I don't need permission to be wrong or right.

More PAD Chapbook Challenge this fine Sunday morning.

"Distance"

Is it wrong to crave the distance
shutterby and feel resistance
to the quote unquote
normal reality
that binds us all
in corporate misery.

I can't be shamed into submission
never bought, always listening
the shutter snaps closed
image captured
separation, soul renewed
to what is right and new.

"Can I Go"

The leaves are blowing
a deep knowing
winter's on the mend.
Kicking daisies
defining maybes
helping me around the bend.
Natural permission
to hide away
I am not scared of the cold
seeping, embracing
covering, lacing over
all we claim to know.
In the early dark
I see the spark of stars
and wonder-
can I go?

Tell Me Why I'm Stacking the Lost and Found

Inspired by the pad Chapbook Challenge. Robert Lee Brewer is a great poet, and the comments are fun to procrastinate with. I'm playing catchup again. My second rejection has made me feel better about continuing to write. At least I am trying now.

"Tell Me Why Everything's Broken”

Is it the cigarettes

or the lack of exercise

or the color tv?

Tell me why everything's broken.

Is it the unwanted children

or incompetent fathers

or unfit mothers?

Tell me why everything's broken.

Is it consumer culture

or trickle down government

or a war over oil?

Tell me why everything's broken.

Is it the rising poverty level

or the crisis of education

or the indulgence of the rich?

Tell me why everything's broken.

And the little boy says-

“It's all of that and more.”

"Cake"

one circle, slapped
down, filled, covered
with sugary staying
power, to rise high-
with proper support.
dowels shoved in
the next tier placed
with care; for these
are the days of our lives.

My lost and found poem for today found in the comments of today's post for PAD.

PAD Challenge Catch Up

I think I am killing my brain a bit trying to do this challenge and NaNo in the same month, but I will survive. Took a few days away from poems, either forgetting because I finished NaNo too late or in desperately needed rest.

I realize now that I need to listen to Hulk Hogan and take my damn vitamins. One can not live on coffee and cigarettes alone.

Here are the last four days of prompts, including today:

10th-A love poem.

"Orion"

I looked up and I saw

Orion, a dear warrior

in the sky.

All I could think of

was finding your face

to watch his belt.

You are my sunshine

I no longer need

a reason why.

11th-No One Wants (blank)

"No One Wants Sally"

hiding behind the bleachers

a bandanna over her hair

Sally probes her bomber jacket

for cigarettes-and stares

out to a painted field, colored

by white and blond and red

every color of the rainbow

it's all paranoia, in her head.

They'd let her join them if she wanted

but she chooses to be apart

Sally hits her smoke and falters

in second grade they broke her heart.

12th-Forget about it.

"Say"

"I forgot to say I love you."

"I know."

"There is no one else above you."

"I care."

"Is there anything to do?"

"The snow."

"It's more beautiful than you."

"I know."

13th-Open ended question.

"Where to Go"

Are you hungry

I think so, where

would you like to go?

I don't know, pass it

on, where would you

like to go? Well I

don't know, it's time

to chow, can you make

a decision tonight?

Manic Monday

I always loved this bit on the morning news here when I worked day shift at a gas station. Something needed to wake me up.

Only 3,000 more words, I can so do it. I'll be over the halfway point to "winning" NaNoWriMo, and a quarter of the way towards my goal. The Milk Wood place I'm always talking about on Twitter has been a help, if you can run http://www.secondlife.com come and write sometime.

I'm also doing the PAD challenge because I need to get in the habit of writing both every day, they seem to feed each other. I get all the annoyances of the day out through the poem, and then I feel clear in my head to write about the fictional people with all their problems. I wrote two on yesterday's prompt, so here is the second.

Pro-Sunset

I believe in sunsets
deep purple clouds
with magenta highlights
presiding over rush hour
tempering roadrage
the horizon brings
warm orange and
blood tinged trees
a strata of the day's events
for a limited time only.