Country Music Songwriting Contest, Chapter 3, feels like coming down

 I've been writing poetry for the songwriting contest since 8 this morning, and if Chapter 3 of this day means anything, it's just that it's better to start on Chapter 1 and come this way if you really want to understand this ride. Chapter 3 is becoming a hero dose of writing.

Rare souls always cave for this one

they say I made a picture of God

I tell them no,

it was the nose of a dog

blended with a moth

and the horns of a ram

over a picture of a turtle

shell abandoned in my yard,

no trace of its former inhabitor

I just rearranged its pieces

until it felt right

because its the most I can do

is be a witness

I found a piece of you today

and it reminded me of flight

I'm still waiting on my wings

I ordered them as a child

believing in answers to prayers

like a damned sucker.

*probably needs to smoke another one or pass out* 

but will do neither because I'm not a damn quitter,

I can get good again, after I get through this bit.

Painter Jim, wherever you are

I'm sorry I kept you in a milk jug,

it was only an hour, it must have felt longer

but I wanted to really see you

This caterpillar has a cool name

but I just call it a lemon stingie,

because it's yellow and it has ferocious stingers

and I have to remind myself

to keep distance

ever since my head started a war with me

I'll forget and find out if I'm allergic

*This one is a mashup of different pictures of the sky on different days. Put together the different types of light on the same sunset and the sky becomes a complete mystery.

You boys always remind me

the magic in little things

like jumping on the bed

and firing pop guns 

shooting me while I'm shooting you

And letting you jump on the bed

because you only get to do that at my house

And I kind of make a point of letting you 

do the things forbidden at home

Because doing the forbidden

elicits a real smile every time 

I want them to talk about

going back to Jonnie's house

because I remind them of freedom

*The Plastic Weapon collection I sold on Etsy 

**I had a plastic weapon collection I was quite proud of, along with a collection of the "world's saddest trophies," the best and saddest trophy engraved "Janet, 3rd place Bowling, and I took a lot of joy in the stupid things humans create and that sometimes failures are trophies we keep that remind us to stay humble. Perhaps we should have badges for the stupid things we do too, just to remind us, just to remind us that winning is meaningless and that we're all winning some and losing some, all day every day and no success or failure is any better or any worse than anyone else's, and hopefully whichever way it went, it felt meaningful and gave you some insight into the world and the gears in the back of it ever grinding away at waking us up.

I could take out the land behind her,

and her brother

and it would be an ancient painting

of a saint and her deer

I'll protect you from the light

You've done nothing to deserve that

Except sign up for online dating

And you had no idea what you 

were getting yourself into the day we met

in person

You haunt Reddit

sometimes

because all the people on there

talk like you, too much deep thinking

can have you just swimming

in circles

and down that rabbit hole again

and I don't always understand you 

letting yourself get so miserable

digging that hole then digging

yourself back out, but oh yeah,

I understand that perfectly

After you spited me,

I heard you were living in your neighbor's

garage shitting in 5 gallon buckets

and brother I never meant to do you

any harm

You were the first to name my movement

You called my work the Nebraskafication

of downtown Las Vegas

and I never forgot it

because you saw it,

and you GOT it,

and you were bold enough to tell me

I'll never forget that

*Daniel did maintenance for the Blue Angel in Las Vegas, and I worked at the bar below the angel,

so we all decided to go see the angel up close one day, Kristin, Double O, Daniel and I

Tell me that after we're gone

We'll haunt the world with this joy

of being able to afford 3 fireworks

so we could afford to get enough alcohol to make it 

through 3 fireworks

*found this picture while I was being paid to photograph a corporate McDonald's convention

**funniest thing about convention: that song they played over and over about teen angst or something, dang it, what was that song? I'll remember it later and hopefully remember to come back and put it in here, but it was antithetical to the whole ethos of McDonald's and I found it quite amusing

You and me, her and him,

we are soulmates 

in 1/125th of a second, 

and for only that brief period

We've never met 

and we'll never meet again

But in the picture we live 

together forever

and nature has played this divine joke

I'm the only one in on the joke

nobody else ever knew

that they're the same

They've come from

the same Seuss planet

and they'll return

and reunite one day