{"id":5214,"date":"2013-03-22T00:00:06","date_gmt":"2013-03-22T04:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/home\/?p=5214"},"modified":"2013-05-07T10:24:30","modified_gmt":"2013-05-07T14:24:30","slug":"morning-on-three-sides-and-other-poems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/morning-on-three-sides-and-other-poems\/","title":{"rendered":"Morning on Three Sides and Other Poems"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Morning_On_3_Sides_585x585\"<\/a><\/p>\n

MORNING ON THREE SIDES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mornings. Like heaven.<\/p>\n

It’s\u00a0morning on three sides now
\nWindows all around<\/p>\n

I love my old quilt
\nWrapped around me as I wake
\nTo morning again<\/p>\n

Wrapped around my head<\/p>\n

Out of my slumber<\/p>\n

Slowly but surely
\nAlmost ready to start things<\/p>\n

Make the coffee and<\/p>\n

Turn on the news of the day
\nTake a shower too<\/p>\n

Maybe<\/p>\n

It’s on three sides now
\nNot behind my pillow though
\nIt’s a blank wall there<\/p>\n

And I’m in my quilt
\nMorning is embracing me
\nComing through the windows.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

SHACKLES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of you I am curious
\nWith restrained fascination<\/p>\n

I am utterly enchanted
\nYou’re unorthodox and\u00a0peculiar<\/p>\n

And idiosyncratic
\nNeither logic or reason<\/p>\n

Could explain how you tick
\nOr account for your ways<\/p>\n

You’re off-color, atypical
\nAnd a breath of fresh air<\/p>\n

In a world where it stinks
\nAnd it’s stale, hard to breathe<\/p>\n

My fire is kindled
\nAnd my senses are muddled<\/p>\n

“I am humbled,” I mumbled
\nAnd bumbled for sure<\/p>\n

I am helplessly imprisoned
\nI am caught and ensnared<\/p>\n

For this I am flummoxed
\nIn shackles I am chained<\/p>\n

Your enticing eccentricities
\nAnd uncompromised singularities<\/p>\n

Leave me only beholden
\nFor you simply amaze.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

PROPHETS AND SAGES<\/strong><\/p>\n

You speak in euphemisms and delicacies and fabrications. \u00a0With such bombastries and\u00a0pomposities and grandiloquences. What’s with this false front and the put-on high-handedness? And the whispering down the alley and talking in innuendos and riddles and smoke and mirrors and this gosh-darned twisting up in tangles?<\/p>\n

I wouldn’t know.<\/p>\n

Smug yes I am I’ve no doubt that it’s true. And of my own volition and choice and free will- to do what I want, when I want and how I want.<\/p>\n

Is that freedom?<\/p>\n

A manifesto with gusto and musto that’s meaty, with substance not trifling or lightweight like a feather. Nor inconsequential as one could stake one’s life on it. Nor flimsy and frothy as one could state it breathlessly.<\/p>\n

Or not.<\/p>\n

No need. If not for these immodest\u00a0theatricalities and overwrought\u00a0rhetoricalities and never-ending trivialities and trumperies and strumpets, and the brow-beaters and the drum-beating, getting beaten up and beaten down and eaten up alive.<\/p>\n

Have you noticed the run on chill pills?<\/p>\n

Oh for the philosophers and prophets and sages. All hail the self-appointed gurus and seers. Bow down to the wolf-criers and pot-stirrers and snake-oilers. Relent to the rabble-rousers and concubines and show boaters.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ANY GIVEN SUNDAY<\/strong><\/p>\n

on any given sunday
\nyou may see me ’round the town
\nlate morning more than likely
\ncould be early afternoon
\nif you do it’d be by chance
\nwith how things often go
\ncause nowadays the world’s a blur
\nwe’re busy
\nharried
\nlife’s a race
\nand tired
\nhardly get a rest
\nand are so lax
\nat touching base<\/p>\n

but any given sunday
\nthat’s when everything slows down
\nit’s then you may just find me
\nas i’m out making my rounds
\nsunday of all days is best
\nfor us to get caught up
\nwe’ll spend some time
\na meal to share
\nand take a walk
\nwithout a care
\ni can’t wait for the weekend
\nplease remember that it’s true
\nmost any given sunday
\nthat’s when i’m thinking of you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

THIS MOSAIC<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fragile and delicate
\nWith a rough exterior
\nThat betrays the gloominess
\nAnd apathy inside
\nThat persists<\/p>\n

Scared and vulnerable
\nWith a clouded and jaded view
\nOf how things are
\nAnd how they could be
\nFor you<\/p>\n

Your pain is too much
\nI know that it’s real
\nThe tears and the anguish
\nAnd nightmares reveal<\/p>\n

This mosaic<\/p>\n

Beat up and depleted
\nWith a gruff demeanor
\nThat defies the confusion
\nAnd sadness inside
\nThat persists
\nFor you<\/p>\n

It hurts me
\nBelieve me
\nTo know how you suffer
\nAnd live with such strife
\nEveryday
\nAll the time<\/p>\n

The weight is too much
\nPlease know that I’m here
\nReach out if you want to
\nAnytime I’ll appear<\/p>\n

This mosaic.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

RAINSTORMS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nature soothes my loneliness<\/p>\n

I know I’m not alone<\/p>\n

Mornings fill my emptiness<\/p>\n

Like nothing that I’ve known<\/p>\n

Sunlight warms the bitter cold<\/p>\n

That’s frozen up my heart<\/p>\n

Rainstorms wash away the dirt<\/p>\n

That’s been here from the start.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

JOHN DOE<\/strong><\/p>\n

there’s no such thing
\nas the common man
\nthere’s no such thing
\nas the average joe
\nor boilerplate
\nthere’s no such thing
\nas ordinary
\nno such thing<\/p>\n

conventional
\nme thinks a myth
\nthere’s no such thing
\nas Jones or Smith
\nor John Q Public
\neveryman
\nthere’s really no such thing<\/p>\n

they said that you are “typical
\nand regular, the usual and
\nwholly undistinguishable”
\nit hurt and made you sting<\/p>\n

but there’s no ho-hum
\nor dull or dim
\nand no so-so
\nor\u00a0proper prim
\nthere is no john doe
\nhere you know
\nthere’s really no such thing.<\/p>\n

\"Essense\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“The Essence of You” by Scott Dill<\/span><\/p>\n

THE ESSENCE OF YOU<\/strong><\/p>\n

at the foggy center of my mind<\/p>\n

i have a fuzzy picture of you<\/p>\n

it’s been so long you’d expect it be clear?<\/p>\n

i remember the outline of you<\/p>\n

and certainly the essence of you<\/p>\n

like when you walked into the room<\/p>\n

or when you were speaking<\/p>\n

the sound of your voice<\/p>\n

the inflection and urgency<\/p>\n

and emotion behind it<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

that i remember<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

much more than the actual details<\/p>\n

or particulars of what you look like<\/p>\n

it’s not that i forgot<\/p>\n

do you think that I could?<\/p>\n

it’s not that i don’t care<\/p>\n

i care more than you ever could know<\/p>\n

and it’s not that i think you don’t look good<\/p>\n

that’s so far from reality as to be laughable<\/p>\n

believe me<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and happens to not be the point here<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and not what had the most impact<\/p>\n

or what left the sharpest impression<\/p>\n

that was the very essence of you<\/p>\n

like when the foggy center of my mind<\/p>\n

sees that fuzzy picture of you<\/p>\n

and my eyes squint to see better<\/p>\n

where i block out the present<\/p>\n

and make everything stand still<\/p>\n

that’s when i have no problem<\/p>\n

feeling exactly the way that you felt.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

GO<\/strong><\/p>\n

how will you go?
\nwill it be out in a blaze of glory?
\nquickly and with no warning?
\nquietly and casually and
\nbehind only questions and wonder?<\/p>\n

or will you go slowly?
\nenduring a long period of pain?
\nwith your body and mind shutting down
\nand you stomping your feet and refusing
\nto let go with all your might?<\/p>\n

for some reason<\/p>\n

will you go begrudgingly?
\nlooking back with regret?
\nand questioning the significance
\nof coming in the first place?<\/p>\n

or will you go enthusiastically?
\nknowing you did your best
\nto make life what you could
\nand became exactly the person
\nyou were meant to be?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

THAT DAY THAT NEVER ENDS<\/strong><\/p>\n

That’s what I want<\/p>\n

That day that never ends
\nNot because I’m too busy or harried
\nNot because “there aren’t enough hours in the day”<\/p>\n

As people say<\/p>\n

Just because
\nSome days are better than others
\nYou know they are memories as you live them
\nYou watch yourself like a fly on the wall
\nAnd know you’ll never forget<\/p>\n

Things knitting up<\/p>\n

Dots connecting<\/p>\n

Storm clouds blowing away<\/p>\n

Life coming full circle<\/p>\n

Do you think I can get that?
\nThat day that never ends?<\/p>\n

The years go by people come and they go
\nThings change in so many ways
\nThe sun comes up and your hair goes gray
\nYou’ll remember that day<\/p>\n

And you’ll bask and you’ll revel and you’ll think to yourself
\nThere’s nothing you wouldn’t do
\nYou’d do anything you could
\nFor that day that never ends.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Pete Armetta<\/strong>\u00a0is a writer of Flash Fiction, Poetry, Short Stories and Essays. With a style that’s been called accessible and broad, unpredictable and matter-of-fact, Pete is a genuine, self-taught outsider. His stories and poetry fend off conventionality and he’s never easy to pigeonhole. Pete is a native New Yorker living in Charlottesville, Virginia, via too many other places to count. Pete’s work has appeared or is\u00a0upcoming in Zest Literary Magazine, Gadfly Online, The River Journal, Expats Poetry, Subtle Fiction, Best New Poems, Cynic Magazine, The Blue Lake Review, Stone Path Review and Inclement Poetry Magazine. He is a regular contributor of fiction to The Piker Press and has been his writing has been included in numerous anthologies. Pete’s first poetry chapbook, New Future, was published in 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mornings. Like heaven.<\/p>\n

It’s morning on three sides now
\nWindows all around<\/p>\n

I love my old quilt
\nWrapped around me as I wake
\nTo morning again<\/p>\n

Wrapped around my head<\/p>\n

Out of my slumber…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":5392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,218,219,199],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5214"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5214"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5590,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5214\/revisions\/5590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}