Wakes Progress
We look at algae
that murky slipping gift
and call it by name
or if we don't know
we say: man, what is it ?!
and someone wizen
answers: Kelp
or if no one is there
to ask
we turn to pages,
reference pictures
and try to catalog it
ourself
among other
slimy ocean greens
of which there's great mass
and the mess is not chaos
unless we presume it
ourselves
useless
as seaweed.
05.06.2025
The Messes challenge @beatricegomes
My Doubt
If the Devil were a figure, separate, it would be a fair fight. We'd have it out, battling all our facets like paragons, one city night. Alas, I fear the Devil is my shadow, long or short, trailing right beside me. But when there is no light, the Devil with care, slides closest to me, weaves between my ears, out of sight-- resides in the concave of my heart and mouth-- and stands behind my pupils with blinding fright.
And when I no longer have beside me that Shadow, of a doubt, when I feel most irately that I am Right, and am willing to death to scheme and blight, it's then, we can be absolutely sure, the Devil won.
04.15.2025
Devil May Care challenge @SelfishNeurotic
Animus
What looks at me from the mirror
speaks in backwards
tongue
I say "hi,"
The mirror listens
and says, "I."
"Aye...!?!" I ask
my reflection in horror
the mirror answers
in short,
"Eye."
I look more closely
crossing both my eyes
vainly
wondering which one
the right or the left?
I turn east and west
and the mirror
shakes its head.
04.12.2025
Mirror You, Mirror Me challenge @Bunny
The Seat in the Chair
There's something about
that seat there...
There's a dent that tells
someone sat and sat there
There's a weight in the indent
a sense of importance there
There's a thought somebody
of import waited there...
There's the sound of thinking
that's suggested deep in there
There's the thought of respect
in that dent of the chair.
04.03.2025
Things have memory challenge @Last
My Friend
on days when I think
the cupboard bare...
and find dirth of
staples there
not a grain
of rice
nor
a shred
of tea
I remember
my friend's
dearth advice
to always
look twice
And I wonder
to check deeper
into the cabinet
all the way in back
behind the pickled
herring can...
which lost
its tab
Groping in that
dust filled empty
I have to crackle
as I recall my
friend Spam
and the misplaced
bottle opener
She sends me
in email a joke
each day
and a recipe
from a website
called Holy Food...
I've won a prize too!
I find this all
in the folder
named in her
honor...
Thank you Spam.
04.02.2025
One man's trash challenge @Mariah
The Quandary of Deceit
To deceive the deceiver is double the pleasure, I beguiled myself snidely with a snicker so sure was I of myself on my side when I said in deference:
"What they don't know, won't hurt..."
...myself, hastening to make it ...to work:
"One cut corner, doesn't make for..."
...a triangle, or big break, and I pocketed my gain of a quarter of an hour...
here or there, pinching this and that... and grimly remembered, when placing a call, collect, from the jail.
04.01.2025
Deceit challenge @dctezcan
Ripstop
as a fabric
I am made of Nylon
and like every
manmade
material I start out
Natural
a thread
of living and dead
fossil
fuel
that is made
by heating and cooling
made plastic
stretched across
the skeleton
of an umbrella
to keep the family
from the sun and rain
and wrap us in between
the fluff and down
in the glove of
of winter
it's a fabric called
Ripstop
and for all its strength
if it rips
it doesn't stop
and every attempt
to glue or patch
makes a bigger rip
in Time
03.15.2025
Broken pieces challenge @dctezcan