Bulletproof


Security and obliviousness for skinny child

With temperament mild,

Never a bruise

And never a ruse.

Until this solid home

Rose up into a treehouse

Just to fall back to the ground.

Debris scattered

None of it mattered

Not the trickle of doubt

Left glinting in the grout

That never made itself obvious before

But I can’t not see it now.

Having been so sure

In a family secure,

Talk so big

The walk was doubly disappointing.

I’m left swinging in branches above

Wondering if I should come down at all.

If too much of a good thing

Isn’t a good thing

Was it ever really good?

Was I fed deceit for breakfast?

My people eating it themselves

Gulping down hot mouthfuls

To make themselves believe?

Why did I never doubt?

So eager to trust

In planks so thoroughly knotty,

So unwilling to question

What I thought was bulletproof.

What can come next

What steps could I take

When ones who held me taking my first

Broke their deepest promises?

Where could I even start

When all I knew was contentment

Suddenly stripped away.

I wonder if it had been wretched all the while

Would it have been easier.

– Vagabond Prophet

Black Out

Trees fall on lines and everything goes dark

The knight has fallen

The night has risen

Suddenly and with no warning.

Like the deepest parts of the ocean

Not yet explored

I delve into closet corners

That I never knew before.

We’d play games

To make the time pass

To laugh away the darkness.

Hide and seek

With everybody hidden,

Scavenger hunts,

For the daylight that we sought.

Amidst stubbed toes

And flashes of smiles with no bodies,

We found family enough shelter

In blackest of blackouts.

As quick as quicksand beneath my feet

Everything comes back with lightning speed,

Ironic, as lightning started all of this.

Hearing furnace pump

A heartbeat ahead of the lights,

Ready or not here I come..

– Vagabond Prophet

Thanks @mildreflections for prompting @josy57 and I with “When the lights go off.”

Deadly Sin #7

Envy, as defined by the poets dictionary.

Definition:

Some wounds so deeply seated

As to be enthroned

Waving scepter giving orders

From kingdom long outgrown.

Other definitions include: Wanting the neighbours grass for it is greener than your own, forgetting that grass will only ever be green when it is watered.

Contempt for what you have, hunger for what you don’t.

Green eyes making inventory on things not belonging to them.

A condition known to make content people steal.

Quicksand effect, rapidly turning to nothing what it has and lying in wait to lay its treacherous grip on whoever may come it’s way.

Antonyms include: Generosity, non materialistic, content, selfless, brown eyed.

Envy only seeks to cheat and steal to build itself up in it’s own mind. Imagine Pride with an inferiority complex that also has kleptomaniac tendencies.

– Vagabond Prophet

Okay everybody just for your information I do intend to balance this list out with a similar one about the fruits of the spirit.

Be Real

Naked faced for sleep alone

Still fearing the pillow will talk

About how I really look.

Donning masks before pants

Keeping up the charade

In this social masquerade.

Asking same questions

Giving same answers,

How’s it hanging?

Nothing much how about you?

Does anybody else get tired of it?

Does anybody else wish the world

Was ready for real people?

Who answered honestly

When asked about their day.

Yearned to pour to whomever may inquire

Yet reigned myself back for fear of smothering,

Few people are ready for the torrent of others.

Everybody is lonely

Everybody friendless,

Not getting along with disguises

How could we without?

I fail another attempt to write myself away

Drawing ink from my soul until the well runs dry,

More proof that paper isn’t ready for some stories.

Natural looking masks met with

“Are you sick?”

The answer is yes but I won’t say so

I’ll just say, “Fine thanks.”

Though it doesn’t make sense,

Nobody will say so,

For the response is on the list

Of accepted things to say.

Be real

Be fully you and fully new

Wake up and shower in paint thinner

Let your colour shine

Let the sun mature the hues

And heal every bruise.

– Vagabond Prophet

Thanks @josy57 for the prompt “A social masquerade.”

Hive Mind

I’ll love you not like the spring loves flowers

Or how children love mothers.

I’ll love you not how sun loves the moon,

Ever evasive but still reflecting brilliance.

I’ll love you like a bee sting

Sacrificing life to leave my mark on you,

I’ll let you have my honey sweet

That I’ve toiled long to possess.

It’ll never go bad,

But to go unmet

By lips as sweet as yours

Is a fate far worse.

– Vagabond Prophet

Deadly Sin #6


Gluttony, as defined by the poets dictionary.

Definition: Chasms called mouths always open and consuming. A need that’s never met for the ever unreasonable demands. Twisting natural appetites into power struggles, your tastebuds revolting over what once was good enough but now only offends.

Other definitions include: Appetite for appetite.

Hunger for an excess of something.

Particular desires met in particular ways, still never satisfy. Like filling a bucket with a hole in it, or planting in the garden where pests are known to ravage.

Antonyms: Satisfied, content, healthy appetite, “I’m full.”

Gluttony only seeks to put your desires just out of reach no matter how high you climb.

– Vagabond Prophet

Bags under eyes, lids propped open regretfully. Blood slows in a traffic jam uncharged by adequate rest. Steps shorten and stumble. A slingshot, a catapult, a trebuchet will do, give me velocity to find my way to you. Fling me high and send me soaring across the night sky, skip me across calm waters, nock me on your bowstring and give me shrewdest point for wherever you’re aiming today.

Vagabond Prophet

Courage

The war won by cowards.

Not heroes strong and true

Always knowing what to do.

Skinny little boys

Fear rattling their bones

Terror shaking their hands

Trying to aim at heads and hearts

Similarly quaking.

Souls such as these won every war

Girding their loins

Deciding action to protect their own,

To defeat the enemy,

To take back the land

More important than their fright.

The cost is great,

Young men upon dying

Finally sharpened their fear

Into courage in acts of debut bravery.

And now remembered as heroes

As they should be.

Courage casting its lustrous shadow

Backwards upon all past deeds

Redeeming them before falling on its sword.

– Vagabond Prophet

Skyline

Standing on the skyline

Waiting for a lifeline

To ride back home.

Standing on the skyline

Wondering how it looked

Before roads and buildings

And all things thatched with tar.

Standing on the skyline

Ignoring the compass

Given your magnetic nature.

You’re my true north,

I’ve walked south until I got there

Proof the earth is round.

You rise in the east

And if I invert myself

You rise in the west too.

Standing on the skyline

With winters rigid bones

And summers fragrant hope.

Standing on the skyline

Seeing mountains and valleys

Formed by your strong hand

And wondering what that says about me.

– Vagabond Prophet

Thanks @josy57 for the prompt “Standing on the Skyline.”

Deadly Sin #5


Greed, as defined by the poets dictionary.

Definition: Hungry hands with unnaturally sharp claws. An ever hungry need for more at the cost of anybody but yourself. Too many teeth for too small a meal, stealing your neighbours supper and still being unsatisfied.

Other definitions include: Unfulfilled desires fueled by diesel and fire.

Eight days a week insisting on nine, willing to kill to get it.

Coupon hoarding for the sale that’s never good enough.

Sharpening knives for the bones you make into broth. Elephant bone soup still insufficient.

Given enough weapons would invade every nation.

Given enough heat would boil the sea to make your tea.

Antonyms: Content, happy, at peace, needing nothing.

Greed only seeks to convince you that nothing about you or your life is enough.