Category: Free form poetry

NaPoWriMo2020 Poem #19- Dragon

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DRAGON

Lost in your head again

weaving your own heroes tale

waiting for the winner’s laurel

there is no race here

no challenge to win

this is life

we all work

we all create

and there are no banquets

and acceptance speeches

for making a home

or feeding your family

this is life

the award

is the company you keep

people who mirror back

what you send their way

light or dark

we chose

every day

to do it the

easy way

or the hard way

and we find

at the end of our journey-

the dragon we slew

to win the final crown

was the dragon in the mirror

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NaPoWriMo2020 Poem #15- Adrenaline Drain

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Adrenaline Drain

it can’t tell the difference, you know

that part of your brain

that sends the alert out

to fight or fly

so, every single day

when you wake up

and fill your head

with news that terrifies you

you may as well have

left the adrenaline faucet

on full blast

and what happens

when you shut off

that supercharged jet fuel

coursing through your body

and dare to relax for a minute?

that’s right-

you sleep like the dead

and wake up tired.

cuz it doesn’t

know the difference between

immediate threat

and the 9,000th message

with the same information-

of course you’re tired

take a nap

and turn the damn tv off

NaPoWriMo2020 Poem #14- My Story

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My Story

…and when you tell my story-

the one where you cast me as the villain-

do you leave out the parts that don’t fit your script?

do you tell them of love and laughing

do you say how large a piece of heart we shared?

do you mention midnight phone calls

and the shoulder that was yours for the asking?

or will that ruin your play-

if they know you loved me as fiercely as I loved you?

you wanted to write a thriller

but wrote a tragedy instead

do they know?

 

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NaPoWriMo-Poem#11 Something Sure

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NaPoWriMo Poem #11 of 30

30 Poems in 30 Days for National Poetry Writing Month

Something Sure

Clutter on the counter

Shoes piled at the door

Now it feels like someone lives here

There’s a sense of something more

Someone’s making coffee

Cooking food

And doing chores

Sounds of life around me

Cats are stretched out on the floor

Where there once were plans for someday

Now I’m holding something sure

NaPoWriMo2020 Poem # 9: Just Fine

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Poem 9 of 30

Francesco Balsamo Image
Francesco Balsamo Image

Just Fine

 

Overnight,

or was it a decade, I’m not sure

I woke to find this woman in my mirror

it took a moment to find my eyes in hers-

to find the little divot in the front tooth

where Duffy bumped my elbow hard

while I drank a bottle of coke in ’67

a glacial shapeshifting scene unfolds

foreshadowing who is to come

my fine, firm ass has given way

to a tight and toned vocabulary

rising, where my breasts once were

is a warrior who has survived

the breaking of her heart

cancer and the thousand cuts from former family

who worked hard to slice me into small pieces

they could wrap in paper napkins

and sneak into the trash-

being inedible bites to their delicate palettes-

a head of unruly root beer and whiskey hair

has become a thinner landscape

and emerging crown of silver

I don’t know this new woman

yet

or all she is capable of doing

but

I have a feeling

we’re gonna to get along

just fine

 

 

 

NaPoWriMo2020 Poem #6- Isolation: Day 27

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Poem #6 of 30

Isolation: Day 27

human movement minimal-

as if everyone but our small tribe

has traveled off planet

and we are left behind

uninvited to what’s happening anywhere else

in isolation

the inner voice yells its agenda

PACE

EAT

CREATE

RESEARCH

do something

do nothing

are they different?

now, in this void of action

left to our own devices

we sit like children

outside the principal’s office

waiting

for a ride home

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NaPoWriMo2020: Poem #5 -Unburdened

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April 2020 – National Poetry Writing Month. Poem 5 of 30

Unburdened

 

I was angry

and I let it go

I was hurt

and I let it go

I was worried

and I let it go

I was sad

and I let it go

I was scared

and I let it go

Now,

it’s me

without the reasons why

it will never work-

I am free to begin

unburdened

 

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NaPoWriMo 2020 Poem #3 of 30 –

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March 31, 2020- Wednesday morning in Chicago

#3

there were no sirens

no practice drill

to ready us for this

like the vapid teen in the slasher film

another fool swaggers out

into the village taunting the threat

unaware he’s brought the killer home

where it will steal the breath

from his mother’s mother

here- north of the world

in this small village

we don’t feel the cold punch of truth

the city dwellers face

here- we can still pretend there is a place

called “Over There”

where that thing happened one spring

we can still imagine

summer waiting

fresh and clear and lush

with night blooming jasmine

and sweet hammock dreams

on a hot August night

and we are all, still, immortal

in our bathroom mirrors

NaPoWriMo:Poem 1 of 30 – Hello/Goodbye

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PicsArt_03-31-10.46.28

Hello/Goodbye

If you had known

before you signed the book-

agreeing to this mortal life-

that you would know

first hand

first heart

what it would be

to rise up out of yourself in ecstacy-

to fold down into yourself in grief-

that you would hand your heart to someone

who would later, hand it back

scarred, with missing pieces-

the only evidence of an entwined life that would,

forever

define love for you…

If you had known

that those two-syllable words

would start your world

and stop it

in the seconds it would take to say them-

would you have said hello

knowing that goodbye was destined?

NaPoWriMo Poem#17: Tattoo

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Tattoo

Motion of the roadway

Opens floodgates

To almost forgotten journeys

Other people

Other places

Each, all my world

In their own golden moments

Tattooed now onto my heart

Every face

Every voice

~my private gallery