Poem Session 2

So I'm still in Last Poet Standing, and I got 3 more poems for you America. The first poem my prompt was an old ugly tie (We were all given different items). The prompt for the second poem was Shel Silverstein, and the Third Poem was an open, no prompt week. Oh and the lines of the 3rd poem got screwed up but I'm too tired right now to fix it.

What's In An Acronym?

Last week there was Doorknobs, Toy cars, random assortments of Items and a Tie.
I’m the guy with the tie.
A Red, mothballed, frayed, out of date, medium width piece of threadbare neckwear.
With letters SSC
Not Boldly emblazoned and embroidered to embolden it’s wearer to do great things
Just plain SSC.
Sewn in like it’s a stain in the carpet and the family budget has no room for the cleaners
So what does it mean?
Google’s top two results say it stands for Shelby Super Cars, or South Suburban College
Cooler and Lamer than expected.

Maybe it means Social Security is for Crooks? Suicidal Syrians are Coming?
A bit too Right-Wing
Or possibly it stands for Swim Scantily Clad, or Study Soley Clinton
Way too left-wing
What if it means Smoke Smoke you Children! Or Smack and Scorn Canadians
That’s be terrible!
It’d be fun if it was Sandwiches Stuffed with Chicken, or Sweetly Sauced Cakes
But I’m not that lucky
Hopefully it’s not Sariah’s Sorta Cranky or Save Sariah from Carnage!
I like Sariah
It just might stand for Sorry I Shot the Cat, or Still Stuck in California
But on a Tie?
I’m out of Ideas… Sorta Sandy Camels… or Sexy Senior Citizen?!
Bingo.

Questions
How does Captain Hook pick his nose?
How do you write poems on a giraffe’s neck while riding it?
How do you make a hippopotamus sandwich?
Could a turtle and a bagpipe have a long-term relationship?
Could you really let the garbage stack so high that the whole world would die?
Could a polar bear fit in my fridge?
What do sardines dream about when their stuck in the can?
What do you do to appease a trash talking reindeer?
And what in the world does one name his pet Brontosaurus?
Why doesn’t anyone care about Christmas… in March?
Why can’t you just plug a light bulb into the sun?
And why wouldn’t you this read book by my friend Shel
Who answered every question I’ve ever had.

Heat Lamp

If you reach out you can touch it.
The only warmth in this white January meadow somewhere in the Frank Church Wilderness
3 others in their mummy bags curled around the same sacred vicarious edifice.
The logs turned to carbon hours ago, as the conversation was gradually replaced by chattering teeth
The communal bonfire like our "Indian forebears" gathered round is now an orange light,
surrogate warmth umbilical cord for us quadruplets in our Polyethylene womb.
replacing the caveman’s most precious child other than his cave paintings
Curl your fingers around the grate though and you’ll be burned by what’s keeping us alive
Powered by propane, similar technology to what keeps your burgers warm at jack-in-the-box, making us into human burritos.
The cold empty death kept at bay by some layers of polyester and a heat lamp.
Joseph rolls one more time hoping to find that less bumpy spot he imagined
The slither and whoosh of plastic textiles reminds me I’m not the only human here
It’s hard for him because he’s only twelve and hasn’t grown that crusty shell we have
But his cocoon is as well built as anyone’s and he’ll save his breathe to keep warm
4 sleeping together in self-contained saran-wrapped bags. More like twinkies in a box than scouts in a tent
We don’t quite look like the kids they have in the handbook.

15 Minutes.

I have fifteen minutes until I go to bed. Time for a stream of consciousness post for 15 minutes. Chopped is a really good show. Like a really really good show. Like they have more drama in an hour long cooking show with 4 cooks working in their mystery ingredients than most Drama's can do in a season. Man, these people are trying to work in asparagus, quail egg, and rasberry cough drops into an appetizer.

My arms are tired. I lifted weights today. I like lifting weights. Or at least I did today. Admittedly it has been a LONG time since I have done it so its easy to like. I'm running a marathon this summer and I have NOT met my goals for weight loss but we've recommitted this week. 6 days a week plan and counting calories. I'm stoked to run this marathon, I really don't wanna mess this goal up.

Sometimes I feel extremely proud of myself when I clip my toenails. Not that I never do it, or that it's hard, but you always feel like you've accomplished something when your toenails are recently clipped. Very small step to improve your day.

I lost my right lens in my glasses today. That made me angry, I also got marked down on my speech today for applying what the guy at the presentation practice center (Which my professor RUNS!) into my speech. I can't remember my leg and my arms are still tired. But I digress, the speech incident made me mad also. Those thing's both happened before twelve and made me angry. But now I'm not angry because it was a nice day besides.

What's an anti-oxident? I know oxidizing can ruin metal but isn't oxygen good for you? I really have no Idea what an anti-oxident is but it seems to be associated with women walking through grassy blue skied hilly areas with their arms spread out and big smiles on their faces. That's what these commercials have shown me. I also really like the trident Layers fruity gum that they just advertised. It made me miss my two favorite kids that I used to drive at work a little bit. Gwen stefanie is still pretty when she has tons of makeup and good lighting and camera angles. I don't know if she's still pretty in real life. Considering she got big like almost 20 years ago in the 90's with no doubt I don't think she looks quite that good, but I guess working out eating right and plastic surgery can work wonders with people.

Hi mike, that's what I just said. Mikell my roommate looked at me very wierd when I said that.

I'm glad I sat at devotional with my friend Chelsea.

This is a picture of a giraffe.

Never ambush a man that's been in a chemical fire. Yes trenton you can borrow my car to take Angel home. I just gave him my keys. I think I'm gonna cut this blog out 2 minutes early america. Sorry. (Hint: to make you feel like your blog is much more important than it really is address your 5 readers as: AMERICA.)

Back in Black Boise

Well I hadn't been home for awhile, 2 of my roommates were heading back, and I had a three day weekend so I came home to Boise and I gotta tell you it was magical.

Reason 1. I have no friends here.

It's now official. I have 4 friends, but two were out of town and the other two are kind of marrying each other soon and didn't really make time to hang out until like, 11 o'clock saturday night. (But I'm not bitter) So Friday night I hung out with my parents, played some musical music on my guitar and generally sat around.

Reason 2. Sleeping In.

I don't sleep in at school. I have 7:45 class and soon possibly 4:30a.m. Janitor job. Therefore when I wake up in Boise when I feel like it in a queen-size bed, it's a lot better than an alarm squacking at 6:30 on my cinder-block upheld twin mattress in the Clarke Apartments. My house smells so good. I cannot beleive how good my house smells.

Reason 3. High Definition NBA Basketball. 'nuff said.

Reason 4. Ghost Rider 2: Spirit of Vengeance

This was the greatest movie I have seen in a long time. It had everything, Nicolas Cage, a firy demon riding a motorcycle, a blonde-long haired (male) zombie who makes everything decay, a Jerry Springer joke, and a Twinkie joke. It was complete with a. no sensible storyline b. no good characters and c. gratuitous flaming motorcycle/truck/tractor chase scenes. It was actually better than the first one. But that's kind of the problem, It wasn't AS laughably terrible as Ghost Rider 1. In all seriousness, it was awesome because my Dad got off work and we went to see a movie we knew would be terrible, payed too much for popcorn we knew we wouldn't finish and root-beer that would make us need to pee halfway through the movie. Some things are just worth it.

Reason 5. Actually good movies.

I also watched Warrior which was actually an amazing movie no sarcasm attached. It even had the suave English dude from Inception who impersonates the old dude in the dream, but in this one he's a (totally jacked, new man crush?) ex-marine who's in an MMA tournament to earn money to take care of his friend's family since he died in Iraq. And he fights his brother who's a near-bankrupt physics teacher trying to feed his family. And they have serious family issues with their alcoholic father. Seriously amazing movie. And that guy got way even more totally jacked and he's playing that freaky looking bad guy in "The Dark Knight Rises"

But I digress.

Reason 6. My awesome friends.

Despite being rather mad that my engaged friends stiffed me all day when we had been planning to hang out ALL WEEK, it was awesome to meet them at IHOP for some hot-cocoa and mozzerella sticks at 11 o'clock. (Their dating advice for me: dont' try and someone will magically fall out of the sky and you'll fall in love... Good plan.) Even if I only have two friends in Boise they're pretty cool friends. And I called their marriage back in September when they met, and I got her phone number and entered her as Miriam Wilson (Which is his last name) and I totally saved him on their first sorta date by talking to her more than he did while he was distracted with his other friends. I am the greatest wingmate ever.

Too bad my best friend Andy's Fiance Rebekah wasn't in town but... she's in Texas visiting him at Pilot training so I'm glad she wasn't there. And I found out that they're getting married in May, not December. Which is exciting, and I get to give a best man speech.

Poetry

Okay so I got into this poetry competition by accident (I wrote the poem in the entry form in 10 minutes and didn't proofread and then I got accepted) and now I'm headed into the 4th week of competition. Here's the Poems from the 1st three weeks for those of you that missed them. Oh and note: We have prompts after the 1st week. The prompt for "7 Miles Outside Maricopa, Arizona" was What Inspires You? The prompt for "Jacob" Was that we all had to draw a building on campus out of a hat and write a poem on it. I drew the Jacob Spori Building which is where I have 4 of my 6 classes this semester. And dont' try and read rhythm in the last one even though it rhymes because the rhythm is heard when I read it verbally, I'm not sure how it translates to paper.


Stuck in the Living Room


Don't call it a comeback!




I'm not ll cool J.
White guilt coming out of my ears
white noise, TV teaches
what it takes if you want to be black.
Blue carpet rubbing knees
raw, blue light dark room shines in my eyes
Stains clean out the prejudice.
Red seeing DJ's counting green clout
read in between the lines but
I'm still not ll cool J.




So please, don't call it a comeback.


7 Miles Outside Maricopa, Arizona

The Associated Press Handbook says the wind has to
be 30 MPH for it to count. On my bike in the desert I
saw it probably 20 miles away but it took only 7
minutes to catch up to me. I have not done the math.
Pedaling at speeds I still only dream of I hit the point
where the pedals just spin and you’re going as fast as
the A.T.P. in your thighs can propel you. But Mother
Nature is under no such restrictions. As grains of
kamikazes stung the back of my ears, my arms raised
to the crucifix and cycling became sailing. Sailing
inside a coffin because you can’t see but I’m flying
down Honeycutt road and for once in Arizona the
midday sun is dim as I’m trying to get to shelter. The
back of my hands bleed as my sail arms now steer
instead of handlebars. As they lift me higher into this
dry hurricane the crunch in my shoes, ears, eyelids,
and collar becomes inspiration and know I’m rising
with Elijah with the sandstorm as my Chariot.

Precipitation has a way of bringing us back to Earth.
Mud in my shoes, ears, eyelids, and collar as the
blood on my hands sheepishly smears and is gone.
The drenching deluge hits and I feel a bit like Noah
must have when he realized he was right but
everyone had to die. Eventually my arms drop and the
pedals have to push me forward like everybody else.
But memory of rain drips through my brain tissue as I
remember my arms spread and hands lifted feeling
raindrops like soaking grey skydivers committing
suicide on my fingerprints.

Jacob

IT’s a big gray box.
No really! It’s a big gray box.
I don’t wanna go to class in a box
I don’t want to go to class with a fox
I don’t want to go to school in the Spori
I don’t care if Dr. Seuss Wrote this story!

This is home to the department of communication
That’s my major, so let me vent my frustration
I’ve got 4 classes there, So I’m stuck there all day
Poems about prison are never okay
I have to write a poem about the stalest place in the world
The art department’s here but it looks like they hurled
Onto a canvas and then called it expression
We’re supposed to analyze it “oh that means depression”
It’s so obvious as we wear our berets
You just don’t get it, our artistic ways
The splatter and smudges of complete random color
Is a post-modern interpretation of a neo-classical shutter
I don’t
Understand
The words
Coming out
Of your mouth.

Spori’s the hipster capital of this town
So Put on some big glasses, get rid of that frown
Ironic t-shirts and moustaches abound
Can you hear that? It’s only the sound
Of that band everyone knew when they were still underground
The joys of this building can’t be spread around
It’s only the Spori where the hipsters are found.

I don’t mean to complain, it’s not been all bad
It’s where I met my friend Chelsea, no it’s not like that
So please understand what I’m trying to say
My rhymes are in couplets, and that’s here to stay
The Spori’s not just a building, it’s a magical place,
The only building on campus without brown as its face
So if you live in the Spori cause of your major like me
Please stop and say hi, I’ll be going crazy.