Submissions by dwells
POEMS AND SHORT STORIES
Poet Introduction
I'm trying to find my voice, but there are so many! And my style is best described as amorphous presently; bordering on controversial, didactic, prophetic, pedantic, and sometimes saccharin nice too!
Greed
Greed was his name
and his disciples were many
He ruled from the abyss
while they pillaged and prospered
All acolytes paid homage
to the dark angel of corruption
and stored up earthly treasures
for their temporary gain
Insatiable Greed soon triumphed
broke the banks and markets
with the world held in his thrall
Punishing the courageous few
who dared to stand against him
Silencing the rest of the sheep
lest they share of the same fate
Until nothing remained
A world in chaos
Civilizations crumbled
empires tumbled,...
and his disciples were many
He ruled from the abyss
while they pillaged and prospered
All acolytes paid homage
to the dark angel of corruption
and stored up earthly treasures
for their temporary gain
Insatiable Greed soon triumphed
broke the banks and markets
with the world held in his thrall
Punishing the courageous few
who dared to stand against him
Silencing the rest of the sheep
lest they share of the same fate
Until nothing remained
A world in chaos
Civilizations crumbled
empires tumbled,...
677 reads
2 Comments
Your Baby Looks Odd
Poets are very sensitive
And creative people -
Or so I’m told
Just don’t offer a comment
That’s less than pure gold
Golly gee, awesome
And the imagery was superb
Sucked up like a vacuum
In a judgmental world
Criticism, be it constructive
Or veiled in verbiage
Amounts to an assault
On their intellectual courage
Much akin to telling
A new mother
In the grace of God:
“Gee your newborn baby -
Looks odd”
And creative people -
Or so I’m told
Just don’t offer a comment
That’s less than pure gold
Golly gee, awesome
And the imagery was superb
Sucked up like a vacuum
In a judgmental world
Criticism, be it constructive
Or veiled in verbiage
Amounts to an assault
On their intellectual courage
Much akin to telling
A new mother
In the grace of God:
“Gee your newborn baby -
Looks odd”
644 reads
6 Comments
Planktonic
We roam the dark abyssal plain
Safe from the optic nerve and brain
Unsanctified spirits in the silt of centuries
Vents and fissures where the crust is thin
Bubble and boil with the ancient sin
Warming the Stygian sleep of the slumbering worm
While rivers drain the murdered land
Carried bones in a mighty hand
To the shining sea in a sedimentary sludge
A briny bath of gore and jeers
Deadly days turn into dying years
While capricious currents and callous crustaceans disturb us
Until at last returning home
Become as legend in...
Safe from the optic nerve and brain
Unsanctified spirits in the silt of centuries
Vents and fissures where the crust is thin
Bubble and boil with the ancient sin
Warming the Stygian sleep of the slumbering worm
While rivers drain the murdered land
Carried bones in a mighty hand
To the shining sea in a sedimentary sludge
A briny bath of gore and jeers
Deadly days turn into dying years
While capricious currents and callous crustaceans disturb us
Until at last returning home
Become as legend in...
640 reads
9 Comments
The Last of His Kind
Proud warriors from a past, when their nation was robust and vibrant
Thinned by the scythe of time and the calloused hand of fate
History records few memories of many battles against a brutal tyrant
Blown as dust into wind, howling through some broken gate
Warnings went unheeded from the prophets, patriots, and priests
Selfishness and greed replaced the charity and sharing
Wealth surpassed wisdom in value, to lost souls and crass beasts
All the while the children became surly and uncaring
Religion was debased and defiled when it conflicted with the...
Thinned by the scythe of time and the calloused hand of fate
History records few memories of many battles against a brutal tyrant
Blown as dust into wind, howling through some broken gate
Warnings went unheeded from the prophets, patriots, and priests
Selfishness and greed replaced the charity and sharing
Wealth surpassed wisdom in value, to lost souls and crass beasts
All the while the children became surly and uncaring
Religion was debased and defiled when it conflicted with the...
604 reads
4 Comments
Lady
She lives in the river
Drifting on gentle currents
While the water sings her lonely song
Yet whiskered catfish are her friends
And the crayfish tickle her toes
While painted turtles watch
Even though it’s been years
Since I fell in her river uninvited
Legs tangled in wisps of green elodea
Holding my breath and seeing
The surface so far above me
I know that she is still there
On the river bank I return
To sit and stare at my reflection
And to see her sweet face
Beside my worn one
While the crayfish
Tickle my toes
Drifting on gentle currents
While the water sings her lonely song
Yet whiskered catfish are her friends
And the crayfish tickle her toes
While painted turtles watch
Even though it’s been years
Since I fell in her river uninvited
Legs tangled in wisps of green elodea
Holding my breath and seeing
The surface so far above me
I know that she is still there
On the river bank I return
To sit and stare at my reflection
And to see her sweet face
Beside my worn one
While the crayfish
Tickle my toes
1040 reads
10 Comments
Angelic
A lonely old farmer with feet of clay
Found an angel asleep in a stack of hay
She tried to escape when he tried to feel her
He vowed to the sky that he would steal her
He bound her in chains, to make her stay
And marveled at her through the night and day
She broke his heart when she cried in pain
But he was gentle, and loved her again
He clipped her wings and called it fate
His precious angel, harboring the hate
That would be his end, when she had her way
Her earthbound jailer, she soon would repay
She climbed a tall tree in the...
Found an angel asleep in a stack of hay
She tried to escape when he tried to feel her
He vowed to the sky that he would steal her
He bound her in chains, to make her stay
And marveled at her through the night and day
She broke his heart when she cried in pain
But he was gentle, and loved her again
He clipped her wings and called it fate
His precious angel, harboring the hate
That would be his end, when she had her way
Her earthbound jailer, she soon would repay
She climbed a tall tree in the...
667 reads
8 Comments
To Walter!
Stars fell from the roof of heaven
That warm and humid summer night
And in their falling the empty sky
Wept for the loss of diamond light
Into the vastness of the velvet void
Winking out on their journey now complete
Virginal as the girl with the proud nipples
Reclining coyly in my front bucket seat
Double feature at the drive-in tonight
And the first feature was almost over
Lips wandering and ravaging fragrant flesh
Like a hawk with his talons in a plover
Sweating profusely and steaming the windows
Intermission – get some...
That warm and humid summer night
And in their falling the empty sky
Wept for the loss of diamond light
Into the vastness of the velvet void
Winking out on their journey now complete
Virginal as the girl with the proud nipples
Reclining coyly in my front bucket seat
Double feature at the drive-in tonight
And the first feature was almost over
Lips wandering and ravaging fragrant flesh
Like a hawk with his talons in a plover
Sweating profusely and steaming the windows
Intermission – get some...
756 reads
5 Comments
Savior
The vision he beheld he could not name
While around him fell both friend and foe
Kneeling in the billowing smoke and flame
This child then clasped his hands and prayed
Unto the heavens he swore his only name
Child of reason with a message for them all
Walked the wounded world then to proclaim
Lest hope be gone the while, he did not tarry
Virtuous hearts and minds he did inflame
A simple message carried across all lands
And who he was, I never knew his name
Yet he spoke truth to all the tribes of Man
While around him fell both friend and foe
Kneeling in the billowing smoke and flame
This child then clasped his hands and prayed
Unto the heavens he swore his only name
Child of reason with a message for them all
Walked the wounded world then to proclaim
Lest hope be gone the while, he did not tarry
Virtuous hearts and minds he did inflame
A simple message carried across all lands
And who he was, I never knew his name
Yet he spoke truth to all the tribes of Man
601 reads
6 Comments
Fathers Promise
What coarse creature could thrill to Pluto’s brutal rape of fair Persephone,
Or walk a daughter down the aisle and give her to a stranger with serenity?
What surly madman would recklessly drive you off a pleasant country road
For slowing down his mad rush to arrive at some dark and shuttered abode?
Erecting a spike-topped fence, to keep his belongings behind a locked door
Then going to church on Sunday, and giving generous offerings to the poor
Laying up treasures on earth; taking miserly pleasure in all he can possess
Coming home to greet his lonely cat, with...
Or walk a daughter down the aisle and give her to a stranger with serenity?
What surly madman would recklessly drive you off a pleasant country road
For slowing down his mad rush to arrive at some dark and shuttered abode?
Erecting a spike-topped fence, to keep his belongings behind a locked door
Then going to church on Sunday, and giving generous offerings to the poor
Laying up treasures on earth; taking miserly pleasure in all he can possess
Coming home to greet his lonely cat, with...
632 reads
3 Comments
Lone Wolf
They come from afar for many reasons, but mostly for themselves.
They are the first of a very new breed; from places frozen in time.
Courageous souls, to venture so far from the familiar.
Pioneer spirits, smug in self-righteous superiority.
Remember that only the old ways are the good ways, yet to survive -
Give nothing back, take all that is offered, and demand more!
Lone wolf, to leave the pack and travel to a far off place.
Selfish in your sacrifice; ever wary of the competition.
Lone wolf from over there, to live and to prosper here.
Keep your...
They are the first of a very new breed; from places frozen in time.
Courageous souls, to venture so far from the familiar.
Pioneer spirits, smug in self-righteous superiority.
Remember that only the old ways are the good ways, yet to survive -
Give nothing back, take all that is offered, and demand more!
Lone wolf, to leave the pack and travel to a far off place.
Selfish in your sacrifice; ever wary of the competition.
Lone wolf from over there, to live and to prosper here.
Keep your...
793 reads
4 Comments
Death in a Poisoned World
Thin skinned and not quite a reptile
No scales and not quite a fish
Singing your serenade nightly
Lovers seeking a tryst
Only a memory now
Of childhood places from the past
When the moon was full and we were young
And the magic, over all was cast
Sensual serenades from bug-eating throats
Choruses up from the pond
Now stilled forever by an unseen hand
And our children cannot comprehend
When we reminisce and speak of the beauty
Under the stars; with a young girl at our side
Listening to life from the mud of a swamp...
No scales and not quite a fish
Singing your serenade nightly
Lovers seeking a tryst
Only a memory now
Of childhood places from the past
When the moon was full and we were young
And the magic, over all was cast
Sensual serenades from bug-eating throats
Choruses up from the pond
Now stilled forever by an unseen hand
And our children cannot comprehend
When we reminisce and speak of the beauty
Under the stars; with a young girl at our side
Listening to life from the mud of a swamp...
635 reads
2 Comments
The Scarlet Sea
A sanguine sea yet underneath
The sharks there all have rubber teeth
And only eat the jellyfish
Visible in a Petri dish
Scarlet waves in throbbing motion
Moon holds no sway in this ocean
The salty sea inside of me
Pumping for my eternity
My scarlet sea has sprung a leak!
I feel it flowing as I grow weak
I think that I’m about to hurl
Don’t you want to be a girl?
The sharks there all have rubber teeth
And only eat the jellyfish
Visible in a Petri dish
Scarlet waves in throbbing motion
Moon holds no sway in this ocean
The salty sea inside of me
Pumping for my eternity
My scarlet sea has sprung a leak!
I feel it flowing as I grow weak
I think that I’m about to hurl
Don’t you want to be a girl?
688 reads
8 Comments
DU Poetry : Submissions by dwells