NaPM April 02 2016

[milo]

Rules: Write a poem for national poetry month on the topic or form described. Each poem should appear as a separate reply to this thread. The goal is to, at the end of the month have written 30 poems for National Poetry Month. 


Topic 02: Write a poem inspired by the number two, couples, doubles or a dichotomy.
Form : any
Line requirements: 8 lines or more

Questions?

[just mercedes]

The twins - father’s statement



I went to work, came home, and the house
was always a mess. This great whale did nothing
and couldn’t cook anyway. She went off drinking
with her sister, no worry about the baby’s health.
All the time my mother got worse, and I used
to go for walks, and talk to myself, there wasn’t
anyone else to talk to. Then the twins were born.
You’d think she’d done something special. I still
had to do all the work at home. Her day was:
watch TV, yell at me, and complain to her sister.

I knew if I hit her back I’d be in jail quick smart
and she played on that, punched me, then laughed.
I had to go for a walk to handle it. The kids,
the boys, I used to feel sorry for them, thinking
This is what you’ll get too, one day, poor bastards.
It all got worse; her picking on me, my mother sick,
the kids screaming when I got home because
she’d never change them. I walked as much as I could.

That afternoon she took the twins to her sister’s,
came home drunk, and late. The boys were
screaming and I wanted to hit her but I didn’t.
I just fed them and they always need
changing after that. I changed them.

Next day we’re in the hospital, same one my Mum
was in; the boys are in intensive care, following day
they’re dead. After I changed them I’d gone for a walk.
I think that’s when she hurt them.

[RiverNotch]

The twins - father’s statement

I went to work, came home, and the house
was always a mess. This great whale did nothing
and couldn’t cook anyway. She went off drinking
with her sister, no worry about the baby’s health.
All the time my mother got worse, and I used
to go for walks, and talk to myself, there wasn’t
anyone else to talk to. Then the twins were born.
You’d think she’d done something special. I still
had to do all the work at home. Her day was:
watch TV, yell at me, and complain to her sister.

I knew if I hit her back I’d be in jail quick smart
and she played on that, punched me, then laughed.
I had to go for a walk to handle it. The kids,
the boys, I used to feel sorry for them, thinking
This is what you’ll get too, one day, poor bastards.
It all got worse; her picking on me, my mother sick,
the kids screaming when I got home  because
she’d never change them. I walked as much as I could.

That afternoon she took the twins to her sister’s,
came home drunk, and late.  The boys were
screaming and I wanted to hit her  but I didn’t.
I just fed them and they always need
changing after that. I changed them.  

Next day we’re in the hospital, same one my Mum
was in; the boys are in intensive care, following day
they’re dead. After I changed them I’d gone for a walk.
I think that’s when she hurt them.

Another slow burn turning into a flash of light, although with more a feeling of both expected (the last one could have gone with "the universe is one" just as easily -- this could only end in tragedy) and unexpected (I mean, it's still a quick death). Damn, this is good.

[Weeded]

Love-love, game start.
Boyfriend one arrives in new Benz,
boyfriend two keeps stance with wit,
boyfriend one lobs cheap shot, score!
15-love.
Boyfriend one serves, playing
the angle game. Girlfriend two quick
to react, girlfriend one rallies,
boyfriend two gets the door, score!
15-15.
Boyfriend one serves but its a let down.
Girlfriend one serves and wow what topspin,
girlfriend two stepping up, ooh and its a backhand
to the ego, score!
15-30.
Boyfriend one serves a cannonball,
drinks for everyone!
Girlfriend two complements game
with a sweet drop shot but
girlfriend one hits a brutalizer,
girlfriend two had no chance, score!
30-30.
Team two is looking tired,
team one is ready and it's a big serve,
boyfriend two frantically searching for an opening, nervous, he makes an error.
30-15.
Team one serves,
girlfriend two growing frustrated,
her eyes on the ball boy now.
Boyfriend two taking note, hits flat,
boyfriend one strikes with good follow through 
keeping conversation in the bar stands.
Girlfriend two rallies, still in the fight
but girlfriend one takes it to no-man's land 
with a spill to the dress, score!
Game point.
You can see in their eyes, team two is not having good game.
Team one serves, girlfriend two rallies 
with an extended bathroom visit.
Boyfriend one picks up the check and that's match point! Lets check the Mac-Cam.
Oh... It wasn't even close.
Tune in next week for the next set!

[cidermaid]

Two lines make a couplet of words about love.
They should be placed together, entwined in love.
It is silly to ally a syllable,
without a refrain. How would we feel the love?

Ali compared the pairing to a bright stone,
shining in isolation -- a necklace of love.

All I know, is that two separate clauses
are transformed by pauses, into words of love.

[billy]

The Two of Them

Me mam's mam, aka Granny Marsland,
a woman thick beyond her years;
and me mam's dad, aka Pops,
a man in need of new dentures:

The two of them together with enough
brain cells to fill a teaspoon.
Smart brain cells mind, the kind that loved
like Sunday roast and Yorkshire puds.
and held you hard
like a warm woolen straight jacket.
They were all loose toothed
with leathery smiles.

I sometimes cry when they hold me now
they're not here but i feel them
more than when their warmth
chased away my bad things.
They climb into my tear ducts
poking around with their wizened
memories, inserting themselves.

I once kicked pops in the balls;
he deflated,
like one of granny's chocolate souffles
that scared the priest away.
She laughed like a donkey
he-hawing it was all good and how
"he didn't need them anymore"
she laughed so hard her upper set fell
into the mop bucket.

[cidermaid]

Billy, that is simply beautiful. I'm going to be reading this one over many times. The warmth and "real' person imagery shines through.

[RiverNotch]

ALIVE AGAIN

Someday we will be remembered
not as Adam and Eve were one
of one flesh, but as Castor
man and Polydeuces god were two
brothers, boxer and tamer of horses,
we shepherd and comforter of men,

someday, when our father decides our time
has come, that our flight
should finally find its way to Santiago
and this life I have lived
should rise to that same peak,

that the sea of our ordeal, now
named Glacier of Tears, should melt
and you, Liliana, should spring again.
Until then, the body sleeps.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obitua...18866.html

[Todd]

From First to Firstborn
 
I know now what I didn’t know then
with the ever soft grass and the trees
weighted with fruit, too much fruit.
But you can’t understand by words
that is the great lie.
Truth starts as a sweetness on the tongue,
only to be thorns in the throat.
I haven’t always spoken with this rasp
that we share. That was our mistake
not yours. In the darkness of your birth,
your mother screamed until the night fractured,
screamed like nothing named.
I had held this sharp stone as we had wandered
through the collapse of sun and moon.
I had held it as your mother swelled
like the moon, until I could no longer bear
her brightness. I found myself howling
with her that night, as she asked me to cut you out,
but I was too weak, the stone too heavy. It seems foolish now.
I had squeezed it so that my hand opened,
as your mother opened, a truth of sorts.
I will keep this scar, as I keep all my scars,
but give you this stone so that you too may experience.

[bedeep]

Twa Corbies

Two crows diverged
whose flights were tracked
in a yellow wood
by crow the third
who watched the horse
that lay quite still.

The first two crows
brought back their brothers
but that third crow
had got the eyes
first one then two
from the head of the horse
that lay so still.

I'll sing you how
the gang of crows
descend on the horse
in ones and twos
and make such a noise
they scare off the flies
who'd come to feast
on the horse so still.

And I recall
as the leaves fall down
on this road in the wood
under branches bare
it's one for sorrow
two for mirth
then nine for hell
as I rode the earth
on a horse whose bones lay still.

[milo]

Twa Corbies

Two crows diverged
whose flights were tracked
in a yellow wood
by crow the third
who watched the horse
that lay quite still.

The first two crows
brought back their brothers
but that third crow
had got the eyes
first one then two
from the head of the horse
that lay so still.

I'll sing you how
the gang of crows
descend on the horse
in ones and twos
and make such a noise
they scare off the flies
who'd come to feast
on the horse so still.

And I recall
as the leaves fall down
on this road in the wood
under branches bare
it's one for sorrow
two for mirth
then nine for hell
as I rode the earth
on a horse whose bones lay still.

This is wonderful!!

[Todd]

Twa Corbies

Two crows diverged
whose flights were tracked
in a yellow wood
by crow the third
who watched the horse
that lay quite still.

The first two crows
brought back their brothers
but that third crow
had got the eyes
first one then two
from the head of the horse
that lay so still.

I'll sing you how
the gang of crows
descend on the horse
in ones and twos
and make such a noise
they scare off the flies
who'd come to feast
on the horse so still.

And I recall
as the leaves fall down
on this road in the wood
under branches bare
it's one for sorrow
two for mirth
then nine for hell
as I rode the earth
on a horse whose bones lay still.

I can only agree with Milo stating the obvious. The poem is beautifully written with a delicious eerie quality to it.

[bedeep]

Thank you! And I am enjoying this.

[Tiger the Lion]

Two by Two

Two by two we boarded the ark;
a safe-house built of Gopher wood.
I looked for you, but it was dark
 
and time was short; we’d soon embark
for promised, safer neighbourhoods.
Two by two we boarded. The ark
 
was huge but housed no germ, no shark—
we left them where the sinners stood.
I looked for you, but it was dark
 
and there were howls and growls and barks
at clouds above, engorged with blood.
Two by two we boarded the ark
 
and prayed a coloured bow would arc
beyond the borders of the flood.
I looked for you… but it was dark
 
and God had long since set his mark
and then He saw that it was good.
Two by two we boarded the ark
I looked for you, but it was dark.

[Keith]

Just the two of them now

Edit 1
I wasn’t sure I would remember the house
an old photograph was all I had to go on,
self seeded plants softened the cracked paving slabs
but the driveway was still black and white.

Uncle Arthur’s skeleton opened the door,
his face was gouged like sculptors clay
thin lines under cheek bones
and thumbed deep into eye sockets.

The meniscus of old age had bottled his vision
but he still had a Whiskey gruffness in his voice
that reminded me of forgotten songs and pearl inlays,
each one made to fit the only three chords he could play.

Pyjamas protruded from under his clothes
as he moved around the room to his chair,
touching each ledge like a child learning to walk,
stroke is such a gentle word.
The room had kept hold of its memory's,
veneered in dust and damp that crept up from the carpet
slowly making it hard to see, hard to remember.

He spoke in bursts, bending each exhaled breath
to make the sounds.
One word at time
he told me he much he missed my mum.
“She
was
my
baby
sister”
I know I said and took his hand.
His old Jack Russell, farted
then lifted its head to sniff the air.
“He’s
fuckin
farted
again”
I know I said,
and let go of his hand.



Original
I wasn’t sure I would remember the house
an old photograph of me squatting in the garden
with a washing up bowl, holding a model of Stingray,
a blue hair pin replaced its snapped off periscope.
The driveway was still black and white.

Uncle Arthur’s skeleton opened the door,
thin skin had fallen over bones
like a wet bed sheet on the back of a chair.
The meniscus of old age had bottled his eyes
but he still had a gruffness in his voice
that reminded me of forgotten songs and pearl inlays,
each one made to fit the only three chords he could play.

Pyjamas protruded from under his clothes
as he move round the room to his chair,
touching each ledged like a child learning to walk,
Stroke is such a gentle word.
The room had kept hold of its memory,
veneered in dust and damp that crept up from the carpet
slowly making it hard to see, hard to remember.

He spoke in bursts, bending each exhaled breath
to make the sounds.
One word at time
he told me he much he missed my mum
“she was my baby sister”
I know I said and took his hand.
Sparky his old Jack Russell, farted
then lifted his head to sniff the air.
“he’s fuckin farted again”
I know I said, letting go of his hand.

[bedeep]

Two by Two

Two by two we boarded the ark;
a safe-house built of Gopher wood.
I looked for you, but it was dark
 
and time was short; we’d soon embark
for promised, safer neighbourhoods.
Two by two we boarded. The ark
 
was huge but housed no germ, no shark—
we left them where the sinners stood.
I looked for you, but it was dark
 
and their were howls and growls and barks
at clouds above, engorged with blood.
Two by two we boarded the ark
 
and prayed a coloured bow would arc
beyond the borders of the flood.
I looked for you… but it was dark
 
and God had long since set his mark
and then He saw that it was good.
Two by two we boarded the ark
I looked for you, but it was dark.

Beautiful and satisfyingly ominous. Enjoyed reading this!

[ellajam]

^^^Ditto on the above. Typo their L10?

Addition Equals Multiplication

One plus one equaled two.
Those sweet first months
we huddled in our cocoon,
slid against each other
watching for abrasions,
absorbing our differences
until one plus one equaled one.

Ah, what a sweet respite
before the world came rushing in:
the kids, their kids, the grieving moms,
siblings, in-laws, an ex or two
who pull and pluck at each free hour,
a gang of a hundred to juggle
until they or we drop.

We wallow in rare quiet, remembering
when one plus one equaled two, then one.


(Ugh, April 3rd will be a new day)

[Tiger the Lion]

Two by Two

Two by two we boarded the ark;
a safe-house built of Gopher wood.
I looked for you, but it was dark
 
and time was short; we’d soon embark
for promised, safer neighbourhoods.
Two by two we boarded. The ark
 
was huge but housed no germ, no shark—
we left them where the sinners stood.
I looked for you, but it was dark
 
and their were howls and growls and barks
at clouds above, engorged with blood.
Two by two we boarded the ark
 
and prayed a coloured bow would arc
beyond the borders of the flood.
I looked for you… but it was dark
 
and God had long since set his mark
and then He saw that it was good.
Two by two we boarded the ark
I looked for you, but it was dark.

Beautiful and satisfyingly ominous. Enjoyed reading this!

Thank you. Great to see you participating, and wonderful to read your poems.
Paul

[Tracy Mitchell]

Duet

She ensconces on a deck railing overlooking
the Milky Way.  He stands between her thighs,  
eyes level.  They look only at each other.
 
They circle, side by side, near blue water
through cold sunlight.  Her head’s shadow
fixes on his stomach, like a perfect eclipse,
then moves lower.

Their bodies spin, bewitch, and captivate.
He sits shirtless, in jeans, in the waves.
She sits clothesless on his lap, bent forward,
calves on his shoulders.  They kiss.

From a distance they appear as one.  
The black void surrounds them.

Binary stars they are, blind to the universe,
doing forever a cosmic do-si-do.

[milo]

Two by Two

Two by two we boarded the ark;
a safe-house built of Gopher wood.
I looked for you, but it was dark
 
and time was short; we’d soon embark
for promised, safer neighbourhoods.
Two by two we boarded. The ark
 
was huge but housed no germ, no shark—
we left them where the sinners stood.
I looked for you, but it was dark
 
and there were howls and growls and barks
at clouds above, engorged with blood.
Two by two we boarded the ark
 
and prayed a coloured bow would arc
beyond the borders of the flood.
I looked for you… but it was dark
 
and God had long since set his mark
and then He saw that it was good.
Two by two we boarded the ark
I looked for you, but it was dark.

Please add mine to the chorus of ayes.