Shall I tell you how this happened to me?
How a heart could stop and stutter to life,
How your eyes can glow in a haze of glee,
How a blush can burn,like a red hot knife?
The falling leaves had coaxed us to a dance,
Autumn winds left our hair in disarray,
In a pile of dead leaves.I took a glance.
ba dum ba dum,my heart molded like clay.
Sparks shivered all the way up to my hair,
Gloved hands clasped together, you had a grin.
I was lost in your stare that gave a dare,
ba dum ba dum, I knew I had to win
Slowly and softly, we met for a kiss.
Biting cold and wet leaves couldn’t break the bliss
Category: 2022-23 Submissions
Fall of the Freed Verse
As an adventurer starts a journey,
In search of a grand treasure,
I begin something new,
Blinded of what was to come.
As an adventurer follows a hazy path,
With lessons to learn,
I make my way along my journey,
With teachings that took too long to learn.
As an adventurer nears the end,
With one final challenge,
I reach a highpoint,
Unaware of the end lurking close by.
As an adventurer claims the treasure,
They head home with their heads raised high,
I reach my treasure,
Only it was knowledge that,
What I seeked didn’t exist.
The Glorious – A tribute to my marching band, and all who dare to work when all else choose to play
We are the Glorious, and the world shall know
As we shine to put on a magnificent show
We witness the kiss of the dawn sun’s new light
As we march onward through the perilous fight
They see us ascending, we watch them go by
To their leisurely lives, with an envious eye
And yet we stand proud through the heat and the snow
For we are the Glorious, and the world shall know
For in these months when we could not see
Time slowed to a crawl through this adversity
And yet we conquered each day to face each night’s woe
For we are the Glorious, and the world shall know
So let us go now on this beautiful night
As we reach the zenith of our glimmering light
And the heavens shall shake as our sound makes us glow
For we are the Glorious, so make the world know
That we’re the Bowie Band, when we put on our show!
Serenity of a Villanelle
The inspiration calls me.
The quiet takes over.
Serenity all around
The paintbrush in my hand
I am the controller.
The inspiration calls me.
Everything unplanned
It’s a special closure.
Serenity all around.
Make them understand
Life moves slower.
The inspiration calls me.
I can expand
In my own enclosure.
Serenity all around.
Nothing in demand
I keep my composure.
The inspiration calls me.
Serenity all around.
Error no Amor
Lo que no se habla se sana,
Quitar el estímulo le sigue, un adjunto de referencia que se haga cargo otro,
un tanatologo que me diga ¿Que se gana con una perdida? o ¿Un cardiólogo que me explique cómo se vive con un corazón ajeno aquí en el pecho? solo márchate y yo me ocupo del resto…
Me verán feliz aun sin sonreir, me verán sonreír aunque llore por dentro.
Aun recuerdo aquella tarde cuando por mis dedos entraba una melancolía inexplicable, mis ojos se irritaban de felicidad al ver una perla dorada a mi dedo entrar como si aquello fuera un paso más entre tú y yo a la eternidad, dime ¿Cómo olvido cuando me dijiste que por siempre me ibas a amar?
Aquella perla dorada era signo del puro amor que entre tú y yo día tras día crecía y yo a cambio te di lo que me da vida y no valoras. Lo más valioso que cualquier ser humano puede entregar.
No me arrepiento aunque no supe elegir.
Con el corazón partido hoy me tengo que partir, que seas muy feliz. Si amas no traiciones y si no amas no ilusiones.
Que el karma no te devuelva lo que me hiciste eso me hará feliz porque esto que en mi causaste no quiero que por ello nadie pase, y menos mi primer amor a quien después de abrir mis ojos veo claramente que fue mi primer error.
a study on wanting
i can’t dare to yearn for you
so instead i’ll cross my fingers behind my back
stare up at the stars
and wish that you’d shatter me
wish that you’d wrap your hands around my throat and squeeze
and with every last ounce of my soul
i wish it would break you too
i don’t dare to dream of you
but if i did
i’d wake in the dark of every night with tear-stained cheeks
arisen from visions of my own blood spilled
all over your polished hardwood floors,
your carefully manicured hands,
your open mouth.
you’d lick your bloody lips and i’d follow a drop of crimson down the column of your throat
look up into your uncaring eyes
and make you watch the life leave mine
i won’t dare to speak to you
but i looked you in the eyes once
you held no spark of recognition there for me
(though i swear we knew each other in some other life)
(i won’t blame you for forgetting)
i groveled at your altar
dirtied the knees of my brand new slacks trying to make you feel worshipped
‘cause i know it’s what you crave
your face gave no emotion away
save for the vaguest shadow of quiet displeasure
you’re a greek goddess
carved into bleached white marble
unknowing and uncaring of me
your starving devotee
False Summer
In the bleak months of winter
In the bedroom that wasn’t just a room
In the house that felt like a home
In those precious moments, I felt the warmth of summer
The warmth of tanned skin
Of hiking trails and laying in the sun
Of staying up late with the stars
Of kisses upon bruised shins
After the bleak months of winter
After the bedroom that wasn’t just a room
After the house that felt like a home
After those precious moments, I felt the wrath of summer
The wrath of blistered skin
Of tangling paths and the heat of the searing sun
Of the night underneath the gilded stars
Of scars accumulated on already bruised shins
*
Clinging to the warmth
Ignoring the wrath
I failed to notice autumn’s approach
The seasons changed, as they always do
Summer disappeared as soon as the frigid winter winds blew
Villanelle of Vain
My steady mind, chasing that mare-filled sun,
A bird; imaginary broken wings;
Trapped in ribs, kneeled to one.
Clawed and teethed, never wrung.
Rising, with or without and without, it sings:
My steady mind, chasing that mare-filled sun.
Annoying voices filling falling, leaking lungs—
Sewed with piercing bows and purple strings—
Trapped in ribs, kneeled to one.
Golden flesh, memories of tongue.
Newest one, paired clumsy hands, and to, it clings,
My steady mind, chasing that mare-filled sun.
The green men, a hundred and won
Begin a two, that truth it stings,
Trapped in ribs, kneeled to one.
Flaming stars, cupping death, wailing high, running run
Wander yonder under over turning rings.
My steady mind, chasing that mare-filled sun.
Trapped in ribs, kneeled to one.
I cannot go to school today
I cannot go to school today said little Peggy Anne Makay
If only she knew how you feel
You wish you could call in sick but that excuse was exhausted years ago
Years? Or months, days? No, it couldn’t be. Much longer than that wasn’t it?
When had this crushing sadness, searing anger, and helplessness truly
surrounded you? A feeling that you can’t place for your life.
But secretly you are growing stronger the feeling consuming you no longer!
Yes, you still can’t place the feeling but it bothers you less and less. you know it won’t fully go away not for a long long time but you won’t let it stop you any longer.
The Old Guitarist
The sky cried bullets
Streets ran red
I hunched over my guitar
A single tear shed
The metal rains down
Screams are yelled up
I beg for a pause
For this mess to break-up
Then the clouds open
And nothing is heard
Just the pitter-patter of rain
And wails that are slurred
Down.
Down.
Down.
I sink deeper.
The thin walls hold my weight
As the rain gets steeper
The world’s a clean slate
Though nothing feels new
And houses are scattered
The town we once knew
Scarcely now mattered
Still, water falls
And I mirror the sky
The world becomes blurred
Guitar far from dry
The room now feels blue
And then I’m alone
Just an old man and his guitar
In a place I used to call home