Poetry and other squiggles: April 2018

Monday, 30 April 2018

An Ending

Free bird
Now
Nobody clipping
Me into
Ever decreasing
Possibilities
Free bird
Now
Nobody keeping
Me from
Ever expanding
Realities

Sunday, 29 April 2018

Pockets

Running on salt and ink
And the blood
Of a dozen lost
Lovers
I pack the pain
Into my pockets
And sing another day

April Haiku #8

Love another day
When the misery ascends
Keep your heart closer

Glitch in translation
Between your
Words
And your lack of
Action
And I've tried
Every language
That lives in my lips
To try to break
Through to you
So now my absence
Speaks for me
You only have ears
For her

Thursday, 26 April 2018

The Last Goodbye

You know every
Square millimetre
Of my skin, but
You never knew
The shape of my
Soul, after all this
Time, and now
You're nothing more
To me than
Salt stained lips

Over Troubled Water

Is their vision
So clouded
By delusion
That they are blind
To my humanness?
Because they
Seem to see me
As a bridge
Not a lover

Planes

A love too big
To keep
Under wraps
Under wings
As the green
Of the east
Surrendered
To the blistered
Gold of the south
And blood
Flew me home again

Monday, 23 April 2018

April Haiku #7

This brave one will bleed
Gladly spill all her rubies
Into your blue palms

Don't Even

Don't even
Entertain the thought
Of stepping to me
Unless you colour
Outside the lines
Unless you can keep
Up with this hurricane
Heart, don't even
Start

Appearances

Fat girl
Hard on the inside
Colder than
Betrayal

Silver Tongue

Skin me alive
With words
Of silver
Flay me with
Your knife
Of a tongue
Leave me
Leaking
A bag of meat
And promises

Platinum

He said
I cost too much
So I jacked my
Price even higher
And stood taller
On this old shelf

April Haiku #6

I will never stay
I will be looking for gold
Beneath the torment

Looking Glass

I'd be your mirror
But for my
Brokenness
Making me blurred
And fractured
And you are
Not looking for
Refraction
It distorts your
Desire

Mayhem

I have never been
Your one and only
Meant to be
Together kind of
Woman, no
I'm more than that
I was made for
Passing through
Magic and mayhem
I was made for
This let down
This scarred soul
Of a weekday
Mo(u)rning
What more mischief
We might have made
Had you been
Brave enough
To release

Wings

She's got those
Shaky eyeliner wings
She's got boys
Captivated when she sings
She's got those
Three a.m. friends
She's got boys
Waiting 'round the bend

And every time she
Cleans her face
She seems a little
Out of place
Counting on caffeine
To fill the space
Of her empty heart

These Boys

Tricky beasties
These boys
Egos bigger
Than their integrity
Hunting honey
In all the wrong
Places
Taking me to spaces
Where I just don't fit

Sandpaper

Only I can
Wash this abraded
Lovelorn heart

Only I can
Resurrect this
Diminished body

From the wreckage of hope

Prayers

He wanted
To watch my eyes
As they changed colour
From joy to resignation
He wanted
To watch my lips
As they changed key
From hunger to revulsion
He should be careful
What he wishes for

Elastica

Rubberband woman
Stretched again
By the cycle
The punch down
The push up
The dust off
The courage
To try
Try
Try
Again
Bounceback
Pyrophytic

Queen

With their undercuts
With their rain stained
Bootlegged denims
With their fire
And their cold hands
With their glittering
Hearts
Queens
Every one of them

Broken Bones

The shame
Sits in my ribs
Like wet earth
Whenever
I remember
That he touched me

Heartbreak/Tritina

Slave to the pain
Because you're beautiful
Only when you weep

And open when you weep
Emancipated by the pain
Because it makes you beautiful

You are not beautiful
Enough to make others weep
When all they want is your pain

The beautiful pain that you weep

Homeless

How many times
Can we be discarded?
How much can we endure?
Little more than
A stop-gap measure
Between entrapments
Only to end up
Back in the white noise
Of restlessness

Saturday, 14 April 2018

April Haiku #5

Flagstones bright with rain
Feathers flung with abandon
Welcome the season

Unearthed

Took a lot of years
But she's pushed
Up and through
Unearthed
Paying it forward
Paying it back
To the ones
Whose blood spilled
To nourish her
To the ones
Whose bones bent
To carry her
And in the half light
This half girl
Half creation
Brushes away the soil
From limbs too large
For life
And she rises

Caffeine

It's never just coffee
It's coffee and cannoli
Coffee and creativity
Coffee and the blues
Keeping us up 'til dawn
Scribbling
It's never just coffee
It's coffee and cigarettes
Coffee and a crush
Coffee and kisses
Keeping us up past sundown
Dreaming

Friday, 13 April 2018

#180

Spin half a turn
Around to face
The mirror
See the wounds
Healing
See the pretty eyes
Smiling back at you

Thursday

Walking the streets
Of my city
Strawberry blonde's
Hand in mine
Waiting for rain

April Haiku #4

Let them fall away
Stuttering and unfulfilled
Turn back to the sun

Doll

Hairline fractures
In the porcelain
That's how the blood
Gets under the skin
That's where the light
Ventures forth when
The days blur into
Darkness and
Airlessness

Shapeshifter

She screams for
Blankness
White noise
A new skin
She shifts shape
Daily renewed
Unhindered
By his gaze

April Haiku #3

Evidence of war
Decorating my shoulders
Reflected with love

Three Parts

I like my lovers
In E flat minor
I like my lovers
Watching me
As I scorch the earth
I like my lovers
In cut common time
Syncopated
I like my lovers
I three part harmony
I like my lovers
To wander where they please
But come back to me