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Dakota Feb 2022
War
War
How it rattles
You always ask

Monsters behind lines
Everybody is a casualty
Nobody is the same

Fighting over what’s wrong
In the most of the battle
Guns roaring
Helicopters patrolling
Tomorrow’s children shipped over still

Everybody knows
All the ways
Children play war
How fun it is

Only veterans know
The real struggle
Hiding in the bushes
Entire platoons down
Running in the jungle
influenced by photos of the Vietnam War
CC BY-NC-ND
Jean Feb 2022
Tonight you sat down
Scouring through love letters
written by your grandparents
Johnny was in the Philippines
And Ena was back home
I wish I were there with you
No mask
No distance
I wish I were there with you
Pouring over love letters and
Not needing to write them
2.22.22
Påłpëbŕå Oct 2021
you're the one good bond i had

the one good thing in the bad

the prettiest person were you

accepting my ugly and blue

i will never be free from our bond

of you i shall forever stay fond

somethings are too painful to remember

but you're too precious to forget

love like dying embers

our destinies in stone set

though apart

beating hearts

pumping the same red

residing in each other's head

two books too different for a shelf

two souls too dark for a self
i guess, love will never be enough
Aleksey Oct 2021
To fly, I wish I could
And hug her, I would
Love is the mood
To hope, I know I should
But that it can't be, we understood.
The title is something we used to say
That we are an ocean and some land away...
Valya Oct 2021
I’m waiting
One more failed attempt
One more setback
One more time that I got played
I’m still waiting though
Waiting for the person who will love me
Waiting for the person that will treat me right
Please don’t keep me waiting for too long
I just wanna find the type of love that my parents never seemed to be able to find.
Broken Pieces Sep 2021
Why do I feel so lost?
My life is getting better day by day,
But my mental health seems to be the cost.
I'm trying to listen, but I'm tired of what they say.
The voices in my head are so loud,
It's drowning out everything out.
I feel like I have to act proud,
But I just want to shout.

Leave me be you stupid inner thoughts!
You cut me down harder than a knife,
You make me feel like I'm at a loss.
I don't want to die but I wanna give up on life!
Why does everything have to be a certain way?
Why do people continue to judge?
Can't people just finally stay,
I'm tired of each and every petty grudge.

This world is simple but yet so hard,
I want to give up but I don't know how.
I make a mirror break and use a shard,
I'm not okay, there is no way back now.
Like ***** I've known for awhile,
It doesn't change the fact that I still love you.
I keep trying to live in denial,
You keep changing but I wish you loved me too.
Esther L Krenzin Sep 2021
no matter the distance
or all the missed phonecalls
and unread texts
in a way
a small piece of my heart
will always belong
to you
my first love
and first heartbreak.

Esther L. Krenzin
Ken Pepiton Sep 2021
A gain for us now, init
intuit
intuiting ting
tink think ****.

we did it, a gain, a step we took,
passively
was taken as granted, as that saying,
take it
or leave it, we took it, I guess.

Here we are, thinking
human is my class of creature,
I am not a bird, or lizard or ant,
but
I imagine,
slow thinking,
I am more mind than body now.
Human individual elements seemingly
cease reproducing after fixed parameters
of imbalence in cellular rechargibility,
and friction,
itches and scratches, aching bones
fighting gravity
for eighty years, parts departments
empty, vacuous cavern, no flame,
no dancing shapes of unseen things

-- nada comin' in boss, burn wha'chagot

it’s a mess, being old
and urgeless, lazy
laxed, empty
of anything I needed
to do, performance enhancement lessons
missed, cue questioned, one too many times…

this is that, the after math, from an idea virus,
adding dividends we
derived, clearly,
from worth of beauty,
shining, true, all luring beauty
{diamond farm- laughing reminding me}

in our native wished to be state,
ever after, beautiful
to all who see
your rarity, your victory
in being and doing and becoming, nothing but you,
and this, more than mortals think to ask,
satisfied mind with riches and no woe,

are there truths I have not witnessed,
are there joys that drive the storms on Jupiter?

Does it hurt you
if I scorn the lie that built your institute
of holy known secrets, framed
in faith most precious, peace
of knowing,
for me,
there is no hell, ever after
this, if I suffer this, if I fail not now
to live to be old…
too late.

I am old - not useful for much -
and retired, not poor, not capitalist
wealthy, rich in the common precious things,
husband of one wife, who holds that certain beauty,
to this day, few I know dare say,
why
time is not kind to some old ladies who fret and fuss,
and rage too many one more times, to
have a partner, in the last days before hospice…

-- raucous throat clearing noise, to remind me
breathing is unconsciously already reminding me
-- if I wish to breathe, I must put to more labor
on the bellows, fan the
flame of famous desires that warm the cockles of the
part
of me happy to warm up and flow as
any
flowing thing, if you notice, flowing, as if being
init initially in this fluid state,
floating, not rowing,
fluid peace
of mind, not roiling boiling, cataracts, just, iyustified
ya, da, yes yada yada
ya, da, yes yada yada, we take our time,
we take our turn,
merry is gentle as wisdom,
say an ifery what
I sang like a blue jay squaches skritch, if you listen;
then singer is not the fullness of me, as I am blue,
when you see me,
as a jay, flying, you know, I am beautiful.

Part of me lives in my heart, in my part of all
that remains in my future.
Thoughts are thought as swift as this, once.

Gain and loss, sorted said senses
of cost and worth.
With a glance, see the flash, feel
me hope, feel me hope you choose
not to lie, not to
say, I know
I know, amen, amen, until you walk a jubilee journey,
suffer not a novice to teach or preach,
and ignor any grumpy old men,
who cannot
laugh
when they don't shave,
and feel themselves seeing
seeing wordsworth or whitman
or some wizard where the fool is hidden.
Fancy that.
Em MacKenzie Aug 2021
I had a conversation with the devil
off the books; it wasn’t recorded,
the correspondence was something to revel
but it can never be reported.
We sat across from eachother at perfect level
but I still felt small and distorted.
In his presence I was disheveled
but I wasn’t the one who was sordid,
it appears he intended me as a vessel,
viewing it as I had been rewarded.

I had demons on each side
striking a bargain over my shoulder,
the heat in the room magnified;
I started to smoke and smolder.
Then they began to attack my pride
while reminding that I’m getting older.
I couldn’t run nor hide
as their weight began to feel like a boulder.
Their evil grins stretched wide
freezing me in place; my soul grew colder.

The third course had arrived
a pound of flesh disguised as an entree,
and I was very quickly advised 

to be mindful of what I say.
As though I found it deprived
it would be wise not to give that away.
I knew the victim hadn’t survived,
and my stomach turned at the hue of grey.
They asked if I had been baptized
and if I did, how frequently did I pray.

The devil licked his lips
and he whisked his wine,
more aggressive became his sips
as he frequently eyed mine.
Providing helpful quips
like the year, saying it was divine,
and dolling out some tips
one being that it was rude to decline.
He told me that he held all the chips
and that I only had a vine,
and he was determined to have me in his grips
regardless of the strength of my spine.

I finally came to the conclusion
that it was my turn to speak,
but amongst great confusion
I made no sound, not even a squeak.
It had to be part of his illusion,
I refused to feel so weak.
He implanted the delusion
but each word began to leak,
and with each pull and each extrusion
I voiced of the havocs he would wreak.

He asked if he could reply
as he was just misunderstood,
and though I knew it a lie
I told him that he could.
So he began to fake cry;
swore his potential to be good,
while pointing up to the sky
blaming his flaws on childhood.
A story I knew better than to buy
paired with an excuse that I never would.

Now dessert, finally at the brink,
anxiously waiting to get up, away I’ll slink.
He told me not every soul is equal no matter what I think,
and the apple is poison but I should try the drink.
Held up the worlds suffering and made sure I didn’t blink
and said “you can fall deeper even while you sink.”
But the conversation was done, I realized I’d been hoodwinked.
He just grew in size, I was never the one to shrink.

I got up and I rung the bell,
announcing we were done, no need to dwell.
Extending my hand out to meet his cold shell,
I was no longer under anyone’s spell.
He bought my false thanks, as far as I can tell,
and I informed him he should return to his cell.
Meeting his eyes I pushed to wish him well,
I may not believe in Heaven but I have seen Hell.
Freestyled this one unintentionally, no offense to religion or belief
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