Category: Poems

Button

Broken in my own way

But I like it all right

Spackled and duct taped

Rusty and worn

Don’t have a single emotion

That hasn’t been torn

Scarred across the knuckles

Sad in the heart

Most things mostly my fault

At least in part

Just a missing button

On a worn threadbare shirt

Style is no different

With one button gone

All things go out of fashion

Before too long

Pick myself up, dust off my shirt

Head forward in time

Not a one of us hasn’t been hurt

To not keep moving is the only crime

Gene G. McLaughlin 2013

Emma Bovary’s Facebook Posts

Emma Bovary’s Facebook posts in the modern day

Remain ever misconstrued

Her tweets don’t express the love with which they

Are carefully imbued

That which emerges and disrupts

Might not affirm and renew

Gene G. McLaughlin 2013

Blank Is The Page

Blank is the page

None are the words

My mind grasps back

To conversations I heard

Inspiration will come

This fight will be won

But long after this day is done

Gene G. McLaughlin 2013

Live Your Life In Light – A Secular Prayer

Live your life in light

The shadows should only

Be occupied of your own choosing

Live your life in love

The limits should only

Be applied of your own decisions

Live your life with imperfections

Their existence only

Acknowledged by your own determinations

You were sanctified by evolution

You were sanctified from the start

You were sanctified by no ones decision

You are sanctified in whole or in part

Live your life in light

Live your life in love

Gene G. McLaughlin 2013

I Want To Be Forgotten

I want to be forgotten

By the suns ever expanding flames

What we’ve wrought torn asunder

All the shames and blames

Existence starting over

Devoid of stifling names

Categorization viewed anew

Analogies linking similars and sames

Nothing is repeated

The systems begin once more

Before wonder is defeated

And things aren’t nameless anymore

Gene G. McLaughlin 2013

Wickedness Born of Scarcity

Wickedness born of scarcity

Scarcity born of need

All entwined in a circle

Wickedness meeting with greed

Love born of sacrifice

Needs of others more than self

Hand extends to a stranger

Holding charity and nothing else

Empathy is the light that is endless

No scarcity in its domain

The light shines brightly forever

Opposition of apathy and pain 

Gene G. McLaughlin 2013

 

Analogies Surrender

Once we invented

Things to cope with

That which we could not face

Now we invent

Things to face

That which we cannot cope

Analogy was our downfall

Because in comparison

We came to be

Categorization gave us no comfort

Because we are not changed

Due to discovery of genus or genome

Upon this rock we sit

Circling a burning star

Seeking comfort from naming things

To which names do not stick

Gene G. McLaughlin 2013

If There Is No Middle Ground

If there is no middle ground

Then the way is lost

It is hard to see when beaten down

Through the smoke

Know middle ground is there

In the haze

Right behind you

Just obscured

We can speak in absolutes

Hold volatile ideas near and dear

Speak of revolution

Ignoring the tears

We don’t know ourselves

Through the swirl

We cannot see ourselves

With it engulfing us

Sometimes it is better

To move slowly

Through the fog

Feeling that which is around us

Which we cannot see

Waiting until the fog dissipates

Instead of burning it off

Because that which we burn

We sometimes value most

Gene G. McLaughlin 2013

We Never Think It is Us

We never think it is us

Who will struggle to rise

Overestimation

Our shared sin

Those of us who know

Extend our hands

To the fallen

As if

They were

Us

Gene G. McLaughlin 2013

 

I Threw All I Could Find In It

I had a hole I stood next to

I threw all I could find in it

I threw all the songs I could find in it

I threw all the words I could find in it

I threw all the images I could find in it

It was still empty still longing

Still a whisper I couldn’t hear

I threw all the whiskey I could find in it

I threw all the cocaine I could find in it

I threw all the food I could find in it

It was still thirsty still hungry

Just a whisper far away

I threw all the lust I could find in it

I threw all the fear I could find in it

I threw all the anxiety I could find in it

It found no peace still never resting

The whisper left me alone

I ran out of things to throw in it

I stood alone and broken

Next to the hole

Then the whisper said to me directly

It is standing right with you

The suffering and the desire

Grab it take it with you

Put it in the hole

In the hole you’ll know its name

I walked slowly forward

My nerves steeled

Knowing the whisper spoke truth

I wrapped my arms around it

I leapt with it into the whole

I saw it from within it

Then I knew I should embrace it

Then I got to giving up all of it

I knew the name of my desire

I knew the hole was me

Gene G. McLaughlin 2013