National Poetry Month Celebration 2019 - Post Poems Here!

[Tracy Mitchell]

#4



This is How

Afore sunrise I ate cold beans
drank black coffee from yesterday,
and packed a sammich.

Dog cocked a leery eye, then stirred,
took a crap by the barn and bounded
toward the pickup - wasn’t gonna to get left.

I ducked into Jr’s room to pinch his .22
and a heaped handful of buckshot load,
then joined up with dog and we was gone.

Paws on the dash, dog scanned the road
to John Clark Canyon and the plum busiest
turkey buzzard haunt in this part of the township.

Dog wandered off. I laid on my back in the dirt
‘til the buzzards took to circling me in force.
Twelve of ‘em I counted, before I opened fire.

Then dapple browns, badger-stomach browns,
goat-placenta browns, feathers of skull bone tan,
pie crust tan, all tans and browns falling to me
like prayed-for snow at Christmas.

End of March already, but I now got me thirty quills
and ink enough for writin' thirty poems in April.
Idiots know these are the best quills for writin’.

~

[indar]

Them's fightin' words--make no mistake I'll be back and we'll have a throwdown fer sure

[Vaughn Neeld]

Tracy, that's a great Personae poem. I'm still working on mine. Am I working on a theme for April poems? sort of. But I got my taxes done yesterday, so just had to change up for one day to rant. V

[Tracy Mitchell]

Hi Vaughn --

Some months I draw a blank for the contest, but now I've got 5 persona/dramatic monologue poems.

[Tracy Mitchell]

Them's fightin' words--make no mistake I'll be back and we'll have a throwdown fer sure

[binx]

Poem 4/4

The New Yin & Yang

Nothing is more chaotic
than an unpredictable death

or not knowing the real nature
of a sexual attraction


By George

[Dave]

Petty fictions

the colour white, its spectre of grace

a Jesus dressed in 16th century European satins

New Amsterdam’s value, a handful of buttons,

the goodness of the Lord

and the power of prayer, western enlightenment,

so close to where the sun goes down,

the way Africa seems to be dark

and Santa Claus represents the kindness of strangers.

A woman’s intuition and naked breasts

are asking for trouble. My gender. That words

are the things they say.

A pipe.

That we ever believed.

 

[Tinker1111]

April 4

Sleepless in Occidental

I've come to realize
along with getting old
comes
confidence,
wisdom,
knowledge,
and experience.
I love that part of it.

Unfortunately,
it also brings a nightly
dose of
creaky joints,
a thirty year old mattress,
the need to pee,
mushroom heat,
and tingly feet.
Hence, fitful sleep.

Yesterday I bought a new mattress.
~~Judi Van Gorder 

Prompt: fitful sleep

[Tracy Mitchell]

Dave -- nice brushstrokes. I'll be coming back to this.

Judi -- Your today's poem brings a smile to my face. Resolute, decisive, focused on the right things.

[indar]

April 5

Throwdown

I park at the far end of the hiker's lot
on Lake of the Isles, flit from bush to bush
down the channel to Calhoun,
perform a spectacular running jump-and-slide
on the slick and shining
goose poop, grab one of those ganders
from behind, get him by the neck,
wrestle him to the ground
pluck 2 flight feathers from his left wing--
those Canada honkers can get damn loud--
dog walkers and lovers shout at me, little do they know
some yahoo shoots turkey buzzards dead 
for inferior feathers, I don't need a dog, truck and gun
like those over-the-top men
who think they have to be testosterone-tough
to write poetry,


(thank god I'm here to represent the genteel ladies on this forum)