You know that feeling 

When you miss someone

It’s like a part of you is missing

You feel complete in their presence 

But when they’re gone

You hope every text is from them

You wonder if you’re on their mind

Like they’re on yours

You yearn just to hear their voice

See their face

Touch their skin

Counting down the minutes

Until you can’t bear it anymore

Every second away from them

Is torture

So caught up in missing them

That everything else is irrelevant

And only when they return

Will everything seem to

Fall into place. 

I dicker with the Sandman

On the edge of sleep

But his brother, Morpheus

Knocks me off my feet

I F A L L... away

Down sweet dream's reef

Where my mind makes movies

For my inner eye's treat

While all the while my heart

Makes neat

An accounting

Which my spirit seeks

-What I did

-What I felt

-What I learned

A summing of the things

I built and burned

As I braved strong currents

Of peopled shoal

All bit by bit to grow my soul

Till time grows short

For monologue's retort

Desire and Delirium

Release my mind

As hand over hand, I climb

Up from the deep keep

Of sucker-punched sleep

To meet another day...

-DeRicki

Emotions spray in the air

wounded fragments cascading

from holes in heart sieve.

My bottle bleeds in drops

leaking out my skin, but

atomized thoughts fail to soar.

Sanguine pain pours deeply

from my blotched face.

brewery of festered thoughts.

Bottled up storm ferments

as I try to spew the tears out,

tied up in tortuous knots

from being tangled too long.

Stomach growls and festers

trying to vomit infestation,

trapped in my cage of rage,

boiling secrets unsaid.

I slap a smile on my face

and glue it to the walls,

hiding my numb body

behind my grinning facade.

Please twist open

burning bottle of agony

and read my truths

before they tunnel

deeply encased

inside my soul.

A lesson forgotten from 1967, The Summer Of Love...

I seek a truth

So hard to find

Blind

Walking paths

All lost to time

As bodies burn

In fire of ire

And madness takes

Our breaths in turn

Street colors clash

One black

One blue

Locked in response

Of what to do

We

Trapped in Worlds

Proscribed by hue

Hate yields to love

Know this is true...

There's power in a flower

If we let peace bloom

-DeRicki

I peel back onion skin layers

to find a dream within a dream

within a dream.

I am on the outside looking in

stripped bare and floating on clouds.

I drink deeply the essence of stars

falling through the walls of life.

I am fusing into unsettled scraps

of yesterday’s broken dreams,

tiptoeing through life’s dunes.

Teardrops bathe me

in abrasive sea of salt.

Laughter climbs a ladder

seeking wafting breeze.

I chase the light,

swimming naked.

I paint my aura

with rainbows of pigment.

Streams run gently

down my face.

My fingerprints

dissolve and leave no mark

Sun kisses gold flecks,

simplicity of love,

its warmth chasing the pain

as I melt into nature,

dripping candle wax,

marking my path,

so I can find

my way home.

                I say tickle me

She splashes water upon my face

                I say entertain me

She gives me life to watch

                I say shield me

She nourishes the border that protects me

                I say love me

She says look into me

                 I say care for me

She gives me courage when I am weak

                 I say teach me

She shows all inner workings

                 I say show me the light

She says wade into my essence

                 I say fulfill me

She gives all in return

                 I say tickle me

She splashes, entertains

shields, loves

teaches, fulfills

                 She, a pond

She, my mother

How can I write poetry tonight

When the world is on fire

When innocent citizens are

Killed for no reason

When Authority has become a God and

When children spend their summers

In front of a screen

When libraries need a campaign

To inspire folks to read

When the US election is --

Well, in the embarrassing state of our US election

And I know there are intelligent people out there

Choosing to follow instead of lead --

And I can't understand their choice

To turn a blind eye to critical thought

How can I write poetry when

The sky is scuffed with grey smog

While the simplicity of petrie dish food

Outweighs the sweat shed over backyard gardens

How can I write poetry

When money is power

In marriages

And politics

And glass ceilings, and --

How can I write fucking poetry when

The Majority Rule doesn't even like poetry in 2016!

Being unique is a disease

And people care more about your sexuality than

Their own spirituality

So, how can I write poetry

When there is so much sadness to mourn

And so many wounds to heal

And so many souls to console

How

Can

I

Write

Poetry

When the isolation feels

Safer than hanging with the crowd?

Flash flood reflections

slit and rent my life sparks.

My conscience is rinsed

by wails of guilt.

I lie face down

on ribbons of shame.

My soul sneaks down back street

trashed with contrition.

Limbs flail in frenzied motion,

trying to outrun dishonor.

I yell, “Wait for me,

don’t run so fast!”

In the cold, driving rain

I wrap my sin

like a shawl

around shaking shoulders

selling out my words

to the wind.

My face is framed

by white lamb innocence

but is black sheep sordid inside.

Remove the veneer

of my disguise

and you’ll see

my disgrace -

unfolding mystery

dying at daybreak

resounding

with twisted pain

of my guilty secret

as evil is harbored

within hollow heart

and my last goodbye.

Who would hear silence better than a deaf? The hushed surroundings. surrounded by noise yet the note of silence plays higher than anything else. Making the dazzling beauty of instrumental music into a monotonous rhythm of soundlessness. The sobs into a convulsing sorrow. The laughter into an unspoken mirth. Oh, how silence strangled him when he yearned to hear his loved one whispering sweet nothings into his disabled ears!

Who would know how to feels when silence slowly creeps unto your tongue better than the dumb? How he yearns to express his feelings, his emotions, his pains. How he aches to praise the beauty of the world. How he craves to break the chains of silence that held his tongue and those that ran down his throat keeping his voice hidden inside him. Who would know better than a dumb what it feels like to scream out loud, loud enough to shake the heavens and rip the earth apart yet no sound falls off his mouth?

Not every time silence and tranquility go well together....

[This is what I wrote originally for the @Vincent_Cross challenge about meeting Death, but I couldn't edit it down to 100 words. The poem mentioned in this story, posted below, ended up being my challenge submission.]

Death was, and was not, what I expected. The dark flowing robe, the hood shadowing a gleaming skull - it was all there. The eyes were a surprise though. On close inspection, the dark sockets contained galaxies of stars, whirling slowly in the black void. But, what I definitely didn't expect was the feminine vibe - not sexy, but motherly.

We stood side by side over my peacefully reposed body, a book held loosely in my hand.

"Damn, now I'll never know how it ends."

"IT WOULD SEEM, FOR YOU, IT ENDS ON PAGE 178," said a voice like granite mountains colliding, with the hint of a melodic echo.

"Are you a woman?"

"LIFE IS THE CREATIVE. I AM THE RECEPTIVE. SOME CONSIDER THOSE MALE AND FEMALE FORCES, RESPECTIVELY; BUT AS TO YOUR QUESTION, I HAVE NO ANSWER."

"Did you have to kill me now? I have so much left to do!"

"I DO NOT KILL. SINCE YOU SEE ME AS FEMALE, THINK OF ME AS A MIDWIFE, ATTENDING YOUR BIRTH INTO THE NEXT PHASE OF YOUR JOURNEY."

Death chuckled - mighty boulders crushed together at the ocean's bottom.

"A WRITER ONCE REFERRED TO ME AS LIFE'S DARK WIFE."

I recognized the words. They were from my poem of the same name.

"IT IS TIME."

"But-"

"IT IS TIME."

Death pointed a bony finger at something behind me. I felt a hot dry desert wind at my back. Turning, I saw sands stretching into the distance. A glow on the horizon could have been a setting or rising sun - or perhaps the lights of a city. Interesting.

"What's out there? Is it heaven, or...the other place?"

"I DO NOT KNOW. I CANNOT KNOW. IT IS ONLY FOR YOU."

Death slowly faded away. Alone in the desert, I sighed. Then I began to trudge toward the light.

-DeRicki