Predator

A 13-foot boa constrictor
is poisoning my brain

Nocturnal emotion conflict-or
conflicting me insane

A suffocating sentence
this solitary repentance

There’s way too much to shed
yet it’s only in my head

Postcard Home

What if the fence weren’t painted white

What if vows were broken

What if friendship didn’t exist

Our feelings went unspoken

What if we had never met

What if this postcard went unsent

F Street Garage

Image via Wikipedia

In Arcata, there was the rain,
that persistent flow of rain
muddying the streets.

Walking to school,
cuffs of my pants soaked
despite the umbrella.

My car at the
F Street Garage,
top down and stuck,

the mechanics with their
long snarled beards and
warm, inviting smiles,

honest and
hardworking by
the Golden Harvest Cafe.

Old grown, homegrown,
grown-up hippies,
fixing cars and healing souls.

I miss those guys!

***

Originally written in 1999. Edited and posted January 2011 for Thursday Poets Rally Week 37 & One Shot Wednesday

Nutcracker (me in a nutshell)

Crack me,
I’m a nut,
a white and creamy
Macadamia nut,

incredible,
edible and
stuck in a rut
inside a hard-wall shell.

Break me out,
I’m suffocating,
down to the pit of
my oily gut.

Ozone

If I could,
I would tear down the sky and
wrap the world inside

cradle the sun against my skin
to scorch this emptiness
from within

Time Punching

If I could grab time
around the neck,
I’d choke her nearly breathless
like a jealous sibling,
I’d push her head underwater
and hold her there indefinitely,
shake her silly and
punch her in the face.

Forgive me for wanting
to beat the clock.
It’s not that I’m a violent person,
I just can’t seem to get ahead
of the game.

Time probably wouldn’t even stop.
She’d just go on taunting:
“Tic Toc, Tic Toc, Tic Toc.”