Miss Spent Life

For Kelsey

Put our smiles end to end & I think we could out span the Mississippi

If I laugh & you laugh as loud as we can we could stop any mountain shower & clear the sky

Let’s sit on the stopp &smoke on fresh air

Let’s walk our way to happy & all the way back

You skip up & I’ll skip down & we will meet somewhere on Old Grandpappy

I’ll see you when our classy asses are ready to make us fools

And when that day comes our smiles will out span the country

You See

From this old riverbed
I cannot see the moon

Jealous Trees are slung
This way and that,
They twist and turn,
They scratch and stab,
Fighting the sky,
Fighting me.

The gangly naked branches
Are confused, you see.
The moon,
The moon and I are old friends,
Far older than the trees can remember,
Back when I was young
And the trees were only sprouts.

A river once ran wild here
Beneath my head,
Beneath my feet.
The trees drank
And I swam
And the heavens shone
All together.

But having sucked
The river dry,
Bitter and Brittle
These trees
Like spider webs
Tangle with my cries
And reaching figners.
For you see,
The stars and I are lovers,
Have been ever since love was love
And envy turned green.
Now black barren branches
Bar our gaze
Leave me cold
And lonely.

If I were tall
If I were strong
I would cut them.
I would thrash, slash, and wail.
But I am small,
Tired,
Dried up.
My frail bones won’t stretch
And their thick bark won’t yeild.
So as they stand and as I lie
There is to be a rivalry
Between riverbed-me
And those trees that hide my sky.  

How to make a poet?

poetdreamer:

Sift out a cup of Creativity
Mix in half a cup of Language 
Half a cup of Obsession with words
A heavy dose of reading
Bake until it takes up a pen naturally

Now break his/her heart: Poetry.