Touch From Far Away

Texts seem so tactileless

Emails have no scent

But I can feel
where you touched
smell your scent
on the latter
the card
postcard
you’ve held in your hands

and I can remember
the sense
of you
holding
me

June 30, 2020

Day 85 of 100

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Pure And Honed

No one stays white

No one keeps their shine

The trick
is to keep cleaning

June 29, 2020

Day 84 of 100
#The100DayProject

Prompt: use the last line of another poem as the first line/inspiration for a new poem (used the last line of "Stay Clean Stay Sharp" for the title).

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True And Through

Hold on to right
to make it through
any fight

June 28, 2020

Day 83 of 100
#The100DayProject

Prompt: use the last line of a another poem for the first line/inspiration for a new poem (used the last line of "Defenders In Your Block" for title).

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Sharper Love

We’d stay sharper too
if we watched each others’ sixes
by checking each others’ hate

Innocence trumps ancient brotherhoods

You’re not helping anyone
if you turn away
as someone hides
behind collar and cross
badge and shield

Upholding the law
stopping the sin
requires a love
that’s willing to bleed

Fight for Right

June 27, 2020

Day 82 of 100

Prompt: use the last line of another poem as the first line/inspiration for a new poem (used the last line of "Blocked").

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Someone Here

I want someone there
to seize my thighs
for the fourth-fortieth-four hundredth
time

I don’t want you to be
a pock on my bedpost

I want to be the one
who rolls over you
with you
in the dark
and
makes you laugh
in the day

The someone here
for you

June 26, 2020

Day 81 of 100

Prompt: use the last line of another poem as the first line/inspiration for a new poem (used last line of "Someone There"). 

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Last And First

The last time I believed you
was the first time I saw my life without you
and smiled

June 25, 2020

Day 80 of 100

Prompt: use the last line of a previous poem as the first line/inspiration for a new poem (used last line of "Love You Lie").

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March To The End Of Madness

We become the halos they never wanted
we become
the words
they cannot say
the deeds
they cannot do

We march
to give their lives
meaning
to make their deaths
meaningful

Until those halos
make laws
and
become love

June 24, 2020

Day 79 of 100

Prompt: use last line of another poem to begin/inspire a new poem (used last line of "Unintentional Saints").

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Is This Just Fantasy

My beautiful killer of sleep
he rolls over
onto
into
me
the man of my dreams

June 23, 2020

Day 78 of 100

Prompt: use the last line of another poem as the first line/inspiration for a new poem (used last line from "Dexter Diving").

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Mine

Until it actually becomes home
I’ll work each square foot
move a little bit of my heart there
a tiny remembrance of my childhood here
and soon
all will be in order
all will reflect me
my refuge
my fortress
my peace

June 22, 2020

Day 77 of 100

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A Little Piece Of My Heart Now

A cut piece
for the first time
someone you cared about
laughed at you

A chopped bit
for the first time
someone you loved
betrayed you

Divided
minced
grated

for every
lie
abuse
use
an amount is removed

and the worst part is
the butchers either
don’t know
or
don’t care

June 21, 2020

Day 76 of 100

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Postcard

Something small
something thin
a low grade picture on one side
your everything written on the other

An old fashioned way
to touch someone
far away

June 20, 2020

Day 75 of 100

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Stay Clean Stay Sharp

Wash yourself

Run yourself through

Remove the small shards
that can cause big problems

Rinse away
the unneeded

Dry thoroughly
let no dampness
invite rot

Pure
and
honed

June 19, 2020

Day 74 of 100

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Defenders In Your Block

Pull one out
Flip it over
ready to cut
true
and
through

June 18, 2020

Day 73 of 100

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Blocked

Spine down

Blade up

Maybe if we went through life like that
we’d stay sharper longer too

June 17, 2020

Day 72 of 100

Prompt:: Bought my first knives/block set and googled which was the best way to keep the knives in the block, spine up/blade down or the reverse (it's the reverse as it helps delay dulling).

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Someone There

I’d be a fool
to give
the tune of my heart
the boot

But often
I’m a knot
my feet
all tied up

I don’t want to be
a-tap-that-
pack-kit-up-
and-gone
another pock on a bedpost

I want someone there
to seize my thighs
for the fourth-fortieth-four hundredth
time

June 16, 2020

Day 71 of 100

Prompt: use Boot, Tune, Fool, But, Feet, Knot, Kit, Top, Pock, Seize, Fourth, Thighs in a poem.

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Love You Lie

“I love you
I don’t
want to lose
you
I just
don’t want
to work
at the relationship
anymore”

When
did lying
become
a difficulty
for you

The first time I cried
or
the last time I believed you

June 15, 2020

Day 70 of 100

Prompt: write about the end of something.

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Unintentional Saints

Beaten
because
of love

Choked
because
of color

Left tied
to a fence

A symbol
of separation

Crushed
to the ground

on which
we all walk

Would they
have accepted the crimes
against them
if they had known
the destinies
of their deaths

Their ends
so much pain
so little air
their horrors
pulled us
together

All loves
All colors
embracing

We become
the halos
they never
wanted

June 14, 2020

Day 69 of 100
#The100DayProject

Idea from a discussion with the Muze about unintentional saints (her term) Matthew Shepard and George Floyd

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Dexter Diving

I am ready for sleep
but unable
to crawl into its embrace

Pillows propped
but not too high
lights off
fan on
but not too fast
tv on
but not too loud
captions running

I jump
into a favorite
hoping to dive
so deep
I cannot
come up
til morn

I see the light
around the door
through the window

Is that really
the sun
the rising morn

And is that
my alarm
interrupting
my beautiful
killer
of sleep

June 13, 2020

Day 68 of 100
#The100DayProject

Prompt: write about a sleepless night.


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Shelter From The Storm

Here I am
in a place
that has never
felt like home

No place
has ever
felt like home

except home

and those roots
are gone

So I must
force
the growth
down
wrapping tendrils
around every
grain
by redecorating
the petals
reshaping
the leaves

I’ll make it
home
because I want it to be
home
until it actually becomes
home

June 12, 2020

Day 67 of 100
#The100DayProject

Prompt: write a poem about a time you were thankful for shelter from a storm.

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Hospital Cafeteria Patience

The family celebrating
every bite of
dry day old cake
that tastes like
the delicious cry of a new born

The old man
sipping his
bitter coffee
swallowing the news
terminal cancer

The couple
eating in mechanical silence
knowing
they won’t know
for weeks

The women
chatty
companionable
they just like the food

June 11, 2020

Day 66 of 100
#The100DayProject

Prompt: write about people eating in a school or hospital cafeteria.

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Coffin Case

It’s in there
upright
protected from the elements
protected from use

Strings
like bridges waiting to be crossed

Keys
waiting to be
tuned
locked
unlocked
touched

I fret
that my fingers
won’t remember
how to caress the board

A rise from the dead
hinges
only on desire
and continued life
on dedication

Rise

Rise

June 10, 2020

Day 65 of 100

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Dishes, Daisies, And Darkness

I have the time
but the dishes
aren’t getting done

They can wait
where they sit

My desk is covered
with books
other peoples’ ideas
notes
my own momentary inspiration
pens and paper
wanting nothing but my touch

I doubt the daisies will last long
in this heat
and I long
for the cold darkness

June 9, 2020

Day 64 of 100
#The100DayProject

Prompt: use Desk, Daisies, Desk, Darkness in a poem.

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Freaks Under The Big Top


The Speaker
says what they think

The Believer
believes everyone
says what they think

The Lover
never lied
in word, deed, or silence
to get laid

The Thinker
knows that normal
doesn’t equal nice

June 8, 2020

Day 63 of 100
#The100DayProject

Prompt: write about circus performers.

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God's Guitar

A broken bottle
a lost message
a broken pick
a lost lyric
Recreate the melody
recreate the ocean
Play god
writing in stone
Play muse
swimming in song

June 7, 2020

Day 62 of 100
#The100DayProject

Prompt: write about a broken bottle and a guitar pick.

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The Truth Of Poison

One bite
that’s all it took
the sweet
the tang
down their throats
spreading
slithering
through their organs
coiling
in their brains

Lungs
rattling
the air
becoming fuller

The apple of their eyes
ripens red

Suddenly
the garden
is so small
the tree
is not enough

They lose
a false paradise
and gain

everything

June 6, 2020

Day 61 of 100

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The Ball Builds The Prison

You’ll hear me
before you see me
my bouncing step
on the gym floor

The clap
of my synthetic skin
against the hands
of a rival

I make no sound
through the air
but you’ll hear
tires peeling out

The slap
against your body
your flesh
the sting
of every
high school cruelty
welts
worms its way in
through the bruising
of all the bullies

I fall away
leaving that
smell of rubber
on you
in you

And you know
I’ll be back
flying
at your head

June 5, 2020

Day 60 of 100

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The Taste Of Black

Warm
like falling asleep
wrapped around your lover

Cold
like the moment
your lover loves another

Soft
like the period
at the end of a poem

Hard
like the block
that stops your pen

Bitter
like the words
you use to cut another

Sweet
like the sound of
I forgive you

June 4, 2020

Day 59 of 100

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The Hate March


So many come out 
some walking through doors
they may never have opened before

Hand in hand
Tears in tears
down the streets of America

But this is not a parade
this is a march

But this is not a handshake
this is a fist
raised to the sky

But this is not crying for joy
this is drops of anger
this is drops of pain
drops of frustration
disgust
despair

A hurricane hundreds of years in the making
willing to blow through an airborne poison
that doesn’t care about our colors

And this is not just down streets
in America
but forward into the futures
of us

Where will we go
as a country?

Forward into the past
forever chained to the cruelty
of ignorance?

Where will we go
as humans?

Will we always be
running in a race divided
parallel
never one?

Our sons and daughters

Our brothers and sisters

Our fathers and mothers

Our family

Our species

Our hate

The wrong ones are being murdered

There are no right ones to die

This is not
us against them

This is us
against it

We must move forward
as one
or
together
we will stay where we are

June 3, 2020

Day 58 of 100

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Masks And InstaPots


Half faces
half lives
half in
half out

Our eyes can see
our mouths can’t speak

Pandemic
Black
and
Blue

Orange is the new old hate
and flags of our fornicators
whip in the poison air

We stew in fear
cook in our own juices
fall into the fire on the streets
boil in an instant

Shadow casting our own existences

Virus of infection
virus of stupidity
which one will end us

Not even the Shadow knows

June 2, 2020

Day 57 of 100

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The Milk Of Human Kindness


Milk over mace
fairies in the face of phobias
pink elephants parading around prejudice
guardian angels holding back congregations
Humor
Humanity
Kindness
pour it on the bigots
the Nazis
the zealots
wear them down
and win

June 1, 2020

Day 56 of 100

Protester plays "Pink Elephants On Parade" on sousaphone behind KKK March

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