As anticipated, I was not able to write a short story this week. I did manage to get some work done with the RPG script, but not much else. I hope all of you had a satisfactory Thanksgiving and weren’t trampled the day after. Because people seemed to like my last poem “Termites” (it got more ‘likes’ than any of my stories, which I find interesting because I don’t think I’m good at poetry), I’m going to post two more shorties. The first one was published in my college’s literary magazine, and the second I made for a class. I’m going to post brief explanations afterwards. I dislike needing to explain them, but I’ve had multiple appeals asking me to explain my poems after the fact, so I’ll put them down should anybody want to know. Enjoy, God bless, and rock on.
“The Light That Guides Me Home”
To the blinding, burning light
Drink me up
Reduce this mortal coil to dust
In one instance I find you
A blast brighter than no other
A callous
manufactured
masquerade of God
No mercy for me
nor child
Nor the widow soon to be
Our curtain slowly closes
I pray your light never reach them
Your words never deafen
Their innocence and peace
Please forgive me, holy terror
But I hate you so much
Damnable synthetic device
Too simple, you fulfill your design
Pull in your pin
cooked in a palm
Thrown with no aim at all
What am I doing here
with your grace open before me
Opening your jaws
of shrapnel and white?
No matter
of little consequence now
Envelope my soul, I ask
nurse my body to death
And call me into that final goodbye.
…
“The Red Thread of Fate”
Spun upon my finger small
Chanced by fate’s design
Finger-hook
to the cheek
Gently, gently tugging along
Oh, curse you, red thread of fate
For evacuating my apartment
Dragging me into winter’s hymn
Sacrificing my marrows
to Mother’s song
How she catches my eye again
That delicate soul
with her glissade and spin. Dancing
on snow-touched lakebed.
A dwelling for the child in her soul
so sweet and I
can only fawn.
Calling me out here, hm, red thread of fate?
With what to say?
I fret to stay and linger
Tear you from me
If only I could
and not let my heart flutter ‘til dawn
Moonlight blessing touch this heart
Give this thumb-twiddling man
Words to weave
in spite of himself. With
confidence tempered, nice and strong
Red thread of fate, I am so afraid
But already she has seen me
there is no retreat.
I join her on lonely white sea
She takes my hand
a gesture sudden and unexpected
but hardly upsetting
We begin our own ballad
to which we slowly ascend
I voice my heart like a trumpeter swan
Spun upon my finger small
That red thread of fate holds tight
Welcomed to wrap my heart
And gently, gently tug along.
…
In sum: The Light That Guides Me Home is from the perspective of a soldier who’s watching the blast of a grenade in front of him, certain to take his life. The Red Thread of Fate is a mild love poem based on lore from some Eastern Asian countries such as Japan and China. You can read more about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_thread_of_fate
For Kicks & Bucket Lists 