WANDERLUST By David Allen It's a wonder my parents didn’t get in trouble for letting me run free. From as far back as I remember, I did things that could have bought charges of child neglect for allowing me to run wild. I am the oldest of seven children and gladly surrendered the role of mother's little helper to my sister, two years younger, while I discovered the world. Trespassing was my usual crime. Abandoned homes, factories, military bases, and the estates of Roaring Twenties millionaires, decayed after the Depression. They were my playground. I never knew what I might find Signs of a ghost? Old books, photos? Remains of animals? Forgotten paintings? Broken statues? Stairways to the sky? I once found the blackened remainder of a forgotten pie in an old wood oven. In a mildewed closet, I discovered a half-filled diary that ended with a huge hand-drawn exclamation point. In a flooded factory basement I used a wooden door as a raft. I was lucky no one ever confronted me as I sought what remained when life moved on to other structures and other worlds.
Posts Tagged ‘poetry’
Wanderlust
Posted: September 1, 2020 in PoetryTags: exploring, juvenile, poetry, searching, Wandering
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The Light’s Gone out (again)
Posted: June 5, 2020 in PoetryTags: liberty, poetry, protest, violence
The Light’s Gone Out (again)
By David Allen
It’s getting darker in America
We have somehow lost the dawn
We move slowly as the light dims
And wonder what went wrong
Lady Liberty’s torch is out
It no longer lights the way
We choke on the wisps of smoke
As we face darker days.
Fear and hate now rule the land
It’s the opposite of our dawn
When we welcomed the huddled mass
Escaping foreign wrongs.
But now we limit travel
Because of a viral threat
And watch on TV the horror
Of a black man kneed to death.
As we take to the streets to protest
Our mad leader makes it known
He’ll use all the means at his disposal
To ensure the Dove of Peace has flown.
We’re living in a land divided
By race, religion, and much more
Left and Right poles further splitting
In a mad rush to settle scores.
It’s the opposite of dawn
This nightmare land of fear
And when we’ll see the sun again
Isn’t very clear.
GREEN
By David Allen
Within a week
the world turned green
outside my humble home.
Branches that bore
tiny green shoots
now bend with the weight
of broad oak leaves.
The woods are alive
with chatterings and coos.
But the leaves hide
the high aerie roosts
and the busy birds
tending their broods.
Battling the Bug
Posted: March 29, 2020 in PoetryTags: apocalypse, battle, bug, coronavirus, Covid 19, deaths, poetry, quarantine, staying unside, virus
BATTLING THE BUG
By David Allen
We’re hunkered down inside our homes
while Covid 19 is running wild.
The death count’s mounting up
while the President keeps lying.
I’m looking for the Gorilla Glue,
gonna paste my doors and windows,
make sure the bug stays outside
while I watch the horror news
and binge-watch apocalypse movies.
And just to stay safe,
If the bug makes it through a crack
I hope to slow its deathly attack
with my welcoming black bug shirt.
I’m Afraid to Touch Her
Posted: March 27, 2020 in PoetryTags: fear, life, MS, pain, poetry, touching
I’m Afraid to Touch Her
By David Allen
I’m afraid to touch her.
Sometimes the MS pain’s so bad
she lies in bed all day and wonders
whether life is really worth it all.
I’m afraid to touch her.
I want to tell her it’s okay,
the pain has always briefly eased,
yet now it’s returned much worse.
I’m afraid to touch her.
There’s no telling where next it will hurt,
we can kiss and hug, but not too hard.
There’s no cure for what pains her every day.
I’m afraid to touch her.
Sunrise in America
Posted: March 3, 2020 in PoetryTags: America, Election, King, poems, poetry, politics, sunrise, Trump
SUNRISE IN AMERICA
By David Allen
I am waiting for sunrise in America
after this dark, broken night,
where democracy’s been pummeled
by the clown chief’s rubber mallet
and narcissistic scrawls on edicts
that devastate social programs
and reward the rich elite.
I am waiting for sunrise in America
to shine on the nation’s capital,
where swamp creatures swim laps
around the White House and Senate,
where multitudes hurl protest chants
at their representatives’ deaf ears
and any change for the good is pending.
I am waiting for sunrise in America
the morning after votes are cast,
to see if the false prince falls
or is enshrined as our new king
bringing on the darker night and fog,
smothering what’s left of our freedoms.
………………………………
This poem is one of three poems of mine published in the fantastic Polk Street Review.
https://squareup.com/store/CEArts/item/the-polk-street-review-2?t=modal-fb
GOOD MORNING
By David Allen
Good morning
I awake and kiss you lightly on the cheek
(your pillow is bare)
And softly stroke your long, brown hair.
You turn in bed to face me
Looking into my eyes with eyes
I love to drown my soul in
(there’s but one body’s impression
there’s but one side of the bed to make).
I whisper softly that I love you
The radio answers with a song
(I leave it playing all night long
to accompany this loneliness).
I start to leave; you reach for my hand,
We touch
(the air is not as soft)
You pull me to your side
(I stare at the pillow)
I take your head in my hands
We kiss,
Wine sweet.
The taste turns bitter
You slowly dissolve
Parts of you breaking apart
A jigsaw puzzle
I scream
I pick up the pieces of you
And start to glue
But the head’s on backwards.
My dog jumps on the bed
Scattering you around the room
On my knees I search for you
My dog licks my face
My eyes lose their sleep
I awake.
There is no puzzle
My dog sleeps, head nuzzled
In the crook of my arm
You are at home
Unaware that for a while
We made love in
The life of my night.
Little Has Changed
Posted: January 24, 2020 in PoetryTags: arrest, crooked president, poems, poetry, protests, sit-in, Supreme Court, Vietnam Vets Against the War, vote
LITTLE HAS CHANGED
By David Allen
Back in 1971, I was a member
of Vietnam Vets Against the War
standing between two cops,
hands on my head in surrender,
getting ready to be carted off to jail
for sitting on the Supreme Court steps.
And now we’re at the dawn of 2020
with another crooked president
and our troops involved in the Forever War.
So, nothing’s changed,
except for my balding head
and aged aching back,
leaving me wondering.
Should I sit on those steps again
or will true change take more
than protests and votes?
The Last Leaf
Posted: January 5, 2020 in PoetryTags: last, last leaf, leaves, poems, poetry, winter
Photo by D.H.Allen
THE LAST LEAF
By David Allen
I am the last leaf,
the last on the bough.
Brown and brittle,
I’ve taken a vow
to mourn for my more
colorful friends
who took the plunge
to drift to the ground.
I saw them settle
into piles on the lawn,
where they were raked or rotted,
no matter, they’re gone.
And as the days drift by,
I keep watch on a few
other lonely leaves,
wondering who
will be the last to fall.
My New Pen
Posted: December 28, 2019 in PoetryTags: ballpoint, fountain pen, pen, poem, poetry, present, writing
MY NEW PEN
By David Allen
Is there a difference
between writing a poem
with a fountain pen
instead of a ballpoint?
Will the words
be more polished?
More elegant?
Or will I have to
shake it up more
to get the lines to flow?
The pen demanding
more ink, like opening a vein?
Is a ballpoint pen
simply more mundane?
If so, what about poems
born from platens
or electronic bytes?
Are they too mechanical?
Too removed from emotion?
I wonder as I write.
