MM's Represented Poems for 2010, Best of luck! Options

[Cleo_Serapis]

We decided to SKIP over January all...


FEBRUARY SELECTIONS:


A Luring Legacy by Daniah Jamil Lababidi


I searched the depths of my convictions,
walked past rosy petals of perfection,
then faltered as unexpected weeds sprang forth
from this earth; my heart.

At garden's edge, I parted the canopy.
Discovering forbidden land,
I inhaled its lustful scents
then succumbed
to a well of wakened desires.

My only succession
lies in the lingering odor
of untilled soil and arid years,
tainting this decaying garden
... my life.



Winter by Daniel Culleton


On this settled grove, these rows of trees,
The light bright of the morning shows
To each here present now unquestionably
The fellow presence of each shuddering bough.

On this settled evening too,
Winter devises cruel clarity of sight.
False Spring this week had, demonic, doomed,
Scattered stark children among the starlings.

Shadow of child and bird soared
Until night froze them in a dream.
Always the year returns us without fail
To this ancient darkness and this cold:

Bare branches across a black sky,
Each branch hung with distant stars.

[Cleo_Serapis]

MARCH SELECTIONS:


Diaster's Triage by Larry D. Jennings


Tin shacks and cardboard huts propped up with wood
are gone. Uncaring Earth erased them. Both
entombed in brick and stucco that once stood
beside them. Raining down on those who could
not seek a haven in the undergrowth.

No judge to rule on what was right or fair,
to hear the anguished pleas of those who claim
they had no food or clothing they could wear.
Those were interred with friends and neighbors there
among the piles of rubble, and the same

was true of fractured families who lay
beneath the shattered buildings. All was black
and dusty clouds blocked out the light of day.
Some few, exhumed by those who found a way
to rescue broken bodies, bring them back;

are granted respite from that final sigh.
Not so for many others taken hence
to lie in rest with strangers. Would that I
were able to assist and help them by
grief’s river flowing through indifference.



Three Years into Limbo by Sylvia Maclagan


I was wrong.
Time is gentle with you.
Your mind sheds muddled memories.
Each day, you’re born again.
Conformist drill, primary needs,
hallucinations, mirth.

A broad smile greets me.
You hug me - I'm your bride!
-What’s in t'bag?
-Cookies.
… comfort, gobbling goodies.

-'Tis m'fiancée, Bertha.
-Oh… I say.
Bertha stares vacuously.
You wave your angular arms:
-M'wife lives 'nudder h..h..hotel!
Bertha articulates:
-Do come soon.
-Mmmm… I mumble.

Outside, pungent evening air
is a mocking lifesaver.
It’s Sunday. Families
stroll by with pushcarts,
cyclists whizz between lazy traffic,
the odd sparrow picks at garbage.

I feel lonely among the dog poop,
bicycles, sparrows.
Families irk me.
An ochre sky compresses my shoulders.
I hear kitty meowing as I
fiddle with keys in the lock.
She twines herself around my legs,
tripping me as I search for a cool
drink and our dinners.

My wits are awash in chaos:
my dreams dream you
on bygone illumined isles.

Limbo has dance-stepped over to my side
with sidling grotesquerie.

Poetry and plans are on hold…



Sickle Hand by Walter Schwim


Shifting hopes like windblown sands
form ordered rows of crescent moons,
on which a scything wind expands
her heart from un-touched drifting dunes.

When twilight slowly stills the land,
the angry wind abates its blast.
I gently take her wanting hand
and hold her warm and safe at last.

Before the cautious morning beams
paint red her perfect desert sky
my briefest kiss intrudes her dreams
to be repulsed with scant goodbye.

Relentless wind blows through my mind
and sweeps up every tender thought.
My fading footprints left behind
are fast eroded, leaving naught.

I curse those fickle pseudo moons
that hold my empty arms at bay
and curse the wind and crescent dunes
that whisked my whispered kiss away.

Her favor shifts like fickle sand
to cover perfect lips un-kissed,
extends for love her sickle hand,
that with the dawn will be dismissed.