# October Challenge - "A Long Road"



## Chesters Daughter (Oct 2, 2012)

The theme for the October challenge, suggested by *Bachelorette and KyleColorado*, is *"A Long Road".*
*
*Remember that you may approach the subject in whatever way you wish, though of course site rules apply. If you are unsure of the challenge rules please read the 'stickies' at the top of the board; it is disheartening to disqualify people for things like a trivial edit, but the rules will be applied.

This challenge will close on the *16th October 2012.

**Please make sure that your work is properly formatted before pressing the submit button. Work edited after posting may be excluded from the challenge. Do not post comments in this thread. Any discussions should be posted in the Bards' Bistro.*​


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## toddm (Oct 3, 2012)

*State Highway 31*

The Sally Mann landscape, sepia-skies 
and chemical burns, sunlight overexposed
over a nameless creek, the thunderstorm ravaged 
and passed on, left filthy rags overhead, a soft horizon, 
dark vignetting, seeping shadows around the edges, 
the highway bisects tattered fields, dry and forsaken, 
a lone pine toppled over in the middle, dying, 
an out-of-focus crossroad town, frowning faces
outside a gas station, overalls and greasy hands, 
two shirtless boys precarious upon one bicycle, 
girls in dirty dresses, jumping rope, braids bouncing, 
all is lost in Gaussian blur, passing through


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## Chesters Daughter (Oct 4, 2012)

*Special Delivery*

A dusting of powdered sugar
did not sweeten the landscape.
The wind, dissatisfied with nipping,
began to gnaw on naked hands
which refused to relinquish their treasure.

Booted feet abandoned the tarmac
leaving behind a lonesome trail,
as ghastly gusts enraged at intrusion
furiously sought to erase
the blemish of my presence.

Riled at my progress,
unseen fists hurled crystal daggers,
peppering my face with pinpricks
and reducing my eyes to slits,
but still, I trod on.

Destination achieved,
I pried purple claws
free from their prize 
to wipe clean a plaque
revealing five raised letters
bathed in lusterless gold leaf,
as frigid as the wicked wind
who claimed this place as her own.
Two, once so vital, reduced
to a name jutting from bronze
in the bosom of a field.

I weighted their gift with stones
as a greedy gale ripped 
the whisper from my lips
flinging it into infinity;
yet they heard me nonetheless.
"Why you both loved this place
is a mystery to me.
I've brought your tree."

An eruption of salted lava
was stolen from my cheeks 
by an airy thief 
as I fastened a taffeta ribbon
to keep it safe from flight,
though tainted talons tugged
with ferocious might.
I turned to leave 
with her formidable force
pummeling the length of my back,
so eager was she for my departure.

As I reached the gate,
I placed my face 
directly into the path of wrath
and with a smile,
fought squall with squall.
"Chuff all you like, you vicious witch,
I'll still be back for New Year's!"


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## Wessik (Oct 4, 2012)

*A Long Road*

_I have, by my good luck, just missed my exit;
The only one along this angry indian march.
The street, of course, was called "Abortion Dr."_


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## starchild (Oct 6, 2012)

*Sharp Turns*

*Sharp Turns in a Long Hard Road*
by Starchild

I was on the straight and narrow,
With no direction at all,
And when I found myself in a status to follow,
I wondered about how far before the fall,
As if anyone could see that far down the hall.

I believe in a free existence,
One with a million twists and turns,
But man has steered me in the wrong direction,
Does no one see how much experience--
It takes to drive head first into the one who yearns?

I put her feet on the ground, I was the core,
I was there to cradle her when she was the whore,
One drink and then I'm leaving on a big jet plane,
One more drink and I can forget again,
How I miss that guy, if he was really even human.

Yes it was a long hard road but I love every man I see,
With a sharp turn at the end of the path to reality,
But it was too sharp and I didn't die--I don't know how
Because she loved and that made me cry.

And I prayed that I was on my way to somewhere full of soul,
Like eternity, with love and all the tears we could've cried,
She loved me because she doesn't think I ever died
But the truth is, everything I am she also held on the inside.

<3 Gabrielle Bryant


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## Glass Pencil (Oct 9, 2012)

*A Nameless Night*

A timeless tumult
and all the waves
a crashing cruise
adrift and crazed

by bitter breeze
and distant fire
oh, salty seas
that ferment ire

no saints or sins
in lonely hours
all motley men
surly and dour

no pleasing ports
or drunken haze
a nameless night
the surfeit of days


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## Vitaly Ana (Oct 9, 2012)

*Camino Inka*

Carved out of cliffs
that rise                              
above the Urubamba, 
you traverse through bands of rain
into a sinking Yucatec sun.

Squalls line your walls,
Though I will climb you.

Your Gods wrote laws
to warn
seekers and spirits but
not one warring heart lived
to tell of dead woman’s pass.

You bait your nature by allure.
Still, I will climb you.

My feet are set
never
to grow roots in your cloud forest
Suns and Moons may be Gods to you but
to me their just gold and silver.

I endeavor forever, 
To stand over Machu Picchu.


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## Ethan (Oct 10, 2012)

Motorbikes and barking dogs
Are driving me to drink
With the endless din of traffic
I can no longer think

I’ll have a little nip of Gin
Perhaps a beer or two
And then I’ll close the window
That might help me too

Perhaps I’ll take my rifle
With a telescopic sight
And find a building with a loft
Where I can sit at night

Those random noisy bastards
Would swiftly think again
If metal jacket bits of lead
Were winging through their brains

Another little whiskey then
To keep the cold at bay
And steady trigger finger
As the targets weave and sway

I did this once before you know
And they kept me for a year
Psychotic  Paranoia
Induced by too much beer

I didn't have the rifle then
That was an afterthought
T’was after several nips of rum
Because I thought I aught

It’s gotten so much quieter here
I nailed it bang to rights
It even looks quite pretty
With those small blue flashing lights

I think they’re waving up here
I can see them scurry round
Behind their little armoured car
They’re kneeling on the ground

I hear the whiz of bullets
But my vodka dulls the sound
Perhaps I’ll have a pop or two
At the bastards five floors down

I’m feeling kinda sleepy now
I’m tired upon my feet
And that noisy bloody chopper’s
Gonna ruin a good nights sleep

A small nightcap, a brandy tot
Should calm my trembling hand
And then I think I’ll take a shot
At that choppers rubber band

I expect I’ll get the sleep I need
In Broadmoor’s padded rooms
And get out in a year or so
As recessions lay offs loom

It’s a long road to recovery
But a year is not too rough
I’ll take their shocks and Valium
Until I’m ‘well ‘ enough

So one more shot and then to sleep
I’ll go out like a light
So just before I take it
I’ll wish you all goodnight.


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## Jeko (Oct 10, 2012)

*Me and my son

*There's a road
I told my three-year-old son
that goes on and on
and on and on

It goes on
and it goes on
and on
and on
and on
and on

and on
and on
and on
and on
you'll hear another and on anon

I told my three-year old son
how the road goes on
and he asked
if it really
goes on and on
and on
and on
and on and on
and on and on and on 
and on

And I said yes
it does go on 
and on
and on 
and on and on
and now I've told you about my three-year-old son
and how our stories go on and on
how we write them all until they've gone
now I can declare this poem begun.

_Line so straight, straight to the horizon.
Long road, that we lay our eyes on.
Oh, how we love how you go on
and on, and on, until you're gone._


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## Fats Velvet (Oct 11, 2012)

Driving at night with sunglasses

If the trailing oil your jalopy leaves behind
ends buffered in yellow lines that cowards
circumscribed, write an epitaph of lies. 
Spin freewheeling tales.  Gun them with abandon
when they squeaked and should have squealed.  

Gin up the gas.  Steal thunder from my jumpers. 
Fling spectaculars flaming wrecked off paragraphs
or stanzas and die sputtering with laughter
before your odyssey can fail.

Leave a scrap of salvage
worth the effort
off the rail.


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## Gumby (Oct 12, 2012)

*Coward’s Haggis*


  Mired in the aftermath,
  she tried to find her way,
  a path, to walk a line which lay
  between the carnage they had made.

  The urge to slink away, slide 
  into a ciphers bliss,
  fluttered at the edges of her mind—
  a demurely placed coward’s kiss,
  all it left behind.

  How to span the space,
  build a bridge upon thin air—
  and did she even want to?

  When what was right
  and what was left
  to both sides of her heart,
  was not enough to sound a beat.

  And served up such a fatal dish,
_which half could she eat?_


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## bearycool (Oct 13, 2012)

*The Seasons on a Road*

_Set to the tune of the Londonderry Air (Danny Boy)

_Oh I hear them, the echos of the summer,
The air so sweet, and melancholy.
The tears of mine, they feel as real as summer
It’s true, it’s true... and I cry in knowing.

What fresh despair, the fall has now come over
The bells do ring, the leaves downward spiral. 
Yet still I stand, the life is not yet over
Oh I go on, oh I go on, through the mile.

The way is long, and the spring but underlying
If there’s an end, I wish to see it ‘fore death.
That end of ends, the place that will be coming
Where I’ll make peace and restfully lie.

Oh I hear them, the echos of the summer
The air so sweet, and joyful on the road
The tears of mine, they are as real as summer
Oh Lord God, I must go on through these winter roads...


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## Aramis (Oct 13, 2012)

in a redcar


we drove a red car
taking turns behind that solid wheel
six hour stretches
then a stretch in the back
cold desert at night
a blister of heat
each jungle-day
and everything 
orange-
orange as an acid trip
hotels without cheer
bars without beer
(even warm beer)
and oh so cold women
my head spun
like a ransacked room
as you whistled out
your anger
a note at a time
at each passing bush
then silences 
and pyramids of dead stones
casting cats-eye curses
sign-posted the way
in portentous style
and I could only laugh
an act of insolence
hardly meeting your approval
or expectation
but a gift anyway
in a waltzing matilda
nightmare


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## vangoghsear (Oct 13, 2012)

*the road ahead*

i met a man
who limped along
  a narrow stretch 
  of road.

  each faced the way
  the other came;
  i wondered
  what he knows.

  “what’s it like
  there up ahead?”
  i asked when he 
  drew near.

  he just smiled, 
  shook his head
  and trudged away
  from there.

  “surely you can
  offer me 
  some wisdom
  or advice?

  a hint what lies
  in store for me;
  that knowledge
  would be nice.”

  he stopped, 
  turned and studied me.
  his eyes 
  locked onto mine.

  his gaze burned
  sunlight between we two 
and smoldered 
  with the time.

  “you want to know 
  your future, sir...?”
  was what the 
  old man said.

  “...that’s what you ask
  you understand,
  for that’s what 
  lies ahead.”

  the moment hung 
  there in between
  a wisteria
  pungent air.

  tempting, yet 
  repulsive; 
  the allure 
  so much to bear.

  “no” i answered
  softly, as if 
  it’s in his power 
  to grant.

  “wise choice” he said
  and turned to go
  but then turned 
  back again.

  “the road ahead
  offers more to them 
  who remember
  where they’ve been.”

  i walked ahead
  a different man
  whatever 
  there may be

  for i’d met my fate
  along the road
  and kept the journey
  inside of me.


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## Deleted member 49710 (Oct 13, 2012)

*Indirection*

when you came everything you brought was new
everything so shy and simple
that however far we went I thought
you could not really fail

but the sun waited on the horizon
and opened holes in my retina
where I tried to see answers and hear names
you said were mine

so vision curled away
from stars and pathways, gridlines and axes
to your radial arms and blind fingers
and our place that you lost on the map

now when you cry the sky doesn’t open
and I do not hold my breath
no loose sunbeam finds you
no angel leans down to you

and there is no comfort in crying either
or in the dry cheeks of the earth
so you get up from under your tears
and we go on

and meanwhile I am failing
and you are watching me fail
a little more with every line 
that I cross


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## Arcopitcairn (Oct 14, 2012)

(Language Warning)

*Could it be this good? Pop! I eat your skin.*


  Or: “I like it, it’s a statement.”



  You ease yourself, slide down the hood,
  The graveyard chain gets busted,
  Trash-kissed tombstones cracked in time,
  Combat boots brush weeds.

  Leopard print ripped, standing hard,
  Up-flared crypt a stage, you smear
  Sweat rolls in the red, red smoke,
  The world begins to buzz and blur.

  You ooze pearls on the marble slab,
  Dripping on the dead, you buck
  Lips vibrate now wide awake
  And SSQ (Yes SSQ) talks about the devil

  And later…after Suicide rejects you,
  After Ernie burns the body…
  The end of a long road of mistreated meat,
  Your life, it’s here!

  Oily moonlight rainbows twirl in acid rain-fed puddles,
  And scatter when you trip and splash.
  You are a buffet for us and we hardly know where to start.
  I’ll eat your fucking skin.


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## aj47 (Oct 15, 2012)

All Roads are One Road

You've heard the adage "All roads lead to Rome."
I wonder what a Google map would say.
Couldn't some of them convey me home?
For, when you turn around, they lead away.

And what of that one road less traveled by?
Now that it's famous, surely there's a throng.
Those who think celebrity is why
They should all get in line and go along.

And what of roads to riches or to hell?
Or those that Bob and Bing would sing along?
In truth, there are too many roads to tell.
In film and story, poetry and song.

Remember that a road is just a guide;
Which way you travel, only _you_ decide.​


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## BluejayNebula (Oct 15, 2012)

*A Lonely Home*

I struck out many years ago,
In search of my path in life,


I took a boat and went to sea,
But the waves gave me no quarter,


I took a balloon and touched the sky,
But the sun burned my flesh and my mind,


I rode a star shooting through the night,
But the vacuum of space stole my breath away,


I fluttered on butterfly's wing,
But the rain washed me from its back,


At last I found my sanctum,
Alone on a never-ending trail, 
A traveler down the dusty road,
Walking for days on end.


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## Our_Pneuma (Oct 16, 2012)

*A Certain Account of Inspiration *

An ordinary moment of personal involvement
as you settle atop the toilet shifting slightly left
while you shift more so right opposing the slide
of your perspiring butt moistening with the walls
of that bathroom when sultry air fills its close corners.
Meanwhile driblets of sweat begin to take their course
along creases on your forehead so you reach for a towel
strewn on the rack in front of you except while doing so stop

just before drawing it near.

A spider of minute proportions dangles from
that towel’s frayed cotton edge through the damp air
baring hardly enough weight to dispense anything more than
a single inch of web. Then in this observation you’re reminded of those
arduous walks home from school when there wasn’t enough money for gasoline. 
And during those walks you and your siblings would take the course of almost every 
gleaming snail-trail along the sweltering asphalt in hopes of finding the one 
zigzagging path that made the entire width of that daunting road.


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## Chesters Daughter (Oct 16, 2012)

This Challenge is now closed.


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