April 29, 2011 Poetry Challenge

Today’s prompt is “that comes before.”

matt mcfadden:

A brief Ode (or something) to my preconditions for Marriage, Fatherhood and Death

I raise a glass to my preconditions
for meeting marriage, fatherhood and death.
In the time spent on these expositions
I might have conjured a cure for the earth.
In the end they were like politicians
building statues from the clay of their breath.
Preconditions for these expeditions
just my mind’s trick, for proclaiming its worth.

Seth Brown:

“If Only”

the words that haunt you
are the ones that come before
the major event

Chris Funkhouser:

Forest Became Hot

Bill Riley:

I just can’t take it anymore.

Take what? I asked.

You, it, everything, she said.

Well, I said
if you can’t take it anymore
start giving some of it back
because it seems to me
this has been a one way street,
though well stocked with potholes
and debris,
for some time now.

You see, you see?
It’s always the same with you.
I want out.

She’s always had trouble
understanding the unbreakable link
the meaning and
the group hug
between all things
good and bad
and how they all need,rely
and feed on each other.
And how I am both a pretty nice guy
and also really good at being an asshole.
And how she needs to note
welcome, cherish
and detest
my drunken stories
my bad breath
and each abnormal war
that comes before
the kiss
the dark moist whimper
and the little
death.