Stranded

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Stranded

If you start with an idea of a river
You will find yourself stranded
in the middle of a field,
your eyes closed,
your ear to the ground.
Maybe she is down there, flowing unseen.
You can believe what you like,
but ideas won’t take you home
when your only means of transport
is that flimsy raft.


2015 November PAD Challenge, Day 18

The Haunted Field

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The Haunted Field

They say there is a river
right here.
It flows underground.
It is angry and wild.
Maybe you can hear it
if you lie very still
and close your eyes.


2015 November PAD Challenge, Day 16

Ode to the river, the river is for birds

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Ode to the river, the river is for birds
to map their way home
when darkness sets.


2015 November PAD Challenge, Day 17

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Ablutions

The moon is full.
You wash your face.
You have been crying.
You walk in, slowly,
fully clothed.
I don’t like this.
I am helpless
as I wait
for the inevitable to happen.
I am a river.
There is nothing I can do,
but participate.
You submerge yourself fully.
A baptism, indeed.
All your sins, washed away.
What sins are those, I wonder,
that require this penance.


2015 November PAD Challenge, Day 15

The River Remembers

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The River Remembers

Every day I am reborn
in a cave, where the sun doesn't shine.
Every day I die,
swallowed up whole
by a hungry sea.
Every day I run under that bridge.
I say hello
and I say goodbye.


2015 November PAD Challenge, Day 13

Scary River

I scare myself
every day.
Every morning I wear a different face.
Sometimes I am a monster.
Wild and dangerous,
I take lives
and destroy crops.
Sometimes I am a ghost of a river,
a brook,
fading out,
disappearing.



2015 November PAD Challenge, Day 14

River, After the Rains

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River, After the Rains

You knew the rains would come,
so why these tears.
You knew
the water would grow
and things would get to be
a little wild.
You knew there would be
mud everywhere.
You say you feel
out of control now.
The same sentimental nonsense
every year.


2015 November PAD Challenge, Day 12

The Process

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The Process

Does the process shape the metaphor?
If i were to carve you in stone,
would you speak of hardship?
If I were to whisper you
into someone’s ear,
would you be a lullaby?
You are a collection of zeros and ones and
you have no end.
Hidden in plain sight,
you will live forever.


2015 November PAD Challenge, Day 10

The Turtle

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The Turtle

I am the stone.
I sink, lazy, to the bottom.
I can stay there
for a long time.
Gills would be practical.
I don’t really like
coming out,
even for a little while.
I am clumsy and slow when I walk.
Submerged, I am elegant
and deadly.


2015 November PAD Challenge, Day 8

If you Run away, River

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If you Run away, River

Freedom hurts.
You can break the dams,
you can run wild,
but you will have to hit the rocks
eventually.
You say you don’t care.
You want to see places,
go where no one has been
before you.
Know this:
there will be mud
and a hungry sea
waiting to swallow you
whole.


2015 November PAD Challenge, Day 9

Once upon a River Bank

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Once upon a River Bank

The sun was low

on the sky

when I met him.

The voices of workmen

got weaker and weaker

in the distance.

A few beer bottles left

as a reminder.

He was handsome

and tall.

I don’t need you to keep me company, I said.

I’ve got those snakes over there, I said.

He planted himself on my banks.

He was here to stay.

2015 November PAD Challenge

Bird, River

Bird, River

She changes.

When I touch her

with my wing,

she is long, blue and majestic.

She snakes through valleys and

I follow along.

I like to dip my feet

into her cool waters

as I catch fish.

I never let her out of my sight.

She is my mother.

She gives me everything I have.

When I fly towards the sun,

she becomes a memory,

a distant blur.

As I spiral downward,

all I can see in her

is my own reflection.

2015 November PAD Challenge, Day 5

There Are Other Bridges

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There Are Other Bridges

Still sleepy,
she wraps herself around him.
Her fingers are cold.
She reaches for him,
never quite touching.
There are distances in her eyes,
secret places
he has never been to.
She says
she is tied to him,
but she is already
far away.
He knows there are other bridges.
He is no fool.


2015 November PAD Challenge, Day 3

She Never Surrendered

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She never surrendered

She never surrendered.

It was the moon that started waning.

The wind changed and

suddenly her strength was gone.

The day before she had been running 

through fields and villages

screaming murder.

She is not bad.

She never meant to frighten your children.

She is sorry about your furniture

and that cow that drowned

wasn’t supposed to be there at all.

She just wanted to leave.

She shouldn’t be bound

to this place.

She is no prisoner.

2015 November PAD Challenge, Day 2

River, After the Flood

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River, After the Flood

The day after the flood

everything was back to normal. That night

she slept in her bed, peacefully

like a child.

In the morning

it was as if

nothing had happened.

Slowly, she stretched her legs,

slowly she combed her hair.

She wouldn’t admit, even to herself

that only the day before

she had been free.

November PAD Challenge, Day1