Sestina!

I wrote a poem that has form. And it's 39 lines. See if you can figure out the pattern.

Hold your breath and dive into the water,
Feel the saltiness whirl around your mouth.
The ocean and the sky merge into one,
The hot sand warms in the cold winter.
The scents from Puerto Rican cuisine burns
Your nose as you try to remember home.

You’re remembering the place called home,
As you drink Gatorade instead of water.
The pang of loneliness burns
Your heart which is stuck in your mouth.
You guess at “how many” snowflakes this winter,
While you’re stuck under a sun of one.

You’re trying to guess which one
Number you should phone to home.
Your heart seems full of winter;
It will not melt with the warm ocean water.
Words twist inside and curl in your mouth,
As they wait on your tongue and burn.

The hot humid air outside burns,
As you sit at a table for one.
You lift warm cinnamon buns into your mouth,
Like Aunt Corrine’s with raisins back at home.
You look out at the aquamarine water,
Wishing that spring would absolve winter.

Here in this gorgeous place it is not really winter
As shown by your shoulders that are burned.
Swimming in a pool of clean pure water
You feel as if this place and you are one.
You almost wish to call it home,
But the word gets caught between your tongue and mouth.

The hot liquid you pour on your lips and mouth,
And the snowflakes from previous winter’s,
Seem to coil around the mention of home.
All your memories seem to churn and burn,
Until they are melded into one,
Like the ebb and flow of two ocean’s waters.

The ache of home seems to tighten your mouth,
Until you get back to pool water in Provo winter.
Then the burn of Puerto Rico bends your heart in one.

once and now

Once I crashed my bike.
Now I have a scar.

Once I conversed in Russian every day.
Now I fear I'm forgetting a bit of it every day.

Once I didn't like tomatoes.
Now I love them.

Once I climbed Squaw Peak with Sierra.
Now she's in New York.

Once I picked huckleberries.
Now they rest in the freezer.

Once I got a scary phone call in the night.
Now I hope to never get one again.

Once I held baby Josh.
Now he will still cuddle-bug, but he's no baby.

Once I threw an apple through a window.
Now I laugh at that me.

Once I was.
Now I am.
Soon I will be.

zephyr

Sketch of a bird.

Snatch of conversation.

A broken button.

You turn the pages.

Pencil captured the bird.

Mind remembered words.

Tape holds down the three pieces.

The feathers remind you of a rainy morning.

Clouds hindered the sun as you looked out the window.

You held your cup of tea and upped Neil Young’s volume.

The assumed dialogue becomes a soliloquy.

A man and his dementia battle it out.

One voice. Two tones.

The three uneven pieces beg you to finger their crags.

One hole remains intact.

Makes you ponder your own heart’s shape.

This is really rough. Wrote in less than 10 minutes. Nat, don't be befuddled if you don't find any meaning because I don't always write meaningfully. These words just came out. I like some of the lines. Maybe I'll come back and work with it one day. For now, it's just been nice to have a little lunchtime diversion.