Purple Line
Daily Poet - July 22 - Signs
Purple line, coming in 2022.
Or has it been delayed to 2023?
Will that be enough time
for a return to the semi-normal?
Or are you building bridges to nowhere
that will carry no people to no offices
nor drop them off in front of high-rises.
The line was supposed to be lucrative
at last connect the red, east and west,
Bethesda to Silver Spring.
Now we stare at the excavators
Surely less traffic eases construction?
We march and march,
like Napoleon’s troops in Russia,
never to return from the freezing dead of night.
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Quiet
Daily Poet - May 21 - Langston Hughes Titles
I’m just a Quiet Girl
wishes for moments
of momentous peace.
I seek it at night,
amidst Dream Variations.
I do consider now
Bad Morning might be better
if I can heed the alarm for 5 am
Perhaps I can get away with 6,
a solid hour and a half.
In this time,
I write of Cultural Exchange
Be wistful for my still-asleep Genius Child
Dawn as still as Sea Calm.
I can yearn for a Juke Box Love Song
These days, Acceptance will do.
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SciWri
Daily Poet - May 28 - Bridging the Gap
I was blinded with science
in the Georgian halls
red brick and jade canopies
a haze of carbon rings and nitrogen
Back in the bunker
I sift through tomes and letters
synthesize, interpret, translate
an oasis of knowledge and style
Surely I could do without
the strange politics of people
the women in Ted Baker dresses
The men, all of a certain age and color
I must find a way out of this maze
build a room of my own
and a bridge to your houses
channel the burst, the spark,
the reams of data and words.
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WaHo
Daily Poet - June 28 - Road Trip
At night this place was a sight
Neon yellow lights aglow
The color of scrambled eggs and pancakes
Truckers, college students, visitors to Cheshire Bridge
I always ordered the same thing
Raisin toast with butter and hash browns:
This place was the crossroads of the future
The old town road of wild dreams and hope.
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Black Room
Daily Poet - May 27 - Contrary Day
In the ink black room,
the mist falls down and down
enveloping like gauze
skirting like lace
snatching my deepest secrets
and I look for the truths
in the messages of spirits
the cards of fortune tellers
the palm readings of sooth sayers
where do these magics and visions come from
and more so, where do they go?
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Second Skin
Daily Poet - May 29 - Thanks, Hope
Thank you for this skin,
serpentine, I shed
layer upon layer
scale by scale
until I have vanquished
the person you wanted me to be
and transmutated
into the one, devoid
of regret and second-guessings
I leave those scars on the forest floor.
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Dark Lights
Daily Poet - May 14 - Protector
I see you in black and white
in your dark sunglasses
driving against the flashing lights.
At night, you come for me
waiting on the curb in white
You are my protector
watching for the villains
hiding in corners and in plain sight
There’s a streak of red,
lipstick against satin sheets
and the glint of the too-soon sunrise.
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Tunisian Nights
Daily Poet - May 13 - Jazz
The clock ticks forward
In the dry air
Red silk on dry sand
Leaves traces of musk
Mysterious finds
for the intrepid traveler.
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Campaign Strategy
Daily Poet - May 24 - Taboo
I thought about penning
a check to your campaign
with a Monet print notecard
‘I’ve always been better at
poetry than politics.’
I knew you were
the match to my intellect.
I let the fire burn, turn
to deep embers
at the end of a campfire.
You and I both knew
I was no politician’s wife.
Now you grace the screens
paint your perfect media veneers
of service, sacrifice, sweetness.
But somewhere inside I know
the edge of leather,
slightly deranged,
the truths they will never see.
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Kate and Meghan
Daily Poet - May 19 - Couple Couplet
Kate wears dresses prim and proper
You might see Meghan in a chic romper.
The actress from Suits has skin of gold
The Duchess of Cambridge can sometimes seem old.
Then English girl wears colors bright and icy
Nice to see an American bring in the spicy.
The royals wanted praise for inviting in a commoner
As long as she wasn’t a person of color.
Catherine has followed all the rules
The Queen tsk-tsks for Meghan to wear stockings of nude.
They don’t match her skin color, you say
And that seems to be the point they’re trying to make.
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Bone Cold
The Daily Poet - May 8 - Longhand
My bones are ice,
brittle and breakable in the damp,
ready to melt at first touch
able to flow down a stream
of blackest dark,
crimson marrow
unattached from the flesh
that holds me together.
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The Name of the Poem
Daily Poet - April 30 - Name Meaning
Sartre said
existence precedes essence
but does your name precede being?
Kavitha means poetry
replete with irony
mystical verse
poetry-in-motion
My immigrant parents
chose it on a whim
popular at the time
much like Jessica or Archie
Not because they expected me
to aspire to be a poetess
not a real job
better to be more practical
Not even after I won
an honorable mention
in the Princeton contest for juniors
Paul Muldoon sent me a letter.
Do you write because
someone named you so?
Or you wanted to write?
More people than I can count
insist on calling me Kathy or Katherine
or asking for a nickname
No. Please try a little harder
You can say it, I know you can
(Kavi, but for family
and very close friends only)
Old MS Word corrects it to “Cavity”
no matter me typing over it
I envisioned dentists and black holes
But now I see emptiness
the hole in my heart
the life, where a poet might have been
had I the courage to live up to the name
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Apple
Daily Poet - May 26 - A to Z
Apples, apples,
bring me more apples
Honeycrisp, Fiji, Red Delicious.
I just can’t get enough
of the red-pink fruit
that falls autumn long
Do I remember going
apple-picking as a child?
Of course not, I lived in the South
where we bought by the roadside,
lush peaches,
boiled peanuts,
and dripping watermelon.
Now, the cold breeze flirts around my shoulders
an invisible cloak of winter to come.
This time, I hope to catch up on my Zzzs.
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Pantry Punch
Daily Poet - May 25 - Pantry Poem
I unpack layers of my soul
like polyunsaturated oats
see raisins here and there
speckles of what
may have been
should have been
At least my life is MSG-free
I want to move
to a plant-based diet, I say
in between crunching
baby goldfish crackers
discolored of cheese powder
eat less processed foods
take a sabbatical
if this endeavor fails
and write the volumes untold.
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The Crash of Civilizations
Daily Poet - May 11 - Psychic Poet
Greta spoke,
and we were tickled inside
thought to go vegan after all
impossible to take fewer planes.
We continued to fist fight
religion against religion
for the right to own
oil and water
even as the use of one
destroyed the other.
Better that we had spent our time
finding a way off this rock.
Instead we linger,
put on our lipstick
consume and yet consume more.
What good is money after all
if not to spend on long-distance trips
designer leather red-heeled shoes
to show off to the world
“Look what I have!”
Power useless
once the sea has boiled and roiled
flooded the plains
and taken all those things away.
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Winner
Daily Poet - May 7 - Horse Names
I think the win win win is improbable
by my standards,
we live in your world
adhering to your code of honor.
Your approval is tacitus
Together, we enter the war of will
Oh, but as a master fencer I have trained
I can see you enjoy my cutting humor.
One hit, and it is all done
In maximum security,
I hold my heart, a weak spinoff
of the epic life I had imagined.
It closes with the whimper foretold
by one grey magician
In another world, it would be a game winner
I can change my tenses and be
plus que parfait.
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