Poetry: Barefoot; Gypsy Lane;

http://www.teenink.com/poetry/free_verse/article/134027/Barefoot/

Barefoot

Walk down the sidewalks and boulevards barefoot –
Feel the pavement beneath your soft epidermis.
It’s solid concrete for eleven steps. Then
A stone stabs into a toe. Stumble willingly,
Walk and stumble from the aftershocks of pain,
And cultivate your endurance, until the skin
Hardens to the touch, becomes stone
Slapping the concrete in return with each of your steps.
And when winter comes, feel the skin soften
Until seasons change back to a time to ache and limp.

*
http://www.teenink.com/poetry/free_verse/article/134030/Gypsy-Lane/

Gypsy Lane

Staring down an alley lit by antique lanterns,
Fixed and updated with like-so technology, I watch
The goings of the figures surrounding the cobblestone.

Masqueraders in suits smirk down at the beggars in rags:
Rags of faded gold, the hue from the combs of honey
They left behind, or never had.

The rag piles collect in a hive of bees, swarming
In desperation to find a home; and they weakly buzz back
At the swatting sensations of the hands of the well dressed:

The songbirds; with nests to return at night, and sunlight
To warm the top of their wings with every flap
They have no need for the bees in rags. The sight

Of the insects, the sight of what they themselves
Could crumble into, creates chest palpitations
That they can only quench with beatings.

Motionless, I weakly watch the blows come down.
I wonder if it is only on this little back street
That the songbirds look uglier than the bees.

I wonder if their flapping wings just might sting harder
Than the stingers the bees never use. And I glance at the lanterns
Shining above the actions humans find ordinary,

And realize they are the only pieces of work on the street
That ever evolved with the times.

*

http://www.teenink.com/poetry/free_verse/article/134024/As-The-Police-Race-By-iTunes-Plays-On/

As The Police Race By iTunes Plays On

Sirens/begin intro music shuffle/
sweet strings slither into the chorus
sirens here, always here, they never
leave/loud, invade my mind/both
of you come here into me, you
are a part of this city, this life
of the student who tries to make
a simmer of stew in the rain/
the song switches, she sings,
‘Fighting for no reward’/ the
sirens fade.