Tag: poem

Habitual

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It stands before the door
It knows the rules, only fair
If she fails to observe it
It can begin to come upstairs

She stands atop the landing
Looking down at the front door
Her sight pushes it back into the frame
Like it was never there at all

It reaches over the bed
It knows these rules of hers
It can’t grab hands or hair or head
But anything else outside the covers

She moves in her sleep
Her foot again tucked away
It moves back under the bed
Diverted for another day

It roils within the steam
It knows the rules: they don’t soften
It gets to open the shower door
If she doesn’t look out often

Rinsing shampoo from her hair
She takes a stinging look outside
The bathroom remains empty
It has had already rushed to hide

It is nothing in the light
It knows the rules, of course
A silly habit borne of fear
In daylight it has no source

At night it lives a full life
Ready to punish and scare
But in the light of day
It was never really there

Memento Mori

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She brought him a hot drink
to place among other cups,
cold and filled to the brim.
Easily distracted, despite reminders,
he never drank enough to kill him.

She asked him to drive to the shops
while she stayed late at work,
to fetch dinner – maybe steaks.
But he ordered delivery
and never noticed the cut brakes.

She left him at home with traps on the stairs,
trusting his inattention to not notice
a roller-skate, toy cars, balls and a sled.
She returned to see it all unmoved,
He never came down from bed.

The life insurance would give her a new life,
free of boredom, drudgery, tedium.
Free from a husband who paid no attention.
But her plan was destined to fail:
her husband had forgotten to pay the premium.

Eerily, eerily, eerily, eerily

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The ever-growing song I sing to my son, to amuse myself:

Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream.

Row, row, row your boat
Right across the lake
If you see the Loch Ness monster
don’t forget to quake

Row, row, row your boat
Beside the highway
If you see Fresno Nightcrawlers
don’t forget to bray

Row, row, row your boat
gently down the river
If you see Bigfoot tracks
don’t forget to shiver

Row, row, row your boat
right across the sea
if you hear a siren sing
don’t forget to flee

Row, row, row your boat
under the moonlight
If you see the Mothman flutter
it’s time to say goodnight

Sirens

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Anna had lived there forever
In the house with the light blue door
She offered every new neighbour a hand
but they always wanted more

The Sinclair twins would use her pool
Leaving puddles and towels sprawled
Anna asked them to clean up
But they left when their mother called

Mr Dickson borrowed her power tools
Anna asked for them when they spoke
He eventually replaced them with his own
and pretended he didn’t know how they broke

Ms Lincoln borrowed ingredients
Sugar, flour, peanut butter
but when Anna fell and cried out for help
Ms Lincoln silently closed her shutters

Mrs Kathy took hours of Anna’s time
Complaining about misconduct
But whenever Anna tried to talk in turn
Kathy told her it was rude to interrupt

When the newspapers filled with warnings
Anna told all about her shelter
It had enough room and food for all
As expected of their thankless helper

At midnight the sirens blared
They feared they’d be dead before the dawn
But Anna bid them welcome to her basement
And they waited in the dark for the power to turn on

It was perhaps an hour later
Still waiting for their host to provide
That someone found the door locked
and barred from the outside

Anna carried the key upstairs
and turned off the recording of sirens
perhaps she’d let them out
When she’d had enough peace and silence

Based on an earlier two sentence story

Memory Lane

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On Halloween I walked alone
Silent and bad-tempered
I was no longer a child
And nothing was as I remembered

Wandering past dark homes,
Having found the evening plain
I found the last road with lights still on
And drifted down Memory Lane

The first home was mine,
Before my parents downsized
The cookies taste like they used to
Before my parents died.

The next home was my best friend’s
Inseparable in in our youth
She gives me a slice of birthday cake
She was 12 when they moved

The third home was my teacher’s
I had decided he deserved a trick
I help him clean away the paint
His sin was merely being strict

I do not knock at the last, bright home
With towers and slides on display
It’s the house I once wished to live in
But it does not fit who I am today

On Halloween I walk alone
I watch the children with glee
it is not as I remember
but it is not only for me

Hospitality

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He came to town one day
stepping out from the mist
A man without a job or name
From a home that did not exist

Offering to make a deal,
To bargain for his supper.
But after every meal,
Our town grew little smaller

Anna made an offer first:
Tired of the farm and dirt,
Of hot days and endless thirst,
Anna wished to no longer work.

She gave him only scraps,
food too old to eat
and when she stood, she collapsed
to find she had no feet

Andrew made the second try
He wished for endless wealth
everything else would follow:
love, security and health

He offered a meal he’d burned
Never being much of a chef
So all the wealth he earned
Was insurance from his family’s death

I offered the final meal
Before anyone else could proffer
And only made my deal
So no one else would suffer

To the man I served a simple dish
Of vegetables, bread and game
But good enough for a single wish:
To wish he’d never came.

Reminders

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The sun is shining brightly outside
And your friends call you to play
But you must are safe inside
So inside you will stay

Friends tell you to leave your room
That they have a great surprise
But you turn up the volume
So the music covers their lies

They chide that you are better now
And well enough to join their games
But you still feel the scars
A reminder of the schoolhouse flames

They visit on the same day each year
Identical to the friends you once knew
Tomorrow they will disappear
Your childhood friends who never grew

Falling Apart

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Her plans were cancelled again

While she waited at the bar

And for first time that week

She let herself fall apart

*

First, a button fell

Then, a buckle from her shoe

And when her handbag fell

Her hand went with it too

*

Tears fell, of course

And her knees then hit the ground

Then it was her tongue

And her sobs made no sound

*

Finally, she lost her mind

Loosening constraint

Tonight she would fall apart

Tomorrow, pull it together again.

Intentions

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For her birthday, he gave her flowers
With a glass vase to place them in
But she reminded him of her hay fever
And he threw the shards in the bin

For their anniversary, it was chocolate
She placed it on the shelf
She had always been allergic
So he ate it all himself

For Valentines it was a book
That she had already reviewed
She had told him about it years ago
An article he said he’d viewed

For his birthday she gave whisky
His favourite drink, she knew
She encouraged him to drink it all
And an old dependency renewed

For their anniversary it was a laptop
With all the newest software
And hidden in the hard drive
Were sordid details of his affairs

For Valentines it was dinner
With ingredients made covert
She worried she’d used too little
Until his heart stopped before dessert

A Simple Tune

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It started as a simple tune
A verse hummed around a fire
It travelled with its owner
Until it met a liar

The man took it as his own
And dressed it with his words
It travelled now on velvet voice
And they went across the world

Fame and wealth soon followed
For a tune no one could mimic
But the liar now twisted words
The tune strung by the lyrics

Twisted between poetry to attract
And lies meant to beguile
From his throat the tune refused to rise
But choked him on his bile