Poetry Drafts

TW: Flashing Images

Stroboscopic lightning and needled firs,
you ride as I suffer the rage of cones,
sap rise and fall, backs bounce on boulders,
balls bounce, balls … bounce … bounce;
you ride the lightning, rip me to shreds,
then silence, stillness, only breath;

I awoke naked and cold
in the land of shame and long shadows,
diapered in ignorance and innocence
amidst piles and piles of snow.

I sprouted naked and cold
in the land of shame and long shadows,
pursued by ignorance
amidst tender bitterness.

I grew naked and cold
in the land of shame and long shadows,
haunted by their hereditary rules
then flew the nest like a bird scorched
by a blackened Bunsen burner.

I wilted naked and cold
in the land of shame and long shadows,
became a man
lost in the ways of others.

I awoke naked and cold
in the land of someone else,
bewildered but dreaming of forgetting
the land of shame
— and long shadows.

Audiences of paper cutouts,
inflated importance flailing,
every clap and cheer automated
to follow the whims of the creator;
clap clap cheer clap
clap clap sheer
– lunacy;

(clap clap cheer clap)

latex dolls, inflatable joys,
toys that speak in unknown tongues
a rope to safer shores;

(clap clap cheer clap)

silent confession booths
hierarchical and patriarchal,
we went hand in hand
faithless and unbound,
clapping all the way;

(clap clap cheer clap)

we barked at the moon,
until you began
your moaning intonation
— of deflation.

(clap)

I wish effort would precede joy,
once achievement
twice victory and conquest
thrice joy and joy and joy.

I wish all could see greatness in others,
once patting the back
twice high-five and fist bump
thrice cheering, cheering, cheering.

I wish effort would give joy
joy pave way for achievement
achievement perceived as victory
victories shared and cheered
— ad infinitum

Thoughts, dispersed drops of consciousness
dancing through daunting times; a vapour,
vaingloriously waltzing
in the darkness of a single mind.

Thoughts, consciousness left churning
by remnant echoes of torrid times,
distorted dreams mulled over, and over
in the darkness of a single mind.

Thoughts, drops
like gargantuan grains of sand
roughens the polished panes,
transparency for translucency
privacy to insanity
in the darkness of a single mind.

Thoughts,
consciousness,
the domain of a single unified mind;
dust tapping along to the beat
of one.

There’s unrequited love
hidden between broken lines,
ineligible truths obfuscated
like poetry in really small font;
eyebrows waxed and waned,
lips attempting articulation
of those words too small
for any eye to see;
a minuscule Donne dancing
across bleached parchments
without rhyming couplets
for support.
There’s unrequited love
hidden behind every line of poetry,
under every song sung
and in every kiss
abandoned.

No twinkling this blackened night,
a journey towards love and light
begins with a single nothing,
the passing of time, hour by hour
carry us closer to what we crave
our innermost desire,
the first twinkling eye of night
chasing the incubus away,
releasing that first diamond
to light our way
towards the brightest night
on that bestest of summer’s day,
then back again through mud
to this the darkest of days
and our hour of change
and the dawn of a new faith.

Critters capering round twinkling trees
and unlabelled boxes, a time of year
for cold gears to burn; pretend all is well
in the world of men
with their baubles like peanuts
and stiff lower lips like eels in water;
critters capering round twinkling trees,
fire in their eyes
and sildenafil in their veins,
fear not a future bound
their reckoning will come.

Rats sniffing glue in darkness
replaced by authorial glee
over ticks in boxes, gilded chains
free volcanic vapours
in shattered crystal cups,
left like strap-ons between lines
of snow
and the city council’s dark roads;
rats scurry their walls
in search for more of same,
the sticky truths will prevail;
Rats sniffing glue in darkness,
born on darker roads
in darker times
of darker authors, the offsprings
of the masters from hell,
the authorial voices
with a smiley face.

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