Submissions by Atakti
POEMS AND SHORT STORIES
Poet Introduction
Turbulent waters ahead, sharks behind, shut up and paddle...
DARK POEM
Published
28th Apr 2014 7:54pm
28th Apr 2014 7:54pm
Dead-End Alley
"The end is disgusting," she says, remembering them,
pinched faces in NOLA, grey with wayward inevitability.
No words illuminate this dead-end alley called humanism.
Layered scars blurred their aspirant tattoos,
permanent ink on fleeting lives. "We have a gig tonight!"
Smack needles outranked numen this side of Seventh Ward.
The tracks marked the finish — all points due south.
Death calls shotgun and navigates, every time.
Maps inscribed black on black, but - damn! - the music was good.
...
pinched faces in NOLA, grey with wayward inevitability.
No words illuminate this dead-end alley called humanism.
Layered scars blurred their aspirant tattoos,
permanent ink on fleeting lives. "We have a gig tonight!"
Smack needles outranked numen this side of Seventh Ward.
The tracks marked the finish — all points due south.
Death calls shotgun and navigates, every time.
Maps inscribed black on black, but - damn! - the music was good.
...
933 reads
10 Comments
EROTIC POEM
Published
21st Apr 2014 10:34pm
21st Apr 2014 10:34pm
SenryTrio
orchard
peach plucked gasps succumb
lips ripen under his sun
tongues plunge in nectar
sea
lust tides pull our core
pleasured waves peak, crash afresh
flushed in froths, entwined
fire
torched skins ignite want
slick desires flicker, lick, groan
deep stroke explosions
peach plucked gasps succumb
lips ripen under his sun
tongues plunge in nectar
sea
lust tides pull our core
pleasured waves peak, crash afresh
flushed in froths, entwined
fire
torched skins ignite want
slick desires flicker, lick, groan
deep stroke explosions
1140 reads
24 Comments
MISCELLANEOUS POEM
Published
15th Apr 2014 8:52pm
15th Apr 2014 8:52pm
Many Moons
Devoid of life and air, this spinning sphere draws us in
with its unblinking eye of timeless wisdom.
Thousands have yearned for its love enchantments
and sworn by its form to deliver custom-shone prophecies.
"Full moon, full charm, made of cheesy song lyrics, fly me there
and back. Easy on the backchat, man, they never did land there, right?"
All manner of minds ponder its power, while Artemis smirks
and takes another drag on her moonglow hookah.
with its unblinking eye of timeless wisdom.
Thousands have yearned for its love enchantments
and sworn by its form to deliver custom-shone prophecies.
"Full moon, full charm, made of cheesy song lyrics, fly me there
and back. Easy on the backchat, man, they never did land there, right?"
All manner of minds ponder its power, while Artemis smirks
and takes another drag on her moonglow hookah.
1045 reads
19 Comments
LOVE POEM
Published
9th Apr 2014 9:21pm
9th Apr 2014 9:21pm
Small Dreams and Night Pearls
Small dreams will kill us.
What was it you were saying, reaching,
when we collided with the measured clocks
that serve only to bury us
under a sorcerer's apprentice spurt of shoulds?
Sit with me, like the (once upon a lost) time
we had our elbows in sand, toes in the surf,
kissed smiles in the stars —
when the moon shone for us alone
and every thought was a pearl offering.
A thousand dawns later, you say I cried in my sleep.
I say, I don't remember it, nor my small dreams...
Let's find those stars, that hallowed moon,...
What was it you were saying, reaching,
when we collided with the measured clocks
that serve only to bury us
under a sorcerer's apprentice spurt of shoulds?
Sit with me, like the (once upon a lost) time
we had our elbows in sand, toes in the surf,
kissed smiles in the stars —
when the moon shone for us alone
and every thought was a pearl offering.
A thousand dawns later, you say I cried in my sleep.
I say, I don't remember it, nor my small dreams...
Let's find those stars, that hallowed moon,...
1262 reads
28 Comments
OBSERVATIONAL POEM
Published
25th Mar 2014 8:23pm
25th Mar 2014 8:23pm
Irrelevant Fish
Below the sheer shimmers are the irrelevant fish, tiny darts in black.
Above, coffee amblers shake off pastry crumbs and bold sparrows.
She comes dressed in plump patterned skirts, dappled sorrels and creams;
a shuffle, hip jostled, on the flattest of angled rocks framing the pier.
Two tawnies appear, slink purring amid dry piles of careful vittles,
tails allongé. She is still, a sanguine center for feline pirouettes.
Grey mountains hold court, throned in stone, over unrolled indigo,
while the young worship Eros with sun-filled bench kisses.
...
Above, coffee amblers shake off pastry crumbs and bold sparrows.
She comes dressed in plump patterned skirts, dappled sorrels and creams;
a shuffle, hip jostled, on the flattest of angled rocks framing the pier.
Two tawnies appear, slink purring amid dry piles of careful vittles,
tails allongé. She is still, a sanguine center for feline pirouettes.
Grey mountains hold court, throned in stone, over unrolled indigo,
while the young worship Eros with sun-filled bench kisses.
...
1444 reads
21 Comments
DARK POEM
Published
21st Mar 2014 9:03pm
21st Mar 2014 9:03pm
Quicksilver Infections
breathing is an addiction I cannot quit
I breathe in thoughts and exhale ink,
poured into glorious words, quicksilver flowing
within the shapes of ideas, on clear white pages.
Some nights there is a stampede in my mind,
when the mercury overflows. I release it with a nick
to my wrist with the sharp end of my quill.
It spills faster and stronger and I watch it spread,
a disease to infect the minds of passing innocents.
Please, read me, soak it up through unwitting eyes.
The fever to write is now in your veins,...
I breathe in thoughts and exhale ink,
poured into glorious words, quicksilver flowing
within the shapes of ideas, on clear white pages.
Some nights there is a stampede in my mind,
when the mercury overflows. I release it with a nick
to my wrist with the sharp end of my quill.
It spills faster and stronger and I watch it spread,
a disease to infect the minds of passing innocents.
Please, read me, soak it up through unwitting eyes.
The fever to write is now in your veins,...
1222 reads
20 Comments
FICTIONAL PROSE
Published
20th Mar 2014 11:09am
20th Mar 2014 11:09am
The Sweetest Heart
Far away under the sea, lived a mermaid. She would often get in trouble with her father, for
going to the surface. When the king heard what she had been doing, he was troubled.
“Daughter, there are many dangers at the surface! I forbid you to go,” he said. The mermaid
pretended to agree, but continued to follow the boats that passed above the sea kingdom.
One day, she saw a glorious ship, and followed it for many miles. There were soldiers and bright
flags, and a fiercely bearded captain. Then, a younger man stepped to the prow, and the
mermaid saw the...
going to the surface. When the king heard what she had been doing, he was troubled.
“Daughter, there are many dangers at the surface! I forbid you to go,” he said. The mermaid
pretended to agree, but continued to follow the boats that passed above the sea kingdom.
One day, she saw a glorious ship, and followed it for many miles. There were soldiers and bright
flags, and a fiercely bearded captain. Then, a younger man stepped to the prow, and the
mermaid saw the...
1382 reads
10 Comments
LOVE POEM
Published
19th Mar 2014 2:24pm
19th Mar 2014 2:24pm
It comes to this
When you see people with the heart,
always the heart,
you ache from the pain they have to endure
but wish them well, even as they lash out.
Sometimes they lash right at you,
and you haven't grown the thick skin for it
because you think the thicker skin will stop you from loving.
So you hurt and feel foolish,
while it runs right to your center.
Worst, still,
you lash out at anyone who is near, reaching out to you.
And so it ripples out,
the drop of pain that started in a pond,
now an ocean.
...
always the heart,
you ache from the pain they have to endure
but wish them well, even as they lash out.
Sometimes they lash right at you,
and you haven't grown the thick skin for it
because you think the thicker skin will stop you from loving.
So you hurt and feel foolish,
while it runs right to your center.
Worst, still,
you lash out at anyone who is near, reaching out to you.
And so it ripples out,
the drop of pain that started in a pond,
now an ocean.
...
1559 reads
18 Comments
DARK POEM
Published
13th Mar 2014 1:26pm
13th Mar 2014 1:26pm
Circling
I can feel the pain drawing the pulse out.
That serves me, once again.
skin tacky, gouged blade snarl
Right here, now, who inherits this spot?
What your hands hold won't help.
slithered leather, welts hiss
This is where mercy died. The fire failed,
but I will not.
fresh red runs over dried black...
That serves me, once again.
skin tacky, gouged blade snarl
Right here, now, who inherits this spot?
What your hands hold won't help.
slithered leather, welts hiss
This is where mercy died. The fire failed,
but I will not.
fresh red runs over dried black...
965 reads
16 Comments
LOVE POEM
Published
11th Mar 2014 11:03pm
11th Mar 2014 11:03pm
Hemi - Full Throttle
He posts every poem under "love"
— by the gods of dirt, he means it.
He wears his nakedness like a philosophy;
I don't mean bare skin, although he's done that too...
(ladies, breathe)
He sails away on brine and avoidance,
yet anchors himself with his truths.
I dig his filthy driving, more than the hot prose.
I'd swear his stare reeks of diesel and sweat.
(oxygen, so important)
Oh, he's (not) death proof, though he burns through himself
like he is. He has Grim in his line of sight, taking people,
giving...
— by the gods of dirt, he means it.
He wears his nakedness like a philosophy;
I don't mean bare skin, although he's done that too...
(ladies, breathe)
He sails away on brine and avoidance,
yet anchors himself with his truths.
I dig his filthy driving, more than the hot prose.
I'd swear his stare reeks of diesel and sweat.
(oxygen, so important)
Oh, he's (not) death proof, though he burns through himself
like he is. He has Grim in his line of sight, taking people,
giving...
1234 reads
17 Comments
DARK POEM
Published
6th Mar 2014 9:06pm
6th Mar 2014 9:06pm
Impending
I am the moon and the tides.
I am the storm, the battered sea,
raging, raging, until the waters whirl,
deliquesce to droplets, dried in torrid heat…
I am creatures reposed to salty bones,
and I am the undulating desert gorging on them.
I am the Aeolian winds grinding mountains to sand,
blowing away my own dust to bare rock.
I am the tremors, unrelenting shockwaves, collapsing cliffs.
I am the molten lava flows, undermining tectonics.
Beyond the caldera, the release withheld…
The intensity is high, I bleed diamonds…
...
I am the storm, the battered sea,
raging, raging, until the waters whirl,
deliquesce to droplets, dried in torrid heat…
I am creatures reposed to salty bones,
and I am the undulating desert gorging on them.
I am the Aeolian winds grinding mountains to sand,
blowing away my own dust to bare rock.
I am the tremors, unrelenting shockwaves, collapsing cliffs.
I am the molten lava flows, undermining tectonics.
Beyond the caldera, the release withheld…
The intensity is high, I bleed diamonds…
...
2179 reads
40 Comments
MISCELLANEOUS POEM
Published
5th Mar 2014 00:12am
5th Mar 2014 00:12am
conscious retreat
straight talk, but no talk will do
rough on the edges of that list
you wrote then crumpled in your pocket
dizzy with ideas about ships that sailed
last week, but missed the rocket launch
to catch fireflies instead
don’t get too excited, this isn’t much…
random phrases unless you go backwards,
or read just the first word of every line
i lied
rough on the edges of that list
you wrote then crumpled in your pocket
dizzy with ideas about ships that sailed
last week, but missed the rocket launch
to catch fireflies instead
don’t get too excited, this isn’t much…
random phrases unless you go backwards,
or read just the first word of every line
i lied
942 reads
18 Comments
DU Poetry : Submissions by Atakti
