My father’s gun is black
long muzzle
loaded
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dVerse prompt to write a concrete poem (missed the deadline so going with the next prompt of a conceit.). This is a new stanza to my spoken word poem of the same title which the metaphor of the gun is expanded to meaning many things.
This is what happens when promises are made that cannot be delivered. I gave you weapons. I gave you training. I gave you a plan of governance. I never gave you peace and stability in your own country. I put your sons and daughters on a plane as refugees. Your wife went too and now in desperation you cling to the fuselage.
Tramway granite from near Aioi Bridge
target of first atomic bomb
on Hiroshima City
6 August 1945 8:15am
stone stayed
silk burned
odor of charred meat or burning hair
I took note of this at the Vatican Museum
A Stone for Peace
from Hiroshima
displayed on the wall
carved into stone is Kannon
Goddess of Mercy
who prays for eternal peace
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dVerse prompt on war— in 1991, 188 slabs were individually hand carved to be distributed by Stone for Peace Association of Hiroshima.
What season is this
wear a mask for groceries
or you will get sick
What season is this
watch lawlessness on tv
in the name of change
What season is this
where travel is restricted
all over the world
What season is this
when people defy rule
to loot for big screen
What season is this
who saw Jesus statue fall
in mobocracy
What season is this
without fear of authority
that a way be made
What season is this
we stay away from people
end humanity
What season is this
worried for our liberties
while some hold rifle
What season is this
wayward disobedience
taunting the police
What season is this
welcome truthful dialogue
no taking of sides
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dVerse prompt to write a series of haiku — I am baffled by what is going on in the USA
I
I am the boundaries that divide
placed by politics
a mockery of continents
ill-placed border crossings
blockades
walls
no-flight zones
international waters
can be changed
by exploration
treaty or war
II
One day I split continents
still eruptions and quakes
know no boundaries
with my heights and my depth
salty waters
fresh streams
flowing over me
I create weather and air
take care
of me
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dVerse prompt to write an apostrophe
I saw my mother dying
Can recognize when someone is about to give up life
“That’s life” an old woman says at the library when the copy machine won’t copy
“That’s death” I say to myself
in between is limbo
Her strong bones frail now
meds keep her under
she wants more
skin pocked with injections
she doesn’t want to know me
what’s the point
she is dying
it can happen to anyone
at anytime
you don’t have to be old to die
Protected
this stronghold only one entrance
Chochise guarded his people
against the enemy
Creek running through
dried venison plants cactus flour
fit for survival and escape
over the ridge into the mountains
US military made peace
gave Chochise his stronghold
as a reservation and let him be
to live out his days
Chochise died and buried there
wrapped in a red blanket
vermillon design on his face
he rode for the last time
Up the ragged wall of the hold
on his horse while being held up
by his beloved followers
to a place high on the ridge
Procession of his final journey
horse and dog and rifles
all dropped deep into a gorge
Chochise’s great warrior burial
Father leader friend peacemaker
lowered into that same gorge
buried into the heart chasm
of his homeland
_
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NaPoWriMo prompt – how to poem
Chochise Stronghold is in the state of Arizona
Roman soldiers
conquest was what they knew
carried shovels and sword
dug deep roads
into Europe and Mideast
conquering as they go
pay your tax
we’ll leave you alone
if you rebel
we will annihilate
you
_________________
NaPoWriMo prompt on evil with some good in it
Dreadful corpses
Cease breath and flesh
No miracles today
Just anger
Perplexed
Dead bones
People pass all day
And wander
Day 13 prompt from Toads and a news flash of strike on Syria ten minutes ago
Civil War sisters
stayed on the farm
baled the hay
plucked the geese
found meadowlark eggs
when bringing home the cows
Brothers went to war
carried a musket
lived in a trench
wounded
amputated
but lived to tell
Sisters and brothers
halves and wholes
swore by the candlelight
there would be slaves no more
wordshophop 