Pinstriped in the front standing
Just a little higher than everybody,
Our attention you’re demanding.
I’ve got to say you look smug,
Do you really believe
This’ll fit beneath a rug?
You’ll come falling down I say
Can’t say when,
But there’ll come a day.
Like Genghis Khan
Realizing defeat
Woebegone.
You’ll lose all your power
That you’ve clung to
In your gesticulation tower.
– Vagabond Prophet
Tag: prose poetry
Which is it?
Am I so frail
That I can’t refuse
The beauty around
That we’ve misused.
Could I be stronger
You said I can,
But I don’t know how.
How could I
lash your arms to mine
So I could pretend I’m strong
Until I’m strong.
I know what I should do
But I’m afraid.
To which you reply,
“ which is it?
Scared and mine
Or safe and damned ”
– Vagabond Prophet
Solitary Refinement Chapter 18
Dearest Elizabeth January 2nd 2018
Return to sender. Why are you doing this? You realize you’re not just hurting me but the kids too right? What am I supposed to with colouring books in prison? People already think I’m weird. I’m going to have to throw this stuff in the trash. The stuff I worked to get Alister and Nina for Christmas, in the garbage… This sucks, I’m trying my best from in here to still contribute in some way to their lives, I can’t do much but try to send things if you won’t bring them to visit me. Can’t you see that? Do the kids ask about me? What do they say about me? What does Alister tell his friends at school about why his dad never comes to pick him up at school?
I got really mad at Joshua recently for suggesting that you would use the opportunity of my absence to cheat on me. Can you believe that? I got so mad at him, I know you wouldn’t do that. I’m pretty mad at him right now, I don’t really want to talk to him for a while and you don’t want to talk to me so I guess nobody will hear from me for a while then.
I’m going to get a journal, writing words down onto paper is the only thing I come even close to enjoying here. Talking through a pen onto the blank paper, it feels like these pages are the only things listening to me and receptive to my thoughts and feelings and willing to hold them for me. The blank canvas of white paper as it holds onto black ink doesn’t judge me or look for weakness the way the people here do.
Sorry, I kind of rambled on there, like I said I’ll get a journal for my random thoughts so I won’t have to bother anybody for a while since you’re not talking to me and I don’t want to talk to Josh right now.
Sincerely,
Your husband.
Time You Genius You
Give credit where credit is due
Time you genius you.
None carve as masterfully as you.
And she, she fears time ahead.
How it promises to tug, pull, and crease
Slowly unfolding her youth.
She doesn’t know my eagerness,
To see those same effects
See the whole canvas stretched.
I long to see the way
That she unfurls
Day after day.
As water smooths out stone
So time erodes her face,
A slowly chiseled beauty.
As the ax must blow by blow
Slowly strip away,
The fibers from one another.
So I anxiously await
The sands of time
Etching her away.
Crows feet will appear
The years will dig trenches
In the softness of her face.
I don’t believe in evolution
But her beauty does evolve,
A process of natural seduction.
She enchants me without trying,
As time goes marching by
I’ll orbit her still.
The more that’s scuffed away
Cut or split right off
To make way for something better.
Time you genius you
Master of shape
And all things exquisite.
You will scrub away her youth
Unravel her naivete
Leaving wisdom engraved.
Her body swelled and stretched
With babes not once but twice,
Lasting marks of conquest.
She fought to create,
To be the river’s mouth
For life itself to dawn.
Strip it all away,
This current face of hers,
What are you hiding?
A gift with one million layers,
That unwrap day by day,
No shortcuts.
The crescendo of her beauty
Will take many moons to reach,
I await that goddess truly.
Excess must be shed
To reach the final gem
I’ll hold her against the blows.
If time should bring her pain,
It’s no surprise but all the same
I will crouch down beside her.
With creaky knees and hazy eyes
A foggy mind and weakening spine,
I’ll crouch down to kiss it better.
If time should bring her grief
As part of this descaling,
I’ll be there.
Soak me through with tears
So they eat through me too,
We’ll ferment together.
I only wish to love her
Half as well as time,
Every fold and curve
Marked by its caress.
– Vagabond Prophet
Gesticulation Tower
Pinstriped in the front standing
Just a little higher than everybody,
Our attention you’re demanding.
I’ve got to say you look smug,
Do you really believe
This’ll fit beneath a rug?
You’ll come falling down I say
Can’t say when,
But there’ll come a day.
Like Genghis Khan
Realizing defeat
Woebegone.
You’ll lose all your power
That you’ve clung to
In your gesticulation tower.
– Vagabond Prophet
Solitary Refinement Chapter 18
Dearest Elizabeth January 2nd 2018
Return to sender. Why are you doing this? You realize you’re not just hurting me but the kids too right? What am I supposed to with colouring books in prison? People already think I’m weird. I’m going to have to throw this stuff in the trash. The stuff I worked to get Alister and Nina for Christmas, in the garbage… This sucks, I’m trying my best from in here to still contribute in some way to their lives, I can’t do much but try to send things if you won’t bring them to visit me. Can’t you see that? Do the kids ask about me? What do they say about me? What does Alister tell his friends at school about why his dad never comes to pick him up at school?
I got really mad at Joshua recently for suggesting that you would use the opportunity of my absence to cheat on me. Can you believe that? I got so mad at him, I know you wouldn’t do that. I’m pretty mad at him right now, I don’t really want to talk to him for a while and you don’t want to talk to me so I guess nobody will hear from me for a while then.
I’m going to get a journal, writing words down onto paper is the only thing I come even close to enjoying here. Talking through a pen onto the blank paper, it feels like these pages are the only things listening to me and receptive to my thoughts and feelings and willing to hold them for me. The blank canvas of white paper as it holds onto black ink doesn’t judge me or look for weakness the way the people here do.
Sorry, I kind of rambled on there, like I said I’ll get a journal for my random thoughts so I won’t have to bother anybody for a while since you’re not talking to me and I don’t want to talk to Josh right now.
Sincerely,
Your husband.
The sun comes over the hills, carving the entire skyline in an instant with artists precision.
Unreasonable faith says it will be the same as yesterday.
I believe it too.
Curiouser and curiouser.
Why should the past ensure the future?
All this wrestles uneasily, in my bones creating doubt.
Yet the sky remains the same.
Vagabond Prophet
Mirror Me
Have you been mixing
Pain and pleasure,
And calling it treasure?
You’re better than that,
Let’s link up the yoke
Before you start to choke.
One step at a time,
That’s it mirror me
Until you can follow me.
What do you need?
I’ll give it gladly
I love you madly.
Let’s get you free
Of those rusty fetters,
And the greedy debtors.
You’re mine now not theres.
So stop mixing pain with pleasure
And calling it treasure.
– Vagabond Prophet
Solitary Refinement Chapter 18
Dearest Elizabeth January 2nd 2018
Return to sender. Why are you doing this? You realize you’re not just hurting me but the kids too right? What am I supposed to with colouring books in prison? People already think I’m weird. I’m going to have to throw this stuff in the trash. The stuff I worked to get Alister and Nina for Christmas, in the garbage… This sucks, I’m trying my best from in here to still contribute in some way to their lives, I can’t do much but try to send things if you won’t bring them to visit me. Can’t you see that? Do the kids ask about me? What do they say about me? What does Alister tell his friends at school about why his dad never comes to pick him up at school?
I got really mad at Joshua recently for suggesting that you would use the opportunity of my absence to cheat on me. Can you believe that? I got so mad at him, I know you wouldn’t do that. I’m pretty mad at him right now, I don’t really want to talk to him for a while and you don’t want to talk to me so I guess nobody will hear from me for a while then.
I’m going to get a journal, writing words down onto paper is the only thing I come even close to enjoying here. Talking through a pen onto the blank paper, it feels like these pages are the only things listening to me and receptive to my thoughts and feelings and willing to hold them for me. The blank canvas of white paper as it holds onto black ink doesn’t judge me or look for weakness the way the people here do.
Sorry, I kind of rambled on there, like I said I’ll get a journal for my random thoughts so I won’t have to bother anybody for a while since you’re not talking to me and I don’t want to talk to Josh right now.
Sincerely,
Your husband.
Mirror Me
Have you been mixing
Pain and pleasure,
And calling it treasure?
You’re better than that,
Let’s link up the yoke
Before you start to choke.
One step at a time,
That’s it mirror me
Until you can follow me.
What do you need?
I’ll give it gladly
I love you madly.
Let’s get you free
Of those rusty fetters,
And the greedy debtors.
You’re mine now not theres.
So stop mixing pain with pleasure
And calling it treasure.
– Vagabond Prophet
Vagabond Prophet 