Tag Archives: poem

Song Beyond the Trees #poem #poetry #chooseyourownending #naturepoems

Song Behind the Trees

Beyond the tree line

music beckons

Keep reading for the two possible endings to this poem

Ending 1 –

Past the threshold

no trail awaits

The stars can’t breach the canopy of leaves

A chorus of vines wrap around me

I’m a present for everything that stings

Venom lessons leach into blood, muscle, and bone,

Wolves wait and rabbits

scream

Over the crickets’ wicked laugh

I hear the stream

whispering

that the forest doesn’t go on forever

The music is gone

so I write my own

Ending 2-

When I cross the threshold

leaves swallow me, doing their best to hide me

from things that steal and sting

Whisper of the stream

guides me

off the path

through briars that cut into my leaves

piercing muscle, clawing at hope

but the sound still calls

I hide from spiders and walk with snakes

through the rain

over places where the earth

split

Stars and fireflies stay true

And the night’s butterfly takes me through the last miles

to the heart

the symphony

the beginning

of everything

Image description – a photo of somewhat barren trees at the edge of a forest. The sky is overcast, and a layer of fog gives the trees a hazy appearance.

Why two endings for the poem?

After I wrote the beginning of the poem, I started thinking of two possible endings- one more sinister and one with a more joyous outcome. I remembered reading those Choose Your Own Adventure books when I was a kid and thought, why not have two endings to this poem?

A song, a promise, a path- hidden except for the first few steps- could be a trap, waiting to ensnare any who dare to enter. Will the price to move past the trees be cuts so deep that souls and bones need to be pulled back together with a needle and thread? Or is the hint of the hauntingly beautiful song a prelude to something wonderful?

The threads binding our souls and bones remember the agony of past lessons, yet the stitches come alive with curiosity. In stillness we dissolve. Beyond the tree line, we find reasons.

The Electric Doors Never Stop Eating #poems #poetry #essay

The Electric Doors Never Stop Eating

Earlier than necessary

electric doors open wide

ushering in employees who either

drank the corporate-issued devotion-to-policy brew

or chose a regular cup of coffee and steeled themselves to slog through

another day of being under the eye and thumb of

cameras and software packages designed to report

each word

each keystroke

to measure productivity, to predict loyalty

to the almighty company

Corporate mission statements decorate walls and computer screens

Remember:

Positive attitudes only

Daily emails politely warn

that questions come with a penalty

When bodies drop under the weight of unattainable goals

and crack like stones

No blood left to squeeze

The boss with the broom sweeps the old dust out

so the doors can welcome in

younger faces ready to bleed for a company

that will demand the impossible

then sweep away the broken pieces

with a broom

Image description – photograph of high-rise businesses overlooking a rocky section of the James River

About the poem:

As rights for workers and conditions for workplace safety continue to erode, the reality hits hard that lawmakers are not coming to help workers. Nobody in politics is coming to provide actually legislative help because their pockets are being lined for staying silent. Since nobody in power is coming to help, it’s up to us to set a precedent, to draw lines, to set limits, and to be loud and obnoxious when we can if subtle strategies and quiet subterfuge fails. Otherwise, the spineless, manipulative, ass-kissers who have sold their souls for the privilege of serving their corporate overlords will continue to perpetrate wage theft, require unattainable goals, tout unrealistic expectations, discriminate both overtly and covertly, and cause unsafe and/or inhumane working conditions.

Secret Teeth – a horror poem #poems #horror #poetry #horrorpoetry

Secret Teeth

Trash cans ate

syringes and good intentions

each time success escaped

the grasp of latex gloves and lab coats

The scientists begged each new batch of cells

to please multiply into the perfect meat

that never bleeds or needs to sleep or eat

But they never mentioned dreaming

Upon success, the commercials assured

that the raw cubes infused with extra protein

could help save the world which was gasping for air

and grasping for another chance

The animals that survived

all hid in the shadows and pulled knives

when we tried to outsmart them

And not many things grow in the soil

where our hatred exploded

Factories followed the lead scientist’s careful specifications

to produce quiet, profit-sized, edible squares

that don’t sleep or eat or bleed

Manufactured meat slabs would never dream

of breaking free

They were infused with extra proteins

and something else, it seemed

The manufactured meat

had secret teeth that sank venom

into our veins

and drained away the people

they were meant to feed

Save the world

Save the animals

And the perfect meat

infused with secret teeth

found new houses

and ate and slept and dreamed

but they never once

made the earth bleed

Image description – photograph is of the skeletal frame and empty inside of a burned-down house

I wrote this poem after reading that scientists have found a way to grow meat in a lab from stem cells of animals. This meat production method sounds like it could be a good idea. Maybe it’s a good idea. Maybe nothing will go wrong, but so many things could. What if the manufactured meat wasn’t soulless cubes that would just willingly allow themselves to be consumed?