-Nicole

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“I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”
-James Baldwin

Georgie boy,
what do your words mean?
Georgie boy,
your scream is not a scream.

It is a hypocritical whimper
that simmers
in the ears of those who know you best;
from the West
China is supposed to heed your voice
when your own choice
was to proselytize
with mammoth lies
piled on top, jammed
in side by side, crammed
into the ears of your own people?
We want to erect a different steeple.*

I have a question, if you please:
where the fuck were those WMDs?

You lied
while inside
your protective governmental womb,
but we still hear the baby, entombed
from the outside, kicking and screaming;

so while you’re still scheming
we will beacon,
light, love, and liberty
for all eternity
across this planet’s revolving endless skies
to replace the lies
of bigotry, oppression, and hatred
that have been erected
and the foolish have projected
in the name of security and protection.

We embrace sedition
to free the captives
and the natives
of this land.

We understand
who you really are –
by far
the biggest hypocrite
and purveyor of bullshit
on this planet’s face –
but at least have the grace
to leave your mouth
from the South
off of other oppressors
until our own act is together.

Leave the screaming
and the dreaming
to folks who stand true
to the Red, White, and Blue
and I don’t mean scoundrels
who abound
half-stepping inside the sound
of redneck patriotism
creating a schism
lined with “my God’s dick is bigger than yours”
and leaving raw-wound sores
in the asses of their neighbors.
I mean those willing
who aren’t illing
about bearing trouble on their backs
and trumpeting truth and facts
to save America from herself.

China, we must apologize;
though we realize
that we find your acts abhorrent
and unwarranted
against your flesh and blood
(we cannot excuse the blood
spilled in droplet billions
in Tiananmen graveyards),
we are in embarrassment
by the harassment
of a President
that if resident
any longer
might grow stronger
by hubris and upon us
inflict the same
and drive us insane.

Written 8/6/08
© 2008 Nicole Nicholson. All Rights Reserved.

Stumble It!

*a slightly modified line from “Celebration of the Lizard” by The Doors

I had been thinking about this piece since Monday. This title was turning over and over again in my brain; I ended up writing it for Three Word Wednesday, since this week’s words, “million”, “time”, and “unnoticed”, lent themselves well to my churning thoughts. Enjoy.

-Nicole
—————————————————–
A million voices have weaved themselves together. They lie as chaotic tapestry, matted hair, within the recesses of my brain. I can no longer distinguish who said what and when, but unlike erased and empty chalkboards which bare nothing but black blankness, my mind holds on to ghost strand memories. I see the placeholders of words, but only as faint outlines containing invisible space.

With time, they grow even fainter. When I was twenty-five, it was who and when that I could still recall, but the what had begun to fade out of the middle of its still frame memory. Now at thirty-two, the when is a slowly eroding shoreline giving way to forgetful waters. I fear that someday, the sum total of what is left of my mental substance, my acuity, and even the substance of who I am, will drown in these waters as more of these memories disappear and die.

Yet each day, one more letter, one more word, one more sentiment, slips away into the abyss, unnoticed. It is only when I go back to retrieve the memory that I notice what is missing. It is then I see jigsaw puzzles of faces, places, things said to me, and things I said staring back, but incomplete with jarring, empty holes in each puzzle…and I can no longer find the missing pieces. I want to dive my desperate fingers under divine couch cushions and coffee tables to find them.

But I know that permanence is a pathetic myth, and transience is closer to the biggest truth engulfing our Universe – and that truth is that we are always dying. The words told to me in love, anger, and sorrow will eventually die too as I cross the thresholds of decades. One day, all I will have left are the outlines of faces.

Written 8/6/08
© 2008. Nicole Nicholson. All Rights Reserved.

Stumble It!

This sedoka was written for this week’s Monday Mural prompt at Poefusion. Enjoy.

-Nicole
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inert silent earth
lies beneath statued trees and
silver mirrors of water

tears become rivers
pale moonlight illuminates
her polluted, filthy weeping

Written 7/27/08
© 2008 Nicole Nicholson. All Rights Reserved.

Stumble It!

This senryu was written for the “faces” prompt at One Single Impression. Enjoy.

-Nicole
—————————————————————-
magic through needles
erases lines but not age
time still marches on

Written 7/27/08
© 2008 Nicole Nicholson. All Rights Reserved.

Stumble It!

Stumble It!

-Nicole
———————————-
Popcorn dreams
bursting at the seams
of my brain –
I might go insane
from the pain
of the multitude
and the magnitude
of them all.
Dreams fall
and land loudly,
echoing proudly
their presence.
Their essence
demands to be heard,
whether sane or absurd;
they crowd my mind
in masses unkind
of every color and kind
and I must refine
them into words.
But sometimes, like birds,
they fly too fast to catch –
too fast to snatch
with my fingers,
and they don’t linger.
I might lose them;
so I must choose then
not to wait
or hesitate
to capture these birds,
to cage these words,
and pin them in flesh
onto paper and mesh
them together in verse.
This is my curse –
to be a poet;
my heart demands I show it
to the world
as a banner, unfurled.
So if you wonder
where the thunder
in the distance comes from,
it’s the sweet and wicked storm
in a poet’s brain
which sends down rain
of rhyme and verse.
For better or worse,
I’d rather feel the pain
of poetic rain
than to be mundane
and go insane.

Written 7/8/08
© 2008 Nicole Nicholson. All Rights Reserved.

Stumble It!

Written 7/1/08
© 2008 Nicole Nicholson. All Rights Reserved.

Stumble It!

-Nicole
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Blood for blood
is a pointless, miserable exchange -
no one wins.

Written 6/28/08
© 2008 Nicole Nicholson. All Rights Reserved.

Stumble It!

Written 6/29/08
© 2008. Nicole Nicholson. All Rights Reserved.

Stumble It!

Written 6/27/08
© 2008 Nicole Nicholson. All Rights Reserved.

Stumble It!