Shoes
By Brandon Williams
Not asking you to walk
in those shoes…
Maybe Just –
Dance!
Skip!
Jump!
RUN!
Let that Metaphoric Monster
Hit ya.
Wear out them ol’ soles
On bumpy roads!
Then,
Stagger,
Stumble,
fall! Be humbled.
Get BACK UP!
Barefoot,
sore,
but ready for more,
With callous toe,
Keep moving,
Moving – Proving!
Then you’ll know.
Balance Is Best
By Brandon Williams
You rise,
You stretch,
You yell,
“I FUCKING LOVE HER!”
With heart full & open…
You lay down,
You mumble & grumble,
“I FUCKING HATE HIM!”
With heart closed & broken…
Such extremes?
What a mess.
In my time –
I’ve come to find –
That BALANCE is best.
The Question of Dark Days, and Their Benefit?
By Brandon Williams
When despairing your darkest days – what concerns you?
What political party you subscribe to?
The various shades of skin around you?
If someone is Muslim, Jewish, Christian or some other religious order?
Those desperate souls crossing the border?
The statues of dead men erected in stone?
Your country, your state, town, or home?
The wars being waged all over our earth?
Whether pro-choice or for pro-birth?
How to address who, and by what name?
The final score of the football game?
The Professor’s speech?
Or what teachers teach?
Or is it what matters is that darkness ahead,
And the one beside you as you walk it in dread?
Upon your travels you ascertain that flicker at the end –
And just as you drown you aspire to swim,
To reach dry luminous land.
Concerned only – by the dark day at hand.
Minutes After Six
By Brandon Williams
Tonight our government puts on a grand production –
Of which, I’m the unwilling star.
It’s of tragedy, travesty, and lastly corruption;
The stage décor is glass and bar.
The State is the executive producer.
Governor is the director;
An actress in scrubs plays executioner –
Suppose the guards are three extras.
Our audience ushers in; takes their seats in this enclosure.
I’m escorted in, then restrained.
Some have come to give solace; others to get closure.
They shall ALL be entertained!
I tremble with stage fright.
Cry my line, “Bloody murder! And legal!”
Thus, a performance of my life.
The nurse inserts a prop needle.
Convulse, then take a bow to a tune of silent score;
The curtain’s now descending.
Our villain is no more.
In these minutes after six – There is no happy ending.
I CARE ABOUT NOT
By Brandon Williams
I care about not…
A woman’s vagina Or some guy’s dick
How many boots & suits
It takes to make one prick
That society squeezes us Until we fill & fit
Or how when it all falls apart We shrug our shoulders & quit
No, Icare about not any of this
What concerns me is-
The boundless leaves & trees
Cleaved to weave a stick.
SNSRY. DPR.
By Brandon Williams
For two weeks! Too long!
Buzz of chainsaw brains
All began with –
Chicken pox
(Though I’m no chicken).
Let’s go back.
Cigarettes – airplane,
Spiked mohawks,
Duran Duran,
Castles of sand.
To…
Thirty years forward
Behind bars;
Boxed in
With some guy
Who laughed at his farts –
Prolonged pressure.
Should’ve lashed out!
Could’ve passed out. Would’ve-
been okay…
Said a pale man
Who wore a white lab coat,
and smile
Too Prfct – For VOWELS
He was GOD!
Knew I hated him.
A single stroke
of his pen
Would have been an end.
To: Torture.
Devastation &destruction.
Genocide!
Mass suicide!
Mass hysteria!
Sunday mass!!!
No internet, or TV (boo)
No Orwell, or Death-Metal (hoo)
Not even the stimulation
of awkward conversation –
Not with a human, anyway.
Just me,
&melancholy, & madness,
& screw up,
After screw up,
After –
For two weeks!
Too long!
Must be how
A dog feels
When master leaves,
Comes back
Hours later.
“GOD’S BACK!” and
“Look God! Look at –
My bare body
Painted pink!” and
“Look it-
Shingles?
What shingles!
They hardly show?
See? See. See!!!”
See, I’ve been up since
Earth first romanced the Sun
I’ve awaited your return
As hungry baby vultures
For mother’s mouthful
Of scraps & spit.
Before you were
daddy’s happy hard on
Mr. MD. Wannabe.
Pleaseee… Let me go,
outta iso,
back to a hell I know!
Where condemned:
Rape, rob, kill flesh.
Where correctors:
Demean, degrade, kill souls.
Anywhere, but here.
‘Cus being ’round me
Undeterred, undistracted
For extended stretches –
Is Guantanamo Bay.
Is Roman rule.
(Expletive) You!
(Expletive) Your mother!
That filthy (Expletive)!
Do you gotta dog?
Well, (Expletive) your dog too!
I’m no animal!
No. Wait, don’t go. I’m sorry.
I didn’t mean that
Stuff about your dog.
Two weeks
Was complete
A day, or two later. The stench of Urine ruined
The nurses lunch: One giggled,
One gagged.
Lights…
Were way too bright.
?
By Brandon Williams
If you wish
To agitate the majority?
Question their authority
If you wish
to motivate the minority?
Question our humanity
I Held Thee Air
By Brandon Williams
Last night I held thee air
Close as if it were her
A breeze blew: ‘twas her hair
Ran fingers through its blue
All those city lights and stars – were ours!
As well as the quartz and stately moon
Siren shrills and whirl of whizzing cars
Were a romantic Italian croon
Passersby assumed me a lune?
For they saw well me, but not she
If they knew we possessed the moon
And could only see as we see?
Hand in hand as we strolled
Consumer castles and city stretch
Tender chivalry twin hearts cajoled;
‘Twas a love DaVinci cound not sketch
Then in a vast onyx sky the sun rised;
A sudden sentiment lonely.
She disappeared in thin air; I realized –
I was hugging only myself
Poem
By Brandon Williams
Sleep never comes softly,
But when it does, I dream you!
While awake – I live in reality
But even there I dream you too.
You’re a prison;
Bars that reach where birds
Can only fantasize of –
Garbed in barbwire…
Bigger than beauty! Larger than love!
Your blemishes are a perfection;
God brushed in a moment of brilliance
Yes! I’ve touched heaven
Whenever my bronze hands
Pressed your porcelain complexion
And ever tiem you smiled, it left a scar!
And for every scar, it left a star!
That shines vast as a universe!
(I’ll keep them safe in my pocket)
For when I meander this darkness –
You’re but a burrow and a furrow away
And I know – wherever I may go –
I’ll be okay.
Away on the Mother Ship My Lover and I Fly…
By Brandon Williams
I’m in love! I’m in love!
With one from faraway.
Beyond violet waves above!
Allow me to expound – if I may?
My lover’s dark eyes: So BIG! They mesmerize.
A complexion of new money.
I’m sure the critics will scrutinize,
And say, we look together funny.
Let them say what they say
We’ll do as we do.
And provide a little ray –
Through this black and white hue.
Tho’ I was born here – never did I belong.
She gets me!
It’s felt as a lyricless song.
Or an ol’ guitar and some whiskey:
From her I savor each sip
She strums me softly.
Her candy apple lips –
Her kiss… is coffee –
Picks me up when sluggish.
Indeed, were joined at the hip.
Just a guitar in its case for luggage
As we board the mother ship.
Yes! To her motherland we’ll go –
Where there’s only Summer, Fall, Spring.
Faraway from tales of woe –
To never return again.
There, I’ll be (yet again) an alien
She’ll be a resident.
I’ll learn the native Karelian.
Tho’ I’m different will be evident.
But when, it’s she and I, a two-moon night, alone.
And lengthy slender fingers do caress?
Her home will be my home.
Her breath, my breath…
There, in infinity’s embrace
To a croon of drummin’ hearts.
Entwined in lovin’ lace –
Angels pluckin’ harps:
We’ll love the Moons away!
We’ll love the noons away!
We’ll love the Stars away!
We’ll love the scars away!
We’ll love the Sun away!
We’ll love everything,
and everyone away.
The Smile and the Scar
By Brandon Williams
Do you remember when we were the sun?
‘Round our frame a world revolved
Were a delightful light to everyone.
Life was a puzzle we’d solved.
Seasons came in threes:
Spring, Summer, and Fall.
Birds amongst honey bees
O’ how we loved them all.
When we slept we dreamt dreamy dreams
Awoke to visions ravin’ and vivid,
Of a million “Get Rich Quick” schemes:
Fame! Fortune! The life! We’d surely live it!
And forever ’twas assumed
Festivities – Forever.
‘Til seasons never bloomed –
‘Cept Winter, however.
‘Twas a cold we hold:
And could taste, smell, and hear.
Such a sight to behold –
To trudge snows in sheer fear.
Worry walk’d with us
Woe stalk’d each step.
Time talk’d to us
Drearily, without pep.
O’ how we longed for warmth of mother’s womb!
Where so far removed we had astray.
Upon a fleeting trail, leading a tomb
Certain nearer, each and every day.
Then a supernova happened –
‘Twas a death of a star.
And a world resolved to laughin’
Pointing at all our scars.
To Chase Wild Mice
By Brandon Williams
A cat sat by a window
Wondered what it be like –
To inquire of a meadow,
And chase wild mice?
Fancied the air, fresh and fair
Sun to shine bright.
Such warmth on her fur,
She’d pur in delight.
Upon a pond she’d stumble
For a sip and a shower.
On sweet grass she’d tumble
For a whiff of the flowers.
If danger dared to draw,
This brave lion would not retreat and leave?
With ferocious claws of her paws –
She’d simply climb a high tree.
So many things most curious.
So much potential for fun.
Out from a shade most courteous –
To take in a big grinnin’ Sun.
And as that silvery thing appeared so majestic,
In a flickery dot sky –
She’d sleep that very second,
Upon resting her eyes.
The sounds of…
Hoots of owls –
Cricket chirps –
Leaves a rustlin’ –
A pond’s ripple –
(Those dreams sure would tickle?)
Yet, she remains by a window
And wonders what it be like –
To inquire of a meadow,
And chase wild mice?
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