#puddle poems

[inked-waves]

Ducks

Not chickens, not swans,

Ducks,

Not pheasants or penguins,

Ducks,

Not bats or cats or pigeons

Or elephants or cheetahs

Or trees or fruit or tins of beans

Or toast or toasters or

Toilet roll or water

(though part water)

Or grass or happy or social unity

Or thoughts or anxiety or energy

(though part energy)

Or viruses or stars or outer space

Or God

Or fish.

Ducks aren't fish.

Take away everything that a duck is not,

And you'll be left with a duck.

[inked-waves]

If the sea became the sky

How would it rain?

Still down? From top to bottom?

Each wave pulled across the ceiling

Splashing flecks of grey to the carpet

Liquid water

Racing down, down

In bubbles

That will never pop,

Just dissipate into foggy air

Before it reaches our heads

And falls into our ears in silence.

If the sea became the sky,

How would puddles form?

Would our feet be cradled in clouds

Each rainy day?

Leaving little pools of smoke

For the sun to turn liquidy and pull up,

Up,

Where would we keep the sun?

Would the fishes survive the thin atmosphere?

If we cried, would our tears be pulled up our foreheads too?

Or would my eyes become a smoke machine?

Would I ever feel the thrill of touching liquid water?

If the sea

Became the sky?

Would my mind suffer the same fate?

[inked-waves]

Our Summer in the Eye of the Hurricane

Can you be my solace in the middle of this hurricane? 

Where my head is blowing a gale and Life’s just swirling past me.

Can your arms hold me still in the eye of these winds? 

Where I’m fearing for my sanity overwhelmed by all the troubles. 

Behind me lies the tears from these past 18 years of weather,

Before me looks like hope, but reeks of instability,

And I’m all but certain this cyclone won’t leave me yet. 

So, bonito, hold me while we can.

In this brief moment of peace. 

When our worries mean nothing and, for a second, 

We can hold the world in our palms. 

Take a break from all this responsibility,

And just press your lips against mine, 

And when our peace has ended, 

Then, we’ll let the breeze carry us away. 

[inked-waves]

Puddle Poem #2

To be drowning in a puddle.

What more could you want from life? 

Than a tsunami of spontaneity,

A deathly waterfall,

A river mist of rainbows,

To swallow you up in happiness

And never choke you up again? 

Except, when you make an ocean of a puddle,

And you end up drowning more than the soles of your feet,

And you forget you can swim,

And you forget you’re not even knee deep

Because the tears blind and choke you,

And you thought puddles were for playtime,

But now they’re just rain.

[inked-waves]

And always, I come back to the shore in my thoughts,

Dip my toe into the sea foam

And let the exhilaration wash over my skin

As your skin does. 

Always, as I lay,

I run my fingers through the sand;

The silky softness of your hair crumbling around me.

Your eyes are the sunset.

And as I run a thumb across the smoothest pebble,

Across its nooks and crevices,

Across that heart-melting smile,

I lean back against the heat of the beach

And let your own fingers work their magic.

[inked-waves]

Puddle poem #1

Stand me in the center of a puddle,

Blue raincoat, yellow welly boots, 

Splashing my way through the rain like a child.

Hand me an umbrella as bright as the sun, 

And I’ll dance my way through the streetlamps of stars, 

Twirling the droplets in a waterfall of light. 

Stand me in the center of a puddle

We poured from a jar ‘cause the sun won’t make room

For the ocean and her weather to make rain. 

Shrink me down to the size of a droplet,

And I’ll skim myself across the surface like a pebble

Floating lightly as a leaf in the breeze.

Look, I never wanted more than to make an ocean of a puddle,

And to plant a garden of seaweed at the bottom 

Made of sweet wrappers and breadcrumbs. 

Imagine the tiny fish that would live down there,

And the tiny birds swooping down to catch them,

And how the sun would make rainbows fall from the sky. 

Stand me in the center of a puddle,

And watch me come alive.