# January Challenge - "Reminiscing"



## Chesters Daughter (Dec 29, 2012)

The theme for the January challenge, suggested by *Chester's Daughter*, is *"Reminiscing".

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 12th January 2013.

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. It would also be greatly appreciated if everyone would refrain from using the "like" function until the challenge is closed and the poll is opened. Any comments on submissions prior to the close of the challenge should be posted in the Bards' Bistro. Thank you for your cooperation.****


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## toddm (Dec 29, 2012)

*Fragile Flight*

Blissfully wandering,
drifting and driven,
a butterfly.
Hopelessly homeless,
unbridled, insisting
on flying high.
A carefree kaleidoscope
flutter-dance striving
to touch the sky.

Hey, you - I forgot I'd forgotten you.
Hey, you - I forgot I'd forgotten you.

Threatening, ominous
brooding, insidious,
a thundercloud.
Hooded night-monster,
devious accoster
tall, dark and proud.
Bloated and burgeoning,
casting off raindrops
to the ground.

Hey, you - I forgot I'd forgotten you.
Hey, you - I forgot I'd forgotten you.

Sunlight returning,
golden eye burning
up in the sky.
Glittering in gladness,
the world is a pageant
of colors bright.
But in the grass is that a flower
all broken and battered?
No, it's a butterfly!

Hey, you - I forgot I'd forgotten you.
Hey, you - I forgot I'd forgotten you.


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## Dunluchyn (Jan 2, 2013)

*Let's Be Kids Again*        [FONT=&Verdana]                                

Remember how we used to be so carefree?[/FONT]
                                     So innocent in every thing we did 
                               The arguments we had about such simple things    [FONT=&Verdana]                                    
The innocence of being little kids.[/FONT] 

                                              Let's be kids again 
                                  We'll laugh and play in summer meadows
                                      Wade through sparkling streams  [FONT=&Verdana]                                     
And go back to simple things[/FONT]  [FONT=&Verdana]                                         
Let's be kids again[/FONT] 
                                      Tell scary stories after dark [FONT=&Verdana]
Have a picnic in the park[/FONT]  [FONT=&Verdana]                                       
And we'll be kids again.[/FONT][FONT=&Verdana]

When life got serious we were only children[/FONT]  [FONT=&Verdana]                                 
We had to put our childlike things away[/FONT]
                            But now that we're adults, we can do just what we want
                                    So let’s go out into the yard and play.[FONT=&Verdana]

And we'll be kids again.[/FONT][FONT=&Verdana]
We'll laugh and play in summer meadows[/FONT]  [FONT=&Verdana]                                    
Wade through sparkling streams[/FONT]  [FONT=&Verdana]                                     
And go back to simple things[/FONT]  [FONT=&Verdana]                                         
Let's be kids again[/FONT] 
 [FONT=&Verdana]                                     Tell scary stories after dark 
 [/FONT]                                         Have a picnic in the park 
                                        And we'll be kids again.


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## Chesters Daughter (Jan 2, 2013)

*Birthday Girl*

My bones are draped
in crumpled gift wrap,
a mocking reminder
to dissolve my blinders,
bringing to mind
a multitude of birthdays
without music or wine.

Sagging wan streamers
beneath my blouse
will skim the sidewalk
by end of day,
gravity's greedy grasp
always has its way.

Spent fireworks crowd
the inside of my skull,
mere seared remnants
dead and dull,
no hint of what once
sparkled and brilliantly lit
every reflection.

Life is just a party,
and I, an unwilling guest,
haling faded favors
from past merriment.

Fun went into hiding
far too long ago,
I misplaced my taste for soirees
when I lost my youthful glow.
Now I'm but a killjoy
looking forward
to fete's end.

I pray my wish be granted
as I expel a blustery blow
upon a conflagration
baked by fellow crones.
How grand it would be
to get eighty-sixed,
my perfume's gone stale,
it's high time
the bucket gets kicked.


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## Gumby (Jan 3, 2013)

*Exhuming Joy*


By the shallow unmarked grave
of my dearest childhood friend,
I sometimes sit and ponder.
I know the bones lying here
will slowly mold away, and all
my brightest memories, like her
have decayed.

I smell her in the dirt,
draw her straight into my brain
and wait for her to hit—
but there's no euphoric lift.

And all the silly, whispered secrets
behind grass-stained fingers, into
ears that smelled of ivory soap and only heard
the sound of Hope and Joy, are gone.

I've waited for the lame to walk,
the blind to see, the dumb to talk—
_I want to see the dead rise again.
_Not this sad exhumation
of her badly beaten corpse.


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## WhitakerRStanton (Jan 4, 2013)

[FONT=&quot]*Memoirs from last night chapter two*

It was late[/FONT]

  at Barrington
  when I drugged myself
  and ended up 
  being pushed out the door
  with nothing to do 
  I got into my car
  and went home
  only to find two women 
  sleeping in my bed
  yet as promising as it may have been
  there was no place
  for me
  getting back in the car
  I found myself sitting
  at 55 mph
  and I ended up 
  where I had started that night

  I haven't drugged myself since
  for fear
  that if this keeps up
  I may well end up
  at the womb.


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## starchild (Jan 4, 2013)

_*The Sound of Winter's Madness
*
Gabrielle A BG_


She rushed to meet me so quietly, like a manic siren lullaby
my mother clutching a wrapped up painting of Gabriel hovering 
"Happy birthday!" she must've said. I shied away from that monster
I didn't know that the woman looking at me, was really her
and I was afraid to say hello, her presence so very bizarre.


What was she hiding from; students laugh at the awkward girl 
in the chattering snow falling, where I had waited for a calling
transfixed by the peak of a mountain, charred wings all aglow--
to be let down or lifted up from this snow by Angel Gabriel 
He never spoke to me or at least, I did not know.


I just stood there, frozen as if by some force, waiting to break free
a student from school walks up to me and begins waving
her hand, she says, "I'm sorry I can't help you..it's freezing!
I'm so sorry..I can't help you." before she walked quickly away
from me & my schizophrenia, relatively speaking, my _insanity_.


The water is too cold to keep me alive, and it burns like hell
I've lost my mind, a heart has cracked like the liberty bell
the lake is calling me and this time-- I rise above with Gabriel
wishing well to all the ghosts in this earthly boarding school
as she rushes to greet me with her madness so cruel.


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## apple (Jan 4, 2013)

*Red*

Oh Kenny, what a dangerous boy you were. 
Pall Malls rolled up in your T-shirt sleeve. 
Jeans slung low.

“He’s a hood.” Daddy ranted. “Damned leather jacket.”

Remember the prom?  My bright yellow prom gown? 
You pinned the largest red carnation
corsage to that yellow dress.

“I told you yellow.” I pouted. “It doesn’t match.” 

You looked straight into my eyes with
your much too blue ones and breathed, 

“I didn’t get it to match your dress. I got it to match your lips.”


Then we danced 
to Earth Angel by the Penguins, 
and you breathed in my ear 
to excite me. 
Girls were supposed to pull away 
in those days, 
but I didn’t pull away. 

You dipped me so low that my long brown hair
dragged across the floor 
and you spent the rest of the night 
picking out little sparkles of blue and silver confetti.

When we parked 
in the driveway of my house, 
your nineteen-fifty Ford convertible
felt too hot and red inside
as our lips slid and my dress could not be managed.

"Oh, baby, do you love me?”  you raged, kissing down my neck.

Yes, yesses steamed inside my throat
as our breath flamed the foggy windows.

“Get inside.” Daddy yelled, the porch light flashing. “Now.”

Oh Kenny, I like dangerous boys. 
My favorite color is red and I still get chills 
when I hear Earth Angel by the Penguins
and remember how you felt through that yellow gown 
when we danced too close.


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## Lewdog (Jan 6, 2013)

*Old Man and the Pipe*


You can hear the creaking of the rocking chair,
After two looks I realize no one is there.
I can still smell his pipe rifle through the air,
The man who showed me how to live, is no longer there.

A knife and a pocket watch were handled with care,
Throughout the years we were an inseparable pair.
He could stop the world with the strength of his stare,
"Like peas in a pod," we were an inseparable pair.

I look to the sky and often I start to swear,
Taken too early, how could this be fair?
He was one of a kind, a man definitely rare,
Up in heaven, I hope to meet him soon there.


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## aj47 (Jan 7, 2013)

Reminiscing 

Vintage memories,
subconsciously edited.
Golden days of yore.


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## Glass Pencil (Jan 9, 2013)

*When We Are Dead*

Chalk it up to brevity
like flowers doused in moonlight
a gross expediency
towards flights of panicked passion

I wore a linen sportcoat
gaudy in its levity
all shades of eggshell and lavendar
you told me I should model

you were ten parts hipster
to every part of human
I wanted all of it
children clothed in sanity

we spent six months
building regrets
to last a lifetime
dramas to remember

when we are dead


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## Jeko (Jan 10, 2013)

*broken
*_
He glances at the clock.

_I think I remember the day
the ticking stopped.
At least, I can recall the feeling
I had
When it was gone.

So long gone now.

Jamie used to be in my arms.
We would - peradventure to fly 
like aeroplanes in the sky -
spread our arms and 
run until our legs ached
And our arms couldn't be spread any more.

He gave me laughter.
I, whenever I heard him come into the room - that 
loud ticking of his
Spongebob watch
that was broken
but he still wore it
like a bond he could never break - 
I - 

_The clock chimes, twelve o'clock.

_So much broken now.


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## IanMGSmith (Jan 10, 2013)

*fractured flickers*

fractured flickers,
pages of my mind
memories
flashes 
some still burn
embers
from the flame
to ashes
turn
to dream
again,
and again


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## ktee (Jan 10, 2013)

*A life in fancy*

On pages is one
Traversing the current of atom and string.
Gliding the white foam
Thrown to the beyond by the spice of changing tides.
Salt of the earth used as seasoning for the feast.
In sighing rooms of margins is another
Tempted to tastings only. 
No bite;
Teeth ripping at rawest flesh to get to the velvet blood inside.
Empty bowl.
Dirty kitchen.
Stale bed.

He bought a dream
Dollars for etchings on whitest paper 
Meant to be mirror
Turned barred window by gnawing divergence.
Pressed against it he smelled the air 
Heady and pregnant
And still hoped to believe.
But years of resting on rusted spokes 
Stained his face.
A cruel red. 
Metallic taste when earthy fibers were wanted.

Words move in brilliant strokes
Working the twist-together with the spiral of own and only
As hands ache.
Bones groan. 
Cracking parchment skin
Marked so foul.
Darkening spots separated and stagnant
Writing black lines of desire.

He looks back.
One life a candied majesty bound by leather.
The other empty hours and torn knees bound by form.
Dead flesh holds being.
Beating body will only see end.

He remembers what could have been.


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## Cran (Jan 10, 2013)

It was

I remember 
how it was
sometimes

I ruminate
what should
sometimes

I confuse
the two
sometimes


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## Bloggsworth (Jan 11, 2013)

*In Loco Absentium*

*


In Loco Absentium
*
Where we once walked in sunlight
are shadows, acorns thrown
now grown to trees - and this,
the grove in which we stood
and spoke of love is silent;
neither breeze nor bird disturb.
I rest here, between sweet briar
and celandine, not for pleasure,
but in remembrance.

​


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## Ariel (Jan 11, 2013)

*Palm Reading*

I wrote my number
along the crease of your palm.
Black ink shone under orange
streetlight. Your hand on my hair

as we kissed. Red lipstick smear
on your palm. "For luck,"
I said. All you left me
were cheap baubles--

wilted white roses
hang their poor heads.
All you could ever give
to me. I am done

with tears for you.
Now, I trace my life-
line and know--never
did it lead to you.


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## Vitaly Ana (Jan 11, 2013)

*Nineties Rewind*

The French had their francs,
It was worth a quarter to the Yanks
who signed Strawberry, Clemens and Cone.

Clinton was impeached,
Viagra hit the streets,
Dolly was the first known clone.

Hong Kong back to China,
Poor Princess Diana,
Bin Laden declares jihad.

Mad Cow disease,
The Unabomber to his knees,
Yeltsin elected in a popular vote.

O.J. set free,
Bosnia’s bloody streets,
Yahoo finds a home on the web.

Rwanda’s cease fire,
Mandela rehired,
Kerrigan slugged on her knee.

NAFTA is passed,
The World Wide Web at last,
Twin Towers rocked, for the first time.

The end of the Cold War,
L.A. riots galore,
Recycling of trash finds a home.

A brutal Haitian Coup,
The USSR too,
Bush demands a cease-fire from Saddam.

East and West Germany unite,
_Desert Storm _on CNN, every night,
The eighties - a thing of the past.


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## Chesters Daughter (Jan 12, 2013)

This challenge is now closed.

The "Like" function may now be utilized for this Challenge's entries by those who are so inclined.


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