.
.
In obeisance
Head raised
Breath
Moistened
Through the lungs
Heated
From the pulse
Slips
Slides
Sighs
Across parted lips
Lucky
In reverence of
The beauty
Spread before him
For the first time
Seen
For the first time
Tasted
Deeply
Her head
Thrown back
Mouth agape
Calling
His name
In rapture
Enraptured
By
The Lord’s Kiss
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A 55 word poem for dVerse ~ Poets Pub | Form For All: Fifty-Five Shades of Grey
.
.
Smoke filled rooms stage the plays
Gyrating bodies form a human maze
The next face may be for always
Looking for true love through the haze
Words barley audible through the din
As if what’s wanted is conversation
And if it doesn’t work tonight, tomorrow try again
It doesn’t take much persuasion
Another night of pretext, a major pretension
A small piece of latex, the true intention
Variations on a theme standing still
The titles change, the players remains
Clubhouse, disco, honky talk, bar & grill
And the morning’s desperation of remembering names
Another night, another chance to explore
Last night found what you were looking for
Hung out, now hung over the cool white throne
This morning finds you still all alone
Smelling of cheap everything, feeling cheaper all the more
Playing a game, that guarantees a losing score
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Think about this for a moment: Yes, we all know what we look like smiling and laughing, there are pictures galore of such, especially in this modern age of cell phones capturing our lives in vivid pixelation. We see ourselves disappointed, sad, depressed and even crying because we lock ourselves away for a private moment in our bedrooms / bathrooms and a mirror shows us our hurt. We may even see ourselves in various states of tumescence.
However, we almost never see ourselves truly scared or really angry or outright furious because we are generally facing that which has made us truly scared or really angry or outright furious and rarely is a camera there to capture the moment. If you’re about to go postal do you think anyone would want to flash a camera directly in front of you? Don’t think so. Yes, we can imagine what we may look like from what we’re told after the fact. However, when such strong emotions occur we are rarely in front of a mirror and by the time we reach one, we are no longer at the height of that emotion to really know.
Except I now know what that type of fury looks like for myself…
Today started as your normal Tuesday morning. I was up, my bed made; I was showered and dressed for work. I made a quick call to a friend to confirm a detail on plans for later this week. As usual between her and me it was not quite the quick call expected.
Our conversation meandered and somehow touched on an erstwhile family member I had not laid eyes on since 1991. Let me just say, point-blank, it was under very bad circumstances when we parted ways. If I never lay eyes on that person again, it is because even the deities know it would not be good thing, especially after this morning.
So I had her on speaker phone as I stood in the mirror applying make-up. I was looking at my eyes, giving them a final check before I close the eye shadow case, when she dropped the following what if on me:
“Yes, but he doesn’t know where you work. What if your boss called you into his office one day and he was sitting there a new employee?”
Only because I was looking dead into my own eyes at that exact moment did I see it. I felt my whole being react to the thought of the scenario proposed and in a split second went from apathetic to apoplectic before my very eyes.
My pupils dilated fully and something in them… around them… behind them…
Flashed.
…And scared the shit out of me.
I scared myself so badly that the eye shadow case slipped from my fingers as I took a step back.
The sound of the crash as today’s colors hit the floor and flung out in all directions, along with my friend wanting to know was that noise, snapped me back to reality.
There was so much strength, so much power, so much rage in that one glance of myself, I shudder now as I type this thinking of it.
What there was not, was absolution. None. Whatsoever.
But what frightened me the most of the experience was the fact that my reaction was from a mere hypothetical “what if…?”
How much worse would the reality be should the deities change their minds and let it occur?
I have actually seen the evil within me start to emerge.
And now I wish I could go back to when the only thing I could do was imagine it…
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Two Writing Teachers | Tuesday Slice of Life December 2, 2013
While (im)patiently waiting for my Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte to be made, a barista calls out for Jack. When Jack retrieves his purchase, he grins with pride as he hoists the drink in salute to the female friend/colleague/whatever standing beside him.
“I came faster.”
No, I sincerely did not know the man at all.
No, I sincerely could not resist.
No, I sincerely did not care.
“You know most guys do not admit that out loud or with pride.” I grinned.
Thankfully yes, he and his female friend/colleague/whatever had a sense of humor and laughed.
.
.
Please, don’t look too close
Ambiguity is all I ask
Can’t allow society to see
The woman behind the mask
And I have many facades
It depends on who I see
each person expecting
a different face from me
A professional face for work
Maquillage done to perfection
Spending just a moment in the mirror
Not looking in the eyes of my reflection
But I wonder are we truly fooled
Do we believe the faces we see
Or do we fall into the easier role
Choosing just to let it be
For to look behind the mask means
To acknowledge the silent tears
And to admit all that hurts
Means we’re forced to face our fears
Looking at a life of uncertainty
Despair undermining dreams
Clouded by rejection and strife
My smile is not all it seems
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Theme Thursday | Faces
Most football fans have finally stopped cheering/grumbling/talking/ about the New York Jets win over the New England Patriots due to the enforcement of a new rule in the NFL that went against the Pats. However, an incident after the game may very well eclipse all the brouhaha over the controversial call.
Videos of a male Jets fan punching a female New England fan have gone viral over the past couple of days. One of the videos of the altercation starts with the alleged attacker, wearing a Wayne Chrebet (No. 80) Jets jersey, is being pulled away from a fight in progress. It is not clear how the initial altercation began, but a woman, wearing a Patriots T-shirt in the videos, steps forward to confront the alleged attacker and tries to push him, before he responds with a punch to the left side of her head.
If you’re interested in more details of the event, you can Google it. This post is not about the above incident in and of itself, but about the adage that “it is NEVER okay for a man to hit a woman”.
First, let me preface all else I am about to say with the following: It is not acceptable for anyone to hit anyone. Regardless of gender, there should never be an acceptable time for someone to use violence to solve a problem. And please note that I said should. Unfortunately, we do not live in a white knight world and there are certainly exceptions to that rule.
As a mother of two sons (now adults), I am well aware some women, safely cocooned in the belief that the man will always be considered at fault should he physically hurt her, will use that to their advantage and push, goad, provoke and/or physically attack a man. Knowing such, I fully admit I could not teach my sons such a hard and fast absolute.
I’ll refer to men/women here because it is easier to use the hetero standard, but this applies regardless of orientation. People have to realize not all women are defenseless and not all men are necessarily stronger than their partner. On the flip side, the physically smaller partner is not necessarily the weaker one, especially when there is any sort of weapon involved.
If the woman is yelling and screaming – let her. You know what’s reasonable and what’s not.
If it’s starting to piss you off that you’re even thinking of doing something physical, it’s time for you to either a) leave for an hour or so to call down or b) leave temporarily and consider whether or not it is time to c) leave permanently.
However, if she’s coming at you with a cast iron skillet or a pot of hot cooked grits (some of you will get that reference), and you by that look in her eyes that tells you she means business – what you both did so wrong that it got to that extreme point and what should be done to fix it, if it can be fixed – can be figured out later – you very much have the right to knock her on her ass, but ONLY ENOUGH FOR YOU TO GET TO SAFETY.
If your partner/significant other/spouse is beating the crap out of you, you should be able to defend yourself enough to get to safety, until the police arrive if necessary, regardless of gender.
When it comes to my sons, the only person allowed to even attempt to take them off this earth is the one who brought them into it, and I have told them as much.
Swinging this back around to the incident on Sunday…
The controversial call that that cost the Patriots the game/gave the Jets was likely the first spark to heated words between the fans. I’m sure once all the investigation comes out; there likely were copious amount of beer involved on both sides further kindling an already contentious rivalry between both teams and their respective fans. He (the alleged attacker) is just wrong.
She had no weapons and posed no physical threat to him as he was nearly twice her size. Were this between two men, 1) this would not come up for discussion and 2) he would still be just as wrong.
As all parents tell their offspring at some point while raising them – which many seem to forget upon reaching adulthood:
KEEP YOUR HANDS TO YOURSELF.
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Slice of Life Story Challenge
The angels up in heaven guide every thing we do
They watch us and support us and gently help us through
All that life has for us, the unexpected and the planned
From the moment that we’re born, until next to God we stand
Some stand watch above us as when we just can’t sleep
Others give us comfort for the times we weep
Some angels gather up the dreams that come during the night
So when our eyes are open their sisters get the details right
There are angels whose voices whisper in our ear
at just the right moment to conquer all our fear
They are sisters of the voices that guide you when you stray
From the His path, they help set you back on the right way
There are unique angels who help keep friendships whole
should we hurt the ones we love when we lose control
There are angels for our hearts and we give them plenty to do
As we go through all the wrong ones, for our soul mates true
Season Angels guide not our earthly clime,
but rather our earthly time
From the Spring angels trumpeting our birth,
until the Winter angels’ last bells chime
Granted some Angels paths are shorter,
while other have a longer phase
But each in turn guide through
the Summer and the Autumn of our days
From the moment that we’re born, until next to God we stand
All that life has for us, the unexpected and the planned
They watch us and support us and gently help us through
The angels up in heaven guide every thing we do
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dVerse ~Poets Pub | The Mind of a Child–dVerse Poetics
Christ! You know what it is – just open the damn thing already!
I hold the daunting package in my white knuckled grip a few moments longer. Everything changes with this.
Carefully, I pull the seal, empty the contents and hold the book in my hands, officially going from dreamer to writer to…
Published author.
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Haven’t done this in a while – Friday Flash 55
.
I ride the dusk
Streaking across the infinite horizon
Clouds tinted in lines rubicund and indigo guide me
Into the deep, into the dark, the eventide of my heart
I don’t fret, I’ve been here before
I know this darkness, know it well
When it consumed more than the rays of daylight
When it consumed my hopes and dreams
When it consumed me
And then regurgitated
An empty shell back into the world
But this? This dark is different
I don’t fret, I’ve been here before
This time I am the consumer,
I enter into this willingly, knowingly
That this blackness has an end
That this blackness is indeed finite
That there is an other side
I don’t fret, I’ve been here before
The erstwhile hollowness
Restocking itself to whole
Into the dawn, into the sunrise, the reemergence of my soul
Horizon tinted in lines tawny and cerulean guide me
I disembark as dawn streaks across the infinite horizon
My trip done, my voyage beginning
I don’t fret…
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dVerse ~ Poets Pub | Meeting The Bar – The Beat Poets and their Poetry
Sadomasochism,
the right mistake.
Beauty’s punishment.
The girl who played with fire,
catching fire.
What you pay for, under a velvet cloak
The subtle knife
The golden ass
Twinkie, deconstructed
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dVerse ~ Poets Pub | Form for All: The Hidden Poetry in Books
This is a new form (for me) called Sorted-book, or Spine poetry. In essence, a sorted-book or spine poem is a poem found or created from book titles from the spines of books. A photograph of the books is a part of the form itself.*
As I will not have time to go to a library to find/create something more comprehensive, the above is from a set of books I am donating to a local LBGT Center. That they were easily accessible by being right next to my computer helped.
And for those who may be confused by the placement of the last book/line in the poem here’s Urban Dictionary to help: Twink
I’ve since lost the photo, not sure how, and donated the books as stated. *Apologies.
Raivenne-lations 