Submissions by Tardegrade
POEMS AND SHORT STORIES
Poet Introduction
I am still trying to find my voice, so my work oft seems disconnected. But I try to write from a real place - though my lens is distorted so who knows how my truths will come across.
LOVE POEM
Published
15th Jan 2019 00:24am
15th Jan 2019 00:24am
Lost
Mirrors in darkness
Rain on waves
Daytime Constellations
Sugared Honey
Hurricane Whisper
Climaxing Caress
Roses and Vinegar
Stabbing the dead
Love for Indifference...
What a waste
Rain on waves
Daytime Constellations
Sugared Honey
Hurricane Whisper
Climaxing Caress
Roses and Vinegar
Stabbing the dead
Love for Indifference...
What a waste
#love
#grief
#apathy
363 reads
0 Comments
SELF POEM
Published
14th Jan 2019 11:31pm
14th Jan 2019 11:31pm
Father's Day
The last time I saw you breathing
Paralyzed from waist down
On hospital bed, vulnerable
I wanted your recognition
But you hugged the younger
Acknowledging your paternity
Our next meeting, you slept
As I faced a gauntlet
Of knees and sniping mouths
You lay in a wood box
So motionless
Creeping realization darkened
My five year old heart
I tried to keep you alive
Setting my eyes to follow your aims
"You will never be a race car driver!" mom screamed
Punctuating the rebuttal with a hard slap ...
Paralyzed from waist down
On hospital bed, vulnerable
I wanted your recognition
But you hugged the younger
Acknowledging your paternity
Our next meeting, you slept
As I faced a gauntlet
Of knees and sniping mouths
You lay in a wood box
So motionless
Creeping realization darkened
My five year old heart
I tried to keep you alive
Setting my eyes to follow your aims
"You will never be a race car driver!" mom screamed
Punctuating the rebuttal with a hard slap ...
#abuse
#death
#SelfReflection #SelfDiscovery
#SelfReflection #SelfDiscovery
422 reads
5 Comments
OBSERVATIONAL POEM
Published
13th Jan 2019 8:35pm
13th Jan 2019 8:35pm
Super
A flick of wrist
A moment of concentration
And pebbles dance
Like dangling participles
A tiny leap of imagination
And I soar to stratosphere
Caressing clouds
In starlit bliss
A casual glance
And I know hunger,
The frantic thoughts
Of passing seagulls
I lay down my pen,
Return to earth
And feel the bitterness
Of oblivious passers-by
And the inevitable invisibility
Of homelessness
Humility gifts
Superhuman sight
To see the tired and hungry
Cowering in corners
...
A moment of concentration
And pebbles dance
Like dangling participles
A tiny leap of imagination
And I soar to stratosphere
Caressing clouds
In starlit bliss
A casual glance
And I know hunger,
The frantic thoughts
Of passing seagulls
I lay down my pen,
Return to earth
And feel the bitterness
Of oblivious passers-by
And the inevitable invisibility
Of homelessness
Humility gifts
Superhuman sight
To see the tired and hungry
Cowering in corners
...
#power
#LifeStruggles
#philosophical
470 reads
3 Comments
OBSERVATIONAL POEM
Published
13th Jan 2019 5:40am
13th Jan 2019 5:40am
Wintry
Sky shivers
Beneath thick gray blankets
Sneezing chilly drizzles
Over frosty ground
Sky squints
A bleary dim eye
Scans for Spring
And winks shut
Beneath thick gray blankets
Sneezing chilly drizzles
Over frosty ground
Sky squints
A bleary dim eye
Scans for Spring
And winks shut
#winter
#nature
#philosophical
494 reads
3 Comments
OBSERVATIONAL POEM
Published
13th Jan 2019 5:36am
13th Jan 2019 5:36am
Local Color
Boston bleeds -
A sanguine sacrifice:
Bullet-ridden Boys in Blue
And Bandana-clad Bloods
Salaciously spill
Bright blood on pavement
Sweet ambrosia, suffering
Brevity of the abbotoir basin
Bovine brains and bullets
Brush with brass, deadly
Stilled-life portraits
Boxcar bums with banjo-blisters
Beleaguered, brave, and bellicose
Benevolent blades bequeath
Sacred, solemn sleep
A sanguine sacrifice:
Bullet-ridden Boys in Blue
And Bandana-clad Bloods
Salaciously spill
Bright blood on pavement
Sweet ambrosia, suffering
Brevity of the abbotoir basin
Bovine brains and bullets
Brush with brass, deadly
Stilled-life portraits
Boxcar bums with banjo-blisters
Beleaguered, brave, and bellicose
Benevolent blades bequeath
Sacred, solemn sleep
#death
#philosophical
386 reads
1 Comment
UPBEAT INSPIRATIONAL POEM
Published
10th Jan 2019 10:54pm
10th Jan 2019 10:54pm
Perfection
A gentle place
As rare as silver eyes
Most would call folly to seek
While a special few would offer
Lives and Souls
For just a peek
---------------------------
A gentle place
As mutable as quicksilver
As ephemeral as the will-o-wisp
Many-shaped
Even for one
A babbling Byzantine Brook
Impossible island in a luminous lake
Dusty desert dunes capped by opulent oases
Florid forests of flitting faerie folk
Or a moment with you,
Souls-bare and eyes wide
As rare as silver eyes
Most would call folly to seek
While a special few would offer
Lives and Souls
For just a peek
---------------------------
A gentle place
As mutable as quicksilver
As ephemeral as the will-o-wisp
Many-shaped
Even for one
A babbling Byzantine Brook
Impossible island in a luminous lake
Dusty desert dunes capped by opulent oases
Florid forests of flitting faerie folk
Or a moment with you,
Souls-bare and eyes wide
#kindness
#dreams
#spiritual #gratitude
#spiritual #gratitude
418 reads
4 Comments
NON-FICTION PROSE
Published
8th Jan 2019 12:22pm
8th Jan 2019 12:22pm
Spot in my heart
Found in a Taco Bell drive through
Plaintive mews from a garbage can
A black and white blotch of fur
You were fearless and calm
And became a member of family
As soon as you sniffed the couch
Years at the same home,
You spread your unique genetics
To kittens all over the neighborhood
But the day we moved
You were frightened
And you ran away
Months later, near midnight
I was walking down the street
Heading back home
Appearing from beneath
A neighbor's porch
You dashed to my side ...
Plaintive mews from a garbage can
A black and white blotch of fur
You were fearless and calm
And became a member of family
As soon as you sniffed the couch
Years at the same home,
You spread your unique genetics
To kittens all over the neighborhood
But the day we moved
You were frightened
And you ran away
Months later, near midnight
I was walking down the street
Heading back home
Appearing from beneath
A neighbor's porch
You dashed to my side ...
#friendship
#cats
405 reads
2 Comments
STORY POEM
Published
7th Jan 2019 9:46pm
7th Jan 2019 9:46pm
Terminal One
I gave her everything,
My love, my dreams, my soul
She asked me to meet her
Lagrange Five Station
Eight o'Clock standard time
And it was there,
Minutes late and heartbroken
I gifted her one last time.
I gave her Space.
My love, my dreams, my soul
She asked me to meet her
Lagrange Five Station
Eight o'Clock standard time
And it was there,
Minutes late and heartbroken
I gifted her one last time.
I gave her Space.
#love
#grief
#universe
544 reads
9 Comments
UPBEAT INSPIRATIONAL POEM
Published
7th Jan 2019 6:56pm
7th Jan 2019 6:56pm
Temple
Bare arms bask in worship to Sun
Twisting skyward in Sacred Geometries
Flirting Fibonacci capillaries dance
In subtle, muted acknowledgement
Of a gentle breeze
These sacred sentinels survive on islands of earth
Rooted and defiantly rise to bloom and green
In stark contrast to the dead towers of cold stone
Angular Edifices, lifeless mausoleums
Which loom grieving to inevitable gravity
Bare arms bask in Sun
Keeping rhythm with anxious feet
A face bathed in yellow
Admires the silent, stoic trees
And the...
Twisting skyward in Sacred Geometries
Flirting Fibonacci capillaries dance
In subtle, muted acknowledgement
Of a gentle breeze
These sacred sentinels survive on islands of earth
Rooted and defiantly rise to bloom and green
In stark contrast to the dead towers of cold stone
Angular Edifices, lifeless mausoleums
Which loom grieving to inevitable gravity
Bare arms bask in Sun
Keeping rhythm with anxious feet
A face bathed in yellow
Admires the silent, stoic trees
And the...
#beauty
#inspirational
#nature
#God
#spiritual
366 reads
2 Comments
SELF POEM
Published
5th Jan 2019 1:03am
5th Jan 2019 1:03am
Return Policy
You can never go back, some say
But I dared, despite warnings.
I remember a mansion of white
With a cornucopia of peppers drying
From the front porch eaves
But thirty years has reduced the palace
To a simple cottage
With a wee, rickety overhang
That could barely porch a chair
A few tiny peppers, long forgot,
Dangled in a paltry breeze.
The grand dining hall where armies
Supped on potted meat sandwiches
I crossed in mere steps.
And the grand living room,
Where a hundred battles waged
Between...
But I dared, despite warnings.
I remember a mansion of white
With a cornucopia of peppers drying
From the front porch eaves
But thirty years has reduced the palace
To a simple cottage
With a wee, rickety overhang
That could barely porch a chair
A few tiny peppers, long forgot,
Dangled in a paltry breeze.
The grand dining hall where armies
Supped on potted meat sandwiches
I crossed in mere steps.
And the grand living room,
Where a hundred battles waged
Between...
#memories
#SelfReflection
#SelfDiscovery
357 reads
1 Comment
OBSERVATIONAL POEM
Published
30th Dec 2018 5:24am
30th Dec 2018 5:24am
Creator
Reviled, as often as not, for the crime of difference
I've cast away more skins than a serpent:
Innocent, Fool, Wizard, Dastard, and Villain
I've seen through a thousand I's or more
I've walked with long-forgotten gods
In the great empty spaces
Between loneliness and isolation.
I've gasped for breath in flashfires midst
Tasted Winter so cold it was crisp
Luxuriated in the sweltering filth of millions
As opportunistic seagulls scavenged easy meals
Relished the music of a cool breeze on bare...
I've cast away more skins than a serpent:
Innocent, Fool, Wizard, Dastard, and Villain
I've seen through a thousand I's or more
I've walked with long-forgotten gods
In the great empty spaces
Between loneliness and isolation.
I've gasped for breath in flashfires midst
Tasted Winter so cold it was crisp
Luxuriated in the sweltering filth of millions
As opportunistic seagulls scavenged easy meals
Relished the music of a cool breeze on bare...
#dreams
#God
#spiritual
#LifeAsAWriter
#LifeCycle
465 reads
5 Comments
MISCELLANEOUS POEM
Published
29th Dec 2018 11:18am
29th Dec 2018 11:18am
Arlington in April
Arlington in April
The white crosses splay across the distance
Across a well tended carpet of green
Like swords planted as mockery to life
To appease ravenous Death.
The showers pause as if to make amends
Clouds as leaden as anvils, impatiently sigh
And the arch of Heaven erupts with thunder.
Anarchy above as torrents rage down
While below, black mushrooms sprout
A sea of umbrellas to avoid the harsh rain.
The apple-cheeked son with eyes aglow
Watches the flag-draped coffin descend
The light of vengeance burns...
The white crosses splay across the distance
Across a well tended carpet of green
Like swords planted as mockery to life
To appease ravenous Death.
The showers pause as if to make amends
Clouds as leaden as anvils, impatiently sigh
And the arch of Heaven erupts with thunder.
Anarchy above as torrents rage down
While below, black mushrooms sprout
A sea of umbrellas to avoid the harsh rain.
The apple-cheeked son with eyes aglow
Watches the flag-draped coffin descend
The light of vengeance burns...
#death
381 reads
3 Comments
DU Poetry : Submissions by Tardegrade
