Night's crush spills black ink
the moon unzips hidden seams
turns souls inside out
foreboding haunts chokes the air
mystery bleeds from her face
Night leans on the shore
moon's breath a blade of silver
cooling tepid skin
the tide tongues open raw seams
salting wounds to sting and heal
Moon bends in bow arc
stringing light across the sea
searching for fractures
beneath the unblinking glare
shadows cower, faint, exposed
She writhes feral, drenched—
her breasts plunge in black water
eyes white with hunger—
she rips at our fraying threads,
raising fear to blaze with flame.
Hopes rise in moon's mist
drawn up by her silver hand
spilling into dreams—
she gathers us in like tides
weaving paths to becoming
Light stings into lust
with hymns strummed on naked thighs
a harp of end chords—
every string the ocean plucks
screams in time with tug of tide
Dawn scars the moon's face
her ghost hides behind torn clouds
soft unrepentant—
the lilt of her vanished hymn
echoes a throb in our bones
Oh sister of night
oracle of ebb and surge
you hiss with forked tongue—
what prophecy do you bear
light's mercy or void's abyss?
Standing here by the shore
Far beyond my long gaze
I see the earth and sky closer
My memory turns into quiet sea
That reflects through generations
Every thoughts I have is all
For everyone I dearly love whom
Like dew on grass - pure, sincere
And filled with light but now long gone
Time slows down to let me whisper
To my ancestors in the silent hill
Where candles on graves light not for sadness
But remembrance as lanterns of hope
Lighting their souls to heaven's home
Let the God of destiny hear my sadness
As I can't hold my tears to fall
Mix to the waves as additional salting
My intermittent gasping is my deepest sympathy
To my memory to my lost loved ones.
Driving along steel on the road
look in the mirror
salt falls from my load
Moving just as swift as I can
Look at me
I'm the snow plow man
Snow piles high as it moves off my plow
push back corners
the kids scream WOW
working round the clock all through the night
Clearing the roads
With determination an might
Road to road as fast as I can
Look at me
I'm the snow plow man
Salting Hat giving decree,
degree
of completion of indoctrination,
degrees of separation
from traditional Caucasian ity accepted,
kiss fraternal ring, Universal Educationing, University
Graduate hereby agrees
to continue to "play the game" within the bounds of our set ideology-hierarchy in Society. So mote it be.
Summer weather makes me feel so much better.
The sun suckling on my skin,
The ocean salting my eyes.
How I wish time would slow down.
But as seasons change,
Winter begins to fog my brain.
Letting distant thoughts leak into my head.
“Pathetic, Corrupt, Lazy, Selfish, Disgusting, Worthless.”
But summer always comes crawling back.
Letting me know,
The sun will be there to lick my skin,
While the ocean in my eyes,
Drips down my face in tangy waves.
I feel so much better.
the sea is high and running
sails are fighting for the shore
skippers in their shrimp boats
are hauling in
blow wind blow
none of us are sailors here
we are washed up on this Tiki bar
mugs foaming and topped to the brim
Umbrella drinks fizz and tipple
oysters and crabs
salting our ready tongues
if the night leaves us a roof
to drink under
if the sky don't drown
or waves don’t slosh and spray
we will untangle all our nets
so torn by frets
and row this rollicking night away
Shivering velvet pictorial
Moving Winters blown naked trees
Breathing bellowing breeze
Environmental effects seasonal
Like folding flooring like a linen flag
Salting sprinklers of driven snows
Shaking winter tree
Shivering velvet pictorial
12/26/21
Written by James Edward Lee Sr © 2021
Octopoem poetry type
Salting
s e a s o n' s
stew.
Written 15 July 2021
In Just A Few Words 2 Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Joseph May.
I feel something
I do, I do
the comfort in the ache
salting the cut of my lip
the blood and her drip
sleepless nights
atoned and attested
the trials
tying me in knots
held captive
allowed only
to swing from her gallows
her hallows of eve
as hollow as they seem
and I see thru the blackness
nothingness
blinded by the barren brush
as the breeze blows
her winter's snow
and I am cold
so very cold
a weathering rock of stone
with frozen crystals as my bones
and never, never
have I felt so all alone
a breach in the existence of time
unable to speak
unable to reach
silenced, drown
in invisibility
lingering
in lifeless remnants of blue
I can’t cry anymore,
or mention your name
I can’t sleep through the night
with fury and shame
I can’t give anymore,
stakes gone from my claim
I can’t cry anymore
—tears salting the blame
(Dreamsleep: May, 2020)
ILLUSORY
If I write fire, I become cold
if I write ice, I am burned
poetic illusion I write ...
CALL
When life calls,
death...
I just resist ...
BETRAYAL
The sea from there
salting you ...
The sea here is so blasé ...
Hiccups
Oh sea! me here,
she there, white moonlight ...
I here the solar ...!
FALSEHOOD
Insincere Siamese Sisters:
Left,
Right ...!
PLATONISM
I love her without having her,
she has me and doesn't love,
ah! platonic love...
I’ve been salting my eyes with artificial starlight-
watching scientists try to explain where this all came from.
They say not to worry because it was
all just happenstance anyway. That when I die,
the rot I feel is what I’ll become. But, my nightmares
are in higher resolution- And I feel more watching
my flesh split apart than seeing this 3D rendered
Big Bang, they say is the closest thing to God I’ll find.
I’m trying to convince myself that’s no reason to lose
hope. That whatever truth is real, I have purpose-
even if it’s as infinitesimal as this carapace cage.
But what do I do when I need to pray?
In which direction do I scream?
I’ve had my own supernova in my head since
I realized I was mortal, and needed purpose.
I just want to know that the fireworks going off
around me aren’t an illusion. That I’m not alone.
Because, If I’m burning just to burn.
If no one is watching.
If no one is sending back their own signal.
This agony isn’t worth the attention I give it.
-James Kelley 2017
OF FATHOMLESS MERCY
A surpassing story of old.
More than His saintly mother’s loss.
Weightier than riches of gold.
Lamb’s rhapsody bleeds from the cross.
O depths of fathomless mercy!
Bloodletting removal of dross.
The case for Christ controversy.
Lamb’s rhapsody bleeds from the cross.
A quietus sounded after
the moaning of nails, at a loss
to explain cruel crowd’s laughter.
Lamb’s rhapsody bleeds from the cross.
O eternity pleading life!
Droplets of love salting the moss.
Looking to cure ALL of men’s strife.
Lamb’s rhapsody bleeds from the cross.
3/14/2018
Broken Wing’s Five Words, Please contest
story, rhapsody, fathomless, quietus, eternity
A meter off the ground - it was chilling to the bone
and they say high up the degrees drop
In a metal bird with conditioned air
forgotten are dreams of wanting to fly
I closed my eyes - could sleep fast-forward eight months?
we stepped down at the other end of the universe
The Earth was wearing white trees clinging on to green
in the middle of this I stood very blue
the sun turned bleak, gave into cold
all time spaced out last day seemed old
summer had waned - and for ever, it seemed
frosting fell before my eyes, crystallizing tears
salting snow nothing stays pure for long
I was stuck in a snow globe, wishing the white was pixie dust
(you can take home away from a person, you can’t take hope out of them)
They say new years let grow new hope
but withering winds breed fear alone
impatience in its veins and shoulders shaking
a spiritless shadow trailed
* * * * * * *
the ghost of a snowflake
settles on my glove
cold touch of a memory
ISTHMUS OF TIME
e b o n y capes with d e r v i s h
eyes, transfixed on my pulse
countdown of cheering
red wine goblets
cascading
so much
~ time ~
spendthrift
fragile hours
cutting deep veins
salting them with tears
brain clings to side of pot
zombie moon’s hosting party
10/23/2017
Deep and Dark II
Contest by Laura Loo
1st place
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