Submissions by brokentitanium (k.)
POEMS AND SHORT STORIES
Poet Introduction
I'm just a human living my life, and this is where I spill the stuff I can't say out loud. Sometimes the words arrange themselves nicely, and that's pretty cool.
Legacy of a Dad
To me you were always the high-strung professor,
rarely present except to storm out of your study
with a voice like booming thunder,
“who took my scissors??”
Making it clear our presence
was an inconvenience
to your comfortable routine
and military orderliness.
We offered bald-faced denials
wrought by fear,
followed by surreptitious returns
of “borrowed” items…
when you weren’t looking.
It’s how I learned to keep a straight face
and to disappear.
But occasionally,
there was the playful you ...
rarely present except to storm out of your study
with a voice like booming thunder,
“who took my scissors??”
Making it clear our presence
was an inconvenience
to your comfortable routine
and military orderliness.
We offered bald-faced denials
wrought by fear,
followed by surreptitious returns
of “borrowed” items…
when you weren’t looking.
It’s how I learned to keep a straight face
and to disappear.
But occasionally,
there was the playful you ...
#love
#regret
#father
#memories
#NaPoWriMo2022
317 reads
8 Comments
Pour me another stimulant
Mondays are
so
gloopy
Despite best intentions to
get
shit
done
moments glom together
like stale, fused ju-jubes
brain
moving
slowly
….
tick
tock
….
tick
tock
….
molasses
style
until big sticky chunks of time
have passed suddenly
without checkmarks on the to-do list
meanwhile the world
dives
gleefully
into
productivity ...
so
gloopy
Despite best intentions to
get
shit
done
moments glom together
like stale, fused ju-jubes
brain
moving
slowly
….
tick
tock
….
tick
tock
….
molasses
style
until big sticky chunks of time
have passed suddenly
without checkmarks on the to-do list
meanwhile the world
dives
gleefully
into
productivity ...
#morning
#coffee
#NaPoWriMo2022
513 reads
12 Comments
Pen vomit
No words in my mouth
No phrases in my head
No sentences in my mind
My language is dead
No steps in my legs
No strength in my back
No ideas in my brain
All these things I lack
But words are expected
So thoughts I must think
I'm hoping my pen
Can barf out some good ink
My legs ran with me
Fifteen kilometers today
There's no gas in my tank
I don't know what to say
So I'll just play word-Jenga
With these tidbits that rhyme
And save the deep meanings
For some other time
No phrases in my head
No sentences in my mind
My language is dead
No steps in my legs
No strength in my back
No ideas in my brain
All these things I lack
But words are expected
So thoughts I must think
I'm hoping my pen
Can barf out some good ink
My legs ran with me
Fifteen kilometers today
There's no gas in my tank
I don't know what to say
So I'll just play word-Jenga
With these tidbits that rhyme
And save the deep meanings
For some other time
#sleep
#WritingPoetry
#apathy #NaPoWriMo2022
#apathy #NaPoWriMo2022
294 reads
11 Comments
The space beside
I want to tell you of the blueness of sky
and the sound of geese flying over today
and that scene in a movie that made me cry
and the beautiful song that blew me away
I want to carry you around all day
in the pocket closest to my heart
so we can just laugh and talk and play
and not feel always so far apart
Instead there’s an empty space beside me
I carry it everywhere I roam
I’m complete; it’s not a hole inside me
I just long for connection that feels like home
and the sound of geese flying over today
and that scene in a movie that made me cry
and the beautiful song that blew me away
I want to carry you around all day
in the pocket closest to my heart
so we can just laugh and talk and play
and not feel always so far apart
Instead there’s an empty space beside me
I carry it everywhere I roam
I’m complete; it’s not a hole inside me
I just long for connection that feels like home
#love
#loneliness
#friendship #NaPoWriMo2022
#friendship #NaPoWriMo2022
584 reads
15 Comments
Schrodinger’s antidepressant
I once hallucinated a cat.
Not there until I saw it,
gone the moment I looked,
it was definitely there.
I know it wasn’t a flight of imagination,
or interpretation of movement or light.
There were no bushes to rustle
and no shadows in that open moonlit field.
I wasn’t thinking about cats
(or of anything really)
just returning to my tent
after brushing my teeth at the campground.
But anyway, there it was
just left of my feet
and I actually dodged to avoid it
lest we get entangled
in my visual cortex.
I...
Not there until I saw it,
gone the moment I looked,
it was definitely there.
I know it wasn’t a flight of imagination,
or interpretation of movement or light.
There were no bushes to rustle
and no shadows in that open moonlit field.
I wasn’t thinking about cats
(or of anything really)
just returning to my tent
after brushing my teeth at the campground.
But anyway, there it was
just left of my feet
and I actually dodged to avoid it
lest we get entangled
in my visual cortex.
I...
#depression
#memories
#MentalHealth #NaPoWriMo2022
#MentalHealth #NaPoWriMo2022
373 reads
12 Comments
524 reads
25 Comments
522 reads
10 Comments
Pick-up Sticks
There was no such thing as time then.
Just low winter sun
streaming through window panes,
casting angular shadows on the rug –
Was it greenish?
Some nondescript colour that hid dog-vomit spots.
Unlike the zebra-stripe shag by the fireplace,
this rug was rough enough
to burn wrestling elbows
but thick enough to cushion the sound of a head strike.
Pick-up sticks were easier on the rug;
The hardwood was too slippery.
We had such attention spans then,
carefully levering the reds
out from under the blues and greens,...
Just low winter sun
streaming through window panes,
casting angular shadows on the rug –
Was it greenish?
Some nondescript colour that hid dog-vomit spots.
Unlike the zebra-stripe shag by the fireplace,
this rug was rough enough
to burn wrestling elbows
but thick enough to cushion the sound of a head strike.
Pick-up sticks were easier on the rug;
The hardwood was too slippery.
We had such attention spans then,
carefully levering the reds
out from under the blues and greens,...
#childhood
#memories
#nostalgia #NaPoWriMo2022
#nostalgia #NaPoWriMo2022
344 reads
10 Comments
Solomon called life meaningless 38 times and he was supposedly a smart dude
I refuse to concern myself
with leaving a legacy
when I know
I’m a fleeting mote of dust
amongst an endless field
of ginormous stars that will outlast
all my words and works
and even those stars will die eventually
so really
all that I do is ultimately
meaningless
by any human measure or reckoning
I refuse to miss the life
that’s right in front of me
while fretting about my destiny
So I search for beauty in the struggle
poetry in the hideous
and it’s only through
embracing the...
with leaving a legacy
when I know
I’m a fleeting mote of dust
amongst an endless field
of ginormous stars that will outlast
all my words and works
and even those stars will die eventually
so really
all that I do is ultimately
meaningless
by any human measure or reckoning
I refuse to miss the life
that’s right in front of me
while fretting about my destiny
So I search for beauty in the struggle
poetry in the hideous
and it’s only through
embracing the...
#love
#friendship
#acceptance
#philosophical
#NaPoWriMo2022
333 reads
5 Comments
Spider Crush
Some souls resonate
at a frequency so irresistible,
moderation is not an option.
From the first tugs on my web
like a reflex, I’m all in --
spilling
emptying
wrapping them in silky secrets
from deep inside my belly,
so lost in wonder,
turning them over in my hands,
enthralled.
Thinking this could be forever
if I could just immobilize them
with brutal, intoxicating honesty…
And I sink my teeth in deep
extracting all the intimacy they can give
until suddenly
they
can’t. ...
at a frequency so irresistible,
moderation is not an option.
From the first tugs on my web
like a reflex, I’m all in --
spilling
emptying
wrapping them in silky secrets
from deep inside my belly,
so lost in wonder,
turning them over in my hands,
enthralled.
Thinking this could be forever
if I could just immobilize them
with brutal, intoxicating honesty…
And I sink my teeth in deep
extracting all the intimacy they can give
until suddenly
they
can’t. ...
#dark
#crush
#obsession #NaPoWriMo2022
#obsession #NaPoWriMo2022
505 reads
11 Comments
Strange Fire
I regret silence
on things that matter,
Yet I know
that I
know
nothing
of lives and souls afflicted,
So - hesitant, scared of getting it wrong
I have no speech,
only tears
of frustration and lament.
So I will sing my distaste
for those who profess expertise in love
but instead preach division,
Who obsess over activities of genitals
while ignoring the quality of hearts.
So trapped in idolatry of printed words,
they live in fear of condemnation
while truth eludes their calcified...
on things that matter,
Yet I know
that I
know
nothing
of lives and souls afflicted,
So - hesitant, scared of getting it wrong
I have no speech,
only tears
of frustration and lament.
So I will sing my distaste
for those who profess expertise in love
but instead preach division,
Who obsess over activities of genitals
while ignoring the quality of hearts.
So trapped in idolatry of printed words,
they live in fear of condemnation
while truth eludes their calcified...
#LGBT
#religion
#music #NaPoWriMo2022
#music #NaPoWriMo2022
266 reads
10 Comments
Sunrise thoughts
The fire always comes
in beginnings and endings
when things are new
or when they’re flaming out
Creator saves the best sky colours
for those bookends –
a new dawn, full of purpose
forest-fire horizon of pink-yellow blaze
An untrodden love
or a kernel of an idea
charged with ambitious excitement --
Oh, give me those beginnings!
They quickly yield to soft lavender puffs
against a baby blue backdrop
quiet and unobtrusive
Plans and inspirations
become tasks and routines
serene ...
in beginnings and endings
when things are new
or when they’re flaming out
Creator saves the best sky colours
for those bookends –
a new dawn, full of purpose
forest-fire horizon of pink-yellow blaze
An untrodden love
or a kernel of an idea
charged with ambitious excitement --
Oh, give me those beginnings!
They quickly yield to soft lavender puffs
against a baby blue backdrop
quiet and unobtrusive
Plans and inspirations
become tasks and routines
serene ...
#nature
#philosophical
#NaPoWriMo2022
386 reads
12 Comments
DU Poetry : Submissions by brokentitanium (k.)