Amusement Park
At attention they stand
Waiting for me,
Like pretty pink plastic soldiers,
Three in a row,
Beckoning me to climb aboard.
“It is easy,” I say,
“She’s just the one for me,”
Like pretty pink plastic soldiers,
Waiting for me,
I take my place atop her back.
Ting-tang, ching-chang,
Doodley-doot-de-doot,
Like pretty pink plastic soldiers,
I rise and fall
Riding proud on my chosen Black Beauty.
Dreams come true,
Of carefree days,
Like pretty pink plastic soldiers,
The horses they
Carry me around in a circle--
&n
bsp; Until they stop, and I remember it’s just a
Carousel ride.
My nose can’t avoid the oily harshness
Of the yellow rubber’s odor,
Or the hygienic whiff of chlorine
Surrounding the craft on which I am about to embark.
Reflections of anxious joy
Appear on the faces of others
Unexplained laughter fills the air,
Surrounding the craft on which I am stepping into.
Do I have to go?
Can I stay on dry land?
My shoes are getting wet as I sit
In the craft that has become a torture chamber.
Round and round rapidly rushing,
Like a leaf circling a sewer drain,
Quickly I disembark as we wetly come to rest,
Wondering why I ever agreed to ride this—
Round yellow rubber craft in the first place.
Warm as a dream
With a Heavenly scent,
Salt clinging to your skin
I’ve been looking for you all day.
Wrapped arm in arm
Clinging to yourself
Not wanting to give in
To my hunger for your charm.
I overpower you and tear
Your shoulder from shape
As the steam rises from the break
I dip slowly into hot smooth cheese.
Do not be offended
Or hold a lifelong grudge,
Because I will love you and cherish you
Until your untimely demise, my pretzel.
Clickety-clacketty, clickety-clacketty,
Creeping up the climb,
Like the long walk to the gallows,
The roller coaster is my favorite ride.
For a split second
Once I reach the top
All my cares fly away
With the birds passing near my head.
With a blink and breath we
Drop weightless like an astronaut
Hurling through space
On an invisible string attached to a
Yo-Yo, close your eyes,
Sharp left shoot up upside down
Barrel roll sharp right shoot down
Catch your breath at the end.
Get a good start and pick up speed,
Don’t slow down till the end,
Just like a roller coaster ride,
That’s how life should be spent.
My inspiration for this poem was my recent break-up with man who is emotionally unavailable. I paid more attention to rhythm than metaphor, but tried to personify his words with “sneaks” and “speaks.” I tried to hear the cadence while writing to know what kind of word to use, number of syllables, etc. I used double cinquain, two 5-line stanzas. Also, I used slant rhyme to avoid the sound of a limerick.
Quiet Men
Quiet men lead silent lives
And nary a word of the heart
Sneaks up to soothe,
Speaks out to prove,
The worthiness of her part.
She longs to hear his spoken words
To mend her broken soul,
All she needs
Are love’s sweet words,
But he cannot let them go.
Oh! How precious time slips away,
As dreams and memories weave,
Gone—are the moments of our day.
We laugh, we cry, through work and play,
Through birth and death, we joy and grieve,
Oh! How precious time slips away.
The clock ticks on his merry way,
We watch as minutes take their leave,
Gone—are the moments of our day.
Birthdays come, but never stay,
The elderly are denied reprieve,
Oh! How precious time slips away.
Faces wrinkle and hair turns gray,
As we inch closer to our eve,
Gone—are the moments of our day.
Death sneaks up like hunting prey,
This we refuse to believe,
Oh! How precious time slips away,
Gone—are the moments of our day.
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