Step into summer's last light hew
Where the dreams of decades lived run true.
Shadowed fingers grip us there
To press deep the moments we once shared.
Twilight's chill preserves our past
It's unfathomable magic forever lasts.
Be lost within that mystic hold
Where our long loved secrets are never told.

Tom Lefort, June 2024

A photo: I'm six,

in the garden I bury --


a box with secrets.

Soft falls the light around your face
which drinks the night
and leaves no trace upon your sleeping form
as you lie curled and safe and warm
who am I to know or see
the secrets that you keep from me
we give our minds to flights of dreams
but keep them to ourselves it seems

the interior     night
he divided a dream into many dreams
worlds opened    diva-ing
and flares   pething out of darkness
seeming obedient  at first
                                 he visited
in truth      they were playful
  but explored his ugly secret details
        and gave no hint of a healing effect

deceived   he was tossed
   exhausted into a new day
                      of occupation and toil

No longer sick with a secret
Crushed by worry and pain
The avalanche of addiction
Life in a Hurricane
Willing to tell your story
Without blood-letting blame
Being brave every morning
Clothed with courage everyday.

(c) Debra Lea Ryan
05/01/2024

You never did manage to see
The final nail on the casket nor
The 9 years it has taken me
To unweave it from my crown of thorns

You say you shout you scream
You could not have foretold
The bullet I held clenched between my teeth
Heavy to the touch, heavy and unbearably cold
Not as I my mouth became a steal barrel,
Not as it came racing out
Not as it came to meet your creased forehead's third fold

I shake with loss
I shiver with relief
My silver armor melts away and evaporates into flesh
The life you had left ahead of you was anyway brief
Unlike the fruits you stole from my long life that once lay ahead of me
An ugly, loud, rampant, hobbling thief

I leave my pills to you
For all the times I failed
Trying bleed your blood out from my wrists
Bullet blown, skeletons thrown, casket nailed
I walk back up the stairs light as a feather
A crested crow, my wings unfurled, a crested crow unveiled