Needles (A Dark Holiday Poem)

Things I am Thankful for This Holiday Evening: Thank you for this crackling fire Beneath my twinkling, tinsel-decorated fireplace mantel, Which I enjoy from this pillowy armchair With my knitting needles in hand and doily-adorned sewing machine close by. Thank you for the pleasant clinking of the needles And the glide of the soft yarn...

The Cake is a Lie

The promise of cake on the dining room table Is a lie, And so are the writhing maggots in its place. I'm dessert! I had heard it speak. I'm sweet and rich with dark-chocolate swirls! I turned to see quick, Expecting buttercream thick And an orange-lit wick To celebrate with. But there was no cake....

The Breaks

I keep it on a hook in the back of the coat closet, My green umbrella. But there's nothing but sun to see, (A red-orange streak cuts across the dusk), No use to carry it with me. It's nice to know I have it, though. Come for a walk outside, you say, On account of...

When Hindsight Comes A-Calling

Hindsight knocked. He brought Bravado, And close behind, Blame did follow. I invited the First Then shut the door To keep away the Second and Third. I pulled out a chair for the guest to sit To stay and chat a little bit. We sipped our tea, (Hindsight and Me), And no one else sat...

Things I’d Tell Each Person, Eye-to-Eye, If I Could or Water Affirmations

Ripple. A pinch or pound, your worth I found. On the matter of your appearance, I will find beauty, less of bounds. About something, your wisdom sound. Babble. I enjoy things of your personality. Your voice is for hearing and your writing for reading. I believe that you are capable of learning things new, on...

The Ease of Difficulty: A Paradox

Did we not say--‘cross our homesteads surveyed-- That we think there ought to be more? Yeah! Give us that. Give it here. Now we have it. Ok--get it away from us. Replace it all Better and new, and not as few. Discard the old. Watch. It collects dirt on the ground (Easy since we’ve spat...

A Modest Refusal

Tired of breathing. What an unceasing bother, That I learned to do, proper, From the day I was born. That first breath, I realize, May have galvanized My eyes Onto their maiden voyage of cries. Sick of breathing by now. I’ve done it enough already, Haven’t I? Jesus Christ, Millions stacked on millions Of times....

Alternatives

This--all that you know-- All began encased within one, giant Cow. The belly grew and grew until it Burst! Its blood spilled and became the oceans and the rivers. Hooves, mountains. The skull, the domed roof of the skies and boundaries of this existence. Then The Cow brains rose into the tufted layers of clouds...

How Much is that Soul in the Window?

I don’t have a soul anymore. Not sure where it has flown. I didn’t know it was there before But now I’m sure it’s gone. Maybe I dropped it in the parking lot Or it hid between the pages of a book. Maybe it slipped through a rip In the purplish thin spot. Hopefully it...

Hush

A fire dances in spite of somber darkness A fetus thrives in the cramped accommodations of the womb The terminally ill continue to respire The madman's heart beats though a tempest is between his ears Will a foreteller hush even if he knows the future?

There are Thirteen Ways to Look at a Blackbird

Sideways stranger and solitary dweller pauses at my knee I don’t move either from my cliffside seat Awareness, yes, I’m on the verge of acknowledgement, Of an amorphous, achromatic avian Apathy Therein begets a sight Shallow Surficial, skin-deep, skeletal even, Crown to throat, animated in tick-like pivots Curves to breast then flank The secondary and...