In response to: This Ends Here
knowing
a line in the sand over which there is no crossing; when you know you know and not a minute before; and you stick to your guns finally; there are no other options; you hold your ground against the pleading; because you are done; there is no going back; and you walk away; along your new path
©Karen Casady 2021
Los Angeles, California
In response to: One Day More
done
there was a time when one day more or one day less did not matter; minutes and hours could be thrown over your shoulder with no consequence; when you never needed to look back or glance forward; when only the moment had significance and you lived it with vigor and vitality; until one day you didn’t; you threw all meaning away; you swept substance out the door; you relegated importance to the back burner; and then you lived happily ever after
© Karen Casady 2021
Los Angeles, California
In response to: Child of War
powerless
no palpable war existed between them; only hints of dissatisfaction that surfaced occasionally; but it was the ongoing tension that was most paralyzing; the silent litany of anger; the ever present hunger for change; he took a shot of schnapps before dawn each morning and she plied herself with mind altering pills; Mrs. Glazer doesn’t get up to help Gary off to school in the mornings your mother said so I’m not getting up and helping you either; eight year olds have no power; and that was that
© Karen Casady 2021
Los Angeles, California
In response to: Lighthouse on the Hill
thursday
a sense of Saturday permeates your Thursday; you assure yourself over and over; Thursday not Saturday; but Saturday prevails; you do your Thursday things but wonder why; your calendar says Thursday but Saturday drowns it out; finally Thursday sends out a beacon; fires a rescue flare; Saturday fades and you return to the mundane quietness of Thursday
© Karen Casady 2021
Los Angeles, California
In response to: A Living Nightmare
trying to find the words where none exist; each day the same as the last; errors pile upon errors; drive you mad; you fall down an endless rabbit hole; soaring past hands offering help; you reach out but cannot grab on; you land with a loud thud; the hands fall upon you; you vanish
© Karen Casady 2021
Los Angeles, California
In response to: Wine and Chocolate
forgetting
he plies you with wine when only chocolate will do; you drink; you nestle in; but you pine for sweetness; a joyous burst of soothing confection rolling across your tongue; the dryness of the wine confounds you; you want to recoil but the taste of plush grape lingers; it dallies between kisses; you forget chocolate and fall into wine’s delicious clutches
©Karen Casady 2021
Los Angeles, California
In response to: Running Out of Time
pathway
it shloshes; it gurgles; it plays tricks; steady as she goes is a myth; an irregular rhythm smothers its beat; rendering it ineffectual and unreliable but still it bounds forward; giving no quarter; stopping at nothing
© Karen Casady 2021
Los Angeles, California
In response to: Call Back Tomorrow
patience
you figure that one of these days he’ll pick up his phone; you are ever hopeful; but you wonder; and persona non grata comes to mind; yet now and then he surprises you with a hello; you weigh and measure why then and not yesterday or the day before; the random non-answer evades logic and reason; time sans time and again and again; call back tomorrow he says call back tomorrow
© Karen Casady 2021
Los Angeles, California
In response to: When He Smiles
his makeup distracts the nonbelievers; but mesmerizes his followers; those who understand his distorted poetry; who crave his molten words; swallow his nonsense; make it their own; turning to one and other; chanting in unison; they grab his smile and dissipate into bits
© Karen Casady 2021
Los Angeles, California
In response to: Small Insignificant Planet
boundless
a speck; just a speck; gazes out into the universe; springs from the ground beneath it; moves upwards and upwards and out; flies free into airless darkness; searches for finality where there is none; melds with interminable vastness; revels that specks have their purpose in all that exists
© Karen Casady 2021
Los Angeles, California
In response to: 23 Milbrook Lane
precious cottage
in retrospect it seemed so regular; just a door; swinging on its hinges; beckoning; welcoming; inviting the crossing of its threshold into the merry dark depths beyond; where the truth lurked between letters frantically scratched into its walls; its rooms crowded with undead souls; from whence no one leaves ever unchanged
© Karen Casady 2021
Los Angeles, California
In response to: Nightmare Night Out
endings
the monotony of it all; the sheer nothingness; so ordinary that boring appears exciting; Saturday night dinner-movie-repeat; same restaurant same theater same seats same words; he opens his mouth; you close your ears; I love you he says; fuck you you reply; you both fall silent as the film finally begins.
© Karen Casady 2021
Los Angeles, California
In response to: Damage Like This
deceit
the secret sets the context; long lived and embedded in the soul; shadowing all that surrounds it; emanating quiet deceit; leveling the filters through which life meanders; it holds no boundary too high or too low; the fickle truth seeps past; slathering the playing field in grey dust; coating it with muted darkness.
© Karen Casady 2021
Los Angeles, California
In response to: Do Not Enter
spurned
putting one foot in front of the other; toes tingling; screaming silent noes with each step; the protest drifting upwards; falling upon deaf ears; plugged with judicious delusions and crybaby fantasies; plodding forward towards certain confusion; brushed by drafts of insanity and awkwardness; tumbling and bouncing end over end; ad infinitum never hearing the answer.
© Karen Casady 2021
Los Angeles, California
In response to: Love Everlasting
giddiness
you poke the bear in hopes of a ridiculous response; instead you get a serious explanation; to which you respond with incredulous gaiety; he grumbles a groan and attempts a new approach; you ply him with slender giddiness; he can’t see past his long beard of infinite wisdom; you run joyous circles around him; he begins to spin; you grab on and two become one
© Karen Casady 2021
Los Angeles, California
In response to: Dancing in the Rain
dervish
still
so still
but for the silent
patter upon the
once dry pavement
now drenched in madness
as you spin and circle
a silent dervish of
nothingness
©Karen Casady 2021
In response to: A Gentle Mind
restoration
soft she comes; ephemeral in her entrance; noticed by none; sensed only by a few; who look up hoping for a glimpse; who upon seeing nothing go back to their tasks; endless and relentless in repetition and monotony; but for one who catches a brief whiff of freshness; who breathes in and is saved.
©Karen Casady 2021
In response to: Such Big Plans
dashed
you enter the fray; join in the melee; looking outward; beyond the chaos; hoping for a different outcome; you shed your flimsy garments; gird for the unknown; but the future flies by; becomes the past; leaving you motionless where you started.
©Karen Casady 2021
In response to: Black and Gold
remembrance
so you bounce and land near the pounding drum line; and your flesh boils to its haunting rhythms; while your tiny mallet hits the metal bars on your glockenspiel; narrowly missing the high plink of your solo note in the national anthem; but you march on forming and reforming patterns on the field that you cannot see and can only imagine; festooned in your school’s colors; your heart beats wildly; you can barely breathe; anxiety overwhelms you and you cannot remember how the music ends.
©Karen Casady 2021
In response to: Bad Coffee
bitterness
douse it
sweeten it
stir the entire mess
intended to infuse energy
to quicken the heart
to jump start the corpus delicti
flooding vessels and capillaries
with one last liquid thread of hope
but alas in its desperate bitterness cannot gain entry
©Karen Casady 2021
In response to: Half Past Midnight
unanswerable
the time came and moved on as it always does; but not before leaving an indelible mark that no amount of scrubbing could erase. a moment left behind dangling question after question; none of which remain for long; all of which have no answer. a split second dissipates only to be followed by a next and a next; becoming an inane train of thought with no beginning or end; hovering then dipping and diving into nothingness; remaining lost and elusive for an entire lifetime.
©Karen Casady 2021
In response to: Going Down
blank
it happens slowly
almost imperceptibly
first one small misfire
another minor set back
slightly dizzy one moment
an entire day lost the next
a time clock gone awry
nothing whatever to remember
but a tiny dark twisted thread
©Karen Casady 2021
In response to: You Did This
finally
you created this whole mess when you spoke up; said what needed to be said; set the world straight. when you came to your senses and peeled back the veil of denial. when you saw through clear eyes the truth that lay hidden but was always there. when you laid it bare and stood before it with shoulders squared and fists drawn. but it was with true calm and quietude that you uttered the words of final release then drowned in heavy waves of solace and relief.
© Karen Casady 2021
In response to: A Wild Party
ghost lamp
The final curtain falls to faint applause fading into a single clap that itself gets shorter and shorter with longer pauses in between until utter silence prevails. So she peers from the proscenium hoping to glimpse one last kudo; to catch one irrevocable acknowledgment of her lasting and long performance unknown to all but herself. Yet she kept dancing and singing and flinging her cape with such grace and valiancy and flare in hopes of undoing the ancient history that clouded her context and blocked her way. So she walks across the empty stage once and again and again. Then takes a quiet bow to the emptiness. Sets the ghost light and shrinks into its shadow.
©Karen Casady 2021
undone
You’ve held me for a lifetime. Defined my context. My well-being. Imprisoned me with an impermeable boundary. Uncrossable even by armed attempts. You’ve shown no mercy. Even after you blew up my young world. And left me to write a long sad song with no words.
©Karen Casady 2021
