What are you doing here again?
I'm not your lover and I'm not your friend.
Why are you sneaking round my door?
A familiar face....that I've known before?
And just what do you bring
in offers?

If I do as you'd like then what will become of who I am?
Will I drown in in the deepness of your sea
Or find the very deepest part of me?
Will I feel lost
or will I feel free?
Will I light my soul and keep a smoldering fire?
To fill my heart's deepest desire...
And feel like I cannot get higher?
To the highest place that I can take my myself?

To soothe the deepest ache inside my soul in the deepest deep
You make me nervous
And so I'm intrigued...
So I just might invite you in
As long as not committing sin?
I wonder...

The things that I've been yearning for
You'll release me from this ache I'm sure
And the smell of the sweat and the sweet perfume
A fear embraced of what dangers loom
What it will mean come tomorrow
Could be my delight or such sweet sorrow
When I'm alone again.

Senses I've rarely tapped into before
Just the one time that you rapped at my door
I do not trust you though
Your last visit was so bittersweet
So pardon my bashful and modest retreat
As I feel this all the way out.

If we start with a just a slow sweet kiss...
to find a rumored thing called bliss?
Then I wonder...
if we could we take this...
one moment at a time?

Because before we know it
I could be gone.
Lost in your Temptation

And as you know...
I fear for my salvation.

All Rights Reserved May 26 2016 - Cherie Nolan

I am a sinner,
and I know it,
& I'm OK with it,

I have made the necessary changes,
to ward of any evil,
a crucifix,

You are coming to me,
I feel it,
& :
I await,
the taste of it,
in
the taste of your skin,
& sweat

So luscious,
& delicious,
& emmmm,
so yummy,

As I taste the night,
as I taste  
the bitter & sweet
of yesterday,

Again.

Cherie Nolan © 2016

I am painting word pictures today
tasting hot incoming Autumn  breezes
transforming splendor
dreary rain filled moments pass
bidding adieu
and welcome my rustic bamboo
fare thee well to Summer's sun
now in this Burning September

Entrancing
as the
dancing trees
in changing multicolored hues...
skies of crystal clear blue
cut outs of rolling hillsides
and lush Green mountains
in that endless and seamless quilt
sheltering the storms

My eyes are drawn
past the still lively green leaves
as the burning umber
and cardinal tipped ones
radiating
hat tipped
as chlorophyll ...
choking the beauty outward
from the petiole
like greedy verdant fingers...
the palm of my hand
I linger ...a moment
they wave in soft winds
...and I wave back

I remember
old-time Vermonters
like my Father
didn't care for the Sumac trees
thought perhaps a ****
only beautiful to look at
& they are so very lovely

These happy helpers
say hello to Fall
stick around
when everything else
already brown
holding down
needy dry hillsides
from erosion
growing fast and tall
turning into thickets...
for woodland critters
providing borders
unsung heroes beckon
along railroads,
highways ,
pastured Meadows
and Orchard edges
these beauties...
never really go away.

A harvesting moon
giving seasons
  five months
from the time
the leaves fall off
until they grow back
in the spring time
  serrated leafy knives
cut into the sky
a bittersweet
and bashful goodbye
sighing...
to drunken apples
and their dropping dried leafy friends

Surprisingly scrumptious
providing
we are foraging and gleaning
I make a lovely citrusy
sour and fruity tea
like wild cranberry juice...
imaging the Joy
inviting clusters of crimson know

Providing more than food
for winged ones
a sugar depository
loaded with antioxidants &
spreading sunshine
in darker months

Attracting  lovely colorful winter birds
my winsome friends
seed eaters
small singing kindred spirts...
tempted by seeds pods
of the Staghorn Sumac
and remaining wildflowers
bursting like burgundy globes
scarlet and brick reds
mellow yellows
  turning burning
blazing bright oranges
as the seasonal butterfly dreams
unfolding it's summertime schemes
right before my wondering eyes

  European and English
Gardens know
varieties
I can only close my eyes to see
accentuating loose,
textured landscapes
stunning gardens
& fern-like cousins
across the world
A Middle Eastern grind
of this crimson spice
from those crushed dried drupes
while they prepare rice for dinner

I so appreciate
what a gift we have to share
time is running short before
as told to me in times of yore
we brace as one for Winter's Bone
though I am not alone
Vermont it is my earthly home
all I really want to say
thanks for sharing with me  ...
on this perfect picturesque
Vermont September day.

Cherie Nolan © 2016

I stand with all those who fought for just cause
I give my ink to solidify their spirit
And energized their body and soul
I support their long walk to freedom

And hope they spread like dandelions
Drinking bowful water to quench their thirst
Which shall be hitchfree from slave guards
Please I need water to drink just a drink

I came from a community water is scarce
It is a trading commodity sold with pence
Dirt mud dances as we fetch
Alum so expensive only few can perch

We leech as fly just to get a drop
Ragging with thuds of defiance soul
Carry their cattle to drink the spring as a spoil
****** situation it turns and boil

As blood spreads so we drink
I need a water as a sink
Please come to my community and make a drill so we wouldn't be sick
In long run life it will save and stalk

Give a simple drop so we can cook
For years I feed on fruits that are poison
Cut in diseases of fluke worms
And guinea worms drag for a feed

They chase for spaces as they soul rely
I am a living dead my body reply
Waiting for last drop perhaps it may revamp as it rain
My foreclosure day might be dark

Please a water might sing thousands of song
For if I give my soul away I hope my message will reach many and touch their hearts to give us a drop as gong

by Martin Ijir

Bumble bee
You buzzed into my life
And everything i used to be
Became so sweet like a mermaid at sea
You made everything fadeless
You wrote rhymes into me like a poem
Played my heart like a musical notes
Set my heart ablaze
And left me dazed like a youth who is Crazed

Bumble bee
You occupy space
Though you wrote my agony in syllables
You make me describe your absence in parables
You wrote your name in my heart
Now i bleed blue
I bleed you
If i choke on love
I'll need you
But every time i look
You're gone
Gone and left me like a stream flowing in tears
Bumble bee
You promised to Blossom
I let your flower grow in me
I kept you in my *****
So you can bloom
The love was there
But you never had time to see
I planted my emotions right into you
Even though i can't mend my heart
With plastic tapes
I'll sit here and wait
So one day you can come in to stay
Forever with me

by Joey Percival Ikechukwu

Ask the queen of night,
who was more brutal
than the crucible.

All it took was a change in
a single drop,
and you become a beast
from an angel.

The unthinkable, was
possible. You can execute
the extended family of a dove
by sending a black crow.

The rivals will engage
the history. I have stopped
reading the dates.

He was a shadow, slick and empty
Full of greed and disparity
I push him away but he was drawn to my purity
A complex chemistry,
He and I
He devoured me and I felt alive
I searched for his love for all my life
And yet only did I find,
Simply a Devil trapped inside.