PAD 14- No I in TEAM

For today’s prompt, pick a popular saying and make that the title of your poem; then, write your poem. Some possible titles might include: “Blood Is Thicker Than Water,” “You Can’t Judge a Book By Its Cover,” “More Than You Can Shake a Stick At,” and so many others. Click here if you want more ideas.

There's No I in TEAM

There's no B in TEAM

We're all on our own.

There's no C in TEAM

I told ya so.

There's no G in TEAM

How about that?.

There's no I in TEAM

I can see that.

There's no K in TEAM

Alright?

There is no O in TEAM.

Surprise!

There is no P in TEAM.

Can you excuse me for a sec?

There is no R in TEAM.

You're on your own.

There is no U in TEAM

You're not in my life, either.

There's no Y in TEAM

No need to think about it.

PAD 13 - Rite Aid

For today’s prompt, write a family poem. It could be about your family, someone else’s family, a big family, a small family. It could be about one person in the family or a group picture. Your call. Just write that poem.

maybe this can count for the missing Guilty poem too....

Rite-Aid

I was about to not love you.

How could that be, but it was.

I was about to not love you.

I was about to hate you.

I remember that.

I remember saying that and knowing it.

I remember standing next to you

- how skinny you were

bones, really, bones, cuts, 

so many bruises

and I thought, I don't even know you

as you turned down an aisle

away from me, not even distant

just

utterly unknown: pure stranger.

I think I thought

I hate you

not then

then you were just a stranger

and I thought

who is this

but in those days

when your dark house was your only refuge

besides your activity of absolute obliteration

and the darkness filled our veins

    no matter our distance

and clutched our throats

    choked already for years with tears, fears, years of tears, and fears, founded

and love, useless

tough love, useless

tough

ambulances, silence,

phones, ringing, not ringing, silence, alarms, tears and the distance

growing and love, tough or kind love, forever love then - useless

and the darkness woke the children

and opened the drawers

looking, always looking

That wasn't the last vision, some woman,

with a coin purse

and broken hair

and cigarette scent

under the bright public lights

starving for something

then still visible

but it was the last day, our last outing

together, I might say.

We were in the pharmacy on the upper westside

looking for scar cream, conditioner, cigarettes.

I didn't even know her.

How could that be.

Very soon

you became you when you became bones

quite actually

and I could love you again.

Love rushed in 

on powerful, thundering, hard flapping wings.

Love ran through the streets

calling your name, calling out

I'll love you forever.

Family is everything. 

Family is forever.

At least there is that.

and I myself will die

with my devotion to your friendship,

your long ago through and through love,

your golden, then outcast, broken-winged soul.

PAD 10 - Up

For today’s prompt, write a travel poem. Your poem can be about the process of traveling, planning to travel, vicariously traveling through television programs, or however else you’d like to take this prompt.


Up


I look up and there is someone
high up in the cables of the bridge
dancing out horizontally from the towers

In my waking life
I have a friend who does just that
So I think it might be him

and - there -
maybe his friends
More interweave in the cable webbing.

I don't tell myself I can do that
Or want to
But as I rise up I know that I have this gift

In fact, I warn myself, as I easily rise,
not to go too high
I am so high already

I grab behind me
the slope of the main cables
and bend my body to match.
I see I am being observed from below

and do a flourish out
though I resent it
- why must I perform?

Shortly, I return to the ground
walk past the bridge, turn a corner
and rise again.

People are there below me.
I want to just be left alone
to be unobserved.

To think about how I feel this feels
to consider other uses
of this, my odd and unlikely gift.

PAD 9 - So There

For today’s prompt, take the phrase “So (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles could include: “So Cool,” “So Stupid,” “So Not What I Would’ve Done,” “So Sweet,” or so many other possibilities.

So There

I have done it

This thing that I cannot undo

So there

I haven't done it

This thing I no longer can do

So there

I have made a choice

and what has happened, has happened

So there

I have made a choice to not make a choice

and what hasn't happened, hasn't happened

It will never happen.

I made sure of that when I didn't do

what I didn't do

when I waited

as if time cared enough to wait for me

The wrinkles gather on my face

The sun sets regardless of my joy

or my emptiness

So there, says the day, moving as it speaks.

It's over.

What did you do 

with your time,

the time you were given

the time, that for a time,

was given, was yours.