Saturday, April 5, 2025

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


 

Thursday, April 3, 2025

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


 

Wednesday, April 2, 2025

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


 

Tuesday, April 1, 2025

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



Monday, March 24, 2025

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






Monday, March 17, 2025

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. 



Monday, March 10, 2025

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