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Best Poems Written by Kim Hyde

Below are the all-time best Kim Hyde poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Kim Hyde Poem

The Shoes With the Flat, Black Laces

The Shoes with the Flat, Black Laces

Blue; aquamarine to be specific
With flat, black laces
Tie them on and try to keep pace with
My dreams, goals, and vision.
Every January is different
But the same.
Goal: lose 40 pounds, gain strength to astound
My world—athletes, family, friends but really just me.
 No one cares, no stares
 But 26.2 is a hill away, one more mile between
So in the meantime, I tie them up,
Always the same: sock, shoe, sock, shoe
Walk, run, walk, run
Keeping pace in the blue shoes with the flat, black laces.

Details | Kim Hyde Poem

Women Over 50 Are Invisible According To One Source

Women over 50 are Invisible
(according to one source)

But…isn’t that a superpower?

Please don’t notice me
wearing the same black leggings
three days in a row
Content to sit on my couch
trash t.v., pumpkin pie breakfast
Don’t listen to me
imitate British accents and slang
I glean from Love Island

Do NOT perceive me
walking the dog
in blue flannel p.j.’s
in a snowflake pattern
in July

Yes, I have tye-dye Crocs
which I am wearing 
paired with socks 
that show a hand
flipping the bird

But who cares?
I am invisible
It is my superpower

Five months ago
I began to experiment
not showing up 
to mandatory meetings
I've yet to hear a thing

No repercussions
Thank you,
Invisibility

This also means
No witnesses to my poor behavior
No apologies demanded 
no excuses needed

hot sauce dripped
upon ample breasts
slightly weighted down by 
life well lived?

Who cares?
you don’t notice
and I don’t mind

Laughing in a movie theater
so loud I snort
among popcorn, M&M’s
and greasy fake butter

No one blames the old lady
in the same black leggings
now paired with a concert T
from Petty’s last show at
the Hollywood Bowl

I’m inconspicuous and
you give the stink eye 
to the three teens 
sitting  to the left

Ha-ha! I bet
I could fart and
they’d get the blame
Lil stinkers

I could go on and on
about the beauty
the freedom, the sheer
sexy exhilaration 
this covert, intangible, 
obliterated existence offers

But I won’t
You wouldn’t hear me anyway
I am invisible
It is my superpower

Details | Kim Hyde Poem

Diary of a School Shooter

Day 1
I stomp into class black big
Boots they work
Good to make an impact
See the teacher flinch
Dumb ; its what she gets
Eyes judging mouth yakking 
Puffy feet pounding up
And down the aisles just to see
What i’m doing-nothing
Can’t you tell-
nothing

Day 29
Nothing good when
i finally talk to someone
They said “What you want” all loud
When i
Low down, just
Asked for a pen was
Gonna join in just
Wanted a pen just
Then walked out

Day 54
Out the door chanced a
Girl. nerd girl cat girl with some books
Didn’t look. Tripped over
My invisible foot and bam she
Cried but i 
i laughed its what
She got for not
Seeing 

Day 76
seeing  the 
Invisible me
Behind a tree by the school clean knife
New friend flicking
In and out 
Up and down the skin
Of the tree and the palm
Of my hand the pain makes
me a man. Red lines drawn

Day 119
Red lines scrawled from the 
All over my test as if
As if i did my best you’ll
See my best work.  Soon

Day 154
Soon it will be when
They all notice me when i
Slice through the
Crowd sending ammo landing loud
doesn’t matter
Who i hit it will send a
Message of destruction a notice
Of devastation a dance of rank revenge, when?
Soon.

Details | Kim Hyde Poem

Phone Home

Phone home.

Make things like they used to be
Playing cards til midnight
Laugh, talk, squawk, chips, dips, 
having a fit
Over lost rounds

Listening to Dad 
Expound on…
Doesn’t matter, he knew
Car tires or relationships
Expert on all subjects

Phone home
Let’s drink mimosas
Til 3 one afternoon
Then jump in the pool
Like fools we’ll
Synchronized swim

Phone home
And we’ll talk and talk and talk
And reminisce and commiserate
Cry and hug, 
Bond, get back 
to that space where we once were
Us. 

But that’s not Us, 
We don’t bend or kowtow
Stiff upper lips
Mouths zipped, 
Broken hearts encrypted

Phone home.

Details | Kim Hyde Poem

How To Stay Married To Me: a Poetic Tutorial

How to Stay Married to Me
(a poetic tutorial)

Don’t come at me
With sweets or cookies
On Valentine’s Day
My New Year’s resolutions
Are around to stay
(talk to me around Mother’s Day)

Understand my currency:
Words, sweet syntax,
Small deeds at random 
Are my box of chocolates

Fill my tank,
Ask if I’ve lost weight
Offer a walk
Clean the garage

Love our kids
Even after tattoos and missing assignments
Put things together: furniture and broken hearts
Camping trips and holiday dinners

Let the dogs sleep in our bed
And in and out at night
What seems like a zillion times
A human doggie door

Take care of the old people
Move a couch for my grandma
“It has to be now!” Nevermind
That your back is out

Tolerate my OCD tendencies
Ignore the washcloth tower
Turn a blind eye to the 
Exercise clothes rotation
Understand it gives me power

Let me be in charge 
of the temperature in the car 
you take the music--
A better DJ by far

Stockpile our everyday 
Like a trip to Sam’s Club
Saturday drives to games
Sunday laundry and grocery

Love me through the mundane
The necessary normal 
that makes us great

Details | Kim Hyde Poem

Exhale, Relax

Just messing around
Playing with life
Changing it up, 
Tired of the strife
The treadmill grind, 
Watery sameness of
Everyday; slogging through blind
But trynna be chill
Get back my flow
How to be zen?
Don’t even know

In my new sneaks
I run down the street
Get side-eye looks
On to a yoga swing
But don’t have any hooks

Living with ‘loved ones’
Who don’t know me well
Who question my motives
Scoff at my plunge
into sand gardens,
Meditation, 
deep breathing,
What gives?

No more mere existing
I’m living this life
Developing, dynamic
I’m in this moment
Instead of resisting

Come take my hand
Feel what I feel
A deep breath in
Exhale, relax

Details | Kim Hyde Poem

Another Sunday Morning

Another Sunday morning
Crouched in the beam of headlights
Steam coming off coffee and breath
Fumbling to pin race bib to pants

A romance
Of sorts; this dance I’m addicted to
Those magic numbers: 5k, 13.1, and
The boss lady: 26.2 (I’m coming after you)

But why? Friends ask
You’re crazy they say on posts
Of me on each early Sunday

I say nothing back, but heart the comment
I can’t explain what the rhythmic pound; the sound 
of New Balanced footstrikes does 
For the broken part of me
How the week’s aggression 
That needs suppressing is sweated out 
And gathered up in Nike’s moisture-wicking fabric

How weaving through the crowd of neophytes
Wearing today’s race shirt, alternately
Sprinting then walking

And the kids, eager, then over it
The moms reclaiming a body that sheltered
The now-strollered baby
The geriatrics, shoes well-used
Nimble limbs, not brittle but abused 
From pounding pavement years before this

This environment, atmosphere
Big race crowds or small informal
Stopwatch race; doesn’t matter
Just involved; a part of this kinship
Unspoken club affiliation; in passing
Not a wave, but nod
A head bob of appreciation
For another’s association;
Obsession with times, miles,
Post-race selfie smiles

Because I know there will come a day
That my body will betray 
My runner’s soul.

But for now I stand at the start
 Ready for race gun and one more mile

2/14/19
Hobbies Contest
Sponsor: Julie Leigh Rodeheaver

Details | Kim Hyde Poem

Words

Words

Of regret
shedding its skin
across my paper

Words

Of malice
pebbling my skin
in a hailstorm

Words

Of kindness
tie-dye my tshirt
orange, magenta, blue

Words

Forged of steel
slicing
A hot knife through butter

A taco chip
of Words
double-dipping
into a soul

Details | Kim Hyde Poem

Blue Is

Blue is..

Blue is summer in August
so thick the heat is 
An army blanket 
Suffocating the sky in its dirty wool

Blue were my father’s eyes
With that sizzle that said
“No boundaries
Exist when you are rich
with courage to compete in love and life”

Blue is 
A catastrophe
A climax of words
A cataclysm of sight and sound
When you can’t take back 
what was bound to come out 
after so many years

Blue is the antiseptic smell 
Of hospital corridor
And the horror of arriving
In time to say goodbye

Blue are her eyes
Like a cornflower sky 
But puzzled, looking quietly frantic
Begging for answers 
to her query of why?

Blue is head down
Mumbling a hymn
Is it a sin 
To curse at a god
Without making a sound?

Blue is every lesson in life
That is “good for you”
“Necessary”
And “bound to happen”
Like a fork of lightning
Splitting the hot sky

Details | Kim Hyde Poem

Teacher's Anniversary

Our fifteenth year, you and I
If we were married, the ‘crystal’ mile

And oh, we have had our highs, breaking up lunchtime fights
Breaking down novels line by line
Translating Shakespeare to Spanish
for those nonverbal in this language
Dulcet quatrains melted into rounded syllables, thick on my tongue
Still we manage to tease out delicate images

And the consolation of a paycheck educators receive
Not enough to ease the mirage of beach
Allure of waves and palm trees
In rude January (the ultimate schoolyard bully)
You and I have chaperoned this prom, attended this play
Coached this race, given chase to elusive grades
Counted victories in syllables
Pivoted around yawning youths, heads down
or kids attempting to find favor with last minute Starbucks gifts 

And still we sit in sweet September
Whole and hopeful, rested, restored
Once again to go around this playground called high school

2/1/19