Two and a Half Hours

The two and a half hour car trip seemed like
An epic journey when I was seven.
The mountain roads weaving around each curve
Made my stomach dizzy. The only lights
Were the headlights of the few passing cars
Brave enough to be on these roads at night.
I tried not to cry. I tried not to think.
I just held onto my special pillow
And prayed as hard as I could, staring out
Into the black and wishing I could fly.


Caren E. Salas

(for Grandma Bustos)

The Ugly Bones

She hated this part:

Cleaning up the left-overs

Ripping the meat off

Trying not to get the fat

Leaving no morsel behind.

She licked her fingers

Staring at her reflection

Staring back at her

From the large kitchen window;

Finished, she turned off the light.

Caren E. Salas

Robert Lee Brewer's Wednesday prompt this week: Take the title of a book, change one word and make that the title of your poem. I choose "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold, and changed it to "The Ugly Bones." Without getting creepy or morbid, I wrote this...

Photo: http://www.sloopin.com/2010/07/chicken-bone-problem.html

Relax

Stop
Breath
Relax
Be silent
Eyes closed, calm your mind.
Rest; tension will give way to peace.
Paradise awaits inside your imagination.

Caren E. Salas

photo by William Salas

After It's Over

After weeks of rehearsal, long days, late

Nights, learning lines, music, dance steps, blocking,

Opening night arrives with lights, applause,

And dreams come true. Yet before we knew it,

We were making our final bows, curtain

Falling; fade to black.  We held each other,

Hoping the moment would last, but knowing

The next day, there'd be a void, an empty 

Space, restless energy with no release...

While we waited for the next audition.

Caren E. Salas 

Robert Lee Brewer's Wednesday Prompt: vacuum: however you want to interpret that.  I thought of a void, black hole kind of thing, and I remembered what it felt like every time a show I was in closed. We all got "post play blues" until the next one came along. This is dedicated to all my crazy theater friends! (Special thanks to my friend Robin Harrison for finding this picture from "A Chorus Line". - I'm second from the end on the right side.)

Fading Away...

Memories that once were

So clear, and so colorful,

Now seem fuzzy, and grey;

Little by little, drifting

Away, 'til they fade...to black.

Caren E. Salas

Day 30 of April's Poem a Day Challenge: a "fading" poem 

photo by William Salas

I Can See it on Your Face

The news can't be good. I can

See it on your face, that look

Of pity, sympathy, dread.

Just don't say everything will

Be okay, 'cause I can tell,

Things will never be the same.

Caren E. Salas

Day 29 of April Poem a Day. Prompt: Take a phrase or theme from a previous poem this month and write a poem based on that. "I can see it on your face" from the poem "Condescension"  (Day 22).