Dennis S. Martin's Blog, page 143

Sanctuary

Run to cover, shelter from

The fire-belching dragon who

Would have your face for breakfast and

Consume your flesh at dinnertime.

 

Holding faith with vigilance

In stalwart measure, self-assured,

Tasting of adrenaline rushing,

Pumping to the bone.

 

No one knows where courage musters,

Cannot guess the origins of

Fight or flight, wrong or right.

Still it finds us in the dark.

 

Let me be your sanctuary.

Let me still your angry skies,

Be your comfort and protector

When the monster storms your gate.

 

We will face the beast together,

Sword and lance held to the sky.

Two as one, invincible,

Striding out to find our fate.

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Obnoxious Willie

Willie is a worry-wart who

Whines and wiles away his day

Making matters miserable in 

Messy, muddled, mocking ways.

 

Carry on, you cranky critter,

Gripe and groan and bellyache

Until you make the masses moan

Bleeding green for distant shores.

 

Must you be so damned contrary?

Moving in concentric counter-clockwise

Circles, opposite of

Every other point of view.

 

Who made you the center of

The universe? The oracle?

The last, the first, the only word

Authoring authority.

 

No one wants to hear your humor.

No one dotes your droll display.

If we’d only seen your smoke

We would have run the other way.

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On the Other Side

Magic misty gray horizon

Shadowing the rising sun,

Secreting the land of plenty

Waiting on the other side.

 

Filling minds with wide conjecture,

Mysteries in cloak and veil

Seldom fail to mystify.

Questions only, if you please.

 

Not a soul has ever bought a

Round trip ticket to your shore with

Beaches that go on forever,

Never crowded, never full.

 

Never-ending holiday of

Voices lifted high in praise,

Leaving joy and happiness the

Only order to fulfill.

 

Let my heart be fanciful.

Let my mind be open to the

Widest spectrum of belief

Where grand imagination rules.

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Death Kills

Highly inappropriate to

Speak of death when

Sunlight dances playfully

Upon the hillside casting

Very little shadow on

The meadow, if at all.

 

Cannot, must not kill

The dream, cry the scream of

Dreadful mourn,

Place a burden to be

Born on shoulders

Fully unprepared.

 

Open-eyed, yet unaware of

Danger lurking in the trees,

Tiger-quick, apache fearless,

Ready to spring forth with ease.

 

So involved, preoccupied,

Dreams of conquest to fulfill.

Defiant to the bitter end,

Scratching, crawling up the hill.

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Blisters on Your Backside

Riding along in your broad barcalounger,

Bucking recliner, couched in a crouch.

Waiting for nothing to silently happen,

Hoping that something will make you worthwhile.

 

Parked on the sidelines of life’s little gambit,

Chewing-tobacco stuffed in your pouch,

Shifting but little to reach for your spit-cup,

Grossing out children with vices so vile.

 

You used to run with the quickness of foxes

So far ahead of the hunt-hungry hounds.

Never a doubt or a question of capture.

Smarter and faster, you lived for the chase.

 

Lately it seems you’re not up for the contest,

Don’t even touch your feet to the ground.

Did you grow old or just get lazy?

Hanging your head in defeat and disgrace.

 

You can just sit there petting your pride

Trying to hide your unspeakable stunt,

Rubbing the blisters on your backside,

Or you can climb back into the hunt.

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Time Marches Sideways

Bated and battered by mindless meanderings,

Waiting and watchful with vigilant vision,

Passing the muster of youthful exuberance,

Pressed for a time into servitude’s locker.

 

Prancing and pacing and mark-time-march,

Seven mile hiking to nowhere and back.

Searching for what? For something amazing?

Waiting for my quarter-hour of fame.

 

“It takes time,” the ne’er-do-wells tell me.

“Must be patient,” they throw in my face.

But treading in time is like treading on water.

Must keep moving else sink to the bottom.

 

No one is patient. It’s just a façade.

No one make waiting a chosen profession,

Hated regression, silent confession,

Wandering into the stagnant congestion.

 

When will I realize I can’t be immortal?

Who keeps the watch ticking endlessly on?

Waiting for me? Waiting for no one.

Time marches sideways; never keeps still.

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Don’t Forget Your Hat

You say you’re leaving;

You can’t take it anymore.

Put your coat on

As you’re walking out the door.

 

Turn to lash out

One more time before you go.

Hateful trash-talk;

Something I don’t want to know.

 

Changes found you,

Can’t say why or how or where.

When it happened?

I don’t know and I don’t care.

 

I won’t stop you

If you’re so dead set to leave.

Won’t come running,

Pulling frantic on your sleeve.

 

Only one thing

I can truly say to that.

Give your keys up

And don’t forget your hat.

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Blasted Cell Phones

They’re everywhere you go these days; those

Loud, obnoxious, boorish louts,

Land-line shirkers, hand to ear

Talking just below a shout.

 

Outside office, on the street, crowded

Restaurants, cars and bars,

Trains and planes and subway stations,

Doctor’s office, super mart.

 

What could be so urgent that

It truly couldn’t bide?

Are we so self-important that

We lose all sense of pride.

 

And what’s become of privacy,

Courtesy and grace?

And as for common sense, they’ve

Launched it into outer space.

 

Time and place is everything,

Or so it use to be.

Except for cell phone addicts

Who reject civility.

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Poker Face

Reaching deep into the void for

Traces of humanity

I come away with nothing,

No display, no commonality.

 

Emotion shriveled like a week-long

Petal fallen from a rose

Crumbling beneath my step,

Nothing real to be exposed.

 

Where does one acquire the skill

To hide behind such steely mask?

Is it learned or is it gift?

Is knowing far too much to ask?

 

Can a heart learn to suppress the

Smallest twitch, the slightest glint?

Muscles under such control they

Fail to give a single hint.

 

I could reach out, offering a

Helping hand, a warm embrace,

If I could only know your thoughts,

If I could read your poker face.

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Thrust Upward

We had it all, begging no pardon,

Accepting no quarter from frequent distracters,

Keeping a light over our pretty bedclothes,

Feeding the meter with coinage aplenty.

 

Happily, snappily, jauntily singing,

Running through sprinklers in childlike joy,

Bracing for nothing, braking for less,

Flying full-throttle through oceans of air.

 

We never thought the world could come crumbling,

Never imagined us coming to end.

Tolls left unpaid coming due with a vengeance,

Sipping the bile of indifference and change.

 

I ran with blinders; did not see it coming

Til you stopped me hard, dagger in hand.

Stabbing me deep to the pit of my stomach

You thrust upward straight to my heart.

 

I can’t imagine my world without you.

You can’t imagine the damage you’ve done.

Heart soundings mutes to eternal silence

Joined with the undead in their zombie walk.

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