She Moves, Softly

she moves, softly
trailing her midnight cloak behind
indigo and gold

sweeping across the
sky, an obscuring curtain, a
star-spangled banner

which Creation salutes
some with hushed, black stillness
others with noise

a chorus of
cricket fiddles, hoots and howls
the nighttime choir

joined some nights
by crunk superlatives, thumping bass
and couples laughing

moon crowned lady
casts her soft, silent cloak
over our heads

while I worship
her age and era with
my bleeding pen

Written 8/2/08
© 2008 Nicole Nicholson. All Rights Reserved.

Stumble It!

Stumble It!

Marionette

Strings by LadySnape09
Strings by Lady Snape 09

This chained lune was written for Poefusion’s “Monday Mural” prompt. Another foray into the darkness. This might be a bit disturbing, but I hope you enjoy anyway.

-Nicole
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The Archer

This chained lune was written for the One Single Impression Prompt this week (Resolve). Enjoy.

-Nicole

her eyes, steel
twin orbs of fire focus
on her target

taut, yet quivering
faintly, held by pinching fingers
the arrow waits

she releases both
breath and arrow in a
single, swift motion

years of painful
perspiring practice pay off as
the arrow sails

and plunges its
sharp head into the red,
round center bullseye

Written 8/23/08
© 2008 Nicole Nicholson. All Rights Reserved.

Stumble It!

Stumble It!

Subway

This chained lune was written for the One Single Impression Prompt this week, “Stairways”. Enjoy.

-Nicole
————————————————-
madness calls me
to drift down subway stairways
seeking dark scenes

nighttime casts clothing
a different city emerges, wild
Metropolis, the whore

decked out in
the finest concrete and neon
she glows, electric

and I see
her true blood, fragrant, coursing
through subway veins

junkies, freaks, madmen
bottle-blond horny women and
high-heeled queens

gangstas, and businessmen
on a secret double-sided
neon nighttime life

this I love
unscrubbed, raw, real, blood pulse
unsanitized and filthy

and I can
see it all nightly by
a stairway descent

Written 8/10/08
© 2008 Nicole Nicholson. All Rights Reserved.
Stumble It!

Stumble It!

Leonardo

I went back and wrote this chained lune for Poefusion’s Tuesday Title, which was “Brushstrokes and Sage”. Sorry, I couldn’t pass this one up. Enjoy.

-Nicole
————————————————-
even in old
age as an amused, impish
sage, he calls
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Waterfall Prison

I was able to write something for Friday Five at Poefusion this week…this Friday’s words were: exiguous, waterfall, thoughtless, imperfect, and gifted. This is a chained lune. Enjoy.

-Nicole
—————————————-
exiguous, my life
as it fades to black
my vision blurs
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For Fat Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Pain Was Enuf

This lune chain was written for Poefusion’s Friday Five. This week’s words: appearance, defect, trellis, youngster, laundry. The title was taken from Ntozake Shange’s play, “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Was Enuf”. Enjoy.

-Nicole
—————————————————–
you stand and
look at your reflection in
the bedroom mirror
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The Old Tree

This chained lune was written for Poefusion’s Monday Mural, based on the above image. Enjoy.

-Nicole
———————————————————-
The old tree was dying,
her wood drying
as ancient life left her.
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Truth

This was written for the Matinee Muse “Avenge” prompt on Writer’s Island. This is a lune. Enjoy.

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

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

Stumble It!

Stumble It!

Raven Mocker

This is a response to a Writer’s Island prompt, “superstition”. I chose to write about raven mockers, a kind of wizard/witch/evil spirit in Cherokee mythology. Enjoy.

-Nicole

————————————————
I come for
the souls of the dying;
for they are

my only sustenance.
I can smell impending death
from far away.

What you consider
stench is incense to me,
sweet and toxic;

guard your dying
well, for I seek their
hearts for food.

I take the
form of Raven so that
I am not victim

myself, for scavengers
are not the stuff of
other creatures’ sustenance.

Beware me: I
live long from the strength
of your souls;

For I am
Raven Mocker, and I seek
out your dying.

Written 6/16/08
© 2008 Nicole Nicholson. All Rights Reserved.
Stumble It!

Stumble It!

Sleep

This is my response to the Monday Mural prompt at Poefusion (the image above is this week’s prompt). I chose to write this in chained lunes. Enjoy.

-Nicole

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Soft sleeping Virgin,
did you fall to Earth
from your perch

on the moon
and sink into the ground
to take repose?

That moon perch
lays bowed in the sky
above sleeping eyes -

your sleeping eyes,
for us to gaze upon
in loving awe.

Dare we disturb
your quiet, entombed, lucid dreaming
to request intercession

for our frailty
as we forever unfailingly fall
and find sin?

Written 6/15/08
©2008 Nicole Nicholson. All Rights Reserved.
Stumble It!

Stumble It!

Help

This was written off of prompt #16 on Scott Woods’ Live Journal:

“Write a poem about an aspect of a national tragedy that contains:

- no statistics
- no references to other national tragedies
- no newspaper headline references
- no mention of the media, or lack thereof
- a focus on some aspect of the tragedy that no one else talks about much, if at all”.

I wrote about a second-hand story told to me about an act of kindness in the wake of 9/11. This is written in chained lunes. Enjoy.

-Nicole

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clean wet lines
left by the tear tracks
on her face
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