Teo: Favorites

Apr 11 Teo

Untitled

Apr 11 Teo

Ariana

Untitled

Beautiful girl—
the day you died the world
quite literally went to Hell;
Was it one lifetime or one week
of 100 degrees,
stifling heat…..

When you aren’t breathing,
nobody breathes.

As pure as the driven snow,
innocent as an angel.

You made this place heavenly.

To my beautiful friend and the best sister I’ve ever had

#grief #loss #love

Apr 11 Teo

The Mountain Is You

Apr 11 Teo

Ariana

The Mountain Is You

Dish soap and mop bucket
Your husband doesn’t seem to care

Tuck mugs into cabinets
We all know what loose lips do best

Assemble bookcase puzzle
Mumbled I’m Sorry’s, half-heart hugs

Sweep dingy pantry
He softly floats hands to your waist

Hang all the paintings straight
Flash a rictus, let him caress your thighs

Preen a price chopper bouquet
Heat rushes down, he takes the buds

Clothes still need unpacking
Cold blood, you lead him to the room

Before he leaves to the bar again,
Your tongue thaws and tastes his lips;

Who are, somehow, still sweet.

Apr 11 Teo

Today, Drywall Received More Justice Than It Has Ever Deserved

Apr 11 Teo

Ariana

Today, Drywall Received More Justice Than It Has Ever Deserved

I chew my lips and taste the blood.

Every day
My “black mother of a black baby”
rage bubbles like the worts
my lover brews
on dark rainy nights,
when he can no longer sleep or dream.
Another child murdered
at the hands of wild hogs
repeating on our screens—
Their screams keep me up all night
and beat me back down;
as the sun rises,
I boil, then still—
A hot bath of Skunky American brew.

Will my daughter ever know justice?
Or will she sit uncomfortably with the
rank taste of inequity and iron
on her lips too? I refuse to
Go down without a fight because
with trust in her heart she leans
into MY chest at night;
with fire in her eyes she reminds me
that one day she too will be ready to fight
this same fight
if it calls her.

Sleep in power, Breonna Taylor.

#revolutionary #mothering #frontlines #inequality

Apr 11 Teo

Home At Lost

Apr 11 Teo

Ariana

Home At Lost

For a while she wondered
Why it was all so easy before;
Flour on the table
Coffee in painted cups
Hand in hand
Hearts beating softly
Bed always made
Until they un-made it in
wild throes of passion.

She wishes someone told her how
the hours between sunset
and sunrise stretch
impossibly long when
Home starts to feel like a house.
Suddenly Husband and Wife
are now man and woman,
strangers sitting tensely
on a park bench wondering
if the other harbors dangerous intentions
or if they’re safe here.

Irrationality and Reaction
knock at the door together
and throw it open without waiting.
She turns her back on their guests
and for a while she wonders
why it was all so easy before.

#agony #metamorphosis #growth

Oct 2021 Teo

Untitled 821

Oct 2021 Teo

Graff1980

Untitled 821

It doesn't take
a kitchen knife
to butcher life
or a motorbike
to ride until I die.

Instead, I take this journey
on a broken gurney,
not a suffering soldier
but a poet older
than any bolder
active warrior.

My tourniquet tightens,
as blood loss lightens
my mental load.

This damaged road
is full of broken bones
and scattered scraps
of marble stones
that no longer fit
the foundation of
a safe home
full of love.

That's why I still roam,
searching alone,
staring at my phone
looking for answers
to a call I'll never make.

Every breath I ever take
should hold some purpose,
but the truth is
my search is fruitless.
This existence is useless;
Just another wound
that will not heal
but festers and rots
as everything I thought
held value gets lost.

In my mad mathematic trend
I subtract family and friends
from my equation,
becoming the inevitable immigrant
as I finally cross life's bitter border
to nowhere…

Aug 2021 Teo

Untitled

Aug 2021 Teo

David Lessard

Untitled

Apr 2018 Teo

My Room

Apr 2018 Teo

Nicholas Fonte

My Room

I am the one
Who is never seen
The one who walked away
And who locked the door
The one who couldn't even scream
Within his own room
You all assume
That my birth
Held no worth
But now I realize
That I'm the one confused
I could only see one sky
When you all can see multiple skies
I can't understand why I instigate
And say what I don't mean
It was never fun
To end up so far
Now I remain inside
This tightly locked room
But it was that night
When I was with my friend
Even if we were the abused
There was no need to fight
On that day
Where he didn't choose
For his life to end
Now I'm the one that falls
I was the one
Who controlled fate
I hurt much more
Than any time before
I was left feeling unsure
I cried
In that room
For a long time
I needed a cure
That I knew could never be found
Because everyone that was around
Couldn't get into the locked room
I've looked at the same walls
All this time
While carrying this crime
I've dealt with all their views
And I still don't comprehend
I know I will never be alright
But now I have some clarity
To stand up in that room
There is light
Flowing from the open doorway
Where with sincerity
I can finally show them the walls
And I can see all of their skies
I will proudly bear this scar
And join everyone in this life
Even if I can't bear all this strife
I know I will eventually find my way

A special long poem for the 75th poem I'm posting on here! (In case people are wondering, I do have a lot of long poems, but they are the most special to me so I tend to not post any. I will eventually though!)

#personal #room #suffer #sorrow #alone #strength #hope

Jun 2017 Teo

love poem...where night is...

Jun 2017 Teo

beth fwoah dream

love poem...where night is...

"where night is....a stream of stars or a star-lit oak"

i seem to move with
leaves, smooth as a prayer
mat with its oranges and
golds,
tangled like the rhythms
of a blues band
in the decadence of the heat,
and yet i fade, a stream
of stars, a rain drop shivering
to the floor,
the ghosts of the stars are
all of the night sky,
the blacks of the sky
hypnotic as the dark
tide of my mind,
my love for you
is like threads from this
bare prayer-mat, worn
thin and yet caught in
the tatters, i love like
a worn out bear, i love
until i can't think of
anything except you,
attracted like a papery
moth to the moon.

#loving #you

Jun 2017 Teo

love poem

Jun 2017 Teo

beth fwoah dream

love poem

"where night is....sinking like
a sorrowful cloud or a bird of stone"

where the roses
sigh
and the honey
of your lips
melts me like
a furnace,

i burn
dreaming of roses
and skies fallen
in me like
ink pools,

i love the
angles of your
face,
the flow
of your hair,

melancholy
moods like
clouds
painted on
canvas,

love, my
bones dying
song, my
ribs like an
elephants
grave yard,
pressed to yours
drowned out
by emotions
like desolate clouds,

if i kiss you again
i'll fall down
liquid as the land
sky portrait
of blue,
against the sculptured
wall,
you know you
want me more,

as i glide, the
free girl,
how free you
make me feel
as i sink
in
the night.

just a short note to tell you my poem spring tide has been published recently in the spring addition of Equinox Zine which can be purchased at the website Issuu. only 50 copies available.

#loving #you