To Life

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(Photo: Christian Bowen on Unsplash)

 

She strained

Against walls which

Heaved

About her.

She tensed limbs and

Tucked her

Chin

Fighting for a

Purchase

Around her.

And still the world

Convulsed.

Impossible in

Pressure.

Till sudden

Light.

A gasp of cold

As air

Rushed

Into lungs

To life her.

 

 

 

 

For dVerse quadrille poetry challenge of: gasp in 44 words

Chalked Up

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(Photo: Noita Digital on Unsplash)

 

The swirl of white had gotten

In her eye.

Placed a tickle in her

Throat.

The door would close.

The chairs will sleep with bottoms

Against table

Tops.

There would be no more

Early morns.

No damp sponge

To erase all of yesterdays’

Chalk.

 

 

 

 

For the dVerse quadrille poetry challenge: chalk in 44 words

Glitter Bound

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(Photo: Jackson David on Unsplash)

 

She spun around, with arms spread wide

The tinsel spooling

From her outstretched hands.

Spilling from her golden crown,

And all about her glowing gown,

It glittered and eventually

Bound,

Her body to the very ground

From whence her heart and soul

Made sound.

 

 

 

For the dVerse quadrille poetry challenge: tinsel in 44 words

 

It Wasn’t That

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(Photo: Owen Vangioni on Unsplash)

 

It wasn’t that

Which killed the cat.

Not inquisitiveness in predawn

Hours

When any decent mind

Would sleep.

Not curiosity about rustling shopping bags

Left

Fending for themselves

Whilst humans fetch more from

The car.

But urgent greed

To speed

Through

All nine lives.

 

 

 

For the dVerse quadrille poetry challenge: curiosity

 

 

Everything

(Photo: Inbar Asif)

 

It was everything

To her

To tend the naked vines that sprawled

Across her soul,

And through the long cold

Winter

To let the sun pour 

Over

The sprawling expanse of not-yet-sweetness,

As she hoped

And prayed

For fruit

Ripening amidst abundance

Into wine.

 

 

For the dVerse poetry quadrille challenge: Wine

In A Heartbeat

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(Photo: Karen Forte)

 

The fog cocooned her.

A swift blanket

Of numbing

Penetrative chill

The sun could not

Expel.

And yet

A butterfly’s wing

Flicked against

Her cheek.

A kiss

Of warmer

Days.

A promise for

What what could,

In a heartbeat,

Thaw frost

Into bedazzled

Hope.

 

 

For the dVerse quadrille challenge: swift

For Carol. On your birthday in heaven. Butterfly kisses galore.

 

 

Compliance

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(Photo: Isaac Holmgren on Unsplash)

 

When all was said and done,

There was no question

Of whether or when

Or why,

She would be expected

To abide by all

The rules they had

Intended to

Apply.

The law was set.

The outcome clear.

She was to follow

And adhere.

 

 

For the dVerse quadrille poetry challenge: abide

 

Fully Drawn

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(Photo: Al Battison on Unsplash)

 

She could not help the pull of lore

And hopes that drew on her

Heart like a magnet right into

The polar

Opposite of what

She had been raised to

Know and

Want.

For how could she possibly

Be anything but

What she

Was?

 

 

For the dVerse quadrille poetry challenge

 

 

Their Bag End

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Photo: Tyler Lastovich on Unsplash

 

They never did make it back from their destination. Not for lack of trying. Not for lack of plans. Not even for lack of courage or stamina or all the things that make a journey circular. There and back again. Like Bilbo Baggins looking for an adventure and finding more than he had bargained for (or perhaps precisely what he needed); they, too, found more along the way than they had intended.

The path slowed everything. Time turned to stone.

And when it was over, said and done, it was a time and there was never enough of it.

They took too long.

So much that life passed by before it could lead them back to where they had come from.

Perhaps where they ended was precisely where they needed to go.

Only that unlike Bilbo, they did not return to their Bag End.

 

 

(Prompt: from “A Time” by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke)

For the dVerse Prosery Challenge: A Time

 

 

Hearts’ Hum

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Photo: Koshu Kunii on unsplash

 

No humdrum moment.

No silent pause

Or rest.

The tempo of the chanting

Rises

As crowds flow

And crest.

 

They march to call

The winds

Of change

To come,

And heed the soul

As hearts’ pain

Hums

And drums

The need for

Better times.

 

 

 

For the dVerse quadrille poetry challenge: drum