Author: poetryfest

I thought I needed it
I thought that I needed
A light that pierced me
It reached my soul
That light
Set with intention
Intent of destiny
Destiny with dismay
Through my life remains
A light that pierced me
That I always needed to be

I pull myself out of their indifference
God is laughing at their missing conscience…
They’ll pray and speak their good intentions
They’ll eat your soul with their knife and vengeance
And we need a miracle to get out of this war
His conscience gone and they called him soldier
He pushed them out beyond their borders
He gave his love for lustful murder
He won their lives saved his confessions
And we need a miracle to get out of this one
He spoke to devils in tall buildings
They praised him high for all his winnings
Their lives had drained into his laughter
His graves are foolish for his collection
There is no miracle to get out of this one
On their graves lies their discretion
Their souls are chained and lost direction
He collects their bones with good intention
And he lives on without detection
And he trusts a miracle will get him out of this one
He’ll dig your grave if it makes a difference….

One more shallow, endless hour, that I’ve been livin’,,
Just the mention of your name, brings chagrin.
I’ve gotta share the thoughts,
that I’ve been thinkin’,
‘Cause each day I realize,..the mess I’m in.

Every new discovery, goes by unnoticed,
All the right words seem so wrong, at least for now.
Why should love be such a pain?
now I wander through the rain,
Can this youthful heart sustain?

Temporary love,.. temporary romance,..
Is it worthwhile to continue hangin’ on?
Temporary love,.. temporary heartache,..
lost in moments just begun,..

Stolen moments linger on, within my memory,
Of this love that fell apart, ‘cause we weren’t strong!
But alas I’m not surprised,
that the love has left your eyes,
It was evil in disguise,..

Temporary love,.. temporary romance,..
Is it worthwhile to continue hangin’ on?
Temporary love,.. temporary heartache,..
lost in moments just begun,..
all those moments just begun,..

Lost in moments,..

Gazing over rolling fields all green
Height of every blade perfect as seen
Breathing in every molecule it exudes
Imperfections this site eludes

Oh what a perfect life, so it seems
Work, house, money, boat-I lived my dreams
Like my friends and what I was told
The perfect life I was sold

Suddenly something beautiful like a tower
One long stem dandelion flower
All alone but taking stage
Perhaps my life lived in a cage

Every part of me now torn
A powerful desire to be re-born
To live my life as a tower
Different and beautiful like that dandelion flower.

I forgot to do the beautiful things;
Instead my mind hid them in darkness;
It told me those things were not for me;
Those things were for others;
It told me I wasn’t good enough to do those things;
It told me I wasn’t worthy;
It told me that I had more work to do;
And all along, I sadly listened:
I forgot to do the beautiful things;
My mind simply would not let me;
Then my mind went blank;
and all I wished was that I had done the beautiful things.

(c) 2021 Marjorie DeHey

Have you ever felt like thanking those people

Who entered your life as a part of a riddle?

Some through a mystical, glorious mission

With or without your own permission.

First, made you smile, then made you go vicious.

Those who controlled and tried to imprison

Without a word or a particular reason.

All those who judged, and the ones who supported,

Stood by your side through the good and the dirty.

Some are long gone, some are still near

All of them were a part of a deal.

All contributed: showed anger, love, tears.

Some straight to your face, others behind and slightly unclear.

Rumors, endeavors with jealousy featured

Groomed you and shaped you into a beautiful creature.

Thank you to all who contributed!

By Alexa Bondar

We were on our honeymoon
a cruise to the Caribbean away from the January cold.
We did what new couples do, only Fred got stuck
in the bathroom from a door that refused to budge.

Sitting one dinner with a couple from Queens, N.Y.,
they were delighted with my fluency in Hebrew.
Having purchased a 30 year old parrot from Israelis
who decided to return before another war,
a parrot who spoke non-stop.

He’d shake his head, squawk and talk, ruffle his
bright blue feathers and jump from perch to perch.
He was frustrated no one answered him.
Polly, want a cracker, was not in his repertoire.

He spoke Hebrew with a perfect Sabra accent,
showing off his years-in-training speaking skills.
The wife reached in her ship-acquired tote bag
unfolding a crumpled up sheet of legal paper.

I looked at the transliterated letters, horribly misspelled,
and laughed so hard and long I nearly fell off the proverbial chair.
I couldn’t stop and feared I was making a scene in the plush
too-fancy-for-me dining room. What’s so funny?

This highfalutin screechy bird had a potty mouth in Hebrew
and Arabic! Balls, balls, balls to you—you hear?
He scratched himself appropriately, pace back and forth,
raise his head and say the worst curses ever.

Fuck your mother, fuck your sister, he said in Arabic,
Go away you Arab, die!. We’ll get you, we’ll get you…
No one thought it funny (but me). All their friends
hounded them about what he kept repeating,
but then he sang Hava Nagila and all was forgiven.

sitting on the edge.
my breath shallow.
looking down at my destiny.
so close.
jump. be free.
my wings are tired and broken.
i’ve forgotten how to fly.
i scream into the web.
but no one hears me.

sitting on the edge.
my ears ring.
my heart pounds.
waves crash.
memories burn.
hsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.
fire meets water and all i see is steam.
a world of grey.

sitting on the edge.
my feet dangle.
they’ve been running for too long.
darkness on the horizon.
it no longer scares me.
i am light.
a butterfly lands to rest on my knee.
delicate. bright. confident.
it flies gently into the vast beyond.

i get up.

The sorrow of not having you around tomorrow,
Is a burden for me that is just too hard to bear!
You were the apple of my eye and the love of my life.
There are no words to explain how much I cared.

Each night, my eyes cried tears with worry and a broken heart,
Wondering where you are and saddened by us being a part.
My dreams were only dreams of you. What am I to do?
I just don’t know what to say, as I am so confused.

In my heart and mind, it is that time of my life,
When, I am supposed to be over you now!
I have to leave your name in the past;
As, a wound upon my heart;
To begin a new life and have a new start!

I was a young man planning escape
Your Prose filled my world with symbolic shape
Pentatonic, ironic the lines that we used
To relate and reveal the guise of my muse

We drove to the depths of a deepening ocean
Searching for lines to keep us in motion
Iambic, myopic where hearts skip a beat
With wayward abandon of unstressed retreat

Our bodies entangled and writhed in such bliss
Releasing shorn verses that joyfully kissed
Where cascading rivers know only to stream
Our mountain of wisdom: a life in a dream

Etched on our page the stains of my art
But lines without meaning act only in part
To think of a life with so few words to say
Poetic concupiscence brought me this way.