The fence isn’t intended for sitting.
Why hesitate to choose a side?
It’s only just a hop this way or the other.
The fence – claiming a no-man’s wasteland.
Still, you can’t stay for so long
or you end up perched right there
again, and again. The foliage appears
so green and vibrant on that side.
And yet, on this side, it feels altogether more real.
If you hop down here or there,
still, you’re in the yard; still,
you’re playing and making a choice to live.
But the fence? I see
there's a watching, but where is the living?
Where is your truth?
Fences only define edges,
they can’t create truth.

you are in violation

if i was you i'd let me go
you touch me i will have to use force
up to and including fatal force
hahahahaha
i am a sovereign citizen
who's laughing now
who's laughing

do it then big girl!

do it right now!
aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh
i am a sovereign citizen
what jurisdiction is this then
not a person or individual
i'm a man!
hahaha
i am a sovereign citizen
who's laughing now
who's laughing
i need your name and badge number right now
this is an assault this here is an assault
aaaaahhhhh help me help me help me!!!!
a sovereign citizen!
five million dollars!
aaaaaahhhhhhhhh
i do not consent!
i do not consent!

i need to see your badge
i need to see your badge now
are you assaulting me?
are you assaulting me?

aaaahhhh!!!
you are assaulting me!
aaaahhhh!!!

so, you are detaining me?
sir? are you detaining me?
so, you are detaining me!
help me help me help me!
i am a sovereign citizen

that is not my food stamp card!
i am a sovereign citizen!

as a man
what right do you have
to stop another man??
name and badge number
name and badge number
name and badge number!
aaaahhhh!!!!
i am a sovereign citizen!

i am not driving i'm traveling
i am telling you to stand down!

aaaahhhh!!!!!
i am a sovereign citizen


sov·er·eign
/ˈsäv(ə)rən/
royalty
numismatics
roman catholic church
noun

    1.
    a supreme ruler, especially a monarch.


cit·i·zen
/ˈsidizən,ˈsidisən/
noun
noun: citizen; plural noun: citizens
    a legally recognized subject or national of a state or commonwealth, either native or naturalized.

I greet you like a new shore with a wave that says hi and bye together.

Somewhere in between, I entertained the idea that we might have met on a train in Seattle once. We sat sideways on the edge of a deep conversation, staring out the window as the rain did the talking.

My mantra is an old Samurai teaching: defeat who you were yesterday. I told myself that I'll have something to say to you by tomorrow.

I write stuff down for inner peace. The pen is my sword.

I got it. When the pandemic is over, let's order clam chowder in lidded to-go cups and meet at the edge of a pier where ships leave. After a while, the sight of departure takes on a charm of its own.

I can talk to you more freely on higher ground, like a rooftop. Or a train platform overlooking uptown Chicago. It will feel like we've risen above the noise.

I make a pretty good penpal. I also have anime hair. And an enviable Samurai sword collection.

Do abs still count?

My brain is in great shape. Don't mind if the thoughts floating out of it are going over your head. It's better than going over heels. That would be hopelessly romantic.

Dating apps remind me of a formula in astronomy that says the odds of intelligent life beyond Earth are a statistical impossibility. Still, you can't help but look up on dark nights asking if you're alone.

I want to say I met a girl who I began writing about, the kind that doesn't just smile at you to be polite. Consider this an invitation to write back.

You'll get my name then,
-Annonymously Yours

Second Sight
by Michael R. Burch

I never touched you—
that was my mistake.

Deep within,
I still feel the ache.

Can an unformed thing
eternally break?

*

Now, from a great distance,
I see you again

not as you are now,
but as you were then—

eternally present
and Sovereign.

Keywords/Tags: distance, separation, hesitancy, unsureness, vacillation, unsurety, heartache, heartbreak, presence, sovereign

expectations crowded my mind in the days when my desperation was sorta high.
it felt like i fitted in with the rest, fitted into their league of rash lovers and surface swimmers.

it started with a "had enough."
which led to me having to rush and led to my second decision and then it hit me ******* me but yet so soft and subtle--it seemed to be.  

bothering and confusing, assumptions were made.
And they tormented me yesterday and the day before, and the day before....it nearly got me today.

i saw _ again and i chose to shut my eyes, just not completely, i chose to slip by but not ignoring the fact that i knew _ saw me at the corners of _ eye.
i didn't even wave goodbye or smiled a "hi".

sigh, how could i forget, the making of a moon?
a laughter that made me cringe and sin,
a memory that never seems to fade away, a lasting portrait still swings in my mind today.
only when i see _.

if i don't know i have let _ down already, when _ expected a nicely wrapped gift from me.
my heart and my chest was tied tightly together, and i seem to be unable to breathe, and i seem to pause           only to know that i am sinking in, bre e e eeeeeeeee a t hing in.

i place them into
                               your hands,
                                                      i do not know what will happen, but i am rest assured in your plans.

You can’t deny what is justified
Neither the wrists that were crucified
And at the peak of His sovereign grace
And the crown that pierced the top of His face
And we destroyed in our eyes a chunk of mud
And yet; He saved the souls of Adams blood
He forgave our ignorance and tall some grew
And many today through Him become new
We were granted a gift you see
One so unnatural it shouldn’t be
We know it so well it’s like we don’t care
But truth is you look at what else He’ll spare
You glance at the list and we’re bottom to top
And everything else is washed with a mop
So may it never be! As Paul would say
To belittle such a privileged way
I can’t save you from your delay
But sovereign is the Lord through Him you may
The invitation is written in us now
And it’s your choice where you’ll be when our knees will bow
Maybe I’m saying this a little too lightly
Understand when you’re given a rope, you should hold on tightly
For crying out loud do you still not comprehend
That others given a soul aren’t lent a hand
as a being in God’s creation alone
and made to accept a debtless loan
Through a process foreign to things known
And here we lie guilty and not blown
In all evil is God given wrath
No escape from a hopeless death
So as not so mind-opening as I wanted to be
Think to yourself about this significance and see
What we live in this life is passionately hated and despised
But yet it’s still your choice to either be loved or denied
For our helpless minds were those wrists crucified
You can’t deny what is justified