Scene 191: Cracked Shell

Peanut butter on the sidewalk

sizzling

dripping

pieces of nuts

brittle

weak

stuck and unheard

while the rest of the world walks

on the peanut butter

Scene 190: Maybe

Woof

I think I'll be a dog today

I'll scratch my ears lazily,

smile largely

and lick the mound of peanut butter you keep stashed.

Just waiting,

wide-eyed,

for a belly rub.

I'll mark my territory.

Splash.

Mark it.

It's mine.

And bury the bones,

where only I know.

Bark

Chained to a fence,

sleeping in the sun

lazying about.

But loyal,

too loyal.

Maybe I'll be a cat tomorrow

Scene 189: An Ancient Song

Flesh on their lips,

they sing a song of blood,

dancing to the beat of the earth

and singing to the symphony of the sky

Wrists pulse and lips raise,

smiles form as they wash their hands clean

of the song

Scene 188: Fear

Everything was made by Nyambi;

man was made by Nyambi;

And man drove off Nyambi

Nyambi lived

and man copied

Nyambi worked wood

and so did man

Nyambi fired iron

and so did man

Nyambi was powerful

and so became man

Fear and

blood

on the hands of man

and the dye

separated the two

and man was dropped

outside of his mirror

but the reflection came back

and man

he gardened,

under Nyambi's eye

repenting

dyeing his hands with green instead

dyeing with colors

dyeing with life

but red dye

always comes back

Nyambi fled

he spanned oceans

and man did too

he climbed mountains

and man did too

Nyambi fled

and man followed

Escape

was given in the form of a spider

the creature spun a heavenly ladder

and Nyambi climbed

but fear consumed

and spider's eyes rolled on the floor

so man could never find Nyambi

This was an assignment for class... Write a poem based on a myth. I chose an African myth of the Lozi people.... It's so interesting how creation myths differ across continents...

In African myths, it's not uncommon for the gods to be driven away.

Interesting.

Scene 187: Counting

Ninety-seven q-tips

Ninety-eight wool sweaters,

Ninety-nine cotton balls,

One hundred cotton towels.

No?

Sorry.

Try again.

One sheet of cotton

Two white robes

Three coffee filters...

Until the night becomes just as white.

Scene 186: Accompaniment

The lights dim.

On

Flickering in the hallway

matching the sky as the clouds float

just like the empty beats

pounding like red drums.

The rhythmic song pulses,

beat after beat

louder and louder

searching

for an accompanying melody

Scene 185: Another Side

Sitting in the dark, sailing through the night

the sounds of the city and roads are

everywhere

Don't look at where we're going.

It's a secret only few know.

The scents of aged pine trees lay on the floor around your feet

and you breathe in the moment,

blinded, lost, disoriented,

yet exhilarated.

Don't look at where we're going.

Don't ask me either; I couldn't tell you.

Just let your desires take your trust

and deliver you onto the other side.

Scene 184: Mistake

I laid my fingers against the faded wallpaper, aged with lines and stories

and they melted

my fingers leaked, like paint

tainting what was already there.

I tried to stop, scraping the paint of carefully,

but instead it spread

like a virus

and I watched

helplessly

as everything was lost

Scene 184: To Live

They would climb mountains
They would trek deserts
They would span oceans
and we would breathe
while you slept

They would fight lions
They would hunt bears
They would ride elephants
and we would breathe
while you ate

They would win wars
They would earn awards
They would solve life
and we would breathe
while you basked

They would find space
They would drown oceans
They would dig gorges
and we would live
while you died

Scene 183: Folly

The arrow shattered

against the stone.

The earnest point laid

in infinite pieces, so fragile

powerless

against the tried and worn rock.

She fired again, but

no.

Her weapon could not pierce

him

Yeah, this blog is approximately 35 minutes late.

It's just been a busy day.

I wrote a play for my best friend so that she could direct it. The school produced it (and fantastically enough, I was paid), and it was opening tonight, so I thought I'd go. Ran into some old friends and the whole cast went out to dinner after the show.

Not much of an excuse, but that's why I'm late.

Discounting that,

it was a great night.

Scene 182: Love

Fight fight fight fight fight fight

fight fight fight

Oh,

watch out.

The door is still open.

Closed,

would probably be better

Oh,

Hate hate hate hate hate hate hate

hate hate hate

Oh,

tuck in your shirt.

Such a pretty excuse

Such a metaphor

for something

more.

Oh,

Lie lie lie lie

lie lie lie lie

My,

fix your hair.

Being careless

will lose you your

......

Oh

Scene 181: A/B/C/Paranoia

All babies can dream.

Everybody fears going hellward

It justifies killing laughs,

mostly nervously,

openly paranoid,

quickly reaching, so to

unify veritas with

"X",

your zenith

Something I wrote for class that turned out, in my opinion, very well.

Scene 180: Ocean (One Carry-on Only)

Finished with the taste of copper.

Spit.

Didn't you listen?

You're late.

Breathe harder.

You can't feel your toes?

Three

men run across the street,

decked in white

trying to fish you out

of the bowl you dove into.

The octagon fell flat

The red didn't reach your ears,

and neither did I.

You're allowed only one carry-on.

Why don't you get the rest checked?

Drowning like a fish because of the weight of your suitcases.

Pathetic.

Look!

Now you're in the deep-end.

The mirror is foggy now,

hiding behind bars,

did you forget?

Black luggage sinks

I've been experimenting with a lot of new styles of poetry lately. It's different.

Very different from what I'm used to.

But that's what this project's for.

Let's see if this works.

Scene 179: Center

I took a deep breath before diving into the sun.

Drinking the barren sensation around me

desolate, intense, uncontrollable

and beautiful.

The mass of confusion swirled, incessant

I wafted the smells of sinister feelings

and took in each ember that sizzled around my toes

Breathing was difficult

as the molten air burned my lungs.

But I got used to it.

Walking on this was no more walking on coals,

except coals were for kids,

for them to brag about, showing off their dirty hands and feet.

Adults lived in the sun,

performing a terrible balancing act,

so careful as to avoid falling off

and being lost and

forgotten

in eternity

Scene 178: Forever

And the winds keep humming

below the symphony that the sky composes

with the percussive dust

against harmonizing leaves

and they all flow

like a song for eternity

in a breath so quick

that you accidentally missed it

but regardless, you had it, even for a second

and that second will last

forever

Scene 177: Never

With your snow stained skin and your blizzard grey eyes,

that ethereal earthly hair,

and smile like a promise in a velvet box,

your perfection was

is

too great.

With my muddied mask and empty pools,

this limp expression,

so dry like a rainy day

this mess was

is

too great.

And I could never love you

Scene 176: A Resolution

Breathing in a bit of yesterday,

I swung the last bag of months over my shoulder

and walked into the white

Scene 175: In the Ramblings of the Inner Mind

It's active here,

in the ramblings of the inner mind.

Pictures dance along the walls

and memories trail under your feet.

Hope lines the ceiling with dim light,

waiting to take a place in the hallway.

It's dark here,

in the ramblings of the inner mind.

Doubt keeps the bulbs from getting too hot,

and shame keeps them all from lighting at once.

Instead they flicker bashfully,

trying to be cute

like christmas lights.

It's tiring here,

in the ramblings of the inner mind.

No rest from the thoughts,

nor shelter from storms

only bed sheet fortresses

made of dreams and musings

hang over head to protect.

It's strange here,

and navigation is hard.

Trying to sort out everything

in the ramblings of the inner mind.

Scene 174: I Think You Dropped Something

On your trip to the sun

I'm sitting here in a pool of wax

watching as you fly upwards

something must have slipped your mind, and

it simply dripped out of your mouth

and was squeezed through your pores.

I'm pretty sure that you dropped something,

when you ran up the clouds

I'm laying here in a bed of sawdust

holding it close to my chest.

It's still wet from its recent escape,

and it's a little too heavy for me to carry too.

You might want to come back,

for what you dropped

it can hold as a charm to protect your from the sun's heat.

I think it's yours

but I can't hold onto it much longer.

Come back to hold it again.

I'm kneeling in a bed of feathers

hands clasped in each other.

I think you dropped something

Scene 173: For You, this was all that I could do

The cloud was leaking

so I

grabbed your hand

and we flew across the sidewalk,

running with the sky soaked streets

like streams of mist

that form around the caves of your mouth

Even so,

the clouds were leaking

and I stared, watching the stains puddle into lakes

all over your plump red parasol

lips

so I

wrapped your body with my arms

hoping the heat of our hearts

could dry the deluge

Nevertheless,

the clouds kept leaking

so I

simply stood, soaking in the rain

Scene 172: A Treat, or A Trick?

The children stalk through the night, hitting house to house

to home

knocking on the wooden doors,

waiting for a

treat

and sending echoes, banging

through the walls

and the wallpaper

The wallpaper

Hugs against the wall

tight,

firm,

bare

the yellowed wood of the house

embraces against the tanned wallpaper

stuck together

with white paste

giving life

and color

to the barren walls

and shabby room

Making vibrant

the dull space

that dwelled before

and making the house

home

Scene 171: The Dream Catcher

I can feel the light

breathing down my neck

making my hairs rise with their heat

the blaze

scrapes down my back

stealing away the dark.

My eyes

hold to the dark

for another second

another minute

another lifetime

where stories are more brilliant

and more believable

than the nonsense under the sunlight

I can feel the light

its heavy stare

burning into my back

its expectations

its call

trying to pull me out

from the comfort of my

dreams

Scene 170: The Wolf to the Moon to the Sun

Above all the howling

rattling the firs,

knee-deep in frost

the moon shakes uncontrollably

her spirit wanes

as she looks at the candles she's lit

floating about her

pale reflections,

distant shadows

of her green love

Scene 169: Anticipation (Raging of the Overactive Imagination)

Sitting noiselessly, creating a racket

Feet tapping with the tick of the hand, counting so slowly

Fingers leaking with the ink of work, slippery

Breath roaring with echoes of shells, ringing like a headache

Throat evaporating into paper, cutting and coarse

The silence is bent with all the empty sounds

as the heart spasms

thrashing about like the thoughts looming overhead

raining

with the hypothetical, the probable,

the illusions, the simulations, the dreams, the

nightmares

until finally

the air is stolen and replaced

by your name

Scene 168: ADD

Paper rustles,

fingers tap,

buttons click,

eyelids nap,

texts go out,

texts come in,

grades go down

in chemistry.

I'm awful at sciences. 400 student lecture halls were the worst invention in all of the human race.

Scene 167: Overcast

The cloud balances the sky still

like bent-backed Atlas.

It gently floats

lofting the firmament

occasionally touching down to the earth

before grouping back up.

Pure, white

foggy, dim

keeping those under it in the dark,

yet in plain view of the world.

It simply floats

obscuring

and blessing

the ones below.

Scene 166: Another Morning

We are the ones sitting on the grass, toes crinkling in the blades

sun stroking our faces, breezes caressing our bodies.

We breathe with nature,

the current of the clouds and the hum of the leaves,

drinking in our paradise

We smile at each other, looking eye to eye,

touching toe to toe,

breathing mouth to mouth,

so close

under the warm sky.

Until a buzz on the horizon shakes the world

and I wake up

to the sound of a vacuum cleaner

Scene 165: First Steps

Touching toes onto pavement

I quickly pull back

and my socks on

the hot cement

separated by a thin layer of striped cotton

my tender sole

tip toes slowly with its first step

lightly

gently

safely

and I start to put pressure on

taking a full stride

but the heat leaps

and strikes

my sole