Melinoe's Carnival

Fragments of black and white

float through my dreams 

erasing color until my eyes

are an empty house of blue.

On a monochrome sea I beg

for moonlight, but the only

concession is flickers of gray.

In the distance I hear the insistent

notes of an alarm clock knife

the shroud I’m pillowed in. 

Paralyzed, I beg the sun to free me

from Melinoe’s shape-shifting

carnival of ghosts dancing my fears

closer to madness.

©Susie Clevenger 2019

This was inspired by two challenges, the photo from The Sunday Muse, and the prompt at Real Toads.

For Real Toads I chose Get Listed With Grapeling, May 7, 2015  Words I chose from the list for the poem are: fragment, empty, house, sea, and knife. ( Melonie is the Greek goddess of ghosts/nightmares.)

The Sunday Muse #70

Real Toads ~ Play it Again with "Old Toads"

Sin Washing

Water can be ugly when you sorrow.

Water can be cruel when you lie.

Water can save you, if you’re

honest with your cry.

Confessed my guilt to the river,

poured tears in muddy waves.

Mixed heartbreak with the flood,

begged mercy for bringing blood.

Sullen river took me under

only to pull me back up.

Water sat on my tongue…Water pooled in my eyes.

Water went deep in my spirit to tell me

it was my time to thrive.

I didn’t need a Bible…I didn’t need a priest.

Took my sins to the river and muddy water brought release.

©Susie Clevenger 2019

Real Toads ~ Wordy Weekend Mini-Challenge ~ Messages in Water

American Predators

The dark half of the narrows,

the space where fair game

is the sick definition of

the secrets men keep,

predators play dead.

In a black wind strike the brethren

of skin trade resurrect from shadows

to chain innocence to horror.

Along the edge of America true evil

shape-shifts through penthouse to city street

growing wealth from a graveyard of fallen angels.

©Susie Clevenger 2019

Real Toads ~ Artistic Interpretations with Margaret

These are the book titles I chose from Margaret's list to create my poem:

True Evil 

The Dark Half

Fair Game

Play Dead

Skin Trade

The Secrets Men Keep

Black Wind

The Narrows

Fallen Angels

Along the Edge of America

Straddling the Divide

Anger/Fear…

I sit astride

an emotional fence

trying to stay me

in a war of words

no one can win.

In red white and blue America

bruising is the new normal.

©Susie Clevenger 2019

Real Toads ~ Just One Word: Halved