Doldrums

In a sea of people
In the waves floats a message meant for me
I could see the people partaking fleetingly
So I'll drown beneath their feet
Then the music plays
So I won't drift away
There's hands to lift me out of this
To throw the rope to me
I can't let this fade
Or forget you came
These dreams are like the movies
Then fade the memories
Where's the melody to change it all?
Where's the path through the crowd?
When will I stand right there?
Answer me now or I'll slip down to the ground
And there I'll drown
The sound is deadened by the sea
An ocean of perfection sits above
Collapse my heart beneath the wave
It just can't equalize
The escapist won, convinced me I was whole
Then ate the pieces off
My eyes snap open with size tens across my face
My lungs won't let me breathe
And all the while the tunes, they filter down to me
They remind me why i drown

otld poem

The intensity of being in the crowd
Just waiting for them to come on stage
I stand in the front of course
I look around the stage
Always loving everything I see
The drum set sits there sparkling
Lonely as can be, but not for long
The guitars start playing
We all know whats coming
The lights go on
The boys come on stage
And I am waiting impatiently for them to begin
The sound of "Storm Covered Ceilings" fills the room
The dancers dance
The screamers scream
And then there's me
Right in front of his face
Every word that he screams sinks into me
At those moments I am theirs and they know it
He screams
I respond
He jumps
I catch him
That's how it goes until the end
The hot and disappointing end
It comes too soon
The night ends and the new day begins
And in that new day I go back to being nothing

Love of Glitter (poem)

Oh how something can make you so happy.
The love for one thing.
Something so simple, so small
made of such a simple material
yet it makes me so happy.
Glitter makes me oh-so-happy,
Brightens up any bad day.
Solving some of the most severe problems,
boredom, lameness, sadness,
or just to make it an even better day.
Add it to anything and it adds some light.
As it falls and glistens like rain.
But it sticks, like a song in your head.
The love for something so simple as glitter,
it may be one of the easiest things to love.
Never disappointing me or breaking my heart
just always waiting in my room for me.
I'll spray it on my shoes or wear it on my face
it makes me happy to look down and seethe specs reflecting .
Like stars on a summer night
It all just makes my day.

My I hear America

The Sad Song of America

I hear America sing a sadder song
a song about hatred and racism
and poverty and hunger.
A song of people fooling themselves
that America sings a song of joy

From neighbors hating each other
to whites hating blacks
women with less rights
discrimination is only the first verse of this song .

People loosing their homes in natural disasters
everything they value being washed away.
America being left with out jobs
leaving hunger in its path.
Those things are what the second verse consists of.

Then there's the chorus, sung strong and loud
but still with sorrow.
As America tries to fool itself, and each other
to make belive that we are perfect.

The sound of America singing ends when we go and cry ourselves to sleep
then we dream about the sad America.
And when we wake up,
America sings the sad song all over again.

Response by Carmen Rodriguez

Response

I stand backstage, watching.
The band is ready and waiting patiently,
As I walk onto the stage.
Then everything calms down, and it begins.

I show them how i feel through the words,
The emotions all read clearly.
As we give them all we've got,
Anxious for any response from them.

They hear the music play,
Not letting them drift away.
All eyes on me, I feel them see right through.
Everything I say, they know and feel.
My emotions melt into their response.

The words stop coming.
But the response never will.
All their voices join together,
Becoming their emotions.
Emotions for me to respond to.

-Carmen Rodriguez

Medusa by Louise Bogan

Medusa

I had come to the house, in a cave of trees,
Facing a sheer sky.
Everything moved,-- a bell hung ready to strike,
Sun and reflection wheeled by.

When the bare eyes were before me
And the hissing hair,
Held up at a window, seen through a door.
The stiff bald eyes, the serpents on the forehead
Formed in the air.

This is a dead scene forever more.
Nothing will ever stir.
The end will never brighten it more than this,
Nor the rain blur.

The water will always fall, and will not fall,
And the tipped bell make no sound.
The grass will always be growing for hay
Deep on the ground.

And I shall stand here like a shadow
Under the great balanced day,
My eyes on the yellow dust, that was lifting in the wind
And does not drift away.

-Louise Bogan