poetry

Stormy Weather

Posted on by A. Long

I awoke to the silence

asking it to quit talking

the voices

were worse than before

gasoline ignited frights shook me from my sleep

obnoxious ringing in my ear

its the pitter patter I hear

barraging my window in an endless echo

a choppy c note bangs on my heartstrings

I’m a loser

just drown me already

either put me out of my misery or save me

getting pushed further into the abyss

of my subconscious

conscientiously considering breaking down these walls

and burning hidden skeletons

how long can I hold on to this life raft

my arms are strong

conditioned

to pull others back from the brink

yesterday I stared into the deep

slept walked into the river

and then started to sink

fighting to breathe was too heavy

so I cried a lullaby

I sleep in the eye of a storm

a hurricane

that isn’t done

 

Excerpt From The Seasons: Autumn

Posted on by A. Long

But see the fading many-colored woods,

shade deepening over shade,

the country round

imbrown;

a crowded umbrage,

dusk and dun,

of every hue from wan declining green

to soot dark.

The pale descending year, yet pleasing still,

a gentler mood inspires;

for now the leaf

incessant rustles from the mournful grove,

oft startling such as,

studious,

walk below,

and slowly circles through the waving air.

–James Thomson

Poems

The Gamut

Aside | Posted on by A. Long

Soft day, be velvet soft,

My true love approaches,

Look you bright, you dusty sun,

Array your golden coaches.

Soft you wind, be soft as silk

My true love is speaking.

Hold you birds, your silver throats,

His golden voice I’m seeking.

Come you death, in haste, do come

My shroud of black be weaving,

Quiet my heart, be deadly quiet,

My true love is leaving.

–Maya Angelou

Women’s Plight

Posted on by A. Long

 

Change is a bitter strange fruit

that shapes at my crevices

the hurts sting

nothing is static tree

the world opened up for me

whispering sweet things and

promises that are easily broken

can i change back

shed knowledge for ignorance’s bliss

i can’t do that

Adam’s rib is in too deep

heat chases me across the plains

grazes my thighs, moist

the inside of a pomegranate

is that how i taste

The sky quakes with hate

as the All Mighty desecrates the landscape

out cast

lone harlot

He pushed me aside

to stay in It’s good graces.

 

 

You Left Me In A Lumberyard Last Night

Posted on by A. Long

rustle rustle goes the night

rustle rustle goes my knees trying to get right

goes my arms trying to steal warmth

goes the snipping critters looking for a bite

 

you left me in a lumberyard last night

 

cuddled up to wet kindle

heart splintered like a useless piece of wood

shrapnel in my hands and cheek

industrial steel covers for sheets

night creeps

discarded trash speaks

 

i think, voice box cracked

weak

from calling your name

that I am lost in a manufactured dead forest

waiting for you to reclaim

me

if I am solid the creatures that  be

won’t find the hiding place

I miss your quiet face,

still like wood

scavenging through the dust & debris

I will make fire

let the wood face cook the cold away

it was cold when you left me

chuck in chunks of my lumber prison

I guess I’ll call this yard home now

this & that petrified stack

will be the bedroom where the moon used to make room for you

 

I thought I mattered more than a tattered doll

forgotten and ignored

left under humble rubble

 

rumble rumble goes the night

rumble rumble goes fear’s appetite

goes rowdy, rough boys looking for a fight

 

i shiver into a corner trying not to be seen

im scared and alone

in this processed jungle

needing a way out of the fallen log’s bowel

I’ll build a tower of babel

with reconstructed self esteem

as an escape

Limber up hacked limbs of timber

the timbre clanging as I climb to the heavens

to find you

 

ring ring goes the night

ring ring goes the alarms of my flight

goes my resolve

goes my hemorrhaging heart from love’s sight

High School

Posted on by A. Long

These hallways resound

the sound of our breath even when we are not around

to gasp at its fluidly tight air

Our buzzing energy absorbs into every

cinder block

giving spirit to the walls even when they are empty

We give life to the building

of dancing dreams

Circling our fated decisions like Cassius Clay

we enter a vertical, hollow ring

 

I dodge shoulders on the way to class

Remember to get a pass to see Ms.… Thing

Combinations or Permutations           13 42 13

Certain I can’t finish 2nd’s homework in 1st

First begins with a teacher who didn’t respect me previously

Now works frivolously to see my good nature. What…

 

We and these hallways are backbiting, jealously warm family

bound together by laws, plaster, and bricks

The longing anticipation to bust free of it

is only so strong when your kin is close

This building builds us up like Big Mama’s hugs

simultaneously

changing us like father’s hate/love

And sibling rivalry seeps into our souls when we past each other in these halls

playing in unrecognizable blood

 

Friends and hugs        Smiles and PDA

I need to get to class    Get out of my way!

Oh wait it’s you           slow down       we still cool

We have time before it rings                to talk over some things

Ringalingaling… Guess not

 

We are jungle

Wild and unkempt

These corridors are society’s attempt

To refine and reprint copies of itself

The walls

Enclose us       and      hold us

Cradle             and      mold us

We willfully unwillingly are apart of this building

This cold concrete Mother

 

I am always surrounded by people and still am alone

I want to go home

No more tests or teacher’s hissy fits

Girls screaming from how hard rumors hit

Am I the only one who’s sick of it?

The mouths move that sit behind the desks

I’m hungry…When’s lunch

 

These halls will shove us into the Un-

Known

Foreseen

future

nipping at our memories like starved fledglings

heartbroken that we have flown

 

Bottomline

I can’t wait

to graduate

But I will miss

this

place

Ring…             Ring…                   Ring…

Bordering On 5 AM

Posted on by A. Long

It is bordering on 5am

here I sit

fully awake

listening to the mundane hum of a ceiling fan

filter into the sounds

a house makes

when no ones moving

A white spider crawled from the depths of the couch

cross my sheet

& still I didn’t flinch

I simply sat

I sit here

memorizing every piece of furniture

staring at the ripped out stitches of an old couch

until the unexpected gut urge

to seek pen & paper

begin to twitch my fingertips

its an idea

premature obscure and cloudy

but as my search narrows

the

fog becomes elaborate clods packed with words

my eyes would not shut

my mind would not stop placing the words

seeing them in my head as if I had already written it

They floated there for hours

through the background of

headphones TV and conversation

until even now as day breaks into night

with nothing but my heart beat

to remind me that I am still alive

even that seems to thump words

as I conclude my search

when my eyes finally rest on my notebook

Divinely inspired is what he calls it

The peak hours allow sufficient silence

as I think at times my thoughts run so deep

that consumption ensues

I begin to feel every story I breathe

life to

from the time it enters my mind

to the moment its on the page

it is me

invented or not

the characters have faces that I can see

& I must write their story

There is a reason

for sleeping late with scribbles still swirling in my head

for sitting here

to know that now bordering on 6am

sitting here blankly staring at the floral patterns on the couch

isn’t crazy

I write to fill a void

I write because

it is the only remedy

for a long sleepless night

of ignoring a force

that commands me to write

even now

my eyelids sink & I feel sleep

meaning my thoughts may rest

knowing they are held safely within black binding

later to be shared

with those who are willing to listenimages