Submissions by javalini
POEMS AND SHORT STORIES
SPIRITUAL POEM
Published
23rd Feb 2020 00:58am
23rd Feb 2020 00:58am
EMBRACE
when the body stopped
and my mind
was not even one bright second
going up
and out
but still almost me
spun out, then
as though expanded
and the spark wind borne
and everything
just ash and feathers
and then lighter
still
and not trickle
nor breeze
nor full
nor empty
but finally warm,
rapturous
just before the light went out
and my mind
was not even one bright second
going up
and out
but still almost me
spun out, then
as though expanded
and the spark wind borne
and everything
just ash and feathers
and then lighter
still
and not trickle
nor breeze
nor full
nor empty
but finally warm,
rapturous
just before the light went out
#death
577 reads
12 Comments
OBSERVATIONAL POEM
Published
16th Feb 2020 3:07pm
16th Feb 2020 3:07pm
Regret (for Billy Collins)
There is this sense of the irony here,
and of subtle humor --
clever twists on universal truths
not producing a so-called horselaugh or even a giggle
but more a smirk of acknowledgment
or maybe a snort or a nod
or just a twinkle in the eye
indicating that yes, we get it and yes, it is funny
especially if one likes his humor
dipping a baby toe in the mildly acidic waters of ironic drollery.
Which is, like it or not, where truth often resides.
Because we might as well accept the slapstick antics
involved in...
and of subtle humor --
clever twists on universal truths
not producing a so-called horselaugh or even a giggle
but more a smirk of acknowledgment
or maybe a snort or a nod
or just a twinkle in the eye
indicating that yes, we get it and yes, it is funny
especially if one likes his humor
dipping a baby toe in the mildly acidic waters of ironic drollery.
Which is, like it or not, where truth often resides.
Because we might as well accept the slapstick antics
involved in...
#funny
#philosophical
#BillyCollins
645 reads
10 Comments
MISCELLANEOUS POEM
Published
14th Feb 2020 3:57pm
14th Feb 2020 3:57pm
Unrequited
she kept my good heart in a squat mason jar
and just pulled it out to pick at the scar
and study it's shape amid tokens of love
for mine was just one in a widening trove
and "why" was the question heard moaned from the halls
from men with no hearts and no tongues and no
will to go on and find a new way
"i've cut you all loose, you've no reason to stay"
"but i love you, dear, and want nothing more"
"well, i'm mine to enjoy, but yours to adore"
and that was the truth served icy with spikes
so i stole my heart...
and just pulled it out to pick at the scar
and study it's shape amid tokens of love
for mine was just one in a widening trove
and "why" was the question heard moaned from the halls
from men with no hearts and no tongues and no
will to go on and find a new way
"i've cut you all loose, you've no reason to stay"
"but i love you, dear, and want nothing more"
"well, i'm mine to enjoy, but yours to adore"
and that was the truth served icy with spikes
so i stole my heart...
#love
472 reads
8 Comments
OBSERVATIONAL POEM
Published
13th Feb 2020 3:21pm
13th Feb 2020 3:21pm
work & prayer
When i worked construction
i prayed for rain every day
but, naturally, we were at the front end
of a long drought.
And by the time the sky opened
i was working in a warehouse
stacking huge boxes with a forklift,
praying for some disaster to strike,
wishing for a bolt of lightning
or some malicious winds
to burn the place to a cinder
or at least knock it down.
But it never happened.
I drove a taxi in New York City
and prayed for a blowout
so that i might take a little break.
But though...
i prayed for rain every day
but, naturally, we were at the front end
of a long drought.
And by the time the sky opened
i was working in a warehouse
stacking huge boxes with a forklift,
praying for some disaster to strike,
wishing for a bolt of lightning
or some malicious winds
to burn the place to a cinder
or at least knock it down.
But it never happened.
I drove a taxi in New York City
and prayed for a blowout
so that i might take a little break.
But though...
#satirical
#funny
#confessional
494 reads
5 Comments
MISCELLANEOUS POEM
Published
25th Jan 2020 6:58pm
25th Jan 2020 6:58pm
open mic harmonica solo
harmonica like a baby's wail
like a lonesome train on distant thunder tracks
then a woman mourning
or a man worked too hard and broke,
his sad drunk cry in a night of dark regret
and all his shoulda, wished he woulda
'fore his woman found some other lover and she gone
and then suddenly sweet like that lover's moan
like that honeyed love ache grinding up from deep under
then stomp and swing and blowing
hard into that high lonesome wind song, train song, love song,
rain song, that white water song blowing in groin deep and rushing up,...
like a lonesome train on distant thunder tracks
then a woman mourning
or a man worked too hard and broke,
his sad drunk cry in a night of dark regret
and all his shoulda, wished he woulda
'fore his woman found some other lover and she gone
and then suddenly sweet like that lover's moan
like that honeyed love ache grinding up from deep under
then stomp and swing and blowing
hard into that high lonesome wind song, train song, love song,
rain song, that white water song blowing in groin deep and rushing up,...
#music
397 reads
6 Comments
MISCELLANEOUS POEM
Published
14th Jan 2020 1:54pm
14th Jan 2020 1:54pm
Florsheim Blues
white boys like me
can't sing no blues
ain't paid no dues
ain't got no shoes
with holes in the soles
and knots in the ol' rotten laces
ain't seen no lean times
or mean places
white boys don't know nothin'
'bout ol' man river
come rollin' like a tear
come ripplin' like a finger
'cross the ribs of the soul
ticklin' the soul flesh
muzak makes the white blood thrum
florsheim shoes tap delicate rhythms
on the hardwood floors of suburbia
i seen him jus' walkin'
hot black...
can't sing no blues
ain't paid no dues
ain't got no shoes
with holes in the soles
and knots in the ol' rotten laces
ain't seen no lean times
or mean places
white boys don't know nothin'
'bout ol' man river
come rollin' like a tear
come ripplin' like a finger
'cross the ribs of the soul
ticklin' the soul flesh
muzak makes the white blood thrum
florsheim shoes tap delicate rhythms
on the hardwood floors of suburbia
i seen him jus' walkin'
hot black...
#jealousy
#admiration
417 reads
2 Comments
MISCELLANEOUS POEM
Published
10th Jan 2020 3:37pm
10th Jan 2020 3:37pm
lonnie's prayer
ain't none of them things
what could have been
all what i wished
all what i thought up
and dreamt
and wanted
and hungered for
and this thing
now
can't be shook
and all these years,
all this decrepit self
and these aches
and me so small
and so goddamned ready
i can taste the quiet
and no wiser for any of it,
not really,
and not free even yet
and, lord, if heaven ain't real,
then what?
what could have been
all what i wished
all what i thought up
and dreamt
and wanted
and hungered for
and this thing
now
can't be shook
and all these years,
all this decrepit self
and these aches
and me so small
and so goddamned ready
i can taste the quiet
and no wiser for any of it,
not really,
and not free even yet
and, lord, if heaven ain't real,
then what?
#death
486 reads
4 Comments
OBSERVATIONAL POEM
Published
26th Dec 2019 3:39pm
26th Dec 2019 3:39pm
On God's Little Acre
God owns twenty-odd mobile homes
on a sandlot near the highway
where poor people live.
Not many Mexicans these days
but, as always, poor whites.
Single mothers.
Losers.
Jail birds.
Bag whores.
Misfits.
The chronically poor and unemployed.
Everybody tries to live
a halfway decent life
and still have enough to pay the rent.
A little beer.
Diapers for the baby.
A happy meal for the boy.
Cigarettes.
Gasoline.
God has a zero tolerance policy when
it comes to the rent.
He...
on a sandlot near the highway
where poor people live.
Not many Mexicans these days
but, as always, poor whites.
Single mothers.
Losers.
Jail birds.
Bag whores.
Misfits.
The chronically poor and unemployed.
Everybody tries to live
a halfway decent life
and still have enough to pay the rent.
A little beer.
Diapers for the baby.
A happy meal for the boy.
Cigarettes.
Gasoline.
God has a zero tolerance policy when
it comes to the rent.
He...
#bullying
#homelessness
#poverty
470 reads
0 Comments
SPIRITUAL POEM
Published
5th Dec 2019 4:21pm
5th Dec 2019 4:21pm
Nowhere
this red dirt road
these thistles gone brown and gold
on a high bank where it curves
up past Shumpert's trailer
the tangle of woods there
its ragged beauty like a secret
whispered
pine to pine to sycamore
to green oak and laurel
and to what small life forages amid tangled roots
or rests on grey branches bared to autumn's chill
and all of this mine in these quick minutes
and these words like a prayer of gratitude
these thistles gone brown and gold
on a high bank where it curves
up past Shumpert's trailer
the tangle of woods there
its ragged beauty like a secret
whispered
pine to pine to sycamore
to green oak and laurel
and to what small life forages amid tangled roots
or rests on grey branches bared to autumn's chill
and all of this mine in these quick minutes
and these words like a prayer of gratitude
#gratitude
522 reads
4 Comments
MISCELLANEOUS POEM
Published
21st Nov 2019 9:13pm
21st Nov 2019 9:13pm
Diva
you said all you ever wanted was to be a woman
and you came about as close as a man can get.
hormone therapy.
silicone breasts.
electrolysis.
a stylish coiffure.
the works.
like a sculpture of a woman.
like a method actor
immersed in the part,
holding your cigarette just so,
sitting down to pee,
crossing your skinny legs at the knee
to show a bit of perfumed thigh.
we call 'em like we see 'em.
in the bar nobody recognized the truth.
you perched on that stool, basking in the back lit...
and you came about as close as a man can get.
hormone therapy.
silicone breasts.
electrolysis.
a stylish coiffure.
the works.
like a sculpture of a woman.
like a method actor
immersed in the part,
holding your cigarette just so,
sitting down to pee,
crossing your skinny legs at the knee
to show a bit of perfumed thigh.
we call 'em like we see 'em.
in the bar nobody recognized the truth.
you perched on that stool, basking in the back lit...
#relationships
536 reads
4 Comments
MISCELLANEOUS POEM
Published
8th Nov 2019 2:32pm
8th Nov 2019 2:32pm
Katie
i am broken in the right places now
hollowed
and light as wind,
and all my memories swirled
and all my words
and all my wordless thoughts
and secret wishes
and him gone on
and her gone
and all my days gone, too
and one still wonders why
you would bring me here
and coddle me
and call me sweet girl
just to set me loose
when we all know how it ends
hollowed
and light as wind,
and all my memories swirled
and all my words
and all my wordless thoughts
and secret wishes
and him gone on
and her gone
and all my days gone, too
and one still wonders why
you would bring me here
and coddle me
and call me sweet girl
just to set me loose
when we all know how it ends
#TruthOfLife
556 reads
4 Comments
EROTIC POEM
Published
22nd Oct 2019 4:44pm
22nd Oct 2019 4:44pm
three
#erotic
#lover
#passion
884 reads
2 Comments
DU Poetry : Submissions by javalini
