NAPOWRIMO #30: INSTRUCTIONS AND SUCH

INSTRUCTIONS AND SUCH

Retain this information
for your records.

No trees were harmed
in the making of this poem.

No giant squid
was milked for ink.

No large bird
was plucked for a quill.

Keys were tapped
to transmit bits and bytes.

Server farms hummed
and technicians tinkered

with computers
that failed but were linked

to others that did not due
to favored redundancies.

The sun still shone
somewhere above dark clouds

that poured down hail
and rain upon an asphalted town.

And the poem lived
its life forever in electronic

digital glory that shone
like jeweled gates of a city

Pearl and Emerald
Gold, Garnet, and Jasper

a rainbow of colors
as though a petroleum stain

an oily film upon the skin
of a muddied puddle

waiting for a child’s boot
to splash it and disperse it.

Remember these things
sing them loudly.

---

Copyright © 2011 by Troy's Work Table

NAPOWRIMO #29: NEST

For 2011's National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo), Troy's Work Table is attempting to write thirty poems in thirty days without the help of writing prompts from other websites.

Many of these are still in some sort of draft stage, but that is the nature of the Work Table.

---

NEST

I am her child
and she my mother

although I wonder
why she never smothered

the life out of me
when I stared up with

near-stillborn eyes
and a crooked smile

pasted onto pencil-
thin lips

that sought the warmth
and milk of her

tiny breasts

we were mismatched
from the beginning

a flailing nestling
and a new parent

unsure of how to care
for this mewling thing

pink and hairless
and naked

with clutching paws
and sharp nails

and barely able
to contain the sustenance

that she provided

stench and attendant
dribbles from both ends

were my offerings to her
as she tried to clean up

and mask the smells
that poured forth

this is privilege and gift?
she wondered

as I rolled about
my hands and face seeking

her warm tender words
while cooing back in echo

---

Copyright © 2011 by Troy's Work Table

NAPOWRIMO #28: thEEDDDD

For 2011's National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo), Troy's Work Table is attempting to write thirty poems in thirty days without the help of writing prompts from other websites.

Many of these are still in some sort of draft stage, but that is the nature of the Work Table.

---

thEEDDDD

she said,
although we think
she meant “the end”

either way,
it referenced
an exploding star

Wire’s “Comet”
or Killing Joke’s
“Asteroid!”

or the bright
white stellar light
of Jesus the Christ

as he went nuclear
on the mountaintop
of a planet thousands

upon thousands
of light years
away, where

if we had
been able to hear
this angel song

it would have
been a single
sustained rumbling note:

thEEDDDD

---

Copyright © 2011 by Troy's Work Table

NAPOWRIMO #27: PROGRESS

For 2011's National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo), Troy's Work Table is attempting to write thirty poems in thirty days without the help of writing prompts from other websites.

Many of these are still in some sort of draft stage, but that is the nature of the Work Table.

---

PROGRESS

The blade of the knife peels back the skin of my forearm and hand, then the dermis, and finally bites into the meat of my arm. I cut and cube the red flesh into one-inch squares, glorying in my newly discovered skills as a sous chef. The chunks of arm fill a skillet on the stovetop, where the blue flames of natural gas render the fat from the flesh, which I pour off into an empty and rinsed jar that once held lingonberry preserves.

Cheesecloth helps to define the oil that I seek: purifying, clarifying, bringing forth the hope of new life from old.

A quick twist of the knife and a soft “pop” tearing of tissue divorces radius and ulna from humerus, the former clacking together as they drop to the granite-like laminate of the countertop. I continue to butcher with the remaining hand and its clutched utensil, having practiced many times prior on the flesh of boar or other beasts.

Fortunately, there is little blood, due to tourniquet and candle flame.

The threaded screw finds its way into the marrow of bone with one half-twist after another, interrupted here and there by fainting spells brought upon by the pain that shots of dark rum cannot quite quell. Soon, though, the haft of the harpoon is secure and stable, the blade glinting where a palm and fingers once resided.

The oil from the jelly jar gives the metal a polish that one could barely imagine. Oh how it shines!

I snack on the few remains of my former arm, pulling them from the depth of an oversized coffee mug, while I hang over the starboard side of the boat, hovering inches from the water of the sea, waiting for the Whale to appear. I will need sustenance for the fight as I hold fast until one or the other of us perishes. It is time.

---

Copyright © 2011 by Troy's Work Table

NAPOWRIMO #26: BROKEN

For 2011's National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo), Troy's Work Table is attempting to write thirty poems in thirty days without the help of writing prompts from other websites.

Many of these are still in some sort of draft stage, but that is the nature of the Work Table.

---

BROKEN

For one it was a broken hand
another, a broken head
another, a broken heart

it was all monkey see, monkey do

see no evil, hear none, speak none

yet they tried to link their bones
into one framework, one skeleton
that merely lumbered about

like a diseased silverback gorilla

without focus, without aim, lacking direction

a wheel without spokes

slightly bent out of shape
like a hard-boiled egg
that hadn’t been properly

tested in the flames

---

Copyright © 2011 by Troy's Work Table

NAPOWRIMO #25: BELIEVE

For 2011's National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo), Troy's Work Table is attempting to write thirty poems in thirty days without the help of writing prompts from other websites.

Many of these are still in some sort of draft stage, but that is the nature of the Work Table.

---

BELIEVE

You can’t believe that
they say

it’s exclusive

it’s black and white

it’s not what we believe

so I invite

and speak of grays

and confirm that I don’t
believe what they believe

but that I trust
that the mind of God

is large enough to contain

both beliefs

and mountains more

I speak of visions

that they don’t want
to hear

because they’re filled
with jeweled colors

and the mercies
they secretly covet

but they can’t state such beliefs

while the others watch

and wait.

---

Copyright © 2011 by Troy's Work Table

NAPOWRIMO #24: ORDINARY THINGS

For 2011's National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo), Troy's Work Table is attempting to write thirty poems in thirty days without the help of writing prompts from other websites.

Many of these are still in some sort of draft stage, but that is the nature of the Work Table.

---

ORDINARY THINGS

Ordinary things
are the order of the day
when the Kingdom comes
upon the hard soil
of this earth—

bread and wine
as body and blood

water splashed
in the name of Spirit

light shining
through the darkness

banquet table
where all are welcome.

---

Copyright © 2011 by Troy's Work Table

NAPOWRIMO #23: EASTER VIGIL

For 2011's National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo), Troy's Work Table is attempting to write thirty poems in thirty days without the help of writing prompts from other websites.

Many of these are still in some sort of draft stage, but that is the nature of the Work Table.

---

EASTER VIGIL

From fall
to exile,

from tomb
to life,

ever-present:
God.

---

Copyright © 2011 by Troy's Work Table

QUICK OR DEAD

"The nest's location so close to the building was sign that the house was uninhabited and yet he felt a childish dread of arousing unknown denizens, quick or dead."
—page 337, Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen

POET TREE

The Puyallup Public Library placed a "poet tree" in its lobby, with instructions encouraging patrons to (a) write lines from a favorite poem or an original poem on one of the provided tags and (b) hang the completed tag on the tree.

My NaPoWriMo #9 poem, "Cask," ended up on the tree, on the green tag in the right foreground.