Sisters

Faith and Doubt are quite a pair
sisters locked in unrelenting discourse
while Chastity sits at the bar
drinking with the boys
and smoking

Inspired by RC deWinter's telling it on the mountain

Between the Threads

a cry into the void
conjuring from emptiness
a villain fit to tilt ...

and once again
the poet spins
from nothingness
compelling yarn
with which to weave

reality

Response to Dreamless Nights by A Furious Child

Melting Pot

And yet this sword has edges two
homogeneity, though dull,
cuts effectively at me
the diversity
which from my mismatched parts
does coalesce

Inspired by Individually a "We" by Debbie Green Razey

Chalice

Oh to be the chalice
for your wine

one without the other
is at best an emptiness

a ruby stain
upon an earthen floor

together it's a promise
of thirst slaked forevermore

Inspired by Uma Venkatraman's A Place in your Memories

Ambiguous Perception

beautiful and ugly
paper thin the line between
different aspects of the same thing
coruscating in a dream
alternating with a nightmare
no night terrors apropos
as consumed with love
and just consumed
do battle with perception
of the roiling mass kalidescoping
in the heady brew I drink
to start and end my day

inspired by the poem A Decision Must Be Made by A Furious Child

Touched

And so you have
my poet friend
reached out and touched
with consequence
that with the recognition smirk
the favor I've returned

poetic comments
on your posts
are my reaction
to the touch
your poetry
has left with me

a tactile resonance
which builds
as network burgeons
in the wake
of shared connection
and response

Windmill

Our Daily Quest for Excellence
at which those long inured
roll their eyes
and shake their heads
whilst with my buckles
I do joust

Yet again we mount the steed
oblivious of past defeats
ignoring throbbing scars which scream
of lessons still unlearnt

The windmill beckons

Conspiratheory

And amidst apparent chaos
patterns do emerge
directed by some unseen hand
or consequence of natural law
extrapolants beyond our ken
or subtly nefarious
manipulation of the tide
and time of our humanity
toward goal yet unrevealed

like the swimmer in the rip
don't fight prevailing flow
but take a tack toward current's edge
that's closest to your goal.

inspired by E.B.O.L.A. by Le Hornet
and
Unsettling by M. Zane McClellan

Eternal Hourglass

caught in do-loop of regret
exit criteria never met
the if then else is just a dream
of modules that have never been
coded basic and debugged
and so return with little shrug
do until heartbreak is null
the hourglass spins on

Inspired by things I should be doing (it's all a lie) by Jenny Persson

Cosplay

self delusion is an art
in which my practice does excel
if you have strayed within it's field
and fallen for it's spell
what more from me do you deserve
than offer of a frosty mug
or hookah pull, if you prefer
and thanks for having played along
please do, sir, come again!

Inspired by an Eric Albin g+ post

For Sam

though Sam has in photos been seen, we
think Uma believes he's unseemly.
despite more than one bid,
what he'd show remains hid.
Sam's her purchased in Rio bikini.

Existential

all the aspects
all at once

sins and virtues
backs and fronts

top to bottom
stem to stern

inside outside
'til we yearn

for a time
when resolution

wasn't the
required solution

when it was
enough ... to be.

Inspired by A. J. Bell's Mirror Maze

Oblique Approach

walking up upon it slow
along an oblique path
shyly dropping little hints
as you make your advance
waiting 'til the very last
to put it on the line
standing by with open heart
alert for hopeful sign

inspired by I Also Want the Keys by Kristy Rulebreaker