KENNETH NORMAN COOK

KENNETH

NORMAN COOK

HIDEAWAY

Is it warm in your little hideaway?

Are you comfortable now?

Surrounded by glass,

floating in a crimson pool

and safe from the real world.

[Your higher power is dead!

Your will has been destroyed!

You are like the proverbial dog

that has returned to its vomit!]

Is it snug in your old hideaway?

Are you happy at long last?

Can you hear me?

Can you hear anything?

NOW IT BEGINS

With teary eyes and a quivering smile,

he waves a final goodbye;

his head in a humming fog

and his heart filled with

the antithetical emotions of

excitement and apprehension.

The past ten years come flooding over him

like a sudden violent rainstorm:

The black clouds ripping open a chasm

and hurling down a deluge onto his head

and into his overwhelmed soul.

Now it begins:

A new path; a new adventure; a new life.

One more glance back, and he silently,

secretly breaks down in the parking lot:

Goodbye to her… to them… to ten years.

Now it begins.

He knows the truth in his heart and mind:

Every ending is the start of a new beginning.

WHAT HAVE YOU TURNED INTO?

Your limp hand feels rough and cold in mine,

matching the icy hardness of your heart.

Your eyes never seem to stop and catch mine,

unless with a brief glance of empty indifference.

Your lips are devoid of that sparkling smile,

except to catch the gaze of another man.

Your melodious voice has become a dry chant,

matching the arid routine of our romance.

What have you turned into?

KENNETH NORMAN COOK

KENNETH NORMAN COOK  is an American, born in the United States and raised in California in the 1960s. (English is his native language.) It was there in Southern California, in grade school that he began to fall in love with words, through a sixth grade English assignment to write a poem about Halloween. His entry was selected to be published in the school newsletter and that started him on a lifetime sojourn through the creative world known as poetry. After living away for many years, Kenneth is back in California, where he continues to write daily. He is a regular contributor to several magazines, including Wildfire Publications Monthly Magazine, where he is a co-contributor for a section on tips for writers. He has been featured in numerous poetry anthologies and has released a newly revised edition of his poetry collection, Shadow Walk With Me. He is also the author of a second book, This Side of Nothing, a third: a collection of haiku and senryu poetry, titled Theater of the Absurd, and a fourth: From Dark Corners and Dusty attics, which is a combination of older poems, both previously published, as well as published for the first time. Kenneth has recently released a fifth book, Strange Bedfellows: A Collection of Erotica & Limericks.