Author: poetryfest

I see the exiled poet
standing at the edge
of a roman city
waiting for hungry lions
eastern dragons
or dagger-carrying women
to immortalize his work.

too late
to praise lyrics.
a lifetime lived
to hear nothing.
your words are spit
on flowers planted
next to white stones.

I see your secret fear
you cannot face the elephant
or remind our countrymen
that faith is an Art
lost and found
by souls
standing their ground.

now is too late
to worship our work
and ponder clever clues
to your sorry existence
please do that your damn selves
we do not die to leave instruction
we die to leave you.

O how mighty thee stand
Your pillars intact
Empire of great
But held only by pact

O woe to thee
Who stand before God
And invoke your own despair
By taking to him a prod

You gloat on your wealth
On victories supplied
By the brave and Courageous
On the backs of those long died

Your towers are mighty
Only larger is thy ego
Surely nothing may happen
To those who build their own ergo,

Why doth my walls begin
To crumble under weight
Of all my splendor
And open the floodgate

Flood my land with sorrow
Of barbaric ideals
And curse the sea with blood
And slack lie fisher’s reels

When the empire begins to fall
So to its panic set in
Run! Cry those who were brave
And their screams echo then

Run-Take with you everything
But nothing you have-Run!
What might-Run-you have to save?
Run-when it closes in-Run

Might we-Run-have a chance to
Run-stop and rest our bones
Run- Oh God! Oh God!-Run-
On us-Run-it-Run-Hones

From July Baby

She shares a name with a state he’s never been in.
He loved her name,
and the way she would morph into
her Italian grandmother just to
show him how she says it.
Her close friends shortened it,
but that never interested him.
Just another nod to the fact
he wanted all of her.

He believed in the evil eye
so when people asked him about
his absence on the weekends,
he would redirect the conversation.
Until eventually,
he would give them one hint.
This was his new favorite game.
He would tell them that she shares a name with a state,
then chuckle as they yelled out
Washington?
Colorado!?
Ew, Oregon??
His secret lasted no longer than a few days
before he caved.
Not too long after that,
she walked.
It was around the time of
the midterm elections so for the next couple of weeks,
he heard her name,
but not in the way he grew to enjoy.
It was a bunch of old dudes on the news talking
about how politicians need her to win.
that she was important.
Shit,
of course she is.

A few months later,
he found himself at dinner with somebody else.
He wasn’t ready,
this felt dirty.
Simply just being there
meant that she wasn’t.
She was really gone.

The conversation lay dull and uneventful,
as they ran through the classic first dinner questions.
Not before long,
the new girl asked a question,
that caught his attention.
A question that pulled the right side of his mouth
to his cheek just the slightest bit.
A smile.

She asked him

“If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?”

And for the first time in
way too long,
it was okay for him
to
say her name.

When you think of him,
you think of the smoke
that stung at your eyes.
That which did not technically
form a full fire.
You preferred the tongue
to the flames.
How it hung
out of his open mouth,
how it invited you wide-eyed,
to keep you
under the moon
where your face became slick
with the dusk.
The smoke arched higher
& the soft flesh of your back
smacks the chair that
you found on discount
that one summer.
You had taken turns driving, you & him.
Flipping through radio stations,
bursting through the vivid vocabulary
of paint swatches that you had slipped
into your back pocket
to learn their names:
Paper lantern, drift of mist, soft fern, & him.
Him, your silver lining, your every hue.

It’s quarter to six as I open my eyes
Glimpsing the world through veils
A heavy rain falling and the wind
Turned up way too loud
Pries it’s stiff fingers at the window

There is no sound but the pad of my feet
I make my way to the kitchen
And look out at the tiny yard
Where the oak tree is dressed for weather
And never stuck inside

The milk looks pale and worried
I add a splash to my coffee
The pills on the table
Watch me eat breakfast
A sad thin green vase gives a winks

The dog is content under the table
Yawning with delight
The blue and white tablecloth
Making a dry and safe tent
I say her name-she twists with pleasure

No light is pooling in the window
Raindrops nibble down the windowpane
I sing a song of water
Yes, I’ve been to the well, the river, and the pump
And know my baptism has come

Now I am floating free of myself
Taken root in the backyard
Watching life from beneath the surface
I’ve left you instructions about the dog
On the door of the refrigerator

My heart is lifted

The morbid star
That rises high above
Awakens me from internal slumber

I am a night serpent
Becoming one with the shadows
Who lurk on lonely windowpanes

My mind is an asylum
It was cursed the day
The dead walked among the fire

Ashes to ashes
Ashes to ashes

The air hangs low because of
The stench of burnt skin
My ears bleed red

I am a damned soul that is
Nothing more than a charred
Voiceless black hole

My heart is a dead chamber
Veins thick with tar
I leave a trail of dust when I march

I hunt in nocturnal light
Extracting the life out of
bone and flesh

I only exist to touch
The interior
Of your remains

I want to feel your last breath
In my everlasting grasp
Feel it drain from your pores

Watching your eyes become
Vacant canyons
This is what I breathe for

As death takes over your body
I want to be the last image
You will ever see

Falling from the sky
Floating on the summer breeze
Never land again

Grown from seeds so small
Watered roots spread far and wide
Sturdy was our love

Seasons came and went
When one autumn settled in
Released with the wind

Security lost
All that we had ever known
Traded for freedom

One gust changed our life
Is it a loss or a gain
Never be the same

empty seat again
a scarlet dragonfly stops
and leaves on a breeze

Falling down seeing the hammers drop
Tool box scatters the pieces
Leaving the plant life scared and dazed
Singing them a lullaby to calm them
At the cost of some memory
Filling in the blank lyrics that hold
Every bit of harmony
Getting slapped by the cactus for forgetting
His favorite part and making the beans cry
Apologize all you want but you ruined the special moment
With your terrible singing voice
Told you to take lessons
But you spent money
On newspaper that told you everything you already knew

The radio said the day is here
I already knew it was Monday but they have to make a living I guess
Oh apparently today is special
End of the world you say
But the weather is so nice, oh the earthquake
That happens every year
What do you mean war broke out
It’s always the same people you’ll forget about it in a month
Also my plants are doing just fine thanks for asking

Summer heat is scorching the crops
Guess they’ll need more water
It’s great climate for fruit
Just need some more trees from the network
So glad that they went digital
Last year the real ones were awful
Always dropping trash and muck on the ground
Sure the subscription is expensive
But the trees are beautiful and I can change their colors too

Sweet smelling sun showers
humid dripping trees
honeysuckle taste buds
cool gentle breeze
firefly nightlights
cascading streams
crackling campfires
marshmallow treats
coy chirping crickets
bubblegum dreams