NaPoWriMO - Day 11 - "Oliver" - object and ending

Oliver

cat persons say he chose us

at five weeks – puff of coal

at the doorstep in the rain

pouring – we were German

Shepherd people – and all

the shepherds had gone to

their elysian fields –leaving

us free to Kerouac it any-

time we chose – cat persons

say he chose us five years

ago – slid into our lives as an-

other person an interesting

roomie – with no ostensible

bad habits – no dropped fur

scratching, meowing, lap-

sitting or drooling – aware

of anything out of place –

an errant fleck of paper

a drop of water fallen to

the floor – a chair turned

slightly more left or right –

all such caused that stare

my father’s eyes returned to me.

NaPoWriMo 2016 - Day 12 - "Index - Free Association - Abyssinian Love " Index Poem

Free Association – Abyssinian Love

Abyssinian – the kind of cat I imagined would recline on my chest purring.

Argument      began as an offhanded remark about feline similarities

Bonded         intertwined this sudden sense of connection

Blended        as smooth cream

Capucian      on the screen a small screech of an infant primate

Cappuccino foolishly connecting a vision of cinammoned foam  

Desperate    reaching for the kindred connection

Deliberate   arch of the spine and opening of the eye

Edifying      gleaning that the glint that was – no longer beckons

Egregious   this long lasted now comrade union of two

Frankly       fed up with the one who is more me than myself

Fantastic     that decades have piled onto one another a

Golem         shadow of the two who clutched at each other

Gorgeous    in lush, lusty, loving

Hilarity        rolling from lips and hips

Horrific        the thought that ever it would different

Idiosyncratic this love we agreed

Inane          and innocent this certainty of endless delight

Justifiy        that all eventually come to this point

Juxtapose  an overlay of two slim nudes over two bundled

Kite            that sweet red silk flying in a blue sky out the window

Kettle          that copper whistle blowing ready

Lithe           the sinuous stretch of the cat

Lucid          suddenly clear

Manic       need for the past vanished

Mechanism of love clicking solidly and sheerly lovely

Negligee      of our dance

Nightmare   away from the terror of isolation

Odious        the thought of the other gone

Oxymoron   smile at this contradiction of love the one you wish gone

Pearlescent patina shimmers in natural light

Perilous      that now passed desire to examine   

Quixotic      our converged coupledom

Queenly      my image reflected in those eyes

Riesling       sparkling in the crystal glass

Risen          those for a moment flagging spirit

Succubus    within receding, melting in the warmth

Succulent    the decades piled one upon the other

Treacherous pulling apart the years, to minutes of now

Truculent     never in the fading light

Undulating   that cat within and across the room

Universal     slinking, sashaying, jump

Vacuous     no longer in the appreciation of the absence of

Vitriol          never part of the conversation or connection 

Winsome    laying there on the couch

Wisp           of aquamarine tropical shores floating nude

Xanthous     daisies dotting deep green field

Xylophone   chimes in the clear crisp air

Yesterday   a song, a dance, a love

Yucca         succulent

Zen             serene

Zodiac         impossible, magic, mystic, as the eye of an Abyssian – us

Day 13. NaPoWriMo 2016 - "A clean conscience is a soft pillow." Fortune cookie

A clean conscience is a soft pillow.

On crisp white linen

he lay - his children

one on each side -

silver hair combed

with cologne –cool

inside a hot August

day - sunlight faded

he slept – softly –

forever

clean 

Day 15. NaPoWriMo 2016 - Doubles - "That Other Girl"

That Other Girl

Across the sea

was she I en-

visioned her in

a green field

wearing wooden

clogs – we were

the same she and

me – nine years

old staring at the

sky inhaling the sea

salt and wondering

what the other me

picking daisies would

eventually come to be…

PAD -DAY 8 - Sonlighted - Urbanot

Urbanot

Have you felt the thrum of

New York City – the pave-

ment vibrates –the air aches

electric energy – merging 

into single breath -moving

millions together -ones, duos,

groups - alone and together

all as one coalesced thrum -

Have you felt that thrum of

New York City – impressed 

concreted glory - lush as any

vined verdant jungle teeming 

torrid lurching life  – the energy

a thronging citizen  – bustling 

around the edge of an eye -

stop –and feel feet tingle -
palpable standing on the beam
of this sailboat city cutting lines
in the wind through the shimmered
water lapping its shores– It was
from here -from teeming, ever -
moving mass of thrumming energy
I took you –mere feather of filamented
notion secreted somewhere between
head, heart and soul and fled into the

soaring sky - dropping to calm - into

turquoise sea and spun sugar sand -
-  in time to lay you as a

mother turtle secrets her

precious one in the warmth
of shore until you burst bundled
best of coalesced collected best
of thrum -burst shimmering the 

frangipani calm – dancing into
open arms – against my bursting

breasts as hummingbirds whirled

sipping sugar from hibiscus blooms

and each day in splendiferous sigh

unfurled – you my urbanot infant

thrummed

peace
love
life

PAD DAY 8 - Sonlighted - Urbanot

Urbanot

I took you while you
were but a filament
of thought blowing
through my mind
took you from the
thrum of car and
boundless energy
of millions of souls
quickly walking
cement pavement
I took you my
intrepid filament
to the turquoise sea
to white spun sugar
sand to shine your
manifested light –
born to verdant calm
of frangipani night –
sacred held against
my bursting breasts as
hummingbirds whirled
sipping sugar
as each day a
splendid sigh
unfurled
unurbuned

APRIL PAD CHALLENGE - Day 2. - He Said / She said

In August 

He said tucked in on immaculate linen
“When”
She said sitting on her knees on his bed
‘I don’t know”
He slept for a while
She curled next to him
put her hand under his
She sang Phantom’s – magic of the night
He said
“When”
She said “You know more about this than I”
He slept … she sang every song he had taught
her since she learned to speak … she combed
cologne through his hair – to kill the scent of
rotted apricots … He said … “Hope after a lifetime
you’re not waiting for last words ”
She didn’t need to say “No.”
She remembered the violin concerto he played for her
from a box of small red records … she heard the music –
he lifted his arms conducting in time with her rhythm
He didn’t need to ask ‘When”
as his hands fell folded on his chest
She didn’t need to say “Now Daddy.”
That’s just the way it is sometimes
If you’re both very very lucky in life,
in love, in leaving on a grace note …

April PAD Challenge - Day 2. He said. She said. (They said...)

They said...

He said, "Hello Mother, well we do need to talk about her."
She said, listening to his trembling voice "I am delighted."
He said, "I am not sure if I want to marry but will you love her?"
She said, "How can I love her if you do not know you want her?"
He said, "Mother, you are being difficult."
She said, her heart lurching -"Let us begin again."
He said  "Mother I never knew you to be this way."
She said "What way?"her voice filling-spilling tears.
He said,  "I always thought you'd be there for me."
She said, "I am."
He said, "It is just because you are not getting your own way."
She said, hearing an unknown coldness crack their air, "What way?"
He said,  "She said it would go like this - and I did not believe her."
She said,  "What way?"
She said,  "What way?"
He said, nothing at all.

PAD. Day 1. Foolish Poem - " Free Falling Fool"

Free Falling Fool

there I was the little girl
with the big dark eyes
an old soul they said
too grown for child-
hood games by age
four or five – finding
the very word ‘child’
insulting – being a
fool not for me –
foolishness just
that and pushed
to the side –
laughter polite
and preferably
behind a polite
hand – for there
was lush music
and boundless
books and art
and of course
laying flat on
hot pavement
watching an ant
make its way
carrying a crumb
important lessons
to be learned – I
saved foolishness
for now – as I free
fall into its swirl
hungry to eat
each welcome
mouthful with
a spoon now
that it and I
are properly
aged and
simply
delectable.