2024 Official DUP NaPoWriMo Challenge

17/30

Resolution

As I stare into the mirror,
the picture starts to get clearer.
Presenting me how I'm doing
with life and its ill misdoings.

Beat, broken, and covered in scars.
I’m still alive
so I’m thanking my lucky stars
that I’ve survived.

I’ll keep spinning,
my gyroscope on malfunction.
I’m not winning
until I solve the dysfunction.

I lost my way too long ago.
Honestly, not sure where to go.
Let’s assume I don’t need to know
the destination, just the flow.

[Unique Words 66]

#17

Be My Getaway Driver

Wound up lucid in my American daydreams
News sounding like high density magazines
With red, paintings, draining from the curbs
Hiring getaway drivers to just escape the burbs
Rich rain, white shirts, flying from Yacht Towers
How we're all neighbors? Thick hedge flowers
Eyes shut, popping blue pills just to make money
Political kerosene, smelling sweeter than honey
Please, pinch me by the throat, I won't scream
Be my getaway driver, take my from this dream

17/30

Stay Calm, Stay Cool

Stress and pressure can often overwhelm anyone
Heck, it can put a lot of strain on the heart
And while there may be chaos and mayhem all around
Staying calm and cool can be quite the art

Life will throw challenges at us and people will test us
But the key to composure is that ability to pause
Taking a deep breath to let the brain process and generate
So that the response will focus on the root of the cause

And perhaps it in this type of pragmatic approach
That our action alone will command regard and respect
Because body language also plays an important role
In the way we communicate and diligently connect


83 Unique
115 Total

17/30

Drum Circle

Wednesday night, clothed in moonlight
The ocean mist casts its gaze upon the shore
I stand on sidewalk, bordering grass  and sand
the dance floor consisting of
hippies young and old
Hopping to a single beat, of many different drums
He grabbed my hand, it was a quick blink before I became one with the earth, sky, and sea
Twisting, twirling, not caring about the wind tangling my blonde hair. Forgetting the look, embracing this deep breath before it’s gone

17/30

They Will Be My Rhyme, My Reason

For a glimpse
of a glorious,
genuine smile,
that convey's acceptance without
scintilla of guile
for such a sight
I'm good and ready
I'd walk a country Summer's mile,
in the Mojave dessert
to bask in such a welcome grin
and when I arrive
we'd connect our smiles
and fall into an embrace
and they wouldn't
even hesitate
even though
I'm awfully sweaty.

Certainly they'd have
captivating eyes
that bid me come hither.
And beg don't dither,
never again go thither,
but stay right by my side.
Maybe they'd look me over,
say your kind of handsome.
With a little
sprucing up,
you'd be better looking
And several Yoga sessions,
intense but peaceful
meditation
and, of course
super healthy cooking

Does such and one exist?
They surely do,
I insist!

Unique word count: 103

18/30

Skin Deep

Spelling out the nature of this that I despise
The stench of beauty exploited that tempts the beholders eyes
Raunchy from the innocence of what first was intended
Perversity idolatry, eroticism from purity descended

Bathing in the filth of our bodies exposed
Immodest in the will to sell
Profits at an all time high undisclosed
As pleasures pave way to usher them to hell

Identity stolen by the politics of domesticated culture
Immorality circling dead spirits like a bloodthirsty vulture
Youth siphoned through the corruption of indoctrinations of false unity
Revolution hate in a parade of pride for lovers of a depraved community

Skin deep and appetites twisted
Claim tolerance when it’s born of your will to self reject
Playing God when everything that you resisted
Was born from a place of your inability to accept

We are cut from the same cloth of this adulterated flesh
Our demons kin to common lusts in various expressions of desire
In the aftermath of brokenness and different forms of molest
You’ll never walk in truth as long as you’re in love with a liar…

#18

What on earth!?

What on earth is happening
What on earth is going on
Can’t keep up with all the calamity
But everything’s going wrong

First my dad gets cancer
Then I find my own mum dead
Now they think I have HIV
And it’s fucking with my head

Just give a girl a fucking break
Let me please chill the fuck out
Need a lie down in a quiet room
It’s stirred up so much doubt

Brother in rehab the year before last
A cousin with a brain tumour too
Got debt coming out my eye balls
And yet I keep plodding on

Please can I slow down a while
Please can life just stop
Need to get my shit together
So I can feel on top

Need to get off of this train
Need to hail a cab
Take some shelter from this rain
I think I’m going mad

There’s a constant barrage of bullshit
Just getting in my way
I’m tired, weary, lost and alone
With no way of escape

Unique word count: 110

18/30

WELL WORRIED

Today is the day I worried about
yesterday…, strangely again all is well
eternal’s round one, in the ring — seconds out!

It’s easy transform a heaven to hell
monkey-the-mind had a wonderful day
yesterday’s muse, yet again: all is well

Creative production needs freedom to play
though sovereign duties demand a limit
the monkey just had too much of a day

And here is the rub, I propose, in’it?
not all the roads are there to be taken —
sovereign duties demand a limit

Broader and deeper are roads to awaken
but with them are choices, so hard to discern
since not all the roads are still there to be taken

A cosmos expanding with butterfly turns
today is the day I was worried about
and though there are choices, so hard to discern
it’s always round one in the ring — seconds out!

18/30

they feel afraid

fear is a black shape
which in the moonlit night
gives a feeling of new moon

a girl walking on the road
is wearing fear in the form of clothes,
she has hidden fear even
in her open hair,
she has also painted her nails
with the colors of fear,
and she asks herself,
“Why is there so much silence here???

in the strong wind,
some leaves fall here and there
even the branches bend,
but the tree is not afraid,
it stands and faces the storm

an ancient belief becomes believable
when people believe that
a black cat is ominous
hardness of heart doesn’t reduce
even after artificial smile
and before hardness softens
another black crowd passes through the road
and then another fear is born…

well many people are jealous
and they want to scare,
but you should have to say … “ I am not afraid, I will not be afraid ...”

18 of 30


labyrinth


I've been exploring the labyrinthine maze of my soul
following each path to see where it goes
yeah...there's a lot of tragic crap in my past
but a lot more than that went into my forming
pain is just a fragment of what made me who I am

but I need to know all my facets
the beauty as well as the ugly
how they developed & if they're potentially cracking
which tears eroded into deep trenches
what fuel does it take to ignite my passionate sparks

keeping my feet in a forwardly direction
I move along after each thorough inspection
there is danger if one loiters
like bubbles rising in public waters
never know which one's a fart...
& I don't want to get caught in the stench

discover...study...step along
in this experience called life...
there's no such thing as a dead end
...only a lesson I failed to learn
like a glitch in the system...
I'll repeat it until I get it
now listen...
Willow...are we good...
yup...got it...moving on

18/30

Bring it

bring me your enthusiasm
bring me your joy
bring me your unbridled laughter

share your indecency
share your too much
share your obscene dirty jokes

don’t hold it back
don’t give too much slack
don’t make any excuses

I want all your feelings
I want all your truth
I want all your sensitive spots

show me your passion
show me your delight
show me your secret nerd-dom

let me witness your pain
let me witness your rage
let me witness the wounds you’ve defeated

I don’t need your filters
I don’t need your caution
I don’t need your walls and defenses

pour out your thoughts
pour out your words
pour out the music within you

I crave all your ugly
I crave all your heart
I crave every hidden obsession

give me all your exceptional facets
give me your truest you
give me that holy, priceless permission
to be the true me too

18/30

The Ballad of Sonic and Tails

The day broke grey and full of rain,
two boys were in the dumps.
They couldn’t run around outside,
they were a pair of grumps,

they fussed and fumed about their luck
and then the power went out!
Their video games could not be played,
they’d have to do without.

Big brother had a splendid plan
to help them cure their ails.
Sonic the hedgehog he would be,
his bro’, his sidekick, Tails!

Their mission was to gather rings
across the USA,
the rings were of the special sort,
to aid escape, for swift transport,
to send them on their way.

The two set out with canvas bags
and sturdy legs and feet.
They looked in town and all around
and tried to be discrete.

Then Sonic thought he saw a flash
of gold up on a pole,
but couldn’t manage climbing it
so Tails took up the role!

See, Tails, he was a friendly fox,
equipped with two fine tails,
and when he swished them round and round
somehow he’d end up off the ground
and in the air he’d sail.

Sonic watched from down below,
as Tails flew ever higher,
and when the ring was in the bag
they had their first desire.

“Be careful, please,” yelled mom from bed
when by her door they passed.
“We’re on a mission!” they replied,
“And now we gotta go fast!”

Then Sonic found another ring
that hid beneath the stairs,
quick as a flash he snapped it up
and found two more on chairs.

The famous duo rings of gold
clutched in their greedy hands.
The plan required more, they said,
and left their mother in her bed,
to search for more gold bands.

They played all morning, half the day,
and only stopped their game
when Sonic bumped his head too hard
and Tails took all the blame.

Their mother swiftly leapt from bed –
those boys were set for war! –
she stood between the hostile pair
and loudly cried, “No more!”

And so it was that lunch took place
for brother two and one,
and by the time they ate their food
they both were in a better mood
and now this tale is done!

18/30

Repairing burst mains

The words came from sludge
pushed through blocked pipes,
no basket filter to catch the big bits
just a solid mass on the kitchen floor.

I wanted there to be more
but the sleeping children
closed the isolation valve
turned overwhelmed  into a trickle.

You, ready in your bare feet
to squash the pile into pulp,
jumped up and down until
the castle returned to white sand.

The roar of the beached ocean
is much louder than a falling wave
but as the wind drops its fools gold
I become a distant dog bark.

In the morning the leak will be fixed,
last nights bleach, tipped into a bucket
so I could clean away the mess, and you?
you'll have fresh flowers on your dress,
and I ?
I'll pretend to like them.

xviii.

Untitled

Like flowering sea grass
in an ocean current
my thoughts are fluid

a continual motion
through daily deposits
of aquatic algae
altering my ego-system

I dream of golden sandbars
in a blue-green ocean
under our yellow luminary

Walking the pathway
of Moonlight
across the water at night

I envision waltzing
through the galaxy
fascinated yet perplexed
at over 300 million planet’s
wondrously diverse inhabitants

Enter a Universal means
of travel, a wormhole
in speechless awe

arriving once and for all
where all Poets belong:

In the heart of the Poem
         
. . .

18/30

Hero?

The conquering hero has to shine
He won’t rest until he saves the day
Or the nearest damsel in distress

Mayhaps this is why his steed is filthy
His armor tarnished and a bit rusty
With his breath stinking of stale booze

That weeping maiden would swift upon
Change her tune once that helmet
Comes off and Sir Stunning looks like
Sir Shrinky Dink  

Any wager would suffice
She’ll recognize her own strength
And move on…Alone

64 u/w