Early Warning

Free Verse Challenge
The third stair squeaks expectantly
like a mouse in labor
and whispers to the fourth step,
which passes the message silently along

Evil grin and spin around

Close your eyes

Now count to ten

Clap as many times you can

Reverse awhile

Then start again

Open your eyes to the world so bright

The Routine

In the kitchen
We all pitch in
Only if I tell you to

Late-night Revelry

After the great departure
When only the true remain
Seeking sprinklers for rain,
All dots bisected by a plane
And dancing in green pasture.

Hold It Right There!

The cold
And bleak landscape
Of this taut thought tundra,
Cathartic arctic cranium:
Brain freeze.

Haagen is as Haagen Dazs

Talk is cheap—indoors at least
Where parlors beg for conversation:
A penny for your thoughts–
Many throw in their two cents,
But outside on the forest path
Where I am your free audience
As the crickets play their violins
And all the trees clap their hands,
In this public, private setting
Words become worth more than pictures.

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Gone Fishing

I can be your invisible friend
And like a puppeteer you can pull my strings;
I’ll whisper sweet nothings in your ear
That you and no one else can hear,
But you’ll hear no other voice–
That choice was just made clear.

For Whom the BELL Tolls

Lost in the crowd you seem
To be almost out of control;
The faces blur as in a dream
And your feet, like wheels, roll.

Gracie

I came back to you
But found instead a gravestone
Never said goodbye

What Sarah Said: Song Title Poetry Challenge

Baltimore:
The city–
Real life,
Big city life.

Life is short.

Drifter

 

Home’s where the heart is
So where is my home?
My heart’s in two places
And I am alone.