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Open Poetry #48
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Michael
Moderator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-08-13
Posts 7666
California

0 posted 2013-11-02 05:11 PM



Paper Tigers


I wake to face the day, unclad.
I watch the clouds roll in.
Stuck between lost and mad, and sad;
Oh, where do I begin?
Sandpipers of Oblivion,
I hear your call today.
'Wonder if I'm the only one
Who's ever felt this way.

I hear the paper tigers roar,
But with nothing to say.
I see the stricken eagles soar
Through dreams of yesterday.
I place the rose in the bible,
So it can fade to black.
Just one more kick from life so cruel—
She's never coming back.

I walk outside to feel the rain,
Cold comfort on my skin.
The autumn wind a course to pain,
My resolve wearing thin.
There's something bleak here chasing me.
I stand, too tired to run;
And turn to face, eternally,
A destiny undone.

I place my face to the pillow,
But never close my eyes.
The darkness creeps in, cold and slow,
Yet always in disguise.
My one true friend, I one time thought;
But now have peeled its mask...
Another day, given to rot,
I've held true to its task.

The world outside just turns and turns.
It never stops to see
The ones it's lost, the ones it burns—
The ones who'll never be
A part of it, but stand outside,
If never once seen clear...
A hazy thought, a dream denied,
Given to disappear.


Michael Anderson

10/23/2013

© Copyright 2013 Michael Anderson - All Rights Reserved
Gunslinger
Senior Member
since 1999-10-09
Posts 901
TX, USA
1 posted 2013-11-02 08:15 PM


Great write. The question should be, rather than, "Who has felt this way?" Who hasn't.
Mysteria
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Member Laureate
since 2001-03-07
Posts 18328
British Columbia, Canada
2 posted 2013-11-02 09:12 PM


Loved it!  You held me from beginning to end with this character's loss.  


Carpe' Diem

katahdin
Senior Member
since 2010-07-01
Posts 1196
ME. In the Shadow of the Mt.
3 posted 2013-11-02 11:19 PM


Nicely done!
Kat >^..^<

Marchmadness
Member Rara Avis
since 2007-09-16
Posts 9271
So. El Monte, California
4 posted 2013-11-03 01:53 AM


You do despair so well, Michael and yes, I think it is a sad reality that we all feel at times.
                                 Ida

Lori Grosser Rhoden
Member Patricius
since 2009-10-10
Posts 10202
Fair to middlin' of nowhere
5 posted 2013-11-03 07:11 AM


Despair is a heavy coat to wear, especially in the rain...and it comes in one size fits all. I am blessed for today I only  tried it on in your poem. Then I could hang it back up in its all too easy to reach corner.

Lori

Michael
Moderator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-08-13
Posts 7666
California
6 posted 2013-11-09 01:33 PM


Gunslinger, indeed.  That you have felt this way at all, though it may relieve some of the alienation I feel on a daily basis, leaves an ache in my heart for you as well.

Mysteria & Kat, so great to see the both of you here.  Thank you.  

Ida, for me, it's a glad reality that, for others, feeling this way is not a constant.  I truthfully only do it well because I have way too much practice at it.

Lori, it is never my intent to bring others down with me when I write.  I'm glad in reading this, you were not negatively affected.  Thank you for chancing it.  


Michael

JamesMichael
Member Empyrean
since 1999-11-16
Posts 33336
Kapolei, Hawaii, USA
7 posted 2013-11-19 09:22 PM


fine writing...the title is good...James
Gale
Senior Member
since 2013-06-10
Posts 578
Russia
8 posted 2013-11-20 01:18 PM


Love this poem, Michael!

2islander2
Member Ascendant
since 2008-03-12
Posts 6825
by the sea
9 posted 2013-11-23 02:18 AM


very emotionnal, and you can feel everything around you, i like sometimes feel the rain too, it makes you sort of alive, thanks for the great reading,

yann

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