Hope Rises From Coal

Black lung words

hung on daddy’s tongue

pulling me from coal

on the white wing hope

I’d see a better day.

He said the devil paints

rainbows with pills,

but lies stain your body blue

until brown dirt coffins your bones.

Son, I’ve been living gray shadows,

but tomorrow is bright yellow with sun.

Don’t be stuck where midnight owns

the valley… tie your shoelaces and run.

©Susie Clevenger 2019

Bits of Inspiration ~ The Colors In a Song

Poets & Storytellers United ~ Writer's Pantry#2

Any Weekend I Could Escape Gravel

Joint high and music driven

Kansas City lights guided me

to the rock vibrations

of Cowtown Palace.

Thirty first and Gillham

was the hum lane of engines

seeking the golden calf

of guitar jubilation.

Wood and concrete supported

hip to hip drug angels absorbing

tunes through every pore of flesh

and brain wave that worshiped rhythm.

Any weekend I could escape gravel

I traveled asphalt to a Kansas City Ballroom

where in the crush of dancing bodies

I felt forever twenty-one.

 ©Susie Clevenger 2019

#NaPoWriMo2019

Real Toads ~ The Streets (of Brooklyn)