September 29, 2011

#891 here's to sprawl-mart

a great wedding gift
two wedding glasses
nicer than any we would've bought for ourselves
and here i stand, washing them
imagining a crack

September 25, 2011

#890 mother mary

i buried mother mary, in the wet sands of time
dry landscape at my back, wet horizon ahead
i walked ahead until i was over my head
walked back to shore and drew a new name, in the wet sands of time

September 22, 2011

#889 112

with a slight accent
and silent ignored tears
she marches on
and that will change, but it won't
the body will retire, the heart will persist

September 21, 2011

#888 inspiration is a sneaky beast

inspiration is a sneaky beast
it can come from your garbage can
or your playlist
mine usually comes when i'm not looking for it
in fact, the more i force it, the more it hides
BUT
inspiration thrives in soil with at least some routine and a lot of epHort

September 19, 2011

#887 the world is wet

the world is wet
water seeped into earth last night, inches deep
i listened from my pillow
water hit my tin roof
no wind
just dump-trucks of rain

now i watch stillness
as townspeople wake up silent
like the blossoms and the worms

September 18, 2011

#886 like gravity

solutions fall from trees
as i run through the forest
struggling to be under the right tree at the right moment
a force weighs on me no matter how many steps i run
the hip would sing
i need to believe in us tonight
or i need to be leavin' us tonight
we all fall down

September 17, 2011

#885 mr. harper

you cannot call it a defence budget
if it is an american-offence assistant
helping them with offensive attacks
o-ffensive
if we insist on being strong and on the offense
let's spread love and peace
let us help those in need
through flood and famine and fear
then, we will have less need "to defend ourselves"
and when we do, we will have many friends wanting to help us

September 16, 2011

#884 what's on

you are the yang to my 6 o'clock news
filling me with positive views

i am your
sit
calm
but i give you credits

you are the best of my prime time
and you forgive my juvenile rhyme

you are my favourite movie i watch a hundred times
enough that my lips know all your lines

but yet you always give me new release
in General you R my favourite show

comedy, drama, action
you've got it all

you make my breath run off a cliff and pause and fall like an animated anvil
i am the lead and you are the girl that i get; not "get" as in own, but as in understand

you are my rewind, my fast-forward and my play-on-words
you are my tv and i love to turn you on

you are my remote control and i love to curl up with you on the couch
my guide and i love to read you

i fall asleep to you and your static and snowstorming til morning
 you, you are the yang to my 6 o'clock news
and you are my anchor, and the channel i choose

#883 a bundle of sticks (and stones)

the word started a fight

Fag

and i don't know which made me sadder
the, caller thinking the word was an insult
or the, insulted thinking the word was worth hitting fist into face

they put, male skin and hands to, male skin and
bodies rolling and grappling on the school's corridor floor
upping heartbeats and penetrating punches
together as artists they draw
       they draw blood
on canvas of 12inch-by-12inch neutral tiles

all from violence
nothing from love
because male love is gross
despicable
ostracizable 
yet using your birth-given hands hurting another human being is
worth bragging about in the cafeteria
adds points to status-counts

blame schools, blame kids, blame parents
politicians, and media

squeezing them into our babysitter-buildings by the hundreds
providing each a, half-locker of semi-privacy
forcing them to, drink from a shared fountain while guests and suits get water-coolers
write kids off as entitled because, it's easy
blame tv and gaming
bullying and shaming

finger-point all you want, they'll point their tallest finger back at you
amidst broken mailboxes and shattered glass and stolen pumpkins
pumpkins smashed on streets they feel
don't belong to them
pumpkins smashed on streets they feel  
own them

you will not find a stanza herein with an answer-
     just questions and anger

give me one stick for each time an adult says
names will never hurt you
i will build one enormous faggot
names hurt in a way that's harder to fix and in a way that
lasts forever

#882 everything good

4th, 5th, home to 1st
rising action, climax, denouement
intro, conflict, resolution
tension, more tension, release

September 15, 2011

#881 the bear facts of a misunderstanding

drunk idiots
someone bashed my driver side mirror
scratched my door
some drunk idiot
happened overnight while i was sleeping

September 14, 2011

#881 what is the answer

words blur
black and white turn grey
blue lines morph into daydreams

i am king of a magic planet
i am a kind king
everyone loves me
i give no homework and demand only that people worship me

the teacher asked me a question
but her voice was the ocean beside my kingdom
i did not hear the words
she looks at me for an answer
with eyes that do not show worship

September 13, 2011

#880 r.i.p.

i like to read in the cemetery
it provides lots of company
but no one interrupts
i read biographies and mysteries and kids' books
whatever grabs me

i read in peace while
the others listen to my thoughts
and i lose the feeling of being a loner
just me, and the words, and the headstones

September 12, 2011

#879 abundance

i saw something today that made me stop
a miracle
it was near the middle of a large field
breathtaking
it grew from the earth
stunning
it was a clover
one-of-a-kind
a 3-leaf clover
in a field of 3-leaf clovers

September 11, 2011

#878 the happy life of my grampy

the radio on the washer
the swing in the backyard
a bucket for blueberries
a stick for fishing
a sharp chainsaw
a full-tank truck
these are the luxuries in a happy life

September 9, 2011

#877 after the first day back

he is in grade 3
on his way home
his heavy head rattles against the bus window
massaging his brain

the bus stops and he jumps awake, his stop
his shining shos walk down the aisle and down the stairs and into the driveway

September 7, 2011

#876 clover

a pair of 3-leaf clovers met last week
when each had lived three-fourths of an average clover life
and formed something new
yes, there were still two clovers
but something new had also formed
the new thing was not a 6-leaf clover
it was not a clover

September 6, 2011

#875 lucy in disguise

diamonds in the skies
diamonds in disguise
diamonds in her eyes
diamonds in disguise

September 1, 2011

#874 "what could be better than now"

as he walks through the music shop, guitars clamour
like front-row teenage groupies
hoping he'll touch them, choose them
that he will enable them to realize a new self in themselves

the speed and the silence and the noise, the forms and the innovation
this is truth in the form of sound waves
this is music