Archive for category Poem

Like waterbeds, some things are just a passing fad

first notes
pluck forth unbeatable rhythm
the very cells, the light, inside this

pushing
broken with edges
curves water as it disappears
under

playing with those rays
still there, twisting unawares of the outcome
but always
driving
forward
down and deeper

until gone

——————————————————————————————–

With the emergence of new evidence and life in the past couple weeks, I am renewed. I am overjoyed by the possibilities. The building beat that encourages me to move.

Seen old friends and regular friends and decided who really is my friend and who never really was.
Met new ones who are genuine, real people, with such a capacity to care and inspire. So many stories shared by the beach or over a beer. I’ve been finding people coming to me for thoughts on their situations. I’ve been honoured by that.

I’ve also been bitchy and outspoken and generally unapologetically… me.
One of my favourite moments was being challenged to a fight over dancing with a guy.

I laughed in her face.

I’ve been actively abandoning anything that isn’t good for me, healthy or reflective of the life I want and have.

Because the last two weeks made me realize I do have the life I want and I’m on the way to the rest of it. My other book is motoring along. Connections are being made. The calm I get when I go to the gym or go for a run reminds me to cherish my solitude when I can get it. Which hasn’t been often. Running reminds me to keep moving forward. I only look over my shoulder to make sure those who matter are nearby. Not behind. Nothing holding me back.

Things are rolling off easier. I don’t have time for people who are frequently depressed or overly complicated or who consistently live in a diminishing half-life. If you want my help, I will give it. But at some point you have to help yourself out of the depths as well.

We all choose our paths. We all reflect the paths we’ve chosen in certain ways by certain actions.

My last entry was a conversation with myself. Aspects of myself. I frequently talk about how one side feels this and one side is that. It’s ridiculous, I am whole and one. I am conflicted because I frequently romanticize the past and try to trick myself into seeing something that isn’t there. While the rational freaks out (and is ultimately frustrated) at this process.

I’ve been lied to so much in the last few years. At first it was shitty of them to lie to me. But then, the more I let it happen, it was shitty of me to remain there. It was shitty of me to go back. I helped set up a precedence of use and misuse between myself and these people. They were just as wrong as I was.

Because change takes effort. Takes looking at yourself in such a way that isn’t flattering all the time. I’ve taken the good and the bad. I’ve listened to what words those around me tell me. Because I trust and love them. They want what’s best for me and always tell me the honest truth.

I’m finally getting what I wanted.
Not the passing fad.
The real deal.

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Wholes Weary Whether

Static rims my ears
seams the inner drum of thought
and stretches
for
no
tender touch

but…. ;

I hinder my own reflection
and find the collection
of plants around me
breathes evenly.
More
than I ever have

I’ve ever had

Caught ribcage
aloft for the
wanting

But wanting revealed something left…
wanting more.
Needing less
Need

a tilt of her head
and nuzzle against side
hot stretch

stretches
for
no
tender touch
not even

a tilt of her head
and nuzzle against side

I’ve asked
And found that
corded tissue rests

I remain silent
For lack of a better response

The proposition is such

that I could be wrong.
As could you.

————————————————————————————————————

She sits. With feet propped upon the edge of the table. It was mildly uncomfortable, but the heat pushed her to expose the backside of her legs to the air. Cooling as the wind moves her silk skirt in soft waves. Rippling.

Her accomplishments felt varied. True. Fine to a point. Nothing was done, but seen and half executed. The end was in sight.

Her sights spring true to form. Which is all she can touch and test.
There is no reason for whatever else happens.
Not even her own.

————————————————————————————————————

These steps on sun warmed concrete are simply moments of standing.

There is no direction.
Nothing else exists.

Not these people.
Not even me.

And it weights me no more.

But I’ll start naming things
Like my new plants:

Eva
Phips
Cadence
Walsh
Mako
Li

To join with Akiho
(or just Aki)

Fighting force of ferns and tropicals
help breathe me
back to me.

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    Intermittent Reinforcement Schedule

    taptap
    nothing.
    taptap
    …nothing.
    taptap
    taptap
    taptap
    caress.

    success.

    taptap
    held close
    taptap

    …nothing…

    —————————-

    “It isn’t supposed to be this hard.”
    Ava’s sister sits nursing her second child beside her on the couch, both women looking out the sheer white veiled window. Ava cradles a cup of tea, sitting in a pink t-shirt, sans bra, with legs comforted by a pair of gray pants.
    “You’re supposed to meet someone. They like you, you like them. You both spend time together and make one another feel like they want to be better for each other.” Sara sits Oliver up on her lap and smiles at him. He in turn grins and then looks over to Ava, his grin widening.
    Ava smiles back, infected with his innocence.
    “How are you going to get yourself out of this?”
    “I don’t know.” Ava replies, looking at her sister fleetingly before resettling her arms on her drawn-up knees.

    Half-empty cup of tea held aloft with one outstretched hand.

    —————————-

    kiss
    sigh

    silence

    taptap
    silence

    …sigh…

    —————————-

    “You know Skinner?”
    “Like B.F. Skinner in Psychology?”
    “That’s the one. Remember the rats? They’d tap the bar and sometimes get a reward? But not every time. So they’d tap the bar all the time, hoping for something to come down the wire?”
    Ava laughs, seeing her point right away. “Yea. I do have an addictive personality. So how do I fix it?”
    “Replace it with another addiction.”
    “So I should start smoking again?”

    —————————-

    Ava throws a book against the wall.

    Silence.

    —————————-

    “It get’s harder to meet people when you’re older. You’re 26?”
    “Yea.”
    “Think about it. When you were younger, you didn’t have as many specifications as you do now. You’re more picky. It used to be as simple as: ‘What!? You’re 17 too!?’
    Ava laughs.
    Sara continues, “But now you have a much more narrow set of guidelines for what you want. So it’s harder to meet those with just anyone you meet.” She pauses, “What do you want?”
    “I… I want companionship. I want to know that I can trust someone. That they’re there and the passion is there. I don’t know. With my recent relationships, I’m more than a little disheartened with the whole process. Like R2 or B4. Those ended up being just… awful. I know hindsight and whatnot, but every time I think about R2, my skin crawls and I have to take a few calming breaths.”
    “But that’s not fair. Whoever you end up meeting is going to want a relationship with you. And you’d better be prepared for that. Making up strange rules and regulations simply makes it complicated.”
    Ava shakes her head and puts down her now cold tea, “No. Like just dating. Or something. Just time with someone that doesn’t stress me out. Where we both know where we stand and things are clear and comfortable. No more half-life relationships.”
    Sara pauses to put Oliver in his saucer, he gleefully bats at brightly coloured toys positioned just within his reach, watching them spin around at his will. Sara returns to the couch beside Ava. “The constant stage of unknowing must leave you in such a state of duress. Think of that saying: ‘Treat ‘em mean, keep ‘em keen.’ If you never know when you’ll get what you want, but you sometimes get what you want, then you’ll keep trying.”
    “They’re not exactly being mean.”
    “But they’re not exactly being nice. Take J2. He’s bored, Ava. And he knows throwing a few crumbs your way means you’ll perk back up again.”
    Ava rakes her fingers through her hair.

    “You’re not getting everything you want. And it doesn’t need to be this complicated.”

    —————————-

    Ava stares at the book,
    laying spine up in the corner,
    pages bending under it’s own weight.
    She fights the urge to set it right once again
    because reading it or not doesn’t seem to matter anymore.

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    Something Less

    This is everything she needs in life.
    The freedom and the execution.

    A pang of intimacy stabs at her ribcage.
    She fights it off with silken ribbons
    taken from the layered walls
    of her heart
    and colours them clear again.

    Wrapped up.
    Like the warm, gentle, embrace of bath water.

    She drew that particular one in the evening
    and drained out what was left

    What’s left?

    Surrounded by white blood cells.

    She could still feel the faint bruise from where he’d sank his teeth into the flesh of her upper arm. Though the marks had disappeared days ago.

    The last few years held a fistful of memories
    in textured cloth and treated leather

    and she was choosing which would slip
    through sought after space
    between her fingers
    and lips.

    Sometimes she wondered
    what made her body so tempting to touch
    to lay beside and press up against in the middle of the night
    to caress close and stroke through
    the length of her side
    and nestle up against the simple plain of her neck
    where her hair fell free but still conveniently tucked away
    from face and mouth

    to breathe her in

    She loved the sound of heavy breathing
    And feeling that chest expand against hers
    so much that it almost brings her
    to similar realms where
    she’d just sent him

    She palms the result
    Tastes moments perfection

    And realizes,
    once again
    that love isn’t enough.

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    From Morsel to Lips

    Laying on her back she scratches the surface
    of the faint light in her room
    and the familiar play that
    lists those terms of
    endearment

    With upper arms draping across her eyes
    hands half open to the world
    such a feather touch
    coincides with the
    taste of

    timing

    Where higher pitch can’t be reached

    despite this sentiment of resolution
    she allows herself
    moments of despair
    and tastes every decision
    on the tip of her tongue
    Such a taste only allowed
    between the hours of
    unfinished midnight air
    and the blurred frost of morning
    speckled fresh with what little dots of feeling she permits

    That same taste promises to turn
    into a soft plea for sun
    when with arms wide
    she wakes

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    ?Which Came First

    ?What do you think

    Said the tofu to the side dish of creamed corn.

    ?Wouldn’t it be weird if we were chickening again
    ?If we were actually the main course and not pretending to be

    the step to the next blank slate of surveys and
    half forgotten fuel and lumber
    cut down to
    build this
    brick oven

    (don’t name it)

    The dinner table is where it sits
    With fork and knife in hand
    napkin across lap
    and eyes fixed
    to dinnerware

    Perhaps there’s more to share.

    Pale multi-collars
    of blank canvases
    stretch like a poem across the plate
    outstretched
    and hint of
    nakedness

    Settle that caress close to the
    cubed
    carved
    cleaved close
    baked fat free
    absurdity

    Absurd to leave
    unless, as they say

    /we’ve eaten everything up/
    /eagerly/

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    “Three Kinds of Yes”

    She settles backward into the opening tones and notes until the strength of the guitar and simple drumbeat carry her away into the next structured chord.

    Lines cross lines and line
    these simple streets
    Carried away
    to
    gather
    … unspoken
    Cords
    tether
    this together.
    Attached at the hip, thigh and
    shoulder straps
    where arms wrap
    around her
    that ocean rolling stillness
    five:04 minute rendezvous.

    She rests and
    sounds the chemistry,
    like that hushed intro

    That is: Introduction.
    The familiar notes don’t worry her.

    And, simply unwilling to clothe herself,
    she rolls over on her couch and
    grabs the big deep purple cushion

    Holding
    it to her naked morning skin
    Draping
    a leg around the other two that lie there.

    That slight upturn at the corner of her lips, remains un-stifled for
    five.04 seconds.

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    This Was The Worst Year Ever

    Bite down on bitter crowd
    inside cemented skull
    they all screamed in

    unison

    clawed against each other
    until they were bare for
    the long road

    behind

    //Her//

    Senses echoed
    against severed syllables
    that body of water she poured

    out loud

    2 Comments

    Innards Blizzard

    Silent Snow City
    blocked in

    this paned inner ribcage

    Their testimonials

    and

    awkward rows of
    identical
    silent
    structured insulation

    So she filled each of the three drawers

    Small
    Medium
    Large

    With three empty shells.

    Vague lives she orbited
    like a tiny
    in
    sign
    /magn/if-i-cant shimmer.

    damnin’ her

    to words
    gnashed and gnawed
    within her own
    turning
    in
    /be/sides

    He asked her

    “Why”

    /Why are you here with me?/

    And the only answers she had
    had no connection
    except sensation

    expanse
    of skin

    Before her
    sudden panic
    she threw articles of clothing
    into those still empty drawers.
    Random and slightly worn pieces of the past
    Bought in haste

    Wasted
    And drowned
    down

    She attempted to sell it all

    just to breathe
    the crisp winter air that flowed in freely
    through barely cracked open bedroom windows.

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    Exhale In

    On her hands and knees
    Doing penance for the last nine months

    (0)f

    Cobwebbed morals
    Unwashed nerves

    The “Avis For Sale” sign is
    finally being taken down
    from in front of the

    Pretty
    Empty.

    Apartment
    Complex.

    ‘So that’s the actual shade of white my tub should be…’
    ‘Oh my god, that dust bunny has LEGS!’

    Scrub. Scrub.
    Wash. Wash.

    Dust.
    Dense.
    Duh.?

    So
    she had
    apparently
    categorically
    sought out as much drama
    as she could
    not handle.

    And was then
    Hand to mouth
    Fair maiden surprised
    when real life weeds arose

    and she
    quickly
    drank
    her
    con
    trolled
    feelings

    GulpGulpGlug

    Pitchers
    Shoot
    Shooters
    Of lovely golden tequila.
    Two ice cube Scotchy Scotch.
    Light to dark to amber to Beer.

    Too near
    to fear
    too
    far
    From
    Self-control

    So she
    Spreads herself
    Around familiar town
    Against familiar
    Fenced in
    flutters

    Oops… she’s
    penned in
    the
    pigpen.

    Scrub.Scrub.
    Pure white tub.

    Hands and knees.

    Penance
    For her nine month pleas
    Of release.

    Back bending.
    Hip rubbing.
    Sex fucking.
    Inner
    Fighting.
    Rib Expanding.

    Faking
    for Power
    And Power/s
    (For)Sake.

    Her half.
    Down.

    Done.

    $.

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