home / writing main / slam poems main / last poem / next poem
Struggle
Genuine cold action
says the candy stick crone
stirring toothpaste thick
pepto-bismol pink cinnamon taffy in her cauldron
she says it represents the molten core of the world
she says and my life she says
redemption
she stripes my back with it like a candy cane
and I am free yes free
on the wintergreen breeze
I soar into the future sky head full of buzzing
because I am restless and helpless to resist
and endless is my list of things to do today
but I keep getting distracted
by colorful eyelids parachuting through the clouds with
teddy bear's strung up by their lashes
I can see my face painted on one and the face of my great grandchild on another
then come
monks of ages past
offering yellow repentance
they strap it to my gut like airplane landing gear laughter
when it deploys
candy coated farmers market animal crackers
come pouring out onto the children beneath this rainbow funride
but I'm never flying though these sunshine parts again
so I might as well spend some time strutting and pecking for chickenfeed
with the other chicks and roosters in the yard sky
I'm just waiting to be
transported to the land of milk and cookies where everything is happy fun
all the time happy fun and I want some
and I just want to roll up there in my candy apple green Chevrolet
top down, pimped out, rims still spinning, you know what I mean
but people don't even have the decency to throw rotten apples
they throw their leftover tuna casserole from last month, black with mold
and bread, they throw bread, hard crusty baguettes, missiles,
and I'm not willing to put my body at risk
for something that really doesn't matter in the long run
but maybe it could have if I tried harder
it's getting harder and harder to fly by the seat of my pants
disconnected from the ground parachuting down like teddy bears
lashed to eyelids, only it's more like I'm dangling from Teddy's shoelaces
and he's trying to kick me free cause
I'm dragging him down and teddy bears can't exist on the ground
and big boys can't float in the air
and I'm going to have to spend the night in jail here pretty soon
if I don't get my shit together
but for some reason I'm not afraid cause I've still got my oily back
and my belief in myself.
just then I got kicked loose by my teddy bear
but I'm over the blue razzleberry ocean, maybe I will survive this fall
stranger things have happened
I remember one time grinning caves everywhere burst out crying
from the grapefruit citrus pain of the starburst world
and the fire that burns at it's core of atomic fireball cinnamon taffy
so sad cause it needs release
only when it releases it destroys the trees living on the islands beneath me
but these are our homes, they cry they cry
but I have to make lava he cries he cries
he will never let them escape he has bigger concerns
he is contemplating suicide,
and he has to deal with me falling out of the sky with a giant cherry throat lozenge
crying, "take your medicine!"
straight into the mouth of the volcano just before it erupts
and stopping up the hole.