Bottlenecked Hope

Southern-Style Bottle Trees
photo by L. Kolp

 

Blue

bottled

blooms

brush the

heavenly

skies, clank

rhythms  as  a

bottomed - out

drunk  on   the

dusty   streets

of hell exhales

exhaust - like

sighs.  Y o u

think his only

escape from

bottlenecked

hope  is  to

shatter glass

into the air.

Prompt inspiration- Imaginary Garden's A Word with Laurie: Bottleneck

Eye Contact

A battered bike leans
against the wall. Inside
Nobody clanks coins
on the drugstore counter,
a cold unopened beer in hand.

I clamor for blue
Gatorade with not much
time before my son’s
Taekwondo class ends.

Nobody
can't talk straight,
and the teenage boy
rings her up,
rank with fear.
I see it in his eyes-
an uncertainty his lack of contact
with the customer reveals.

Just today I reminded my son
to look adults in the eyes
when speaking, out of respect.
We wouldn't want them to mis-
construe the truth, think him miscreant.

When I leave the store, Nobody’s
bike waits beside my van. She
scrounges through Something
for What?
I freeze, wonder
what’s in that bag she has.

Is this the end?

I avoid her eyes, walk with
purpose, hop inside
faster than a blink.

It kills me
we must live
this way, but I
survive. This time.

*

Prompt inspiration: Imaginary Gardens- A Word with Laurie (miscreant)

Deterioration

She fondles drugs as if they were four-
leaf clovers picked fresh from a verdant
green field; presses them in her body like
a scrapbook page, these poisonous mushroom
spores growing fungus in her brain, polluting
her body with peppered spice. Signs hide in a
cloak of denial and justification- but I can read
between the lines, offer a shoulder to lean on.

@laurie kolp

*
Prompt inspirations:

Poetry Jam- Inner and Outer Limits

Rosemary Mint Word Prompt (Shawna)
~Words-- spice, clover, leaf, page, spore, press, cloak, sign, lean, read

Building a Bottom Up

The shrill voice said it was urgent, come now
and I was a lion roaring down the highway pass
cutting in and out of traffic, honking horns,
darkened night the void that filled my mind

with horrific thoughts of impending doom,
a rash of tragedy to build his bottom up;
could I withstand this not so simple man?
A jolt of dignity mustered bold strength

to scrape the nerve I needed to approach
this brewery lying on the ground smiling
ankles crossed, hands in pockets limp;
will he still be happy when he comes to?

@laurie kolp

*

Prompt inspiration: The Sunday Whirl, also shared at Poets United Poetry Pantry

It Started with This

It started with just a tiny sip
of daddy's frothy mug at six
never to be forgotten
that craving, yearning
until she was spiraling
out of control
bonging kegs
snorting coke
hospitals
mixing prescription drugs
cocktails
rehab
more, more, more
forgery, theft
jail
more drink
more drug
too much
not enough
streets
unreachable highs
insanity
uh-oh, caught again
prison
halfway house
                      (will she surrender?)
one trip with bath salts
a smoke of K2
morgue
.
.
.

It started with just a tiny sip.

@laurie kolp

Prompt inspiration: Poetry Jam