even if you told me that we’re even
Could you tell me that it is Eden
That we can imbibe?
And will I be able to
Ask and bear your answer to
‘How am I
In your eyes?’

Beneath the cliffs where shadows play,
The tide retreats, then comes to stay.
So too, our hearts, in ebb and flow,
Pulled by forces we scarcely know.

A glance, a word, a whispered name,
Sets alight this smoldering flame.
Yet storms may rise, and winds may tear,
Testing bonds we thought we’d bear.

The sea is fierce, but still it calms,
Its tempests soothed by steady palms.
So too, in love, the trials we face
Are softened by a tender grace.

You are my anchor, my steadfast shore,
The pull that draws me evermore.
Through winds and waves, I’ll never part,
For you’re the harbor of my heart.