LAST ONE (#13 Prompt: "Last ____")

I stand, agonizing.

Staring at the almost empty

Pink cardboard box

Of crumbs and sugary shrapnel

And one,

One last doughnut.

I look around the room.

Is it being saved for someone?

Did everybody get one?

Maybe I should just take half.

I mean, really, I don't really need it.

On the other hand,

It's not something I have everyday...

Oh, what the heck!

I should just grab it before--

Hi! 

Oh no, go ahead!

I mean, really, I don't really need it.

It's just a doughnut...

The last one. 

(I smile)

Go ahead.

(I try not to cry)

Caren E. Salas

Photo: mine
Donut: Varsity Donuts of Manhattan, Kansas  https://www.facebook.com/varsitydonuts/

SILLY PHOTOS (#12 a serious or a silly poem)

Silly photos found

In my cell phone, make me smile

Surprises from her 

Caren E. Salas

SOMETHING WRONG (#11 a "defensive poem")

There's something very wrong here
Something not quite right

When a bullied child in self defense
Is rebuked for "joining" the fight;

When a victim's life is opened wide
And instead of comforted, shamed,
Insulted atop the injury
Belittled, mocked and blamed.

How do we alter hundreds of years
Of Survival of the Cruel?
It's time to change some attitudes.
It's time to break some rules.

Apparently it's easy to say
"Toughen up, you'll be fine"
Rather than taking action,
To eliminate the crime.

There's something very wrong here;
Something so absurd.
But being a girl myself, it seems
I likely won't be heard.


Caren E. Salas




Photo: http://bullyingpreventionnow.com/bullying-assemblies/high-school-bullying-assemblies/
Also, check this out! http://www.pennlive.com/news/2016/06/high_school_valedictorian_skip.html

ANTICIPATION (#10 - Pick an emotion)

Waiting and wondering
Nervous excitement
A happy panic
Mixed with somber confusion
Neurotic obsession
And willing delusion
A constant addiction
To imminent perceptions
Of future occasions
Filled with great trepidations
Yet euphoric optimism
Knowing and certain
Believing,,,hoping....

Waiting and wondering.


Caren E. Salas

THE PLAYHOUSE (#9 - "Hideout)

It was the coolest place in heaven or earth

We were seven or eight

Just a couple of girls

Our faces smudged with jelly and dirt

And the playhouse

Was our own little world

On the ceiling was a map and a chart of Morse code

There was a potter's wheel

For making clay bowls

Just enough space for imaginations to roam

Sleeping bags and blankets

For when it got cold

It was the coolest place in heaven or earth

And for a couple of girls

Our own little world.

Caren E. Salas

Okay, we are a little more than 7 or 8 here....but this is my partner in crime, 

and yes, we are still friends.

SQUIGGLES (#8 be inspired by a doodle)

A line

A wiggle

Just thoughtless squiggles

Like inside of my mind

A jumble

unrefined

In different directions

It's all

For my own protection.

If no one can figure me out, then

I don't have to show

Who I really am.

Caren E. Salas

URBAN AIR (#7 "Urban ---")

You really don't know

Until you go someplace else

And you realize

You can breathe, I mean really 

Inhale deeply, exhale...breathe.

Caren E. Salas

Photo: http://www.umich.edu/~elements/5e/web_mod/la_basin/index.htm

ROOTS (#6 an Ekphrastic poem)

Grounded

Stable, stong

Doing, feeling, striving

Roots, home, prison, restraint

Reaching, fearing, disparing

Imprisoned, tortured

Bound.

Caren E. Salas

Painting:  "Roots" by Frida Kahlo

THE INTERVIEW (#5 Experience/Inexperience)

Inexperience
Written all over his face
Passed over, again.


Caren E. Salas

Eyes Closed

The petals drop one by one
My opening night bouquet
Fading into every day
Mere hours remain of this dream
And I don't want to wake up
Eyes closed, let me sleep some more.


Caren E. Salas

IN BETWEEN (#4 Distance)

Distance can be measured

Not in miles, 

But by smiles and tears;

Not on a street map, 

But through years: the days and nights

And the difference

In between.

A warm embrace remembered,

Makes separation abate,

But the cold chill of a friendship lost

Reaches right into the heart:

A reminder 

Of a much greater divide

.

You haven't moved, or traveled 

To parts unknown and yet 

The distance

In between us

...has grown.

Caren E. Salas

Not That I'm Counting #3 - "Three ___ ____"

Three long months I have to wait

Until my next vacation

All right, about one hundred

Days more or less, give or take,

Thirteen hours, and six minutes.

But it's not like I'm counting....

Caren E. Salas

Fade to Black - #2 He said/she said

Good night

Is all she said

Turned off the light

And went to bed.

I love you

He whispered back

Closed his eyes

Fade to black.

Caren E Salas

A Day Late and a Poem Short

Somehow, I completely lost track of April. Yes, pretty much the entire month has disappeared from memory. I did go on a cruise the first week of the month, but after that...it's all a blur. I sort of remember unpacking, and trying to catch up on the bills and housework, but other than that....things get fuzzy..And now, here it is: the end of May.

So unfortunately I missed Robert Lee Brewer's Poem a Day Challenge for National Poetry Month which was almost two months ago. At first I thought "Awe, man! I blew it!" But then I realized, that I can still look up Mr. Brewer's prompts and I can still write a poem every day for a month. Well, I can try anyway. So here I go. Hopefully you will join me for the ride. I'll try and keep up.

The first prompt was to write a "Foolish Poem". There's something about that word that sort of bothers me. I don't mind the occasional surprise that makes you jump, or a silly rubber spider in your cereal, but for a person to purposely set another person up to make them feel stupid, seems hurtful, and alienating.  So...here's my post for a "Foolish" poem:

THE FOOL

No one wants to play the fool

The butt of jokes, the target

In a dart game, the bullseye

Talked and laughed about by all

Who need to put down others

In order to raise themselves.

Caren E. Salas

All Too Familiar

Appointments

Procedures

It all seems

Familiar

But this time

It's not me

I wish though

It could be

I don't want 

To see her

...in pain.

More blood work

The needles

The waiting

For hours

The meds and

The diets

Won't know 'til

We try it

I don't want 

Her going

...insane.

It's all

Inconclusive

Frustrating

Confusing

More doctors

Re-testing

It's hard just

Digesting

The answers

Seem so hard

...to find.

So we go

On waiting

What seems like

Forever

I hope that

She makes it

I hope I 

Can take it

I feel like 

I'm losing

....my mind.

Caren E. Salas