By These Pickers and Stealers

It’s National Poetry Month and I have taken the challenge, write a poem a day.

This poem initiated by a prompt found HERE

April 13

Buck
By Mike Ferguson

It was the doctor who screamed
Rather than the nurse
Though the story changed over time
To make the doctor appear the hero

Someone called the newspaper
The name Devil Boy was born
Just hours after Charlie and his horns
An offer to drown him was declined

His father insisted they let the things grow
And nicknamed him Buck
To protect him against talk of hell
But when Mr. Barnum came calling
The temptations piled up one upon another

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This poem initiated by a prompt found here

April 12

Proof
By Mike Ferguson

In the elevator I heard my favorite song
Except for the obo

The exact blend is a secret, even to me
I just mix shit together

I have been accused on several occasions
Of being a hydrothermal vent

If the police ask, and they always ask twice
I will tell them I was prompted

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This poem initiated by a prompt found here

April 10

Dear Gen
By Mike Ferguson

In the beginning we paused
We held the possibilities hostage
Made a blood promise
Spit on the grave
And saw that it was good

We wished for there to be light
But the secret held water
We thought we might need later
If the rescuers failed
And the light was set aside

Then we decided that the land
Did not need to separated from the water
If we gave the fish toes
And the rhinoceros’ gills
But the insects refused to negotiate  

Lastly, we invented ribs and tits

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This poem based on a prompt found HERE.

April 9

Consideration
By Mike Ferguson

First thing is, you separates the good meats
From the bad meats
And give the bad meats to the hogs
They don’t know no better so don’t think on it too much
Then save the good meats for cousins and good company
Of all sorts, church people and such

Give smart attention to the shoes you might wear

Prepare for talking with a visit to the barber
And pick out some long words
With some news of the day, such as floods
But remember there is no need to take the chair for a cut
The barber himself will understand you dropping in for a visit
Even still, a money tip is a good gesture always

Emily, at the Stop and Shop, knows how to tie a tie

Welcome each with a handshake and your eye
Offer punch, point to the good meats
But do not linger too long on any one arrival in the hall
Circle the room, keep everyone’s eye, and check the locks twice
And when the gathered are complete, take the axe from drawer
Then move slowly, with deliberation, and smile

Next thing is, separate the good meats from the bad meats

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This poem based on a prompt found HERE.

April 8

Dear Gideon…
By Mike Ferguson

We do not know each other but I am familiar with your elfin work, like your cousin (I suppose) the tooth fairy, leaving stories in drawers in temporary rooms.

Hardbound Rorschach tests absorbing desperation and celebration at the same deliberate pace.

I steal every single copy I find and I experience such great delight in doing so I feel certain I will end up inside the fire I do not believe exists.

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This poem based on a prompt found HERE.

April 7

Now you don’t
By Mike Ferguson

If you understand the angle of my chin to mean
The weather will improve

If you choreograph your next three steps
By the shape of my ears

If you examine the wrinkled skin at my elbow
To determine your age

If you wound five enemies with five different knives
Because of the scare on my knee

If you study my hands for any reason at all you should know
These hands are the wrong hands

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This poem based on a prompt found HERE.

April 6

Almost
By Mike Ferguson

The lesson of unfoldings is the spell of anticipation
Constructed or found
Opening or rising
It is the unreckoned pause
That locks your eye
Tunnels your vision
Collapses time
Sends away walls
Until your only thoughts are continue and remember

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This poem based on a drawing as the prompt. Find it HERE

April 5

Bowls
By Mike Ferguson

For so many years I dreamt it was the eyelash in my bowl
That caused me to set-aside forever my beloved Sugar-Pops
And matriculate to toast, bagels, waffles, pancakes

I constructed this fantasy about the evil eyelash
As an artful denial of the truth
My enemy is milk

The truth set me free of the plague of pain
But imprisoned me in a cage made of soy
This, soy that, soy every comfort food now plain

Like my right eye

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This poem from the prompt “Book & Picture.” An explanation can be found HERE.

April 4

Once Was
By Mike Ferguson

This is the flower
That once was a chariot
That once was a sacrifice
That once was a table
Where soldiers surrendered
A table shaped like a pear
Not a tear but a pear
The table accepted their swords
Weapons without hands are

Even from here I recognize her path

This is the sword
That once was a lion
That once was a snowstorm
That once was a bed
Where women surrendered
A bed shaped like a tear
Not a pear but a tear
The bed accepted their bodies
Women without words are

Without a trace without a sound

These are the words
And once they were tombs
And once they were tombs
And once they were tombs

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This poem from the prompt “Voiced.” An explanation can be found HERE.

April 3

Mannequin
by Mike Ferguson

Always the incomplete man
I lose my head whenever
A naked women enters the room
And kneels

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This poem from the prompt “Unwritten Desire.” An explanation can be found HERE

April 2

Rendering
by Mike Ferguson

I cannot ascribe these feelings
To anything noteworthy thus
The reason they are not written down
No imprint exists, no record

But should you ask, or even nod
I will engrave them slowly across your skin
Articulate clearly at every angle the inappropriate spellings
In ALL capital letters and
An old English script, if you ask, if you say please

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This poem from the prompt “No Narrative.” An explanation can be found HERE

APRIL 1

One Thing Leads
by Mike Ferguson

In the beginning
Lilacs / Perceptions / Light Sabers

Scene two
Dead Winds / Murder / Flabbergasting

Middle-story
Sanitation / Insect Wedding / Night

Penultimate
Ink / Seedling / Phonograph

Ending
Bone / Innumerable / Butterscotch

Fade
Dog Shit / Kiln / Malignancy