Poem – “Dog Eats Dog (And So On, And So Forth)”

Newborn baby bird

bursts forth, breaking from the bough

before it can fly —

and so it falls. Time

feathers into fragments, each

a wing outstretched toward

a mother already

moving through grief, onwards and

upwards; cuts the sky

with her cry: all the

acknowledgement baby bird

will receive in it.

The concrete is not

a meadow; it never moves

for mercy or tears.

It only strikes once.

That is all it needs to do.

Above, the sky: blue

as airless flesh in

wintertime, untouched by the

sly sun that deceives.

Still; still untouched by

the teeth that gnash in grassy

knolls and ditches. The

fate of prey is not

its own. Destiny is ever-

looming; prewritten.

The fates like to trick

you into a sense of self-

control. This is a

lie, like so much of

what we are told by others.

Reality: we

feed on each other.

Dog eats dog, and so on, and

so forth. Eat right up.

The feathers stuck in

between your teeth fall to your

plate, red and matted.

This is innocence

lost. Do you think anyone

would cry out for you?

Poem – “Holy”

My pristine pale palms are pressed together;

my violet knuckles are icing over my flesh

as frost bites, sinking sharp teeth straight

into bone: grinding, groaning, graying.

They promised that, someday, I could be a

God. So, I prostrate and I pray; a stone

statue crumbling into crumbs ground into

sidewalks and steps and doormats.

I give my all so that someone may

worship me for the martyred maiden I am;

give thanks for the sole sacrifices that

let them get to where they stand today,

still and sturdy on my remains.

Poem – “October”

Autumn arrives and life once sun-kissed,

once lithe and lush, lingers in the dust.

Fields of blonde grain and gold wilt when

the light falls; leaves crushed under wheels

litter the highway. The sun fades from

freshly-cut stems that bury their stomachs

and secrets in the sand that slips through

my fingers and settles as I sleep in stone

walls and red-brick rooms. Suddenly,

the whispering wind snaps back at my

soliloquies, sharp and ready to take a stand

against my screams. Early mornings have

edges and curves turn into corners;

evenings are eager to eat me alive.

The ethereal is now existential.

I shall parry it with newborn potential.

Escapril 2021 Day Thirty – “even now, after everything?”

(And with this poem, Escapril 2021 is officially complete! I had so much fun growing my poetry-writing skills over these prompts; I am so excited to see what next year’s Escapril poetry challenge will bring!)

I can hardly believe my eyes!

There you stand, patiently against

the backdrop of the torrential

flood of summer rain, pouring down

and soaking through your umbrella,

asking if I would stand under it…

with you.

Even now, after I left you to find

your way in the unknown dark

of the pitch-black summer night,

unguided by the obscured stars?

I never thought you’d make it this far.

I never thought you’d want to make it this far.

I did not know you’d want me enough

to go this far after my getaway car

drove me to my secluded hermit hideout

among the trees.

Not to be among people and their lies

slipped through smiles

chock-full of white teeth.

I did not hold that level of admirable

belief in you.

But you did in me.

For even now, after everything,

you wait patiently in front of me

until I let you in and join you

under your umbrella.

Escapril 2021 Day TwentyNine – “goodbye”

Bittersweet around the bend

as I turn the corner, waving a final wave

to the ones that send me off

with the best packaging and love and care

they could muster up for me.

I’m heading off into a world

unlike the one I know to be;

the real world afloat with danger

of the stranger kind.

I miss the ties that bind,

but they will keep my strong;

and with the string that keeps me to them

I can always find my way back

to once again (one day hopefully) say hello.

Escapril 2021 Day TwentyEight – “extreme dissonance”

Your skin crawls under my touch;

shaking, shivering up and down your spine

in zig-zagged lines.

I’m sorry, did I scare you?

For that was never what I meant to do —

but if it is a horror to behold me, so be it.

Your darkest, deepest secret is safe with me to keep it,

lock and key,

deep within me.

So why are you still frightened,

looking for a way out?

I am a part of you;

try as you might, you cannot cut me out

or hack me from your body

with the axe you grind as you grit your teeth;

no matter how much you seethe

or convulse at the thought of me,

I am still living within your mind,

adding to the din that rings in your ears,

screaming “Listen to me, for I am present!

I am here!”

Escapril 2021 Day TwentySeven – “ink”

Be sure of what you want my message to say;

for once you put it down with me

it will be spoken to stay.

Do not dare make a mistake when using me,

for I am a permanent marker

with permanent consequences.

Whatever you want me to say,

you’ll have to face the music

when people react to what I let them know.

There on the paper, my words lie;

etched forever into the stream of time.

Escapril 2021 Day TwentySix – “nothing more beautiful”

But there is nothing more beautiful

than seeing that perfect string of words

on that page

of your favorite book —

war-torn by the battle of life,

but still the master of your imagination

in the ways that the sentences within its binding

creep into the deepest depths of your brain,

creating a world

so comforting and familiar and yet so, so new

each time you take yourself to it.

Escapril 2021 Day TwentyFive – “pareidolia”

I see the constellations in the sky;

mapped-out hunters and dancing girls and bears, oh my!

What a sight to behold

against the pitch-black sky!

I see the clouds the next day roll

against the baby blue sky;

a rabbit chasing a dog chasing a truck,

illuminated by the sun.

With them, I am one.

With them, I see life.

With them, I can stare for hours on end

and appreciate the creation of them.

Escapril 2021 Day TwentyFour – “crossroads”

Do I take the road of plenty,

or the road less traveled by?

Both are full of opportunity,

and I can’t just stand by

as all the passerby make their choice

and get the fruits of that labor

and live their lives.

But I am indecisive,

so what will I decide?