NICHOLAS EMEIGH
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          • Grounding Exercise
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          • Save A Place For Me
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          • Shell
          • She Doesn't Hold a Candle
          • Signature
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          • Still Life With Butter Dish
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          • Sup
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Home » Writing Portfolio » Entire Collection » A B C D-E F-G H-J K-M N-O P-Q R S T U V-Z » Greatest Hits

S

Save A Place For Me
(♫ Reading Available)

Sitting alone at an off-season sidewalk table
of some trendy New York coffee house
with a crisp suit and newly polished shoes,
a man looks at his watch that had stopped years ago.

His eyebrows lower with his shoulders,
countenance taken from the front burner
and placed on the rear where the ebullition is lessened
to relieve his satin-neglected lips of their dutiful smiling
and his mind of the random act of hoping.

He gently whispers words that are undetected
by the business women with running shoes,
poets, politicians, paupers,
or men wearing pin-striped suits and blinders.

The age old trees enclosed by metal grates
seem to sing his tired refrain,
and he looks up with the utmost gratitude
only to find that their limbs are just marionettes
animated by the cool breath of the wind.

He looks down again at his coffee--
no sweetener, just as the doctor had advised--
and talks to it humbly as if it had the sense,
or as if it even cared to listen.

After watching this poor soul for some time
from a rusted iron table not far from his,
I heard him say, "To whom it may concern:
save a place for me, I'll be home soon."

Sex, Fast.
(♫ Reading Available)

I, love, and you
Given back with a “too”
Are the three greatest words
Ever spoken.

But more often than not
You give up what you’ve got,
And then, horrified, find
he’s not joking.

Shell

this is not me you're talking to
i have removed myself from the situation
to sit on sandy beaches under umbrella's shade
from harsh, surmounted troubles like sunlight.

She Doesn't Hold A Candle

I’d love to know where you’ve gone, what you’re doing,
how many lovers you’ve had, are you brooding?
What is the color of your lover’s hair, and is it a man
or a girl flown in? A mail order bride? Is she from Pakistan?

What did you do upon waking this morning?
What did you do all last night, was it better
than the nights that we had? Maybe you found them boring,
but I wasn’t paying attention. Oh, that’s her...

Signature

I signed my name
to it's rightful
social security card
when I was twelve.

There is a
curlicued "N"
with a brusque period
cutting Nicholas off
at the initial.

And Emeigh is
scrawled to delineate
my priorities
and the fact that names
were vague things,
but the mark endured.

A Simple Man

could i be a simple man
who never gets to understand
all of the important things
in life, who never pulls the strings?

i am not him, i know.

could i be a simple man
who just sits back and watches life,
content with his small piece of land
holding a wifey woman's hand?

i am not him, i know.

could i be a simple man
who sacrifices, scrimps and saves
to feed his family each day
just existing?

i am not him, i know.

Spirit Specialist

You are not just a counselor,
  Though craziness you do endure.
    You are not just a therapist,
      You are a spirit specialist.
You are a mother substitute,
  And you could not be more astute
    At showing love and great restraint.
      You have the patience of a saint.
No use of height or weight could measure
  All we've accomplished together
    In that little office there
      Where I first came in despair.
Your talent lies in mending souls
  Wrought with trauma, on parole;
    You're the one who gives a damn
      When others just have doors to slam.
My Nancy, you have guided me
  To be the best that I can be,
    And I would like to say "Thank You"
      For all you are and all you do.

Spring

The wind is warming its cool breath
and seeks to make amends with me
for chilling me too close to death
by placing a hand upon my knee

Spring, please ford the frozen lake
and bring a promise of new hope
placid waters in your wake
a sign of peace on your towrope

Still Life With Butter Dish
(♫ Reading Available)

Butter dish set on the table
Butter dish engulfed by flies
Butter dish that's long been empty
Since in the ground my family lies

The table has been set by many
Sat at by familiar ghosts
Some say they could be my family
Some say they're familiar hosts

Butter dish lies cold and lonely
Shadowed by the candle sticks
Sticks that were lit one time only
Black and burned the saddened wicks

This table was a host to many
Now it only holds your souls
Sat at by the few - if any
Me, the one comprised of holes

Studio System

A moment before the gun fires
the only glint in the eye is
the gun's reflection: liquid silver,
and the only thing reflecting
in the gun's metal is cowardice.
Behind the eye, within the folds
of cortexes and passage ways,
a movie plays called "Flash."
I am its sole viewer, no hollywood
for me because I am gutless;
I can't stick it out to sell
my life to a producer, but
if the studio system
were still in existence
launching stars to fame,
that would be reason enough
to stick around. Thank God
for the gift of choice.

The Surgeon

I pick at the problem,
pick down to the bone,
then sad that I'm stopped
no problems resolved.
I struggle to get to
the issues at hand
as voices call to me
from inside my head.
I pick to get to them,
to pull them out through
these wounds I create,
but then always the skull.
Damn this formation
that protects the brain
from self-surgery to it
by uneducated hands
whose fingers are bloody
from constant operation.

©
The unique works displayed on the pages herein are © 1997-2013 Nicholas Emeigh. Use is restricted.

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  • Home
  • Writing
    • Poetry - Entire Collection >
      • Poems A-M >
        • A >
          • 4 a.m. in Beantown
          • About The Way You Look In This Photo
          • Airborne
          • All About Me
          • Amazing Motherhood
          • An Ant's Heartbeat
          • Angry, Angrier, Angriest
          • Antiquated
          • Art of Coasting, The
          • Autumn Leaves
        • B >
          • Bad Touches
          • Baggage
          • Bar Lighting
          • Behold This Love I've Laid to Rest
          • Benevolent God, A
          • Birth of a Generation
          • Blowing Smoke
          • Blue Balloon
          • Bohemians
          • Breakfast
          • Burn
          • Busy Museum
        • C >
          • Calico Waves
          • Carried
          • Caulk
          • Chapbook
          • Cocoon
          • Cold
          • Contortionist, The
          • Conundrum
          • Courage In Faith
          • Cowboys and Kings
        • D-E >
          • Daytime Nightmares
          • Doe
          • Don't Tell
          • Down Deep
          • Dreamer, The
          • Dreams Of A Real Life
          • Easter '94-'14
          • Easy Street Wasn't Paved
          • End of the World, The
          • Ever-Autumn Town
          • Everyone
        • F-G >
          • Family
          • Fear of Heights
          • First Fall Harvest
          • Footprints
          • Forecasting
          • Fragile
          • Friends
          • Fucked
          • Funeral For Me and You, A
          • Grandparents Day
          • Grounding Exercise
          • Growing Up
        • H-J >
          • Haiku on Working
          • Half The Man
          • Heaven
          • High Wire Walker
          • Him
          • Homestead
          • I Am Cold Turkey
          • If
          • Imaginary Friends
          • Instant Safety: Add Water & Stir
          • Interview
          • Iridescence
          • I Still Dream of You
          • It's A Funny Thing Being Lonely
          • Just Answering a Question
        • K-M >
          • The Key
          • King of Marigolds
          • Lost Souls
          • Love As Such
          • Love Song
          • Lube
          • Machine Dreams
          • A Makeshift Prayer
          • Maniac
          • Manifesto
          • Masks
          • Maybe Account, The
          • May Twenty Third
          • Money
          • Mother's Day
          • Muse
          • Musing on a Hunt
          • My Mother's Eyes
      • Poems N-Z >
        • N-O >
          • Napster Revolt
          • Nest
          • New Year
          • Noël Coward's Party
          • No Fun
          • Not Cool
          • Not Crazy
          • Old Love
          • On Norman Mailer's Death
        • P-Q >
          • Painter Man
          • Party People
          • Perfume
          • Personal Wealth
          • Philadelphia
          • Pity Party
          • Plan, A
          • Please Leave the Memories
          • Politics
          • Prankster
          • Present Company Excluded
          • Pride It Was And Dignity
          • Puppy Love
          • Quack
        • R >
          • Radar
          • Rated "R"
          • Real Pitfalls
          • Reconciliation
          • Respect For Elders
          • Résumé
          • Resurrection
          • Return To Light From Darkness
          • Risk
        • S >
          • Save A Place For Me
          • Sex, Fast.
          • Shell
          • She Doesn't Hold a Candle
          • Signature
          • Simple Man, A
          • Spirit Specialist
          • Spring
          • Still Life With Butter Dish
          • Studio System
          • Sup
          • The Surgeon
        • T >
          • Teacher
          • Thank God, It Was Only A Dream
          • These Voices
          • They
          • They Say I'm Crazy
          • This Doesn't Rhyme
          • A Time Before Dying
          • Toxic Friends
          • Trademark
          • Treadmill
        • U >
          • Under Bed Delivery
          • Underground Reverie
          • An Understanding
          • Unearthly
          • Untitled
          • Untitled 2
          • Untitled People
          • Untitled Sadness
          • Utopian Melodrama
        • V-Z >
          • Verse For A Death Chamber
          • Volley
          • War
          • Warming Up To Change
          • Weathered Hands
          • We the Depressed
          • What It's Like to Look at Me
          • What Would You Have Done With Me?
          • Who Can Say?
          • You, Me, and He
          • The Young Narcissists
    • SoundCloud Poetry Readings
    • YouTube Poetry Readings