graff1980

[graff1980]

I am all raggedy face scraggly, smelling of sweat, anxious, tired, and uninspired, but still searching for a fire worth burning in then turning ashes into a weird word stew to share with the few who also deplore the drabness I abhor.

-2023

[graff1980]

The Queen of pink parchment sits in the den of Faye parliament debating the politics of all existences, and touching on the temperament of small human infants.

How adorable, and unpolluted, soft heads that smell like peppermint and lemons, at least that how she imagines, how their tiny fingers flex and grab tightly at any digit they might see.

How their faces wrinkle like angry old men when they are crying, but when they laugh like the Faye younglings do even fairies in the wild can’t help but smile.

How so many keep dying, their potential lost particles just turned to ash when bomb blasts flash, or when they are starving to the point they can’t even manage to cry out.

The Queen of Pink Parchments can’t help at marveling at the ineptitude and cruelty when clearly she can see little limbs that once waved chaotically trying to figure out their functioning, dying like drying leaves crumbling, awaiting the winds of Spring to come back in again and make sure this stops happening.

From the otherside of dreams, in the early waking as humans leave the land of unconscious playing, she frequently weeps and screams as another little visitor disappears never to return.

She yearns to reach out and burn the violent, and sickeningly greedy. who torment tiny human children,

If she had power over other planes, she would reach out and make evil people feel a mother’s pain, forcing them to face all the real horrors that they dealt, by taking every inch of agony into themselves.

Though long lived she does not have all the time she needs to manage that. She must attend to other duties that the Faye court requires, and perhaps that is why she does not completely breakdown and die inside.

-2024

#poetry #poem #poets on tumblr #writerscreed #poets corner #spilled ink

[graff1980]

The king of the jungle had four more roars that he stored indoors because there was someone cuddling with his lovely lioness and it hurt his pride.

-2023

[graff1980]

You put the cart before me acting very poorly, expecting dogged dedication as you take a mental vacation, and I continue pulling all the weight.

You load me up with too much baggage, then tell me to keep my head up, but if I buck up you'll get knocked off and fucked up.

A division of labor you got me carrying water, but never save a single sip for me later. So, I am the dehydrated savoir, hoarse, and unable to keep our workplace stable.

I am tired and waiting for the day you put me out to pasture because some young buck works much faster, but I bet that bastard won’t last here very long before they move on or turn to gooey glue stuck to the floor and the bottom of your shoes.

-2024

#poetry #poem #poets on tumblr #writerscreed #poets corner #spilled ink

[graff1980]

Sydney Lynne

There is fire behind those red lips, and similar flames flicker from her tongue. There are words working up to a fervor of furious destruction ready to break the system that threatens her children. There is an ancient drumbeat a primal rhythm coming from the heart that is pounding, an anthem sounding creative resistance. There is a phoenix heart like a glorious bird set free that doesn’t have to dream because she takes solar rays and weaves those golden strings into garments that protect tiny little human beings. Captain of the last pirate ship, that sets sail among the stars and though I rush to join her purposeful adventure her vessel is many leagues away from these seas, beyond the sandy shores far from earth with eyes toward all infinity has to show and more.

-2022

[graff1980]

Let my words be the threads that stitch open wrists to staunch tiny red drips that drop evidence of the horrendous pains placed upon tender young frames.

-2023

[graff1980]

You want to censor and restrain but your censorship is lame, and I won’t let you retrain my brain. Only death can reclaim this frame.

[graff1980]

Tee hee hee hee can you see me trying to be free, running, and laughing, stomping, and clapping.

There is fun happening, even though Yesterday was a harsh day, and I know that tomorrow may bring pain.

I say, this moment is made to smile and play.

-2023

[graff1980]

Hip hop gave birth to

a whole new generation,

and I was the cousin

who lived in another nation

gifted with an invitation

to partake of the fountain

of its creative inspiration.

-2024

#poetry #poem #poets on tumblr #writerscreed #poets corner #spilled ink

[graff1980]

I've been conditioned to sip poison, but not let the venom turn me into the snake that others envision,

to not be deformed by the fire that once warmed my cold flesh, then charred the surface,

to scrape the burnt skin from my chest and reveal the powerful drum pounding under my breasts,

cause these etchings on my epidermis serve a certain noble purpose. Each crack under the outer layer is an indicator of the dragon Slayer that fights back even if most don't like that.

-2023

[graff1980]

If the moon was a hot air balloon would you come and fly with me, float across the sky and see all the little lakes glowing and the seas in turmoil as their tides go wild?

Would you sip a sea water salt spiked brew slowly knowing that you will get sick real quick?

When we cross over the Artic can we park it or just dip a bit to get some ice for our cups, and when the sun come in to light us up will you burn with me flaming for a moment as a reflection of love, till our flesh falls off while we retch and cough till our eyes melt, and we can’t save ourselves?

Sick as can be deteriorating, imagine how infuriating disintegrating is. Since we already exist in the midst of an inferno, why do we have to burn slow? Why do we have to be a part of the whole human shit show when we could rage against the violence and incompetence and die on our own terms, as ashes for earthworms to choke on.

-2024

#poetry #poem #poets on tumblr #writerscreed #poets corner #spilled ink

[graff1980]

Looks like I'm in a pickle, sliced by your red slick sickle till my blood trickles.

You just cut the cord drop the floor like it's a trap door, cuz you were bored and don't want to play with me anymore.

So, I’ll take my stanza breaks and leave cause you don’t need a poet that bleeds messing up your tidy life.

-2023

[graff1980]

Tonight, I will try to write of a flock of birds in flight, about the freedom to rise beyond gravity’s grasp. but the gravity of life will drag me back.

My eyes will bleed in sympathy for those I see on my Instagram feed. I will weep angrily as reality tries to strangle me dangling visions so destructive that they should be instructive of what the opposite of being human means.

I will close my eyes, and visualize the traumatized parent’s and adolescents, the bone thin children that will not survive, the disfigured faces of bombing victims shredded and burnt to the point of melting flesh, real life stiller than photos reposted by my friends, and a million times grimmer than the glimmer of the grim reaper.

I will not sit and pretend to be the holder of great wisdom, or some secret revelation. What can I fathom of fathers cradling sheet covered shapes that leave a gaping hole in the place oxygen is supposed to flow, so all that comes out is choked sobs?

With despair and gratitude, I will go back home, relieved that my nephews will most likely never have to experience anything close to what the children in Gaza are going through.

-2024

#poetry #poem #poets on tumblr #writerscreed #poets corner #spilled ink #humanity #palestine

[graff1980]

Yesterday, I was the child you gave away taught to play war games of hate, proffered my body for the profit of your immense estate, a sacrifice to the war machine that you have been worshipping, since before you made up the end of days.

Tonight, I’m not a rebel or your enemy, not the dedicated soldier ornamented in medals for all the demented things decent people should deplore.

But tomorrow I will become the rebel, your greatest enemy foe still free falling, the better angel calling, with my battle worn body broken by desperation.

-2023

[graff1980]

If you are listening, get a whiff and sense the terror in the distance, will you stiffen like a mannequin? Will you abandon all of your friends because you are afraid of what might happen?

Amidst the chaos will you stand laughing ready to jump back in because you are a very mad man and you can handle all the destruction?

If you lost all of your loved ones would you go on talking and dancing, or would you fall like a building collapsing destroying everything within?

These aren’t questions that I am asking someone else. They are queries I make of myself.

Right or wrong will I carryon?

-2024

#poetry #poem #poets on tumblr #writerscreed #poets corner #spilled ink

[graff1980]

11 - Joshua Graff on Vimeo

#poetry #poets on tumblr #poem #poets corner #spilled ink #humanity

[graff1980]

#poetry #poem #spilled ink #humanity #poets corner