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Best Poems Written by Janet Lorenzo

Below are the all-time best Janet Lorenzo poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Janet Lorenzo Poem

Sunrise

We step over pencil lines of concern
Unaware of the firestorm brewing in each other
Even broad strokes fail to capture awareness
We see what we see, not what we know
Splash of color briefly entertains 
Like babes mesmerized by glitter
Below the horizon, behind the glow, we are grown
But still suckling from an emerald earth
With swollen mouths our thoughts are silenced
Suspended, societies grip reality with raw fingers as the world spins
Toward the wakefulness of another day

Details | Janet Lorenzo Poem

Traffic Jam

The expanding stripe of cars stretches
Noxious fumes drawn inside by pink flesh
From this sight, looks as though the trees lost the battle
Heart still pumps energy to skeletal limbs moving
To unheard music
Grace filters through, highlighting the gift of discernment
I let the music enter me, and I enter the music 
Which is greater, love of warmth on bare branches
Or sadness from the absence of rustling leaves?
The horizon swallows the line an inch at a time
Caught up in the moment, carried by the voices of women present
And those gone
Realization comes
The dimmer switch is stuck on glow
I disrobe and sprint past the long streak of cars

Details | Janet Lorenzo Poem

Wonder Woman's Divorce

The papers were signed
It was like drawing a get out of jail free card
Freedom can be intoxicating
Especially when combined with a half-gallon of Carol Rossi
The party was lovely, beautiful, happy people laughing and dancing
Except for one exceptionally large woman
Whose toe I managed to step on
At the exact same time I sloshed Carlo Rossi onto her bosom
My apologies fell on deaf ears
Word spread quickly that there would be a fight
She was going to kick my butt
I needed an intervention.  Where was my Superman?
Where was that guy with the trembling hands that whispered to me
That he would always come to save me
Then I realized
Every woman, when she removed her bra
Has a “W” on her chest.
Off the bra came
As I turned to confront my opponent
Declaring boldly that I was going to kick HER butt
Six strong, loving arms whisked me out the door and into the car
Those are friends I will never forget

Safely at home, I sat on the curb under the stars with my dog Alice
I told her about the evening
She agreed that I was truly a Wonder
I eventually put the bra back on
But I have never taken off the cape

Details | Janet Lorenzo Poem

Life of a Luna Moth

Another shot of whiskey.
The moon blurs through
a row of baobabs,
standing like soldiers
with shaggy, afro helmets.

Gentle swaying of leaves
beckons a lone luna moth,
her powder soft wings brushed with light. 
I watch through glazed eyes.
Heavy with life
she whispers past each tree,
taking her time,
listening
for the branch that chants the message
we all wait to hear.

I don’t bother to adjust
the bra strap slipping down
a brown shoulder.
I light a cigar and wonder
why it happens this way.
A week or a life,
searching,
loving,
regretting,
giving,
reproducing,
lasts as long as the flavor
in a piece of chewing gum.

No mouth to sing a thread of pleasure.
No voice to express contentment.
We accept the game for what it is
and remember
the beginning,
the cocoon,
the moon,
and the Luna Moth

Details | Janet Lorenzo Poem

The Concert

Longing to sway to the weeping of the violin
Even my shadow looks old
Pulled forward by the thunder of the piano
The keys ripple across my chest
Marching between intersections of limbs
Quivering with desire to move
To flow
With the air surrounding the instruments
The only time I understand my shadow is when I visit you
Give me some percussion to offer
Energy I can’t contradict
Float me to the very core
And transform me
A shadow

Details | Janet Lorenzo Poem

Self-Ignition

All around me
Cars driving forms entranced
Their glazed eyes suited for the waiting day
My own sequined senses, faithfully harnessed
Travel
Inside my car
35 miles to empty, 53 degrees
 
Press seek and jump from mindless chatter
To scars singing familiar melodies
Perfectly timed, shadows fill the parking lot
Moon still calls “capture me”
Challenge adorns windows that
Stare blankly down on rain splattered cars

22 miles to empty
4 Mondays to full
Words fall from mouths drawn on
Echoing in silent mile-long passages
 
I’ll step into the light
Wrap myself around a power line
Become a live wire
Shock me out of my casing, and
Friends can feed on the inspirations 
Bursting from my feet

Details | Janet Lorenzo Poem

Mom, I'M Home

I can feel my mother’s thoughts
All these miles away
She needs a pick-me-up
So I get on a big machine
Way too big to be in the sky
How does that work anyway?
Centrifugal force attempts to infuse
Your center to your spine
For one moment
The universe holds its breath, 
Then lets out a long howl
And follows along behind, sucked back into place

With a pronounced sum of mayhem
The wheels descend and kiss the earth 
The kind of kiss that rocks your whole existence
A shocking, wet French kiss
A long tongue that jolts you right out of
Taking life for granted

Details | Janet Lorenzo Poem

Swimming

Sleek, wet, brown bodies
Nakedness insinuated
Hair trailing behind wide eyes glistening
Blinking streams of water from them
Mom yells
”Stay close to the edge in case you need to grab it!”
Sometime in life you will need to grab the edge
And pull yourself up
Through reflective lenses
Into someone else’s eyes
So the emptiness in you doesn’t fill with water
And pull you down 
Too far 
For the light to reach

Details | Janet Lorenzo Poem

Love of Peace

We seem to have forgotten
That there’s a lion loose in a
Neighborhood of fear
Don’t sing this to me all these years later
The melody of a mane barely visible
The murky light of a beacon
That transcends a multitude of knowing
The fear is unreasonable 
But simultaneously real
Absent from vision, the roar
Is deafening
In the ears straining to hear
The sound of peace

Details | Janet Lorenzo Poem

Downsizing

Three Shiny haired sisters
Essence of life stored in boxes
Found their voice in the church of a solar flare
Through years of searching and choosing
Dividing and coveting
Eyes were opened to examine the story
Carried on the spine of our grandmothers
The limbs of our father
The wings of our mother
Breathless from a voyage of the clan
We held hands dancing a sister ring
Around the boxes
That had to be emptied and relabeled 
Before sunrise