6or8
poetry gallery

Welcome


all poetry by Jennifer Samimi
final poem
hovering over beers with broken pencils and broken hearts
shallow days pass like a puddle of something spilled last night
the dripping sun pouring over the horizon and we squint
to see the light that isn't there. 

for us, time is everything
we drink to the past, and the now
we don't have pain, we don't have sorrw
jaded by too many years of this and that
not even heartbreak can find it's way

in a place that words forgot

when will we figure out the rest?
that life has more to it that dark corners for scratching out 

meaningles rhetoric?
when will we content with Home?

ah, but content doesn't mean anything if restless doesn't either
when anger and love mean the same thing

a soft touch on a fevered head
will there be time to question anything tomorrow?
for us, it's now or not
for us, it's the moment

The Season

Clouds roll by like summer love
There’s no time to think about it
All there is to do now is get high
Roll in the field
And remember the man who never laughed

Fall is here and winter is on it’s way
Another day
And it’ll be raining again
Constant talk about heading Out West
Tomorrow, tomorrow

Not enough clouds to worry about
Rain
A few drops on the face never killed anybody
The medicine men are everywhere
All you can do now is look for tall grass

Like lightning,
Meaning comes in flashes
Not waves or dreams
But sudden insight that likes
To jump up and bite you
Maybe it shakes you up a bit
Or maybe it vanishes snakelike
Leaving you with just a glimpse…an idea of reality
You never had before


Blades still fresh, green, moist with dusk
Feels like being 10 years old
A summer without shoes,
Just a dog and a bicycle
You wish you hadn’t changed, in a way
Wish that summer had never ended
And you could still hear the woodpecker calling you home

Snow blankets earth with a white peace you never see in summer
Or Out West

We all become children in the cold
Forgetting how to tell time
The smallest things left unpaid

Sun pours over our faces
Snow breaks into puddles
Gutters trickle to remind us
Winter has yet to come

Days Like This There are days when you don’t know what cold means Days when you come home to the red blinking light on the answering machine And know there’s someone out there That’s wondering what you’re doing tonight There are days when the clock doesn’t bother you Except to tell you that you’re late There are days when the ticking is there Reminding and Not letting it go Watching television and eating too much ice cream Wishing it would all just go away Hammering out the wrinkles of the day There are days when nothing happens And you drift through a sea creature Blind and unfeeling Except for the cold scent and Dark expanse around you Those days you can’t tell from nights

Slide Sunlight slips Cracked and cold Like blood on the tongue, dissolving Chasing away the velvet months Of nighttime strolls and Tug-o-war Frozen fingers fumble For the key, any key To unlock this door This heavy iron of uncertainty To exhale becomes a broken dance A reflection in the cracked mirrored glass Spending each other like love is something to sell A chair or a loaf of bread Sick of the game, we decide on Clarity A flailing exchange, not easy to hide But down below where everything is rusty, dusty, broken Down below something glows red And the gears begin to grind

Poem for 24-hour Junkies And that's why I can't leave this place The juicy little secrets That eat it all Spiral wants In disarray And there's a private song Just around every corner This is half And this is the finish And this is about to begin Real conversations with no want And no reason Something to do On whatever night I forget some things Like who killed the innocents I changed some things. Maybe. But does any of it matter, anyway? Who’s going to be the one to change? Who will make the call. Holding it up a moonlit platter High on white Hills of reaching arms. Stretching And all the diamonds filling that empty Black void Will wink and twinkle The clef Of time and whatever left over It makes me shake, and sigh, and Cry inside "I'm glad I haven't met That kind yet" I don't know How to get straight The smoke's not thick enough To try and find my way So I said "Keep it here Keep it real It’s not a charm or a trinket But holy and everywhere and one It will let me breathe Or drown me in my own tears" And no-one knew what to do So we exchanged the knowing glance And shuffled around some But time didn't stop In fact, nothing did Motions went on moving And snatch me back to that uncomfortable place There’s nothing to do there Except shuffle and wait "AND NO WOMEN WANT TO BE TAKEN I guess you can't understand it" But the orders keep coming in And that's what we all wait for In the end

home