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Arpitha 11m
Handicapped by my brain
art and poetry are my crutches.
How long will they last?
Are they helping me stand?
or just digging a hole
for me to sink deeper?
If I wrote a song about me
The intro would be a happy melody.
I’d miss a couple chords
Hum some notes a little too sharp
But it’s okay

The first verse would be laughter
Dancing through the sun’s rays
White keys beneath my fingers
Playing the major

The second verse would fog over
minor notes bleeding through
each wrong sound a confession
I prayed no one would hear

The chorus would unravel
Restless chords, circling, choking
A violin played with shards of glass

The third verse would be filled with screaming
Raw and jagged
Into the void where I hoped to disappear
The fourth would fade into silence
And the fifth would hollow to a ghost

Then the devil's interval would loop, waiting for the next line
With each passing day I feel less and less present (Down Day)
Peacock feather perfection.

A baby panther yawning, sleek and black, with a swan behind stretching those wings.

The reddest of roses held to the sky.

A silvery plate of oily green olives throwing back the sun, of which they are, ( of which we all are) so hard, becoming one with nothing again in each passing breath. Energy expended.

The care of casket sheen—silken interiors but overflowing with the wet, inky blackness of squirming, over-lit salamanders. Writhing Erupting. Effluviant. Rubbery little salamanders. Everywhere.

Nature. The nature. Of art and beauty.

Understanding, the great misunderstanding right before our eyes.

Right. before.         Our eyes.
Rite before our eyes.

Eyes, another’s .What we truly long to see.

The clarity of symbols built over centuries
and lost in a single fire/trend.
Deenah 1d
I guard the paper as if it were breath itself,
pressed to my chest,
believing it holds my strength within its folds.

I long for its giver to be as before—
tender,
true.
I pray he will grow deeper still,
that after nikah, I may be the light in his eye.

Yet my thoughts race—
a scroll of green flags,
a river of fears.
I crave assurance
that my home remains in his heart—
secure, and more than before.

So I turn to the Lord:
if khair is written,
joy will come—
greater than I ever dreamed to ask.

And this page is no love letter,
but a cloak of faith to be cherished:
lines of devotion,
handwriting so graceful
that each curve and flourish feels like art.
We the gentle
Are meant for
Sentimental
For charcoal pencil thumb-smudged skies
Over lamplit rented rooms on the Seine
Moonlight gauzey glamoured eyes
Grimy hands that write paint spin, throw clay,
that grab our grandfather’s violin at all hours of the day and play.
Mad with passion,
starving, raving, gorged on lush love-struck life abundant,
on rain-slicked splendor.

We the gentle
Bend toward each other in salvation as sunflowers turn inward in the absence of sunlight.
Salvation.
It’s all wrong
We do not belong do not belong.
Bloodletting stardust into the vents
Hearts rent and free bleeding
Feeding the over fed
No page or paint, no violin
No romance, no gods here
But Death and Dread.

We the gentle
Get no roses but see red red red with arms outstretched,
Fighting the tide
Soft bodies open minds
Not weak but kind
Once fruit, now rind
We aren’t meant for these times.
Clear eyed and noncompliant,
We who know the essence of Love Defiant,
Truth in muck, truth in starlight,
We feel the press on all ******* sides
To run, to hide

And instead sing, paint, play
Write.
Vibration and sound
The echo of solitude
Wind that eyes can see
- David Cunha
september 16, 2025
4:43a.m.
Tallow

The candle and I bear witness
to the long, lone, and restless night.
With a match, we bring ourselves to light
brilliant reminders of finer days past.
pushed forth
out of love
but not meant to last,

We complement each other in our fading vigilance,
twisting,
smoldering,
struggling
we fall,
exhausted or, dripping
We grow ever small.

Used,
they saw the one true answer,
and so it was
the only light.
No will,
no arms
with which to fight,
no rival to the endless stars
a sky that taught the world to dance.
Symbols of hope and knowledge
not brought into this world by chance.


To flicker and hiss or  claim our right.
Wax sealed the deed and blinded our sight.

Born to burn and ever so fast.
Brilliant reminders of those finer days past,
wrought for one purpose, yet never to last.
Illuminations were made, in shadow we cast.

Those that sputter and waver,
gutter and wane,
flee before storms, slip from the reins.
Yet from us,
the lights still glow,
revealing the truths the Greats longed to know.

Some writhe .
Others twinkle  
I smoke
and then fall
until there is nothing left
of us at all.

Here but once, and once alone
Is it just once, and all from a spark?
Our essence is , YEARNING
not Dawn, nor the Dark.
enjoy.
To create or to consume, that is the question
To cook or to gorge, needs answering
When a leaf flutters down from a tree
Dead, worn and bereft of life
The earth greets it with little mercy
And proceeds to devour it utterly
But ask the tree what she poured into that leaf
And she answers calmly, all the life that came before me
Our duty is to be, but our desire is to set free
What lives within us, from others already freed
From the mortal yoke
It takes a poke, a nudge and sometimes a push
For it comes not easy, not easily shook
But once you breathe the air of creation
You will never again question
Whether to eat or create
You draw upon the joys and pain of the billions before you
And you exhale into being, a beautiful bloom
Struggling to create something, speaking my truth
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