Nightmares

This picture scared me on so many levels.

I was writing
a poem
about the night’s
soothing calm
A sigh for the soul
Then
I saw your
sordid picture
Mouths widened
in selfish shrieks
against selfless acts
Like things possessed
created for a
Wes Craven movie
Based on characters
written by Poe
or Lovecraft
The image of your
scream-crazed faces
Furious in windowed doors
mall parking lots, state
capitals & mansions
Rivaling those of
rabid wolves
from a childhood
dark & disturbed dream
My poetic purpose
vanished
Replaced by the dread:
You spread nightmares.

 

 

Kathleen A. Dorholt

NaPoWriMo 2020

NaPoWriMo April 20, 2020

When Silence Is the Story

March 2020 

no gunshot

resounding rage 

in schools. 

Once more

silent and safe.

Salient statistic

separating 

1 now

from 

18 before.

We need not be

National Honor Society

to discern its

cogent lesson:

Silence    

            doesn’t    

                         always      

                                     deafen—

                                                    This

                                                           message 

                                                                           is 

                                                                              clear.

Kathleen A. Dorholt

NaPoWriMo 2020

April 15, 2020

Someone Will Remember Us

I wanted to write a poem about a carnival, but the image of Wisconsin voters during the pandemic can’t leave me. So, I took a line from a poetry bot (the first line) and wrote this.

Someone will remember us

like a stranded voice

pleading out against the roar

of a January blizzard.

With mere masks 

 and half-assed hand wipes 

we came.

Cattle penned at the slaughterhouse.

And cast our votes.

Against the odds . . .

Contrary to reason . . .

Fingers crossed . . .

Our feeble act

of freedom.

 

Kathleen A. Dorholt

NaPoWriMo 2020

Day 9

4/9/2020

 

 

 

Stay

This blackout poem is written from Elizabeth Glasskell’s “A Dark Night’s Work.” Though published in 1863, I found words that describe spring 2020.(Kathleen A. Dorholt/NaPiWriMo 4/2/2020)

Metamorphosis

The gathering shadows

turned to chill

and dreary rain

then to renegade storm

drops falling faster than

the speed of light

throbbing on my window

like bad dreams

and

I was only five again 

afraid of unknown whispers 

in the dark.

 

Kathleen A. Dorholt 

NaPoWriMo 2019

April 19, 2019

His Art

He spun 

a magic memory

on his charming canvas 

and lulled truth and time

with seductive elegance 

engulfing her full need

entirely in the warmth

of what once was

surrounding her with

uncertain hope before

the last goodbye.

Kathleen A. Dorholt

NaPoWriMo 2019

Alright 18, 2019

No (a poem after the Notre Dame fire)

Today the world feels different 

dreary, empty, cold,

sunk to stoic loneliness,

in need of tender calm

After the burning devoured

a bright human hope

even a dreamer cries

at the why if it

Here we hesitate and imagine 

the instant when all beat

well, clear, and simple 

in our hearts

If heaven ever spun a rainbow 

we need its unending color now.

Kathleen A. Dorholt 

NaPoWriMo 2019

April 16, 2019