I Rant

My mind weaves a spell,
like a witch it bitches
to the moon, whom, 
doesn't know my reasons
or my powers, in towers
my placid maidens wait in 
rooms that have no key,
the light of day, I say,
cannot escape, it's late
and I am in no mood
to tell you why, I sigh,
for a moment I relent
questioning your worth,
weighing mine, wasting time,
melting candle wax, can't relax,
so in my loudest voice
I madly chant, ok I rant,
but your eyes realize
the elemental fire I vent
is emotion cast, when at last
the light flickers, quick words
sputter, the flame dies,
in darkness comes the rest. 

Mach B 2021

The dish and the spoon

I want to grab your hand
as we jump off the moon
and then travel through space
in a clockwork balloon.

As we say our good-bye
to all the wars of Mars
and navigate our craft
away from nearby stars.

We're faster now than light
as we pass Jupiter
Neptune and then Pluto,
who's been passed once before.

We pummel through the Oort
then out into deep space
We're not sure where we'll go
but we will land someplace.

Then with my arms around you
into stasis we'll immerse
I'll hold you near-forever,
until the next universe.

© 2014 Mach B

Kitten-zilla

After destroying Tokyo
with your electric breath
you stomped the ground defiantly
and claimed to be Godzilla.
Most everyone ran away 
out of sync with their screams
but I stood my ground
stared you down through
your rept-alien eyes
and inside... Inside I saw
a soft furry kitten that purrs
when scratched behind its ear.
All I wanted was to cuddle you
and protect you from harm. 
It was then I saw your clawed foot
coming down from above.

© 2014 Mach B

Lay out the words

Lay out the band
and play a song
on the other hand
it would be wrong

to lay out words
when you're not true
as I've observed
it makes you blue

lay out the man
once he's untold
no longer can
he fight the cold

lay out his soul
to find his light
As you've been told
gonna be all right.

As you've been told
gonna be all right.

© 2014 Mach B

Time

In the future time boils,
yellow-orange, red-hot,
magma, bubbling toward the present
like sand grains at the
brink of their destiny
before their fall.

Time rises, unseen before
it breaks the surface
of our consciousness and rides
our expectations like a molten
river rushing down a mountain side
to the sea...

And hits that moment,
that steamy moment when it freezes
and becomes now, then it's lost
under the waves, eroding until
even the fact it's forgotten
is in the past.

**From a completed Weekly Poetry Challenge in 2013. The topic: Time.
© 2013 Mach B

A poem’s life

But seriously a poem has a life
like a man through his span
there's a start, some verse, then an end.

But it is born from a seed, not an egg
and a sperm, watch it squirm
from its start, it breaks its casing.

Interlacing words that arise like vines
sometimes quick into sticks
sometimes stones when the poet's mad.

And then an innocent child might play
like it knows where it goes,
instead it becomes an adult.

That is when it tries to find its meaning
which may hide, closed inside,
or is displayed proudly each line.

Then later in its life, when it gets old
it may tire, no more fire
in its belly, but not its soul.

At the end, it's more than ready to go
it lays down on some noun,
a last word that leaves it in peace.

**From a completed poetry challenge in 2012. The topic is...

© 2012 Mach B

The Price Of Peace

Will you see the same thing I do
when the angels dance themselves free?
Gone are the chains that hold them when
we agree not to disagree.

And what would the poets write if
we decide to think one the same
and you all agree with my view,
no matter whose view we might blame?

You will see the same thing I do
when the demons escape to hell,
fleeing the glaring peace on earth
like some thieves from an alarm bell.

We'll sing a song in harmony
but the chords will sound very wrong
because we're singing monotone
after all we sing the same song.

You will sing the same note I do
and we'll live in a blissful peace
with no need for different humans,
trapped in sameness, without release.

So next time that you might argue
do so with your biggest smile
while peace on earth is a great cause,
conflict's what makes living worthwhile.

**From a completed poetry challenge in 2012. The topic is Rorschach tests.
© 2012 Mach B

Dark Magenta

The world stops like a film frame
when I look in your dark magenta eyes
in the sky at night, all its purple
stolen from the stars by seagulls
who make the wind do their bidding
I look deep into your eyes so dark
where colours dance on flames of light
in the sky at night where stolen purple
rises from the sea to fill the gaps
between the clouds that could be used
as jewels by native Americans
before they knew they were indigenous
when they  loved the land that
rises from the sea to mountains made
of snow white snow or are they clouds
before they're tooled by trickster seagulls
who bid the wind to take them up
to summits unreachable as naked men
then again, in your dark magenta eyes
anything is possible.

**From a completed poetry challenge in 2012. The topic is colours.

© 2012 Mach B

Seven wise sages

Seven wise sages uncover the truth
in a crypt only seven could find
One of the sages ran off with some proof
that exploded in his face, now he's blind.

Six wise sages split up all the facts
in what was supposedly even shares
One of the sages was given the axe
when another sage split his hairs. 

Five wise sages have carried their find
to their homes on each corner of the globe
One of those sages began to unwind
and was relieved of his frontal lobe.

Four wise sages try to find their nook
as their veracity they debate
One of those sages writes a tell-all book
And quite promptly that sage becomes late.

Three wise sages feel fear for their lives
when they finally do all of the math
One of those sages he plays with some knives
and he cuts himself bad in the bath.

Two wise sages know that one wants it all
and decide they should fight to the death
One of those sages, he hires Darth Maul
to use the dark side on the sage left.

One wise sage he buries the truth
after a death that nature assigned
among his bones therein lies the proof
in a crypt only seven could find.

**From a completed poetry challenge in 2012. The topic is the number seven.

© 2012 Mach B

Worry/Calm

Crinkles on my forehead
waves on a sea of skin
signs of tubulence
below the surface

An electrical storm
measured by neuroreceptors
gates to each possibility
open and flooding

Churn from beneath
as bubbly acid attempts
to forcefully escape from
its organic prison

And the eye stares
blindly calm, ignorant
of the clouded wall it's about
to slam into.

**From a completed poetry challenge in 2012. The topic is an emotion and it's opposite.

© 2012 Mach B

e

We congregate in cubicles
pray to our electronic gods
who bring us satisfaction
in the form of apps and blogs

We fight from little boxes
that are joined by wireless
but who will be the victor
and who does Diablo bless

Our dreams are our screensavers
glassless 3D in our slumbers
we wake-up to Facebook friends
there's safety in our numbers

We once took a walk in the woods
hand-in-hand down a dirt path
colored leaves fell from a tree
while we talked and while we laughed

I uploaded the video to You Tube
it got 50 views.

**From a completed poetry challenge in 2012. The topic is author’s pick.

© 2012 Mach B

period

period

and the new sentence begins
to ramble on and then off we
go to find the meaning of a
world I knew when I was told
to watch the signs I wasn't
older than a child under
covers huddled in the night
afraid of the light, the flame,
the candle burning for the dead
instead I searched for that
reason, another lonely person
who you are on a good day I
say is who they aren't on
bad days when they rant and
shout out an exclamation

point

**From a completed poetry challenge in 2012. The topic is academic words.

© 2012 Mach B

Obtuse

When a butterfly smokes helium
and a memory watches TV,
I lie facedown in a pool of syrup
and Obtuse, he says hi to me.

He says it silently, however
Then rain arises from fiery hell
where choirs of angels sing of their release
and Obtuse, he wishes me well

It's dark, dank and dire where he comes from
and the nights they treat you mean
He thought that he could help when I called him
instead Obtuse, he flees the scene.

Though he imparts me with his motive
I'm not sure that I understand
but somehow I'll always remember
that Obtuse, he is close at hand.

**From a completed poetry challenge in 2012. The topic is trending words.

© 2012 Mach B

(sung to the tune of “Somebody That I Used to Know”)

This Is How We Do It When I Get You Alone
Like a Virgin You Just Keep Me Hangin' On
Baby Try a Little Tenderness
What a Girl Wants Rolling in the Deep
Don't Cry for Me, Argentina, You Get What You Give

Papa, Can You Hear Me Over at the Frankenstein Place
Singin' in the Rain, Without You, Stayin' Alive
She's Not There, Dancing with Myself
It's Not Right but It's Okay, Jolene
Because You Loved Me I Just Can't Stop Loving You

Don't Stop Believin', Express Yourself
I've Gotta Be Me For He's a Jolly Good Fellow
Lucky I Just Want to Hold Your Hand
What I Did for Love, The Only Exception
Paradise by the Dashboard Light
Rumour Has It I'll Remember Someone Like You
We Got the Beat Sing, Sing, Sing
The Glee cast covers songs that I used to know.

The Glee cast covers songs that I used to know.
The Glee cast covers songs that I used to know.

**From a completed poetry challenge in 2012. The topic is trending words.

++Not my best but it was a particularly difficult task for one day.

© 2012 Mach B

Volcano

Hard emotions
subjected to your stresses
fracture and then melt.

The magma of my mind
churns under pressure
searching for that weak spot.

When my mouth opens
it spews, pyroclastic --
scalding hot words.

But don't worry,
they'll cool to igneous rocks
before they hit you.

**From a completed poetry challenge in 2012. The topic is trending words.

© 2012 Mach B

(sung to the tune of the chorus of 'When you wish upon a star'.)

Do you wish upon a star?
Then like that cricket sang, you are.
I bet you wished for a sports car,
forget world peace.

Do you wish cracking a bone?
There's no app for your smart phone.
You can't do it on your own
you need some friends.

Do you wish using a cake?
Once a birthday wish you make.
If by chance it's a mistake
there's still next year.

Do you wish into a well?
Don't you wish that you could tell?
If you wish then sit a spell
but please bring change.

**From an interrupted poetry challenge in 2011. The topic is wishes.

© 2011 Mach B

Presentiment

I run away
when it does seek me out
the mere sound of its voice
I go astray
at the nags of self-doubt
there's never any choice
there's just this wall
that's far too high to climb
which I could never scale
ever, at all
even with all of time
I'd still find I would fail
that's why I run
and that's why I tremble
it's the reason I stress
but once begun
it's painful to dispel
impossible unless
I run away

**From an interrupted poetry challenge in 2011. The topic is fear.

© 2011 Mach B

Subtext

I pretend I'm making sense
to see if you are listening

You pretend to recognize
the nonsense I am saying

And though we're both pretending
underneath our ruse we see

our words can convey nothing
and yet do so meaningfully

**From an interrupted poetry challenge in 2011. The topic is understanding.

© 2011 Mach B

On Christmas Day

Have been doing some video poems lately, this first one is a poem I did for the Christmas contest on Moviestorm. It won that contest. It's very dark though, so be prepared and don't say I didn't warn you.

Monster

Hidden in a deep dark place,
frightened to come
from its cocoon.
Howls at the moon!
Monster in me.

Everyone who looks there knows
It's in my mind
and in my heart.
Right from the start
it's in my soul.

Then torches bright, fiery hot
They chase me from
my rightful place
and poke my face
with flames of hate.

If only they would understand
I once was one
of them, you see.
They create me
then push away.

And all I want to do is speak
my mind to them.
It is my gift
albeit thrift
It's all I have

But all they hear are grunts.

© 2010 Mach B