Category: new poetry

Read Poem: I Wanna Fruit You by Marcus Graham

🍉

Baby, I wanna fruit you
Chocolate dip and strawberry scoop you
Nibble your sweet kiwis and fondle your melon
Wanna lick your goji til I’m more than well’n
Ready to rub sugarcane on your berry while I cradle that cherry
And let you candy apple snapple my jackfruit
Until you satiate your need to savour my grape seed
Then I’ma pomegranate your plum, don’t mind if I take some
Cuz I wanna banana split you, with a lemon twist I’ll flip you
And cranberry your cherry til it turns black and blueberry
Then I’ll reach for that peach to tease, squeeze and utterly please
While you tangerine my nectarine and I kumquat your apricot
Into the avocado flow of our spiced green mango
And when we’re finished we’ll clean our cantaloupe with a shake of soursop and papaya-tamarind soap
Cuz we’re fruitful like dat…

Read Poem: NOTHING IN THE HAND RETURNS by Catherine Morrison

Is Life an empty…as it appears?
An empty jar – when you look through is clear.
Putting your hand inside, you gain nothing…
Yet you see it.

Life is an empty with much inside it.
You try to reach in….
To grasp, to catch, to hold… just something,
But your hand returns…..with nothing.

Just as the big metal hand behind the glass
Of the toy machine –
You play your quarters, you push the buttons,
You take your aim –
But try as you may…..Empty….
Is the hand that returns.

You reach out in life to grab,
Something wonderful….something grand…
But it always just slips past
And you are left with what you had.
As always: Nothing in the Hand Returns

By: Catherine Morrison (Oct/95)

Read Poem: EVA by Robin Helweg-Larsen

Some of the girls I know
Go to the University
Sit so pretty
Prissy
Kiss-kiss and cissy
With beautiful boys that they know
Friends to drink tea with
Chat with and be with
Feather-headed into the feather-bedded night.

Oh no sweet Jesus hear me I scream
Such a life of show
Is beyond what I dream
Give me a man who I’ll never know
A man without feelings, without wrong or right
Without obligations
Except for the money
Let him be cold and hard as the money
And the money as dirty and evil as me
I can’t trust feelings, I never trust feelings
And I don’t care
That I can’t care….
I don’t dare.

Some of the girls that I’ve seen
Listen to that classy music, they sit
And play piano while they drink their tea.
That’s somewhere I’ve never been.
Cello! Piano!! What SHIT!

Sweet JESus CATCH me beFORE i SCREAM
give me ROCK, ROCK, give me ROCK oh give me ROCK
ROCK, give me ROCK, give me ROCK
blast my MIND let me DROWN give me SO much of ALL
that my HEAD and my BODy are FINally SOUND
give me ROCK, ROCK, give me ROCK, ROCK
give me ROCK rock ROCK rock ROCK, ROCK
DROWN me DROWN me, LET me go DOWN
aWAY
aWAY
aWAY

Some of the kids from my school
Would sit down to a smoke, have a toke and cool down
Drift round the town feeling cool
Not me

Some of the students I’ve seen
Trip out on acid, they want to expand
They want to feel all that they can, and still more
Not me

Give me JUNK
Give me the rush and the bliss of fuck all
Give me the unsatisfaction of life
Give me the treadmill toward the next fix
The stealing or whoring, the need, the despair
Of being whipped up an unending stair
A problem of Now I can just about handle
The safety in knowing tomorrow’s the same
And the whole problem thank god unthinkable
Only the treadmill toward the next fix
The fix of nothingness, of peaceful nothing
And let me not think
LET me not THINK
Sweet JESus if i THINK even ONCE
i’ll SCREAM i’ll SCREAM i’ll SCREAM
i’ll DIE.

Read Poem: i’d rather have you by Molly Zook

we always used to have silly, little fights about who loved each
other more.

coming up with reasons like who called first the most,
who was the one who hung up,

which one looked at the other longer when they weren’t paying
attention,

and who looked back when we said goodbye everytime.

now sitting on my kitchen floor, sobbing with a gaping whole in
my chest where my heart used to be

i realize i was never the one to pull away first in a kiss.
but winning doesn’t mean much to me now.

and losing doesn’t seem to bother you either.

Read Poem: My Morning Routine Re: Alex by Jessica Mifsud

My Morning Routine Re: Alex

My morning starts with his.

SHWOOMP

His door slams. It’s my alarm clock.

My door rattles

rattle

rattle

rattle

And I’m awake.

My nerves

rattle

rattle

rattle
A sharp

Click-click.

And then:

one. two. three. four. five. six.

I get up.

lightly

lightly

lightly

Two feet of hallway separate us.

one. two. three. four. five. six.

I pad barefoot to the door.

lightly

lightly

lightly

I peer through the peephole.

lightly

lightly

lightly

I see him.

one. two. three. four. five. six.

He’s there. He pulls at the door handle, again and again and again. I feel my door shake.

one. two. three. four. five. six.

My fingertips pressed

lightly

lightly
lightly

He stops. I hold my breath.

one. two. three. four. five. six.

Threes, sixes, and nines. That’s what he told me.

one. two. three. four. five. six.

He takes a step back. Stares down the knob. Circles it. Studies it. Dares it. Reaches forward.

one. two. three. four. five. six.

Another step back. Another twist. Another hard look.

And then:

Slowly suddenly he tears himself away. He stalks down the hall. Down the stairwell. Footsteps not so

lightly

lightly
lightly

Sometimes he comes back. But not today.

one. two. three. four. five. six.

OCD is a bitch.

I turn to the bathroom, turn on the light. Pull out my ponytail and size up my hair. My morning starts.

But really, my morning starts with his.

By: Jessica Mifsud

Read Poem: Swimming Backwards by Mark Mayes

The cold no longer mattered.
The sun was sinking into the sea.
Tan cliffs watched us.
The stony beach, emptied of middle-aged couples, dogs, us.

The cold no longer mattered.
The soft falling,
or the sudden drop
into the necessary shock of water.

The sea and sky and sun and land
owned their colours,
cannot be painted in words,
only by themselves.

The some clothes we wore
became a darkened skin,
and still the sun,
bleeding down the sky.

We swam to where
nothing met our gently kicking feet.
This is where I want to be,
where nothing is beneath.

And we adjusted ourselves
to the world, and it to us,
and the sun crying slowly into the horizon,
a burning orange at the limit of mind.

Something was pulling us out,
together and separately.
Side-current buffeted me into you,
into more us.

For a moment,
I considered going out there,
too far to return,
lush tiredness before the final struggle.

But then I saw you swimming backwards,
to the undefeatable urge to walk this life.
And I turned and headed for shore;
and the cold no longer mattered.

Read Poem: Illumination by Joy Espiel

11:11
222
333
23:32
2222
555
11:22

A troubled soul having sleepless nights and conflicted emotions.
I find it overwhelming to see a lot of patterns, insights, and symbols.
I have been manifesting, praying and crying..
Scattered thoughts and heavy heart makes me feel dead, with a boulder inside.
Hopeless, wrecked, Idle, suicidal and catatonia.
Then there’s the feeling of being used, worthless and lied and anhedonia
It’s far more worse than being slapped side by side —
A TRUTH I couldn’t hide.

Numbers, events and synchronicities.
Is this really a lesson the universe is trying to teach me?
Close the door, walk away and get over soon?
Is this the sign, I have been waiting for??
The moment I need— a chance to start and move on?
Alignment and clarity here and there,
Finding balance in this limbo we are trapped in.

Staring myself in front of the mirror..
I saw a tired and wounded warrior.
“Stop being weak and vulnerable!” I say.
Trying to be optimistic, while I’m wiping my ttears..
Closing my eyes, searching for things that push me through,
“Aim SUCCESS , learn to INVEST and make a BETTER YOU.

Again, with the pain inside my chest,
Makes it really hard for me to forget.
Step by step, I’m trying to walk away..
with the TRAUMA even TIME nor elixir can’t heal.

For once, a realization hit me,
it’s never wrong to fall,
it’s never wrong to admit feelings.
Stupid as what others might think of me
I still LOVE the person who HURT me.
Yes! The one that got away.

With endurance and patience, I face it all:
“Oh Dear! I thought I wasn’t capable of LOVING and CARING another soul.
With all the failures and adversities,
I find myself emerging once again
A new life ahead, a new chapter to begin.
Crazy, passionate and eccentric woman— whatever terms that define me.
“I am still HUMAN”
“I am WORTHY”
“I am BLESSED'”
and I DESERVE a person who will VALUE and RESPECT the real me.

Jespielcirca2019

Read Poem: SIMPLE TRUTH by Clay Witkofsky

Dear god I’d like to take a minute to pray
I’d like to thank you for helping me find myself this day
I’d like to thank you for this pathway that you have designed
With only one person that’s me in mind

Now I always knew you could guide me I just didn’t know how as I’ve searched the skies above and looked for signs on the ground
But am completely amazed with what I have found
As you are speaking from above but it’s a feeling I receive
A feeling of energy good or bad
Now that I know it’s coming from you
I’ll know exactly what I should or shouldn’t do
It’s a feeling that warns me what’s up ahead
Or tells me what I should do instead
It’s a feeling that tells me no when I hear a lie
Or a feeling that tells me yea when I see someone I might like
It’s a feeling I will follow to find my destiny

Wow it’s the voice of you god, thank you I’ve found something down here that is actually true
But before I start to smile my life away
I’d like to say thank you for saving me today
And I’m sorry it took me so long to figure this out
I promise you I never had any doubt

I think it’s just the confusion of society
Always teaching and preaching who I should be
But I’m the only one to blame For allowing in pain
As I’m the only one who knows this soul
And just exactly where it wants to go
Now it may take me some time to train my mind
To understand these feelings inside
But I do believe in your sacrifice
And I will learn to follow your advice
As this is my simple little plan and chance to walk to the promise land

And I don’t want to go alone into my destination unknown
As I want to take this gift of life that I’ve been given’
Just like that box beneath the tree and fill it with nothing but excitement and simplicity
So hopefully I haven’t drifted to far away cause tomorrow I’ll get back on my own highway
I’ll start to justify my time by understanding this inner child of mine
And use this simple truth to walk with the confidence of being guided by you

Unfortunately for corruption and hell I’m gonna let the rest of the world know this little secret as well
But in the end I guess I always knew that good would follow thru

Read Poem: Cages by Kristen Corbisiero

I built myself inside this cage,

And foolishly gave you the only key,
Thinking you’d keep it safe,

Hoping you would, at least.

Cages aren’t always meant to keep people in you tell me,
Sometimes, they’re meant to keep certain ones out,
For safety, for love, for whatever reason you choose,
Because this cage has kept me inside for far too long,
And I have no choice but to believe the poison that drips from your mouth,
Lapping it up with dry tongue,
Foolishly praying one day it’ll give me the strength to break the locks,
Cast the iron aside and find my way out.

I built this cage, yes,
I know that now,
Always did,
But never did I think you’d use it to keep me locked away.