Girls of Dirt and Earth
A girl is plucked from the soil
Long legs intertwined with tangled roots
Ferocity and ferality mingle in her bones
Not yet taught to silence her aches
A girl grows up
Wildness fading to muted complacency
Learns to bare her teeth in private
Mouth shut and hands neatly folded
A girl becomes a woman
Thrust over the precipice of transformation
Mirror reflection of the girl that she killed
Ghosts of her youth caged in glassy eyes
A woman births a girl
Ripe with untamed brashness and flame
An etching of the girl she once was
Prays her daughter retains this untinged spark
Yet her daughters fate will one day match her own
A woman is laid to rest
Returned to nature’s womb she once inhabited
Dirt’s embrace caresses her longing soul
A woman is a girl once again
- Zoe Bradford
Syzygy
Brightness swallowed.
An oral cavity of darkness chokes her
As the world is clouded, black.
Above, a circumference of rock soars,
A white-gold crescent revealing just his mouth.
With brilliance,
Darkness tires
As he reflects her light
- Charlize Andrews
Forward
The dream you can’t remember,
the words you can not find.
As dark gives way to dawn,
as poems begin to rhyme.
For in the way I know
the day will break,
I know
that she will not.
You may not
quite remember,
but you haven't yet
forgot.
- Riley Bradford
Remember?
Your eyes long to close, so let them.
The gentle song of the oaken serenity
fell from your head,
but tattooed your soul.
Finite brains, infinite minds;
remembrance is not the same as recollection.
Beyond man power lies the power of the man.
Of you, it asks not a thing
It will come to you, a friend veiled as foe.
Like the rain that guided us
into that wooden haven -
Are you starting to feel it?
Long ago, your grasp loosened.
The wind, your forgotten companion
picked up what you had dropped.
Once again amongst the evergreens,
you find
the salty breeze has waited.
It’s upheld vow, a promise unbroken.
Victorious rush of pride and restoration
tangles your hair, overthrows your lungs;
Familiarity swallows you whole.
Suffocated, you can finally breathe.
You have been here before.
- Riley Bradford
The Porch
Dancing
Not in the kitchen,
nor the rain,
nor the street
On the porch
A muddy, meretricious place
Yet perception portrays purity
Air hushes
Light wanes
Sight remains.
Solitude embraces
Standing there, both taciturn
His gaze beams through my skin
And rushes through my blood
Beats of heart intensify, eerie still.
Until a noise approaches
Someone enters;
The seraphic moment ends
Yet my blood still circulates with love.
- Charlize Andrews
Rhyme, or don’t
Poems don’t have to rhyme,
but it's nice when they do.
Though I suppose it doesn’t matter,
as long as the point’s through.
You know me, I’ve never taken
perfection as a form of payment.
But I won’t deny my affection
for deliberate word arrangement.
Rhyme, or don’t;
My adoration will hold true.
Poems don’t have to rhyme,
but it's nice when they do.
- Riley Bradford
Mother & Daughter
A forehead kiss of aversion,
a brutal strike of benevolence.
Lift my veil of hatred
to reveal my reverence.
Conflict: The rendition
of a maternal embrace
Swords drawn, hands clean;
An eternal stalemate.
An inherited vitriol,
a humane reflection.
A mutual dissention
in the name of affection.
Inevitable unbecoming,
altruistic smother.
There truly is nothing
like the love of a mother
- Riley Bradford
Suburbia
A mind-map of movie theaters,
of playgrounds, of speed limits.
Repeated nights, tired eyes,
Wrap around-porches and syrupy tables.
An homage to broken curfews, to mirror bonds,
to accidental midnight kitchen exchanges.
Easy laughter and moonlit affairs,
Dirt roads and smokey tangles.
Nameless faces and faceless names.
Intensified feelings, obscure meanings.
Shapes within the clouds, stories within the stars;
The reason to go being the reason to stay.
An unbearable boredom
That one longs forevermore.
It truly is a lovely thing
To exist within the insignificance.
- Riley Bradford
Autumnal Embrace
leaves fade to ember shades
what once was green now fully ablaze
hints of spice linger in the air
sultriness of summer long stripped bare
the earth is tinged by a golden haze
aroma of baked goods with a cinnamon glaze
chilly wind caresses your face
autumn welcomes you with a loving embrace
- Zoe Bradford
Without an end
I place this wish upon
the biggest star of all.
With grace, you light the sky,
until, with grace, you fall.
But darkness can not hold
amidst your prismatic resurrection.
And life continues on
within your realm of projection
There’s a reason we all strive
to watch as you ascend;
An enduring consolation
that we exist without an end.
- Riley Bradford
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