Will place all poems here for this poetry month. This will be updated for every addition until it has grown.

#tablescraps
Mother told me stories of
How hungry she would 
Be sleeping without supper
Her stomach tying knots

Because he was too proud to work
Having gambled away the Queen’s pension

You see,
His family came from a well of money
He thought would never run dry

But his fiesta siesta lifestyle 
Turned into a Riches to Rags deal
And he was hooked on the wheel
Always turning

A Jack of no Trades 
Playing jacks in the dark
Getting swallowed by sharks

Craps at the table
Left nothing but scraps
And nine mouths to feed

Mother,
Being one.

☠️  #correspondingwithghosts
A new goth club fever has me
Corresponding with ghosts
Emerging from 
The streets of Old Vienna
Back from the 90s
When we were all vampires 
Bearing our souls to bartenders at the Alibi  
Where we drank our lullabies at bay 
Under the twinkle twinkle of little stars 
Shining under moonshine
We were babes then all rushing time with our feet 
Nursing at the korova milk bar 
Kicking beer cans in the street 
And then we grew down and died
Domestic 
But now an empty nest 
Has this bird flying the coop
Free from the emptiness of 
Domestication
And my ghost is alive 
On the hunt and haunt 
For old droogs and new  
          Deathrock


#morningrainforgiven
It rained late October before
My birthday when he ran out
To bathe and bask in the sun
Like he would always do

And always he would come home 
Before the night fell
But the dark clouds overhead spilled
Over the sky painting shadows

And for some reason I thought
He had returned with his sister
Already warm in the house
So I closed the window and withdrew

And moving into the morning
He was nowhere to be found
Until two days later on a road not too far
Where I stopped and screamed and cried

Mad, having closed the window
That could have kept 
Him out of the ground 
And I,                    Not unforgiven


#anotherwordforsalvation
I thought I was grown up          at 23
Signing away my freedom 
To fulfill a patriotic 	             duty

Gentlemen callers 
Would walk
Me to my door

And once, 
      I found my name
Etched on a desk and 	 I
Felt flattery

But when I came home	 I
Forgot all that 	freedom
When 
He asked for my hand

And our friends warned me
 Of course, 	I
Did not listen

I guess 	I 
Was afraid to be
Alone

But at 24 
Before our son’s	            1st year
He went to prison

And when he got out
He went home		 to 
   someotherwoman


I was so distraught 
then	I	
Did not know

Divorce was                         JUST

Another Word for	SALVATION 

#borderline
Flowers on newspaper
Headlines:
“Ukrainian woman says,
 Russian troops should carry seeds so 
Flowers grow where they die”
Grandma crossed the line.
Meanwhile,
President vladimir putin is a tyrant to
	Put in
		Perspective

An unstable neurotic narcissist suffering from Inferiority
Complex diminishing into a Stereo-
Censored podcast
Typical -over
  Compensating bully

In other words,
Just another slave soul reaching for the sky in Dostoevsky 
Like he’s 
-something
Nuclear.
Deity.
Hungry as a hoarder crossing the border
Lines and ready to
Blow.
Flowers.

#borderline
I once read that Winston Churchill once said, 
“Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”
And then I lost my mind like Madonna in borderline.
	

#borderline #conspiringwithghosts
Remember that time Atwood fleshed 
Aunt Lydia Out
To be more than a monster molded by the patriarch
Beyond the Handmaid’s Tale ?

Was Becka’s demise
A dark nod to the girl 
Fished out from the water tank of 
Cecil’s dark tower?

The water stank
And everyone drank 
A piece of her

Flavor in their mouths 
Metallic

They fleshed her out and played elevator games
Conspiring with ghosts

All because she tied her fate to a rock 
And drowned

Her body
A bloated eucharist
To be sacrificed to tall tales

I imagine her skipping 
The sidewalks of skidrow

Past the newspaper blankets  mixed in with 
The stench of piss and 
Dirty little secrets

Crossing borders and 
Borderlines 
In a search party
For herself and
People looking

She must have been 
Manic 

In her own Femme
Fatale
Nizm

Manic from the fix to fix those nights with no sleeping.
Manic off a cocktail of pills meant to keep her
Demons at bay
Instead of opening the lid.

She must not have read the fine print.


#messageinabottle
Lost was the
Message in a bottle
Of Prozac

When prescription turned into
Manslaughter
In her manic state

Michelle Carter
Couldn’t read Coco’s
      SOS

Believing death
      the answer
To his distress

But all he needed was an
Ear not an end
      Because he was afraid

Instead of throwing a lifeline
She sent him a text to
Get back in 
the

      F CK

And the generator was generous
That day in the truck.

#landscape
Sometime in the year 864
A mountain spat
Blackening the forest floor

The sounds soaked deep
Where the darkness sat
Until they were heard no more

In that landscape of no escape
A sea of trees blossomed
Blooming with despair

Beneath a stone
A moan
A groan
A sigh

And flowing with the wind was
A lock of someone’s hair

Sometimes a rope
A vine
A cry

In this place the hopeless hope
To die

Sometime in the year 1886
A man jilted with love
Said farewell

Beneath a trunk
He left a poem
Then wandered into hell

#roadsidedistraction
She was just a roadside distraction
Tom picked up from some run down
Auto shop from the Valley of Ashes

Wishing she was a phoenix rising
From the fire as she
Burned with desire
For some real good breeding

And he really wanted to give it to her
Like he gave it to his wife

Because he liked his material 
Girls
Lavishly in love 
With luxury and pearls
Always needing

	But rich boys don’t marry poor girls
Had she known she wouldn’t have ran into the
Street
Where she was swept off her 
	Feet
By a delicate Daisy
Driving like a demon in heat

With a speed to match all greed
Leaving her to bleed
Like crazy 

On that road where she became a different type of 
          roadside distraction


#moralityplays
The devil whispers poison
Promises as empty as the air
Making Faustus’ ears burn 
To sin
For might and magic

They seal a blood pact 
Followed by despair 
Too late for us to learn 
His end 
Terrible and tragic 

And so, 

The cards are dealt 
The doctor sins
The heavens melt 
The devil wins 

All in all 
Morality plays us all
Like fools on the stage 
To clap and rage 

Remember what Stoppard said
In Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

“We are actors. 
We’re the opposite of people.”

#thewordsbetweenus
The words between us 
Digs a distance like a hole
Holding your disdain

“Kill yourself,” you said 
Hurtful words with no power 
Now I’m dead to you 

One day when I’m gone
You will look back at the time 
You killed your mother 

#emptysuitcase
Nobody knows
An empty suitcase was a quick fix
For the child-like mother 
To smuggle her children
Into the apartment 
To lower the rent

Nobody knows
She fooled around 
Had too many kids
And all the deadbeat dads 
Split her dreams
Dejected

Nobody knows
The eldest son was put 
In charge to be a man
While she disappeared
For a new lover 
New life

Nobody knows
She had cut the children  off
Along with the electricity
And they ran out of cup-o- noodles
So had to run into the streets

Until EVERYBODY knew 
                                    But did nothing

Nobody knows 
One of them fell off a stool
And died 
And an empty suitcase 
Made a great coffin to put her in
Along with her favorite chocolates

*Based on the film “Nobody Knows” by Hirokazu Koreeda, 2004


#windowtablechair
My eyes peek through a window 
Like I am walking in a dream
Because I had to wake-up at 3 AM
This  morning 
To catch a flight 
A weekend trip
To Denver
Because whatever
And then back home
To San Diego
Where the laptop sat
On table
Waiting with emails
To check
And lists 
To make
And check-off
While you sit on a chair
And wish sleep will 
Finally meet you
On your pillow.
Sweet dreams, Moon
Window
Table
Chair

#windowtablechairs
When I was a kid at school
I remember looking
Out the window
With my ears 
Stinging

In the wake of alarms
Ringing

Me down 
On my knees
Under the table
Moving away my chair

THEN we were taught to
Wait and be Still
And Line up

But the lesson’s changed to
Run out the windows
Hide and barricade those doors with tables
Fight and weaponize those chairs

RUN
HIDE
& FIGHT

For your life like it depends on it
Because it might
And maybe will

NOW drills are more than just
Earthquakes and Fire

Arms have been added
Loaded with a shooter’s desire
To actively kill

Now that ghost guns are sold like candy
We’re stuck with memories like Columbine and Sandy
With a side of Thoughts & Prayers

Instead of just memories of
Looking out windows 
Getting under tables
And moving chairs

#seentogether
Seen together
With his butcher
Stumbling down
Milwaukee Street

A brown boy fled
His butcher’s bed

And when they found him
He was almost dead
On his feet

On his wrists were
Handcuffs dangling

His destiny set for
Later strangling

There could have been 
A rescue
When he ran into
The men in blue 

But his killer
Undercover
Claimed he was
His lover

And cops claimed
They had no clue
To discover

So they sent 
The poor boy back
To slaughter

All because they believed
In Dahmer

Seen together
With his butcher
Stumbling down
Milwaukee Street

A brown boy fled
His butcher’s bed

And was never seen whole again.

#straypostit
A password on
That stray
Post it

Glued
To your monitor
Fell on the floor

Luck smiled on you
When the janitor came in
And swept it in the trash

For God’s sake,
Get a password manager
Learn some security awareness

#straypostit
My words had a love affair 
With a stray post it

I found them naked on my desk
She laid her ink on his paper skin
Chicken scribbles 
And he was square, fickle, and thin
Sticking to whatever came his way
But his glue was weak 
And he was easy to crumple

They deserved each other
A poetry of trash


#flail
Be careful with the flail 
Its a danger to its user 
It gains momentum 
With the weight of its head

Use it wrong you’ll fail
Not only will you be a loser 

But that ball and chain
Can bash your brain
                  And in sum,
You’ll end up dead

So be careful with that flail
And choose PEACE not WAR
Instead 

#firstword 
I gave my first word 
Away to my mother 
And it was filthy 

She made me 
Lock it out of the house
After washing my mouth
With Irish Spring

My tongue hates
The taste of clean


#lostinspace
They called me Buzz
As in Lightyear
Said I was out of this world 
Lost in the space 
Between my ears 

They caught me looking
Out the windows 
Or up at ceiling fans 
And assumed 

I paid no regard 
To their idle gossip 
Or the lesson plans 

And as it was true 
I spent time swinging on stars
And collecting moonbeams 
To take home later 
I was able to still 

Use gravity as my guide 
As I planted my feet
To the ground 
So I didn’t mind being

Called a space cadet 
As I knew I was 
An astronaut in training

#baitandswitch
The entire time I knew him
He never once showed 
Interest in religion

So it was a surprise
When he invited me to a
Bible Club meeting

I said yes because
I had nothing else to do
And I was curious

I sat in the circle 
Expecting to hear 
How he found Jesus

Instead, he laughed
And confessed it was
The Gay Youth Alliance

That day he came
Out of the closet
I joined the club

#baitandswitch
Holmes was a dropout with a dream
Took in more than she could handle
Promised a blood machine
But instead she gave a scandal

She fed on fragile, old, white men
Who showered her with money
When she was threatened with the pen
She blamed her ex-lover, Sunny

She denied the bait and switch
Claimed failure was not a crime
Let’s eat the rich
I bet they taste sublime

#homogenizedbanter 
the herd could only hope
to feel the farm boy’s grope
udders ready for the squeezing
all the while flirtatious teasing 
their moo translates a scream
as they expel their heavy cream 
but their homogenized banter 
is lost to their enchanter 
who doesn’t have a clue 
the true meaning of their moo


#impossiblelogic
"Run, you clever boy.. and remember me.  Remember me."

It is impossible to remember her
The impossible girl with
Infinite possibilities
Gracing the silver screen
In her many faces
In so many places
Into the far future
Inside a television starship
Scattered across time
From black and white to color
Holding impossible dreams
With impossible logic

She is easy to erase
Her memory
Racing
And erasing through space
Lost
As if she will never 
Exist
And was just a fragment of the
Imagination
Where everything is 
Bigger on the inside
And where logic is impossible

#noescapeclause
There was no escape clause
for his wandering eyes

He plucked his women like
Virginals

Instruments with a shaft
Resting on keys
Singing to their master

A production of his 
Consumption
Looking to produce

A male heir for the monarchy
Not another girl

So onto another lady
In waiting
Their time with his words
Made flesh

Until flesh becomes
Stillborn and him
Still searching for his
Queen

A baby making machine 

To soil and sully
Until he is bored
           With her bed

Then off to another
            Head

Because there was
No escape clause
           None at all

For the wives
Who lost their lives

Like poor Anne
Penitent and pure

Her neck         
   Long
         Beautiful
                   Hanging

#oppositeofhistory
they say when you die your life actually flashes before your eyes
a life review confirmed by science 

and maybe that is true for her 
when she wakes up an infant again
crying for her mother and a bottle

and later she is fourteen again
watching her brother murdered 
in front of her on a street

her impaired mind 
folds over time after time
nearing the end of her futurity 

she lies on her back
with her 103 year old creased skin 
pressing down on her cold sheets

on the side opposite of history 
in her story where
she speaks with her ghosts 
waiting to join them

#secondthought
with her red hood dashing 
                  out the door 
she doubles back in 

on the second thought 
to grab her gun 
and a side of rubbers 
            maybe some gin

because one never knows
what big bad wolf 
will be waiting for her 
with some flowers and sin

huffing and puffing
with that sexy 
                 sinister grin

ready to blow her 
whole wide world in

before she takes a ride 
on the second thought 
to hop, 
      skip ,
      and jump 

she should watch out 
                for the hump 

and remember her  wise 
granny’s advice
to always 

carry protection 


#kitchenconversation
in this kitchen
i can’t hear a thing
with the onions yelling 
at my eyes 

seems like the conversation 
is going one way 
and that’s down
my cheek 

may need to reach out 
to the napkin 
for some emotional 
support 


#personaleffects
searching for personas 
personally affected 
by personal effects

left with bones of those 
searching opportunity 
only to have their
promises unfulfilled 

by coyotes who 
took their money 
and ran 
leaving them dry 

their faces erased
by the wind and sand
blowing 

on a desert that
holds no forgiveness
only their bones 

with a ring
a toothbrush
a doll 
a photograph 
...

waiting for their names

#loophole
Beware the unholy loop
Hidden in prophecy
Like the ones in 
Macbeth’s odyssey

There, ambition took the lead
When the lady found the need
To plant the hungry seed of greed
With the witches she took heed

She followed their words to the letter
Trusting it would rank her better
But for her sins she became the debtor
              And the devil always collects
              Waiting for the day to get her 

Now murder makes her weep
It robs her of her sleep
Her conscience drowns knee-deep
For all her faults run steep

               Deeds done in the dark
               Now she is undone!
That damned spot has made its mark
Despite the kingdom won

So from this tale,
Take hark!
Witches are very sly
They lie with the truth
And with the truth they lie

For every prophecy they spew
There may be a loophole in the brew


#filledwithodds
filled with odds against 
the break of spirit and will
they wait in line for 
the blood to spill 

nobody wants to cross
the glass bridge first 

afraid their own weight
will make the glass burst

there is no doubt 
the odd one’s out

this squid game is not
for the lame or tame 
because here you’re a number
without a name 

if you survive you won’t 
come out the same 

and so,
with a broken will
they wait until
a kill
a kill
a kill
…
Game Over

#slightchangeofplans
The oracle opened its
Big fat mouth
And ratted poor
Oedipus out

Warning the king of
Impending doom
Before the babe was
Out of the womb

The old man made
A ploy to destroy
The boy who should have 
Brought him joy

But fate had a slight
Change of plans
Quite indifferent to 
The king’s commands

The king believed
He thwarted fate
Setting his death
To a later date

But fate played them all shady
For when the boy grew up
He killed his dad 
And married his old lady

#water
her poem 
broke beautiful
water down 
my cheeks
linking to the
lessons of 
life 
      breaking 
bread for supper