Chasing Nightmares to Feel a Dream

She has lipstick eyes

and plastic intentions. 

The blood of her days

living on erased has

her chasing nightmares

to feel a dream.

Before 2022 she had

the right to choose

her body’s direction.

Today it’s been sharpied

into the decision of men.

No one asked her.

No one gave her the choice

to decide if a God without Jesus

or no god at all had the 

right to force her to live by

a faith or plan that had

outsourced compassion. 

©Susie Clevenger 2025

#NaPoWriMo Day 5

 

In the Haunted Spaces

I live in the haunted spaces of my art

where eyes write themselves blind,

and ink goes deaf from trying to hear. 

The madness of creativity is

it doesn’t fear ghosts or the voices

that speak through paintbrushes. 

I roam tombs and fly on butterfly wings

while my feet walk crumble floors in need of a broom.

The water of imagination may be where I drown

or a sea I sail to totally unexpected.  

©Susie Clevenger 2025

NaPoWriMo Day 3

 

Whiskey Cigarette Lines

There’s a smile that wants

to dance across my lips,

but I taste its sweet,

and I haven’t an urge for sugar.

I do find humor in the

civil war on my face,

and the audience

who’s not sure if I’m angry

or simply (if simple ever fits) insane.

My husband swears I’ve been

reading Bukowski again,

those whiskey cigarette lines

keeping his bluebird from

nesting in my chest. 

It’s a day… Just a day.

I‘ll get through it, around it

or over it.

But that smile, hmmm,

I’ll keep it to a smirk. 

©Susie Clevenger 2025

NaPoWriMo Day 2

 

If There's a Spotlight in Hell (Day 1 NaPoWriMo)

 

How do I glitter empty

when leather words

are all I hear?

You know the kind,

cracked, broken, 

overused, beyond repair. 

I waver between rage

and whatever while staring

into my coffee cup searching

for a crystal ball in the caffeine.

If there’s a spotlight in hell,

I know a few who would 

burn the lightbulb into their image. 

There’s not enough school in a politician

to read a room or hear an opinion

that hasn’t fallen out of their own tongue. 

I’m having a moment among many.

Today I’m feeling like the news is

filled with a pack of rabid children

I’d like to chase with a needle

so they won’t put their teeth

in anyone else. 

©Susie Clevenger 2025

Shay's Word Garden Word List ~ Game Six

Birds No Longer Sing in Our Spring

I left no letters or scarf

to warm your memories.

The end of golden came

on a burnt Thursday

of bitter words and mistrust.

We turned to shell, empty

vessels too cold to hold warmth,

and too angry to rebirth kindness.

©Susie Clevenger 2025

Shay's Word Garden Word List ~ My Dear I Wanted to Tell You

No Sugar or Honey

With my tattered zombie hands

I force my redundant to chase

a cursor that doesn’t care I’ve

complained my way through

another white page. 

The fruit of most days isn’t

plucked from a tree of success,

but the callous repetition

of what I won’t release.

Honesty is a bitch.

She doesn’t baby my feelings.

There’s no sugar in my ear,

or honey on the bread of

my confessions. 

In the rawness of an untouched Monday

I look into a mirror I can’t manipulate,

or fool with a rose-colored tactic my bitterness

can be erased with a  gentle air brush,

and wonder if I have enough

lipstick to paint a smile. 

©Susie Clevenger 2025

Sometimes you just 

have to work on yourself.

Welcome to my therapy. 

Shay's Word Garden Word List ~ Beautiful Bureaucrat

Melting Doesn't Need a Match

I wish I could imagine

sky filled the space

between his skull,

but that would insult

the window to the moon.

There is coldness in the weeds

that cover his tongue, tiny barbs

he hopes will leave scars.

He hates I never buy a ticket

to his Meme and Repeat, and

that I have a library card where

shelves of history books prove

he’s only a bit actor in a theater of rerun.

It is funny to see him stand naked

while screaming he’s wearing Armani.

Mute is more threat than answer.

The man just doesn’t understand 

I know where and how to use my words.

There’s no use in striking a match

when a snowflake is already melting. 

©Susie Clevenger 2025

Word Garden List ~ Shy Creatures