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 May 20 LL
Cazzie
He reclines in his brittle chair carved from his own grief,
Not very regal, but heavily resigned to the aches.
The weight of silence cleanly cuts through the air.
His hands, now mapless, no longer seek.
Memories he left behind in clouds, were few and brief.

Books cradle their breath upon the shelf.
Never once a glance as he knows their unchanging tone.
The windows screech with tempered light
As regret drips down the pale pane of ivory bones.
His posture reflects the weight of years notched in his belt.
The leather groans, stretched too thin like his sense of self.

The hour never bows a whim to beg his name.
Dust circles, never sure as to where to fall.
His suit of choice is a reliquary of loss.
Each button, a distant memory hard pressed in shame.
The air is stained
The room too small.
A silent gasp
The last breath falls.
 May 11 LL
Zywa
A day at the beach,

autumn does something to me --


but I don't know what.
Poem "De dood dook op vermomd als sinterklaas" ("Death appeared disguised as Santa Claus",  Bart Chabot)

Collection "Moist glow"
 May 11 LL
Yonah Jeong
there is a people of color
there is no color of people.
 May 11 LL
Kalliope
Two Shots
 May 11 LL
Kalliope
Maybe I will have a drink at a party with my friends,
And yeah, we’ll probably talk about how it was never going to work anyway.
We’ll laugh, and we’ll dance, pretending we’re fools,
And maybe someone asks to buy me a drink.

Time will freeze.
My smile will falter, just barely,
Feeling the ache before the butterflies,
Because moving on never really means forgetting,
                   Does it?
How do you ever replace the first person who showed you love could be soft?
 May 7 LL
Nicholas scratch
You say my grades don’t matter.
You say, “I love you no matter what.”
Then why am I invisible?
Why do they only see the red numbers on my sheet?

You ask me, “Is everything fine?”
What do you expect me to say —
that I’m f**d up?
That I dream about leaving?
That I keep a blade in my front pocket?

You say I don’t share,
but you don’t pay attention.
I play the piano till my fingers bleed,
I scream songs that reflect me,
I even talked to you.

Maybe it’s because you liked me,
never loved me.
Maybe I’m so flawed I can’t see,
or maybe it’s both.
Maybe we’re both flawed —
we’re only human.
can you hear me?
 May 7 LL
B C Steffan
a cat, they say
both dead and alive, in a sway
trapped in the box
become a metaphysical paradox

a flask of death, a trigger tick
a game of chance, so cold, so sick
they call me life, they call me death
but no one asks to hear my breath

a man, I say
become the halfway
let his atoms hum and twitch
become the theorist’s broken glitch

see how you like the in-between
will you then be so keen
maybe then you’ll see the cost,
see the life lost

seal the box, install the locks
put a man in that box
 May 7 LL
NostalgicFeeling
Lips together, pressed,
as if you were the one dead,
"Wake up"-your only prayer,
but death doesn't care.
Now you can only choke,
on words you never spoke.
28/4/25
 May 7 LL
alia
I say I’m fine,
It’s just easier that way,
No questions asked,
No truth to betray.

I smile and nod,
While I’m breaking inside,
Too scared to speak,
So I run and hide.

I’m tired of lying,
Tired of pain,
Wishing this silence
Would wash away like rain.
I can’t keep it in anymore and I know it. But I just can’t speak out the words.
 May 7 LL
Amanda
BPD
 May 7 LL
Amanda
BPD
I want to believe in steady things,
but even my own reflection changes
when I look too long.
Are you here?
Do you love me?
Will you stay?
I ask without asking,
watching for the answer
in the way your hands move,
the way your breath hesitates before a word.

I know I feel too much,
ask too much,
but the silence between us is louder
than anything I could say.
So I fill it.
With words, with fear, with love—
all spilling over,
all too much,
all at once.

And still, I wonder, if it’s enough.
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