Writing Sideways

            The He Unknown

The confusion grew as he struggled onto the boat that mimicked the waves motions. The man had been weakened and the blistering ankle-wounds stung from the salty seas. He wept and grabbed at sand from under the boat, silky in the coarse palm of the callused hands. He placed the sand in the pockets of his barrowed pants.

The boat led out to a ship in the middle of the ocean. Then were the rooms, the cold chains, screams coming from the whips. On deck was the sun, the refreshing wind and the splashing water like a memory of the lost home. The freeing deck teased from a distance in the mind of all that boarded. Sand was the only memory of the lost home.

In God We Trust

Stained glass is great for looking at. 

It’s made out to be

a church

symbol: gleaming gracefully and bleeding beauty

that portrays the Love;

then, as you walk

in, you witness in the church congregation

a thing not like stained glass: rather a flag

(confederate or American) levitated

and, behind this deity, set to

stand slightly below what is

god, an old rugged cross. 

Ideas: Writers block. The enemy to all. Worse than decaf coffee. Like that distracting friend who wants to "study." Battle of wit and a battle with the mind. 

Let America Be America Again 

Langston Hughes 

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,

I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.

I am the red man driven from the land,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--

And finding only the same old stupid plan

Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

Writers Block

It is the distracting friend, unwelcomed and unbearably annoying,

It is the ship wrestling waves crashing.

It is the mother-in-law talking about the ex,

It is the decaf-lover serving the coffee I hate—

And bringing along the long treacherous torture

Of wit fighting exhaustion, of writer battling the mind.