Submissions by crystalcolumz (-Shannon-)
POEMS AND SHORT STORIES
Poet Introduction
I write the way the schizophrenic, walking up and down the sidewalk in front of my house, screams profanity when he thinks he's all alone.
In the Shadow of St. Bernadine’s
Those are tombstones in this graveyard,
And here they don't believe in evergreens
As headstones are dead,
Horizontal and bloody, red;
Only tombstones have that hollow ring.
They go off like the Bells of San Bernardine's
At noon, Vespers at eve;
It's really beautiful
But there's no Jordan River here and
Meadowbrook Park's no Garden of Gethsemane.
It’s San Bernardino,
Old motels and railroads,
A dry riverbed, and
La Madrina in the window.
It’s a wailing ghost show,
Weeds and weeping widows. ...
And here they don't believe in evergreens
As headstones are dead,
Horizontal and bloody, red;
Only tombstones have that hollow ring.
They go off like the Bells of San Bernardine's
At noon, Vespers at eve;
It's really beautiful
But there's no Jordan River here and
Meadowbrook Park's no Garden of Gethsemane.
It’s San Bernardino,
Old motels and railroads,
A dry riverbed, and
La Madrina in the window.
It’s a wailing ghost show,
Weeds and weeping widows. ...
#home
81 reads
6 Comments
Zhivago’s Sidepiece
To hold in trembling hands
His vein of life, blue ice
Cold eyes like radio transmitters
Through space and time and mind
Salvation isn’t cheap
It has a price
Would to become like Prometheus
Jerking his adamantine chains
Free of that stony precipice
The Earth then shuddering
Beneath his iron feet
Pandora was never her name
Nor purity the game
But truth in a lie
Blue eyes hide nothing
Mercy Divine
Ah Pasternak, I feel you brother
His vein of life, blue ice
Cold eyes like radio transmitters
Through space and time and mind
Salvation isn’t cheap
It has a price
Would to become like Prometheus
Jerking his adamantine chains
Free of that stony precipice
The Earth then shuddering
Beneath his iron feet
Pandora was never her name
Nor purity the game
But truth in a lie
Blue eyes hide nothing
Mercy Divine
Ah Pasternak, I feel you brother
#love
#PopCulture
110 reads
5 Comments
A Penchant for Rat Meat
Leonard stumbled stiffly down La Cienega Blvd. as if on stilts, yellow sandals clapping against the soles of his dry calloused feet. A nylon rope held his greasy jeans up, and the ends bounced around his knees. He held a cigarette the way a child would hold onto a pencil, and inhaled deeply on the cheap tobacco.
It smelled rank, like a garbage can or an ashtray that hadn’t been emptied for a week. Yet, he didn’t gag or choke or cough. He blew a small white thin plume of smoke into the air that dissolved like vapor. The concrete was discolored, the asphalt warm, and the sky as...
It smelled rank, like a garbage can or an ashtray that hadn’t been emptied for a week. Yet, he didn’t gag or choke or cough. He blew a small white thin plume of smoke into the air that dissolved like vapor. The concrete was discolored, the asphalt warm, and the sky as...
#horror
#PopCulture
61 reads
4 Comments
Creature, Slave or Captive Prey
Leviathan swims deep;
An ocean rip-tide on Easter morning,
Funneling across the plane of our natural existence,
And all the children scream on cue.
That utter lack of originality
Is the first clue;
So damn banal,
Much more subtle than a pistol shot
To your neighbors head; that's just man
Being man; a pistol shot
To the back of your own head
By your own hand; that's beyond man,
But not dare I say, fresh,
Lucifer, or even that original.
And then, the muddy flesh will surface
Before rolling back...
An ocean rip-tide on Easter morning,
Funneling across the plane of our natural existence,
And all the children scream on cue.
That utter lack of originality
Is the first clue;
So damn banal,
Much more subtle than a pistol shot
To your neighbors head; that's just man
Being man; a pistol shot
To the back of your own head
By your own hand; that's beyond man,
But not dare I say, fresh,
Lucifer, or even that original.
And then, the muddy flesh will surface
Before rolling back...
#evil
#PopCulture
72 reads
0 Comments
As my Newport Gently Weeps
In the pin drop silence
Of a burning cigarette,
There is a moment of transition,
About an inch and a half down,
Where the lust turns to disdain,
And the satisfaction wanes,
And the words that started to fall
Out of the end of my dripping pen
Dissipate with the drifting smoke.
The tobacco remains though,
Earthy and rough,
On the end of my prickling tongue,
As I crumble up the paper in disgust
And throw it away.
Of a burning cigarette,
There is a moment of transition,
About an inch and a half down,
Where the lust turns to disdain,
And the satisfaction wanes,
And the words that started to fall
Out of the end of my dripping pen
Dissipate with the drifting smoke.
The tobacco remains though,
Earthy and rough,
On the end of my prickling tongue,
As I crumble up the paper in disgust
And throw it away.
#frustration
#PopCulture
101 reads
4 Comments
Solar Hoax
What am I
On this mossy shelf of stone
To stand dizzy and gut sick
On this sad salty precipice
And not tear up or despair
A dragon is eating my heart
The swaying between swells
The shadows and rotting hull
The eastward compass jammed
Into the sun
Is this love
The mad crew, leprous
On lawn chairs and opium
Every room an app on a cell phone
While I write of contempt and apostasy
And the dizzy gut sick feeling
Of a man adrift
That Ancient Unknown Mariner
Cast out from the...
On this mossy shelf of stone
To stand dizzy and gut sick
On this sad salty precipice
And not tear up or despair
A dragon is eating my heart
The swaying between swells
The shadows and rotting hull
The eastward compass jammed
Into the sun
Is this love
The mad crew, leprous
On lawn chairs and opium
Every room an app on a cell phone
While I write of contempt and apostasy
And the dizzy gut sick feeling
Of a man adrift
That Ancient Unknown Mariner
Cast out from the...
#dark
#mystery
#despair #PopCulture
#despair #PopCulture
116 reads
4 Comments
In the Garden of Love
The Bumblebee said to the flower
This is my love story
You see my legs full of pollen
How I hang suspended in the air
On every word that rolls off your petals
And down your tender stem
I tremble
In your gaze
Forever
Scoobie
This is my love story
You see my legs full of pollen
How I hang suspended in the air
On every word that rolls off your petals
And down your tender stem
I tremble
In your gaze
Forever
Scoobie
#love
#PopCulture
155 reads
0 Comments
The Cruelest of Months
Stretched across her frail form
I try to feel her underneath me
She comes and goes, waning and waxing waves
In a stormy sea. Abandoned, I’m left alone
A handful of dry kelp
Naked, and in the caked detritus of an ancient beach
Wet crumpled sheets, and ashen flickering lights
Falling through the window
Empty, except for the twitching figure
Huddled in the corner of the bed
Sometimes I hear a brooding violin
Crying from the room next door, bleating like a goat
I long for you, the mirror is empty, the reflection
Just a...
I try to feel her underneath me
She comes and goes, waning and waxing waves
In a stormy sea. Abandoned, I’m left alone
A handful of dry kelp
Naked, and in the caked detritus of an ancient beach
Wet crumpled sheets, and ashen flickering lights
Falling through the window
Empty, except for the twitching figure
Huddled in the corner of the bed
Sometimes I hear a brooding violin
Crying from the room next door, bleating like a goat
I long for you, the mirror is empty, the reflection
Just a...
#grief
#obsession
#oppression #PopCulture
#oppression #PopCulture
125 reads
0 Comments
Death is on Everybody’s Side
The malt liquor light
around you
on this August afternoon
the golden brown hues
Is like a halo
in the doorway
of Mission Santa Inez
on the California Coast
Two perfect glistening teardrops
And your eyes
are like the sad arc welding flash
of a burning electrode
On pot iron
crackling and popping
then stopping and dropping
beads of molten iron and alloy
At my feet
I am a man undone
Your scars, my dreams
I’ll lace...
around you
on this August afternoon
the golden brown hues
Is like a halo
in the doorway
of Mission Santa Inez
on the California Coast
Two perfect glistening teardrops
And your eyes
are like the sad arc welding flash
of a burning electrode
On pot iron
crackling and popping
then stopping and dropping
beads of molten iron and alloy
At my feet
I am a man undone
Your scars, my dreams
I’ll lace...
#love
#sacrifice
#oppression #PopCulture
#oppression #PopCulture
170 reads
0 Comments
My Sunflower Dandelion
It’s forever Easter
With you
And I am nothing
But a water boy
With a stone pot, sandals
Walking up and down a muddy bank
Between a river that flows out of my heart
And you
With you
And I am nothing
But a water boy
With a stone pot, sandals
Walking up and down a muddy bank
Between a river that flows out of my heart
And you
#love
#PopCulture
#oppression
255 reads
2 Comments
Middle Age Mommies
Stiff at first
Just a little
Dry
Like a flower
In the sun at 4pm
The leaves
Soft
Wilted
At the edges
But soft
Like a peach
That’s been dropped
On the kitchen floor
Tears at the spot
Sweet and cool
Where it hit the tile
An embrace
That can take away
Every wound
The world has ever given
Just a little
Dry
Like a flower
In the sun at 4pm
The leaves
Soft
Wilted
At the edges
But soft
Like a peach
That’s been dropped
On the kitchen floor
Tears at the spot
Sweet and cool
Where it hit the tile
An embrace
That can take away
Every wound
The world has ever given
#hope
#despair
#PopCulture
483 reads
6 Comments
The Queen of the Damned is a Smokeshow
I almost ditched
A nice easy gig
For chains and snow drifts
Where all you feel is your chattering teeth
I was so bored
And then thought of you
A letter from the IRS
Whenever I’m cold
I think of you
I think of space
The black holes that were your eyes
And the gravity
The gravity
Cygnus X-1, the Swan
It was still
And tranquil
And so empty
Inside you
And
Not dead
Not alive
I laid there
Barely breathing
For a season
Persephone, Persephone
You’re a...
A nice easy gig
For chains and snow drifts
Where all you feel is your chattering teeth
I was so bored
And then thought of you
A letter from the IRS
Whenever I’m cold
I think of you
I think of space
The black holes that were your eyes
And the gravity
The gravity
Cygnus X-1, the Swan
It was still
And tranquil
And so empty
Inside you
And
Not dead
Not alive
I laid there
Barely breathing
For a season
Persephone, Persephone
You’re a...
#regret
#ImSorry
#betrayal
#escape
#PopCulture
413 reads
2 Comments
DU Poetry : Submissions by crystalcolumz (-Shannon-)