This piece has me coming back again and again. I can find many sentiments expressed in this. How about you?
defy the long sleep
dark circles shadow your eyes
bear the weight of life
brutal ignorance becomes
a black and white memory
Author: Susi Bocks
Life is the daily privilege of new discoveries about who I am. I evolve into more roles as my life continues towards its inevitable end. Many admirable hats have been worn throughout my existence, and some have come to an end. I've been a daughter, a sister, a friend, a wife, a mother, an aunt, a sister-in-law, a daughter-in-law, a paid worker in the capitalistic system in our world, a business person, and a volunteer for many worthy causes over the years. The current role of writer and author is hopefully not the last step in my journey that began as a blank slate. I'm currently residing in the middle of the United States, literally.
Fortuitous
Being a superstitious person, I thought it must be a sign of things to come. Plus, me tripping then my lame hand knocking down the wind chime tethered to the porch frame; they felt like omens. Regardless, I shut those thoughts down.
I put on a big smile; it was my time to shine. With the game starting, my bet placed, only good fortune was coming my way. Yeah!
This beautiful woman, erotic and enchanting, handed me her business card. Her soft hand intentionally caressing mine, like she was trying to tame me. I do believe I have found love!
Coffee Table Talk & The Sound Of Brilliance
For those of you who wanted to attend the Coffee Table Talk but couldn’t make it, here you go!
I want to thank Lisa for allowing me to talk about the upcoming anthology (VERY SOON – I Promise!!) and have four of our poets featured in the anthology – Lisa being one of them and Marisela Brazfield, Joni Caggiano, Marjorie Maddox – read one of their poems from the book! In addition, it was a wonderful opportunity to listen to other works and the discussion by the participants on the topic of social justice. I got a lot out of it, hope you will too!
Bound
desires can imprison
and yet, they free you
taken right to the edge where you almost break
and then they mend you whole again
Wrong Sex
with shame i hide
within the norms of society
disguising, even to myself,
my true desires
our friendship turning romantic
confuses me further
your charisma enchanting me
your song lifting my spirits
what a mind
smart, decisive and creative
your care and concern
envelops me decisively
the air around you
light
smoothing these edges of mine
adjusting my rough attitude
my mother loves you
as do i
but can this love sustain
with this private dilemma
i think i desire men
This is in response to Val’s request for poetry for National Poetry Month Scavenger Hunt aka NPM 21. The piece above is about a lost love.
Reblog – A Little Less Cruel by Christo N.
There are many truths in this piece. Life is not for the faint of heart, as they say.
Wedo our best to navigate the problems at hand
15/03/2021
Somehow
In myneckof the woods
We all live lives
Of quiet tragedy
Some more than others it’s true
But spend long enough on planet earth
And something will go wrong
Pray you have the strength
Tonegotiatehardship
Trauma and turmoil
When the devil strikes
Because no matter who you are
Things can fall apart
In a heart beat
In a day
In a year
And some get so down
They choose to end it
So that it takes hard work
To forgive humanity
To love this imperfect world
With allitsflaws
And it’salsotrue
That once in a blue moon
A man or woman finds peace
Epiphany, Euphoria andEcstasy
Even for just a moment
And that knowing these states are possible
Can get you through
And keep the wolves at bay
Mum said:
Life is 95% hard work
And 5% reallylovely…
Dad said:
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The Projector – Part 5
The Brighton Plaza Cinema 5/2/21 – Edward
It had been a long day for Edward. A long month. Looking over the number of movies he’d projected, it seemed on the high end of regular showings; the average was about seventy-five per day. Today, ninety-eight films ended up being projected, and such a variety too—everything from slasher movies to comedies. Edward felt put through the wringer, so to speak, throughout the day. But that was his job. It came with the territory. He looked forward to turning it all off when he got home.
The theater was closed on Mondays, so he looked ahead with relief to a day off, and Tuesdays tended to be slower than the weekends. He was glad—a bit of a break.
With the cinema’s popularity increasing since it opened last month, Edward wondered if they would add another screen. Perhaps, but not likely. It seemed reasonable to him as the attendee numbers continued to climb, sometimes even turning people away, although not that often yet. But they were always at total capacity. If not another screen and projector, he just wished they would hire someone to be a backup to run the equipment. He lamented to himself being the only person doing the work was exhausting.
Wrapping up for the day, he went over the log of the movies shown, making sure he’d listed them all. Someone in management expected them as they were tracking the shows’ statistics—genres and viewers. Edward surmised they were following what the trends were. Eventually, probably within the year of opening, the corporation told him they would make it public how The Brighton Plaza Cinema was doing. It would help boost the sales of the franchises coming into play in the future. This recordkeeping would show this new fangled way of projecting movies was good business. Good for the public, excellent for the company, but damn, it was hard on the projector. Sometimes, it just got to be too much. Edward found ways to numb himself when he got home, drugs or alcohol, but mostly, he stayed holed up in his apartment, away from the world and any more stimuli.
No one knew that the eye scan each moviegoer used to check in was pasting clear, thin strips of plastic onto their eyeballs. The film was a neural link connected to Edward, “the projector” of their movie, who was symbiotically connected to their film choice. He “streamed” the movie they selected directly into their view after having it downloaded to his brain. It was genius as it didn’t require huge movie theater complexes to stream a variety of movies. One and done, everybody got what they wanted. The best part, the plastic strips dissolved after the movie.
Being the first of its kind theater, no one knew that this projector, Edward, would eventually feel his mental health decline severely, and fairly quickly. He would, in a sense, implode from the emotional burnout of having to handle simultaneous realities. The patrons had fun, had a good cry, swooned, were entertained and thrilled, but not so for the projector. His senses were bombarded throughout his 8-hour shift, putting his nervous system into overdrive and devastating his sense of reality. Edward was being used as their guinea pig.
Ain’t capitalism grand?
THE END
Thanks so much for your support of this series! See you next month!
Heart Beats Poetry Reading!!
Please come join us!
Saturday, 10 April 2021
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm Eastern Time Zone
Hope to see you there 🙂
Click link to RSVP your attendance.
Targets
go for it
follow your instincts
put your pedal to the metal
full steam ahead
no one tells you as you do
that struggling is a part of the journey
it’s hard work
chasing your dreams
i hope you remember
to be playful and filled with joy
as you hit all those milestones
the markers of your success
The Projector – Part 4
The Brighton Plaza Cinema 5/2/21 – Jack
Jack arriving late, attempted to quietly slip into the row, mangling a few toes on the way to his seat. He apologized profusely to the affected people. They seemed to dismiss it as unavoidable, easing his concern of having hurt his fellow patrons. Seeing how the previews were still running, he was glad not to have missed anything yet, nor messed up anyone else’s viewing pleasure. Jack was kind like that. He reflected for a minute that, having been raised by his MawMaw, he knew she would be proud of his interactions with others.
Considering where he grew up, how he turned out was a miracle. His life wasn’t easy, not only because of living in Detroit, MI, a city with the highest crime rates, it was just he and his grandmother fighting the good fight, no other extended family. She was the only one he still had after his mom left and his dad died in a robbery gone wrong. Fortunately, his MawMaw raised him to be better than where and who he came from. Her goal was to see that he made something of himself, and he indeed showed that he was heading in that direction. He could be pleased about it as well as his grandmother.
Jack was looking forward to watching Emergent; sci-fi thrillers were his favorite genre. It was nice to get out of his head and imagine a different reality, daily life being so taxing for him at times, imagining an unreal future being a welcomed change of pace. No bullets to dodge in his neighborhood, only watching phasers on the screen and the bad guys getting shot, not him. Who wouldn’t relish that kind of visual entertainment and not have to face the fear of merely trying to get home safely? Jack got comfortable and waited for the show to begin.
The movie started with the Tangent II crew shooting through space on a mission to a newly discovered planet. There were five members on board, three of them with various science research specialties, and the other two handled engineering and staffing the flight deck. All assigned to this mission, except for the captain, were recent graduates from the space academy, and this was their virgin flight. The crew was under the impression it would be uneventful as they didn’t anticipate any new life forms, just vegetation. It did require studying, though, being a new planet.
After landing on Zenlev’s surface, Emergent quickly ramps up with action sequences. The vegetation turned out to be somewhat aggressive and lethal. It was a rather predictable plot, Jack nevertheless enjoying it. The crew rapidly launched into survival mode rather than pursuing the necessary research they were tasked with. The scenes which followed had all crew members getting slaughtered in dramatic ways except for one space cadet, who correctly identified how to stop the vegetation in its tracks. She managed to get back onto her ship and headed towards home, a lost but triumphant gaze on her face.
As the credits rolled, Jack took a deep breath, satisfied with the ending. Putting his jacket back on, he gathered up his candy and drink, slowly getting up to walk up the aisle. It was then Jack realized that the theater was empty. Wow, he thought to himself, he was totally engrossed in that movie!
TO BE CONTINUED ON FRIDAY…
