Tag: original poem

The Inevitable Sky

~ mikepowernyc ~ 1 Comment

The air is cool but the sun feels nice

Angels observe from a discreet distance

But there is no way to hide benevolence

Any more than I can hide my love

The breeze is soft but insistent

Rest, it says, but not too long

Eventually I will have to move

I will have to return or resurrect

Even moving toward the familiar is moving on

Even with angels as my guide I cannot escape the inevitable sky

Feast and Famine

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“Germany’s Children Are Starving!” by Kathe Kollwitz, 1924

Feast and famine

Binge and purge
Celebrate and sacrifice
What goes up
Is going to come back down
Somebody is going to pay the price
Turning the world upside-down

Let them have some freedom

And when you turn your back
They’ll turn the whole world upside down
They’ll say you’re the bad guy
You’ll be the enemy
If you try to stand your ground

There’s a new world coming

It can’t be stopped
It’s getting closer every day
The only decision
You have left
Is how much you’re going to make us pay

There’s a new world coming and it can’t be stopped

A Kind of Cloud

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I’ve always felt a kind of cloud
Surrounded me on all sides but one
I could always escape by going down
I could shrink and hide inside myself
Behind closed lips and eyelids
I could concentrate on denial
Hide shock with laughter and disgust with a smile
I never knew where to put my fingers or my gaze
I elevated ignorance to sanctity
And piled blankets on top of my shivering shame
I saw it all and pretended I was blind
Like everyone else
They had to see it too
It was all over the TV and then the internet
It was written in the malleable stone of every stranger’s face
It was hidden in the plain sight of every speech
Every lesson
Every advertising slogan
It was here
It was us
It was not getting better
Or, if it was, it was not getting better soon enough that I would hear in my life
The simple truth
We need to forgive and to be forgiven

The Last Song

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The last song I sang cracked in my throat
The last words I spoke were too soft to hear
The last sun that rose left no shadows
The last sun that set illuminated nothing
The last time I held you I wasn’t there
The last breath I took was not of air
The last road we rode took me to a place nobody should go
The last song I sang was no song at all 

Refugee from the Dreamworld

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I am a refugee from the dreamworld
In this new home my wings don’t work
People here are suspicious of me
When I look at them, they look away
Artist: Cyril Rolando
I am a refugee from the dreamworld
Everything here makes too much sense
There is so little mystery
That I’m afraid to fall in love

Artist: Andre Masson
I am a refugee from the dreamworld
My old home has been blown to bits
People here use it for target practice
It only lives in my memory
Artist: Joan Miro

I am a refugee from the dreamworld

And I will never go home again
Home is a word that has no meaning here
My language has become extinct
Artist: Paul Nash

I am a refugee from the dreamworld

Maybe you are too
Tell me your story so I understand
Maybe we can build a new homeland