tickets to ride

so… I paid the gypsy to tell me
everything I need to know
is outside her tent

about sweetness…
of cherry syrup
hot drizzle spun
wisped to paper cones
to melt brittle on my tongue

about games…
of chance I cannot win
with ping-pong balls
to save goldfish
in clear glass bowls
from happenstance

about seduction…
of grab joint orgies
that satisfy my appetite
with a mouth appeal
like guilty kisses

about delight…
of spinning on a Ferris wheel
elation high and letdown low…
and knowing that the tickets
I purchased at the start
will all too soon be paid
to the ticket man

Bonnie Marshall

Something I learned…
grab joint is carnival slang for fast food shack

Photo Credit: tarrby

blood moon flower

it should be enough breeze
from across the moon lit lake
to cool wetness of her heating
as barefoot…flushed…blushed
from hot sheet tumbling
she waded thigh deep on rounded
granite stones slippery with moss

she cupped moon dashed water
across her face and breasts
until the hormones racing
in her blood subsided…
to pulse regular like lake wash
lapping reed edged shore

cool loon cries
slipped to her ears
and a rising breeze
chilled her skin to prickles,
yet she held these moments…
sensed their waning moon phase,
touched their red remembrance
and anticipated sleep

Bonnie Marshall

Art by Odilon Redon

 

“On Listening to Verdi’s “Requiem””

Extraordinary achievement from master poet and artist, KB.

let questions hang to ripen

let questions hang to ripen into asking
for consequence of too rash decision
is a bellyache

know when to be wise lawyer
to anticipate the answer  if you would
lead others on a path

and when you are the other
judge the question not as
functionary or a puzzle piece
shaved for fitting in a space

do not opt for quickness of reply
and be wise  in reflective silence
for there is ease in a waiting time

know there is dignity in ignorance
when maturity is in the greenness
of  a young  child’s mind…
rather sprinkle questions like a salt
to increase their thirstiness

 

Bonnie Marshall

Artwork by Mary Cassatt

my star is in Electra

 

 

my star is in Electra…
my place in the Pleiades…in Taurus
where I’m B6174556 etcetera because
he gifted it to me…gilt framed registered
on parchment one year for my birthday

gave me a cosmos print complete
with triangulated lines centered to my
spark so I shall know where I always am
and where I’ve always been and always…
where I’ll be nailed to a hallway wall with
a painted still life and family photographs

no matter…I’m no believer…I shall cast within
the cosmos of my mind…watch dry crystal hurricanes,
hear clang of three tone chimes brake scrape like trains,
breathe deep rum raspberry gunpowder charred steak
and welding fumes in that so iced and flamed a world

 

Bonnie Marshall

Artwork by Kenneth Brauchler