#dailypoet2019

[ishtarverse]

Purple Line

Daily Poet - July 22 - Signs

Purple line, coming in 2022. Or has it been delayed to 2023? Will that be enough time  for a return to the semi-normal? Or are you building bridges to nowhere that will carry no people to no offices nor drop them off in front of high-rises. The line was supposed to be lucrative at last connect the red, east and west, Bethesda to Silver Spring. Now we stare at the excavators Surely less traffic eases construction?

We march and march, like Napoleon’s troops in Russia, never to return from the freezing dead of night.

[ishtarverse]

Quiet

Daily Poet - May 21 - Langston Hughes Titles

I’m just a Quiet Girl wishes for moments of momentous peace. I seek it at night, amidst Dream Variations.

I do consider now  Bad Morning might be better if I can heed the alarm for 5 am Perhaps I can get away with 6, a solid hour and a half.

In this time,  I write of Cultural Exchange Be wistful for my still-asleep Genius Child Dawn as still as Sea Calm.

I can yearn for a Juke Box Love Song These days, Acceptance will do.

[ishtarverse]

SciWri

Daily Poet - May 28 - Bridging the Gap

I was blinded with science in the Georgian halls red brick and jade canopies a haze of carbon rings and nitrogen

Back in the bunker I sift through tomes and letters synthesize, interpret, translate an oasis of knowledge and style

Surely I could do without the strange politics of people the women in Ted Baker dresses The men, all of a certain age and color

I must find a way out of this maze build a room of my own and a bridge to your houses channel the burst, the spark, the reams of data and words.

[ishtarverse]

WaHo

Daily Poet - June 28 - Road Trip

At night this place was a sight Neon yellow lights aglow The color of scrambled eggs and pancakes Truckers, college students, visitors to Cheshire Bridge I always ordered the same thing Raisin toast with butter and hash browns: This place was the crossroads of the future The old town road of wild dreams and hope.

[ishtarverse]

Black Room

Daily Poet - May 27 - Contrary Day

In the ink black room,           the mist falls down and down  enveloping like gauze skirting like lace snatching my deepest secrets           and I look for the truths in the messages of spirits the cards of fortune tellers the palm readings of sooth sayers           where do these magics and visions come from and more so, where do they go?

[ishtarverse]

Second Skin

Daily Poet - May 29 - Thanks, Hope

Thank you for this skin, serpentine, I shed layer upon layer scale by scale until I have vanquished the person you wanted me to be and transmutated into the one, devoid  of regret and second-guessings I leave those scars on the forest floor.

[ishtarverse]

Dark Lights

Daily Poet - May 14 - Protector

I see you in black and white in your dark sunglasses driving against the flashing lights. At night, you come for me waiting on the curb in white You are my protector watching for the villains hiding in corners and in plain sight There’s a streak of red, lipstick against satin sheets and the glint of the too-soon sunrise.

[ishtarverse]

Tunisian Nights

Daily Poet - May 13 - Jazz

The clock ticks forward  In the dry air Red silk on dry sand Leaves traces of musk Mysterious finds  for the intrepid traveler.

[ishtarverse]

Campaign Strategy

Daily Poet - May 24 - Taboo

I thought about penning a check to your campaign with a Monet print notecard ‘I’ve always been better at poetry than politics.’

I knew you were the match to my intellect. I let the fire burn, turn to deep embers at the end of a campfire.

You and I both knew I was no politician’s wife. Now you grace the screens paint your perfect media veneers of service, sacrifice, sweetness.

But somewhere inside I know the edge of leather, slightly deranged, the truths they will never see.

[ishtarverse]

Kate and Meghan

Daily Poet - May 19 - Couple Couplet

Kate wears dresses prim and proper You might see Meghan in a chic romper.

The actress from Suits has skin of gold The Duchess of Cambridge can sometimes seem old.

Then English girl wears colors bright and icy Nice to see an American bring in the spicy.

The royals wanted praise for inviting in a commoner As long as she wasn’t a person of color.

Catherine has followed all the rules The Queen tsk-tsks for Meghan to wear stockings of nude.

They don’t match her skin color, you say  And that seems to be the point they’re trying to make.

[ishtarverse]

Bone Cold

The Daily Poet - May 8 - Longhand

My bones are ice, brittle and breakable in the damp, ready to melt at first touch able to flow down a stream of blackest dark, crimson marrow unattached from the flesh that holds me together.

[ishtarverse]

The Name of the Poem

Daily Poet - April 30 - Name Meaning

Sartre said  existence precedes essence but does your name precede being?

Kavitha means poetry replete with irony mystical verse poetry-in-motion

My immigrant parents  chose it on a whim popular at the time much like Jessica or Archie

Not because they expected me to aspire to be a poetess not a real job better to be more practical

Not even after I won an honorable mention in the Princeton contest for juniors  Paul Muldoon sent me a letter.

Do you write because someone named you so? Or you wanted to write?

More people than I can count insist on calling me Kathy or Katherine or asking for a nickname  No. Please try a little harder  You can say it, I know you can

(Kavi, but for family and very close friends only)

Old MS Word corrects it to “Cavity” no matter me typing over it I envisioned dentists and black holes

But now I see emptiness the hole in my heart the life, where a poet might have been had I the courage to live up to the name

[ishtarverse]

Apple

Daily Poet - May 26 - A to Z

Apples, apples,  bring me more apples Honeycrisp, Fiji, Red Delicious. I just can’t get enough of the red-pink fruit that falls autumn long Do I remember going  apple-picking as a child? Of course not, I lived in the South where we bought by the roadside, lush peaches,  boiled peanuts, and dripping watermelon. Now, the cold breeze flirts around my shoulders an invisible cloak of winter to come. This time, I hope to catch up on my Zzzs.

[ishtarverse]

Pantry Punch

Daily Poet - May 25 - Pantry Poem

I unpack layers of my soul like polyunsaturated oats see raisins here and there speckles of what  may have been should have been At least my life is MSG-free I want to move  to a plant-based diet, I say in between crunching  baby goldfish crackers discolored of cheese powder eat less processed foods take a sabbatical  if this endeavor fails and write the volumes untold.

[ishtarverse]

Dormant/Active

Daily Poet - May 18 - Volcano

The lid came off tonight much like Vesuvius. I am so sick of spewing ash year after year after year. But how did we get here? More like the slow burn of lava flowing down a valley of black clay. Each critique  searing my soul just a tiny bit more Each time  I wouldn’t let go, a suffocating gasp of volcanic dust in your lungs. Until at last, we lie apart like  the plasters of Pompeii.

[ishtarverse]

The Crash of Civilizations

Daily Poet - May 11 - Psychic Poet

Greta spoke, and we were tickled inside thought to go vegan after all impossible to take fewer planes.

We continued to fist fight religion against religion for the right to own  oil and water even as the use of one destroyed the other. Better that we had spent our time finding a way off this rock. Instead we linger, put on our lipstick consume and yet consume more.

What good is money after all if not to spend on long-distance trips designer leather red-heeled shoes to show off to the world “Look what I have!”

Power useless once the sea has boiled and roiled flooded the plains  and taken all those things away.