Skip to main content

After Wanderlust, Finally Land

I have jumped the couch cushions of Mount Vesuvius,
Tiptoed above lava floors. The carpet was
Smoldering.

Then we landed on a hammock ship,
It swayed along the wayside, the waves waiting
For pirates.

I wanted to pass the years under oaks,
And oaths, but life changes and you find yourself
Under ash.

Separated and out to sea, I lost and I
Gained. But the sea wasn't full of familiar faces,
It churned,

Waiting for another rock to mosey into view.
But mostly there were just shells, tossed
By the waves.

I took out my cutlass, thinking I might use it
As a harpoon, and out of the salt soup of life,
You parried.

I didn't see the excursion. I just felt the efficiency
Of your blade against mine, as if equals,
well-matched.

When the sails came down, we used them for blankets,
You said they were the softest illusion you'd ever,
Ever held.

But when we reached the lighthouse,
You hoisted the skull-and-crossbones,
Eyes afar.

Peering elsewhere, gold filling your hull,
You sailed and sank to the bottom, of the
Dead Sea.

Rowing hard, I found more than an island.
I saw the branches of family in his eyes, an oak, an oath, a tree.

--

Mad Words List 8.14.18

Pass
Mosey
Wanderlust
Journey
Separation
Afar
Lost
Efficiency
Excursion

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bonus Poem: Look Up!

Looking down, I read the priceless pages, Someone else, sweetly, precisely, Had written their drinkable life on. And I drank in the appreciation Of her words, one sentence at a time, A good, fresh white. Sensational, the clouds were Pouring in, filling my cup,  Easing in, with a soft voice that said, "Look up!" My eyes glanced, only peeking At first, toward the sky. Those rain-bringers harnessing My irises with glee. And as if it had been there All along, the whole long while, A sparrow drifted into the Watercolor before me, soaring. It glided on the currents That were my own world, too. And we shared the view, Him up there, I, eyes lifting further now. And then the wind found itself Playing in the cottonwood's hair. And I smiled, thinking About how good it probably felt, Those wind-fingers, sifting through. 
Post a Comment
Read more

The Protagonist

She was more of an idea Than a person, yet Her arms reached through The wrinkled pages As I was planning Her defenestration. “Don't,” she said, holding My hand steady. Her typical loquaciousness Gone in a moment - being At the rim does that. Her desperate idea-fingers Grasping, trying to stop The Dusk. I brooded over her Resistance. This story Would be knee-deep In hardship, in never-before-felt Pain. How could I put her In the middle of this Vast dystopian wastebasket And hope she clamors Out? Perhaps I could give her A companion, a slobber-filled Canine or a not-so-kindred Spirit? I could fill her days With synchronicity, with a This-leads-to-that purpose, to fight through The drawl and the drudge, The beginning. In this oneiric world, More nightmarish than The last, she would find Herself at the cusp of Her Self. First demure, red lips Parting only for candy-laced words, And then later, only To respect a humble god or command Her hunger-ridden army To live. Yes, I see the smoke ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Leashed on the Edge of "I"

Do you ever wish you could view yourself As others see you? At a distance? That you might become one of the crowd Or the speck from the airplane? Or maybe you might become so close That you are nothing but locks of hair And the smell of Cabernet and black tea And a force in the night. I imagine you could even be mistaken For someone else. Could you mistake you For someone else? I think I could do it, Be you, or her, or him, or that dog over there Sniffing the fence, sorting out these Divisions. I didn't say I was I from the Beginning, but I wonder how we drag "I" Around like a stick, and chew a piece off Now and again. You were thrown the stick, And you fetched. But what if you could sniff Beyond the fence and be something more Or something less? Would you? Could we?
Post a Comment
Read more