The Headboard Blues

It's that time of night, either 11 or 2,
When I start to get the headboard blues
There's nothing more awkward, we can agree
Than hearing your neighbour in ecstasy
I'd rather be woken to birds in their nest
Than a pursuant "yes, yes, YES"
The sound makes you too human, too real
I've seen you check your mail, and I've heard you squeal
I've seen you walk your dog and I do confess
I get uncomfortable when you say the word "yes"
The headboard noise is probably the worst
I stare at the ceiling; ah, I've been cursed
I play some music and curl into a ball
Waiting patiently until you finish your brawl
What you do in your home is your own affair
Just letting you know: I'm also there
Creepy, right? Those are apartments, you see
But let me nag you, if only indirectly
I'd rather listen to five kids crying at once
I'd rather hear twenty-five basketballs bounce
I'd rather be woken by a tiger's roar
Or of a teenager slamming the door
I'd rather hear you sing karaoke at 2 a.m.
Instead of hearing that incessant slam
I know I'm not innocent, I'm also to blame
Which is why I must cool my angry flame
Monkeys do it, birds do it, I know I'm aware
And in nature sweet privacy is rare
But the privacy I get in this thinly lined box
Is equal to that of a chimpanzee or a fox
It's 6 am and I'm woken by headboard blues
I've been awoken by screws upon screws
In all places I've lived, everywhere I go
Sleep hasn't been a thing that I know
The universal human paradox, let me clear it
Is wanting to have sex but not wanting to hear it

Comments

Happiness is Pink Jellybeans

Happiness is jumping in a pool of pink jellybeans Feeling the cool candy on my skin Happiness is enjoying the pleasures of life Without worrying about confessing my sins Whoever said that we are gluttons For biting juicy pears on the beach Must never have felt the sand in their toes They must have placed their own soul out of reach And what about greed? It's not all that bad To bury a pile of chestnuts for the spring All animals do it, so why shouldn't we? If it's greedy to love yourself, let it be Lust is the one that makes pastors blush Yet it's one of the greatest joys in the body A kiss and a dance, laughter and romance Why did we ever label this happiness as naughty? Have you ever seen a cat sad when it naps? It is okay to sometimes be lazy The body needs rest as does the mind Or the world will set fire from the crazy If happiness is a sin, then let me smile in hell Looking up at the do-gooders above For to live is to err, to cry, and to sing Happiness is pink jell...

Lost in Rio

Jesus looks over The lost souls and bones below In the jungle sun To witness such beauty And such devastation God painted with one brushstroke Merry men sing Holes in their shoes The dark night lit up By police sirens And the crescent moon Bats flail around Like me, lost in the jungle Eyes glaring all around I hope they're monkeys Or jaguars I hope I can keep a piece of This country with me Safe in my pocket It smells like tropical rain And feels like The clam shells Washed up on the shore It tastes like fried bananas And heavily salted steak Sounds like seabirds cawing Samba on the streets And looks like a page From a storybook About parrots and palm trees Of finding a golden treasure A magnificent, uneasy place When she sun goes down So do we Leaving the night To the creepy crawlers And innocent stray cats

I See the Fire

Every time I close my eyes, I see the fire That aches where you burned me last I am a woman of the earth and the cool soil Where life ferments and earthworms roam I can't survive the lava that pulses beneath The crust of this beautiful land Yellow dandelions piercing the grass Emerald pockmarked with gold I wish sometimes that I wasn't a woman of the earth I wish that I were stronger I wish that my bones were made of steel And my heart of flame So that I wouldn't fall apart at every Crude remark, every Light tug, every Covert attack That rolls off the back of a fire-woman Instead, my skin is transluscent Like the morning dew My muscles pieced together With tree sap and mushrooms What's an earth-woman to do In a world engulfed by fire? But root herself firmly to one place Grow a network of twisting underground limbs And create a stable home To escape the chaos of this world

Olga's Poetry & Thoughts

Search This Blog