HastyWords's Blog, page 14

IMPORTANT TO US

A GUEST POEM BY Byron Hamel

They force you into these
Little rows
Industrial linoleum
Worn down to bedrock
Where you wait
Until they are as urgent as you are
About the death and mayhem
Please wait calmly
While the world caves in
And you stay at the bottom
If you live
They caught me crying
This time about Hiroshima and Nagasaki
I’d been in the middle of saying
It was the right call
But the shadows of babies said otherwise
Please hold
For a century
Until it happens again
And you’re so in it
That you can’t see your way through
Your call is important to us

GHOSTS OF ME

A crystal looking glass fed with ghosts

Reflecting an image that hurts to see

Faraway glances piercing the light

Leaving waves of dark that bite at me

Gasoline torches and crosses of wood

Brought to exorcise the eyelet lace

Yellowing and faded as figures stood

Mouths with multiple tongues speak

Demanding a life half lived, half me

Eyes full of poison swirling purple and bleak

Beckoning fingers sprawling like trees

All disappear if I just close eyes, don’t look

Images appear closer than… stop looking

At the ghosts you created years long past

NEXT EXIT

I wanted to exit, bad at mending

Can’t shake, don’t purposely over bake

The thoughts they keep sending

Estranged and over lines set center

Worrying about what’s ahead

But hey, shrug, I’m just a renter

Pull up baseboards, hammer floors

There’s gotta be something under here

A city of dead behind half hanging doors

Rooms filled with wood the termites soften

Skylit stairs with broken ribs

Yards filled with DIY paper-mache coffins

Too many exits like this to nowhere

Nothing for the living to stop and see

Rerouting… next exit miles from here

I HOPE YOU WIN

I had to tear my heart from my throat

As I walked by the mystery of you

You’ll never know this but I felt you

Absorbed part of your pain walking by

And I still carry it with me each day

A reminder of how hard life can be

You lying in the cold dark on pavement

Seeming to cry and scream at the underworld

I wanted to sit next to you, sing you a song

Or call someone smarter to help you some

But I didn’t stop because this was your fight

You were boxing with the devil, swinging hard

And I was a little afraid, a little bit on guard

I know what it sounds like to shout at God

I’ve fought my own army of demons

Nobody else could see or understand

I had to tear my heart from my throat

So I could say Give them hell young man

I really do hope you win

HOME FULL OF BELLIES

I’ve had to give myself time

To unbend and unfold

To the new spaces

That I’ve been presented

Some spaces haven’t felt

Like choice spaces at all

Some have felt more like

Grin and bare it all

Others felt more like

Welcome to the jungle

Without the fun and games

But some spaces feel like

Pancake shaped hearts

And orange juice kisses

Pragmatism and dreams

Filled with bellies and

Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans

Sweet little kids

Needing booboos kissed

Disney movies and popcorn

Bedtime stories and

Nighty night songs

And little girl giggles

Giving little foot spas

So many places with spaces

That feel just like home

SWITCHING TO YOU

I asked my boyfriend to give me a writing prompt. If you could be someone else for a week who would you be? And how would you be different when you came back?

I really want to say I’d like to be God. You know figure out how this whole existence stuff really works. Of course if he didn’t exist I’d have wasted a chance to be different but hey… then I’d know.

I could pick me 30 years from now but what if I don’t exist then? And if I don’t exist what does that look like? Heaven? Hell? Or would I wake up reincarnated as a person or an animal? Too many possibilities.

I think I’ll keep it here and now and simple.

If I could love you better I would

If I could be you, walk in your shoes

Would I learn more than I know now?

Would I find a network of cables

And an old phone operator in my head

Changing emotions out like callers

Instead of the bare wired mess I have

Oh here we go your girlfriend is calling

Please connect her to patience and calm

Oh how I would love organized emotion

Would I feel complete and happy

With the love I receive, content and secure

Or would I find secret worries

Tucked inside muscles, behind blue eyes

If I could know how you absorb me

Maybe when I was me again

I’d love you better than I now could

WHALE WATCHING

The biggest painting I’ve done. See my Instagram account for more. HastywordsArt

The horns blow hard though gentle near

Thunderously harmonious to your ears

Your bodies breath holds its sip

The taste of saltwater on your lips

Declarations bellowed from afar

Louder and deeper than before

Far away from the ocean sand

Far away from the sturdy land

Crushing waves rise and fall

Before a peaceful restful stall

Oh what a beautiful fright

This magnificent beastly knight

Leather battalions swim playfully

Putting on a show so very gracefully

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Hasty Dawn Words (@hastywordsart)

ROBOT LOVE

Warmth peeks under eyelids

Seeks toes and stomachs

As night slips beneath covers

To hide from the light of day

Buttons pushed, reboot successful

Gentle whirring into morning

Playful smiles engaged, lovely eyes

Download module: thankful

Special code: patience

Perimeter for love: set

Perimeter for strength: set

Perimeter for heart: set

Boundaries intact and ready

“I sure love you” she smiles

“I love you too” he returns

Embrace and connection: perfect

TIDAL WAVES

Where once tidal waves lived

Calm waters slowly lap the shore

I wanted to destroy cities

To ensure my own destruction

I wanted to drown the whole world

So I couldn’t hear my own thoughts

But the cities held strong against me

My energy began to wane with the moon

And my waves absorbed the heat of the sun

And the screams in my head

Started to sound more like laughter

And fear began to give way to understanding

Until I felt a part of the world again

Until purpose smoothed me into glass

And I could be the gentle lap

The cities came to visit

To calm their own tidal waves

IT WAS A STORMY NIGHT

Using a prompt by Twindaddy a blogger I’ve known for a very long time. What is your oldest memory?

Walking with baby fat legs

Words hadn’t come yet

It was a strange house

A woman changed my diaper

Gymnastics was on tv

Or something sporty and blue

Front door was open

Old screen door closed

The sky was yellow

It made the world yellow

My first memory

Was of living in Tornado Alley