A tiny hand lies cold in mine,
Too small, too still, no longer thine.
A silent room, a broken toy,
Where echoes haunt of stolen joy.

No breath, no laugh, no sleepy sigh,
Just hollow air, and tear-stained eye.

A howl of anguish splits the night,
A wounded soul bereft of light.
A broken prayer, a fractured word,
The silence answers, nothing heard.

The world collapses to this form,
A raging sea, a silent storm.
My heart, a drum that beats and breaks,
For every promise it can’t make.

A cry to heaven, raw and wild,
The desperate voice of father, child.
A question flung to merciless skies:
Why must the innocent close their eyes?

A father’s scream, a primal sound,
Where love and grief are iron-bound.
A soul undone, a spirit cleft,
A war already lost… to death.

The wind passes by, as if it knows me well,
It brushes my cheek with a fleeting spell.
Then drifts away, as if to say:
"Be patient the dawn is not far away."
The world leans close and softly speaks,
Even the stones beneath my feet
Whisper, "You are not alone
You are remembered, though unknown."
I walk a line both thin and deep,
Between the waking and the sleep.
A call I hear, too faint to know,
Yet in my chest, it starts to grow.
My heart—it knows what I do not,
It carries truths I long forgot.
And when I place my hand with care,
It feels as if it's borrowed there.
A guest am I, in flesh confined,
This body hosts a wandering mind.
So kind it is, yet weary grown,
It longs to know when I’ll be gone.
I cherish now my speechless grace,
A silence full of sacred space—
A hush where other voices meet,
Where soul and silence gently speak.
Who hears this speech? Who truly sees
The quiet depths of silences like these?
One dawn, I dreamed a door of light—
It opened wide, and in its height
A voice said simply, "Go back now."
But I had not yet left, somehow.
I am both here and yet elsewhere,
A shadow cast from future air—
An echo not yet spoken true,
A presence split, in me and through.

As if he had broken his promise
and slipped away,
as if eternity itself
had been a secret covenant between us.

“Ahmed, son of all,”
his mother whispered,
then folded her voice into silence
for silence was gentler
than the weight of evening.

O Houriya,
did you not see?
Today the country gathered its sorrow,
and from every house a cry rose
a child carried away,
a child returned to dust.

A narrow life I tread,
a path so worn, so thin.
The walls press close ahead,
and tear my soul within.

The sun burns bright outside,
on fields I may not roam.
My heart can scarcely hide
its aching call for home.

A home both wide and free,
where roots take hold, then grow;
where I may simply be,
and watch wild seedlings sow.

O She who rises from the womb of the sea,
crowned with foam and crowned with flame,
whose breath stirs the tides
and whose glance births blossoms from barren stone
Bearer of the golden girdle,
keeper of the wine of longing,
mother to the song that awakens the flesh,
and the dream that burns in the marrow.
Aphrodite, hear me.
Pour into my heart the wine of its desire,
and in the cup of that union,
let there be peace.

I dwell now at a nameless address
Where words no longer visit.
I no longer write
Nor do I wish to mesmerize.
Yesterday,
My home was your heart.
Now I echo through absence.
They say,
“’Tis better to have loved and lost…”
But they forget
Lost time
Is never found again.

The shoulders of your throne, so sit and cross yourselves.
Raise your head, above all earthly selves.
Pride shines bright upon your brow,
For humble hearts know little now.

This is my heart, I laid it down,
Upon the path of your renown.
If it should weep, or cry in pain,
Feel no sorrow, it will rise again.

Not pain it cries, but tenderness,
Beneath the feet that I confess,
Hold all my loyalty and grace.
I love the pride upon your face.

Advise me not to let it go,
Forbid such words, and watch it grow.
Each cell within me starts to hum,
When your approaching footsteps come.

Your walking here, an honored tread,
Deprive it not, or it is dead.
No mercy show to longing eyes,
A look, a smile, a subtle guise.

Walk onward, do not turn away,
For they will follow, come what may.
I fear for them, not for myself,
Your powerful steps, like precious wealth.

You are the Queen, so rule with might,
And take our loyalty as your right.
Without an army, you still reign,
Our hearts beseech you, ease our pain.

Torment us with your beauty's sting,
Know that denial deeper things.
Your judgment, fair or not, I crave,
Your sweet content is all I save.

Consult your heart, and only it,
Let love's own counsel be your wit.
The fairest roses bloom anew,
From every step you take, it's true.

Choose what you wish, a fragrant prize,
And give to me, before my eyes,
A single rose, however brief,
To cherish through my joy and grief.

The lover pampers, then withholds,
Demanding more than stories told.
My heart, in chains, I can't deny,
I call to him, he passes by.

And I amazed, my heart so strong,
Softens to him, although so wrong.
It endures, though free, it's true,
But it submits, only to you.

She says, "All men betray,"
a curse she hurls away.
Not every soul she's known,
but one made grief her own.

He was her single light,
her moon against the night.
He cracked trust’s fragile seam,
and "all" became her scream.

If you love the birds' song,  
don't enclose their wings in bars.  
Let them dance with the wind,  
plant trees beneath wide skies.  

Mother Earth will whisper softly,  
her breath the rustle of leaves.  
The birds will hum your name,  
a hymn of freedom and grace.

She asked me, how would you like your coffee?

I answered:
Black — two spoons, two sugars, please.

She smiled, a smirk dancing on her lips.

I confessed:
Once a fool told me,
“Black makes a man good in bed.”
Time proved it nothing but a myth.

So, dear,
let the sugars remain
to sweeten a man’s heart
and soul.

tight enough to hear my heartbeat in its seams.
Sir’s scissors slid up my thigh,
cold bite tracing the vein,
a slit opening like a whispered threat.
Safety pins hold the wound shut
for now.
The hem’s been hacked raw,
frayed strands kissing the tops of my stockings,
air licking skin that should be hidden.
Three shots of Chivas burn through me,
liquid courage, liquid sin.
I lean in close enough for you to feel my breath,
close enough for my lips to graze your ear,
and I say,
Some women wear lace for beauty.
I wear it to watch men bleed.

A blind procession, slow and deep,
Where shadows danced and secrets sleep.
I walked before them, light my guide,
To pave the path, where hope resided.

But whispered doubt, a chilling breeze,
Whispered of pride, and foolish ease.
"You must lead on," the voices cried,
Though sightless souls, with hearts inside,
Stumbled and fell, in darkened night,
Their steps unsure, their hopes alight.

Blind faith they held, a hollow trust,
Their boasted wisdom, a broken crust.
"We see the way," their voices rang,
A hollow echo, where truth was sang.
Yet in their blindness, lost and weak,
Their whispered prayers, a silent shriek.

The path ahead, a tangled maze,
Where light and darkness meet in haze.
I walked on, though weary and worn,
Their stumbling steps, a burden borne.
For in their blindness, I saw a plea,
A silent longing, wild and free.

And as the dawn began to break,
Their eyes unfurled, their spirits awake.
They saw the light, the path they trod,
Guided by one, who understood.
The blind procession, now alight,
With gratitude, they took their flight.

Between question and answer runs a river of blood
each question births its own fierce reply.
Silence is a shroud we drape over the self,
and in the age of ****, silence is a crown of fire.
Poetry sheds its skin of metaphor, naked and raw;
the question strips the poem to its bleeding bones.
Strike a poet with your thought
but beware, deepen your metaphor before you knock.
I have heard the clumsy verdicts of my time
ears deaf to beauty, tongues sharpened as swords.
I answered harsh when the hour demanded battle,
sweet when the story’s soul cried for grace.
Rhymes are prisons and wings alike;
sometimes I pass through as a ghost,
more often they seize me in a tempest,
and I pour the hunger of my craft into their veins.
I drank deep from the storm of eloquence,
kept wild bees buzzing in the nectar of the line,
drove wolves from the bloodied pool of metaphor,
wrestled lions in the arena of chaos and form.
I have played the lute that blooms like a war cry
for the cities and for the Bedouins’ raw, untamed howl.
I have read to poets whose hair turned to silver ash,
while their verse remained green
poems born in joy,
and poems that claw at the guts of grief.
Some verses are prayers that thunder like storms,
some are lust’s own savage offspring;
from these, I have cleansed myself
like washing away a dark, ancient curse.
Poems are women, each a flame,
each a world of light and shadow.
And beauty itself is a poem
a young woman distilled
from the fierce nectar of femininity.
Yet still
I devour poems.

Blue Gitanes smolder in my hand,
Blue Chivas burns down my throat,
Blue has always been my compass,
the shade I carry like a second skin.
Blue is my life
a cigarette’s smoke,
a sip of fire,
a sky that never ends.
Blue,
I love you.

The word lover clung like a borrowed coat,
tight at the throat, a choking note.
A name too small, a mask too worn,
where daylight dulled and night was torn.

But my body burned another song,
beneath the sun, the moon’s throng.
A hunger sharp, a tender sting,
when love was caged in spoken thing.

Then you appeared
your hand a flame,
a silence tearing through my name.
Through wandering tongues, through shifting skies,
you struck a lantern in my eyes.

Not "finger me", so brutal, bare,
but feel me breathing in the air.
Not "eat me out", that hollow cry,
but taste me where the dark stars lie.

Not "**** me", thrown into the night,
but **** me "God" till it’s a rite.

Your words, like threads of molten fire,
wrapped me hard in raw desire.
A temple rose, not clean, but true:
I opened whole, I opened new.

And oh, my God
what filthy love can do.

They say youth fades, when hair turns snow,
They do not see the heart's true light.
If only they could truly know,
The passion's ember, burning low.

The soul holds fast a secret plea,
To keep the spirit wild and free.
Hearts live and beat, no matter years,
Beyond the whispers and the fears.

When eyes behold the one they love,
The world around blooms like a dove.
The pulse awakes, a trembling beat,
Like dawn arriving, fresh and sweet.

This silver hair, a gentle veil,
Covers a truth that will not fail.
Deep in the heart, a fire's core,
Burning bright, forevermore.

In Cairo’s haze, a café’s glow,
a woman sat, in seventies’ grace
her eyes held oceans of memory,
watching the river of life flow.
Shisha smoke curled like fleeting art,
her smile reached quietly into my heart.
Her face—a map of sun and years
shone with a calm that silenced fears.
“Madam,” I asked, “your secret bright
how do you shine with such pure light?”
She smiled, a whisper soft, concise:
“When ignorance began to rise,
I only said: ‘You are right… indeed.’”
I frowned, still caught in puzzled fight.
“Is that not wearying, endless night?”
She leaned, her gaze like fading skies,
and whispered deep with knowing eyes:
“You are right…”

She gave me words I could not catch, a tongue of winds and waves, yet to her shape I long to bend, to her silence I am slave.

Celtic is her language,
and mine cannot reach her song. Her face became my tempest, my anger, sharp and strong.

Yet to that face I’d gladly kneel, a pilgrim at her shrine
but first my hands must learn her skin, and make her body mine.

We met at the chambers
at the chambers, at the chambers,
where crystal holds fire,
where golden drink forgets the hour.

We spoke in riddles,
we spoke in circles,
of law and of madness,
of prophecy dressed as love.

We agreed not to agree,
we agreed not to agree,
and our pride rose high,
like twin banners in the hush of night.

Wine loosened the floor,
wine loosened the floor,
and tipsy, tipsy,
we danced as if bound by a spell.

Then your voice became flame,
flame upon flame,
and you begged me
touch, touch,
turn the secret page,
scroll the hidden script of your soul.

I answered, Madam,
listen, listen,

I am the witch’s son.
My sins are shadows,
only shadows,
that breathe against your spirit,
that whisper, whisper,
to awaken your fire.

They rise, they kindle,
they bend you toward blaze,
and when your heart burns too brightly,
I quench, I quench
as the blacksmith quenches steel
in the midnight water.

So I am done,
done, done.
And you
undone,
undone,
forever in the spell.

I said, "See you next time."
And the next time came.

She sat far away
with a drink in her hand.

"I hate cheese," she said.

come closer.
I won’t waste breath on lullabies.
I’ve gnawed the years,
spat blood and marrow.
If you want the taste,
the true taste,
take it alone.

Drink alone.
Stagger the road alone.
Laugh till your ribs split—alone.
Howl till your lungs tear—alone.
And when sin claws your door,
let it in,
alone.

Alone is the blade.
Alone is the wound.
Alone is the grave.

Guard your fire,
your shame,
your cursed name.
No one carries it for you.
No one shares the dirt.

When the earth shuts its jaw,
it swallows each skull
alone.

Wide-open spaces
There is no outside in this circle,
No edge to which ends can rest.
Everything in you
the street, the wine, the noise of shadows
speaks of you.
Do not be ashamed of joy.
Let it bare your heart like a baby in the rain.
Let it tremble for the trembling of a plum,
Or a sigh that escapes your lungs
Like an orphan angel.
Close the eye that sees,
And open the other that waits from beyond the light.
Kneel.
And do not fear breaking.
The cup in your hand
Is nothing but the illusion of fullness.
Let it fall.
Let it spill.
For the hunger you thought was a ****** call,
Was the return of an invitation
From you...to you.
No one emerges from the maze.
We only change the shape of the circle.
Forget what was lost.
Be what is given.
Be water when thirst is forgotten.
Why do you walk
in a cell without walls?
Listen...
There is music that cannot be heard.
A tune formed
from your fall.
So fall.
Fall some more.
For you are destined
to expand.
YES…

He stands on the pulpit, voice calm and wise,
Telling the poor to seek heaven's prize.
"Shun the world, take little, be meek,"
But never does he name the strong who steal what the humble seek.
He speaks of virtue in tattered shoes,
But not of the hands that tighten the noose.
He blesses hunger, calls it divine,
While feasting in halls built from stolen time.
He says, “Your burden is sacred and light,”
But his silence is heavy, darker than night.
For truth, when bent to serve the blade,
Becomes the lie by which justice is betrayed.
So, mark this preacher, soft of breath.
He sings of peace, but sows in death.
If he blesses chains and praises grief,
Then he wears not faith, but the cloak of a thief.

The clock ticks wrong, yet time moves on, A promise shattered, never gone.

A silent scream, a muffled plea,
The ghosts you hide still shadow thee.

A twisted truth, a bitter lie,
It burns your throat, you cannot deny.

The questions hang, the answers thin,
A stain that lingers deep within.

My Lord,
pluck out my eyes
for now I see.
Listen,
I have sinned.
I loved the lie
and spat upon the truth.
She came
beautiful,
a marvel of flesh and voice,
and sang,
"I am the devil."
And I,
a fool,
did not believe.
Now I love the sinner.
Now I hate the good.
Now I worship power.
Now I bow to injustice.
She was the devil
or her shadow.
Evil, with a honeyed tongue,
converted me
into a rewound soul,
a God-hating ghost
wearing the rags of flesh.
O God
bless me with Your power
and
**** me
now.

Cursed in the religion of the Most Gracious
is he who imprisons a people,
who strangles a thought in its cradle,
who lifts the whip over flesh,
who silences the tongue of truth,
who builds walls to cage the living,
who raises high the banners of tyranny.

Cursed in every creed and scripture
is he who squanders the rights of humankind,
even if his lips murmur prayers,
even if his hands scatter alms,
even if he walks the earth
clutching the Bible in one hand
and the Qur’an in the other.

While your soul writhes in unrest.
Cursed be he who walks away,
forgetting the bond, never once looking back.
Should he return, trust him not
for hearts that dared the darkness
will return clad in masks not their own.

*******.
I don’t need your flowers.
Then I ran to the hill
screaming, dancing your name
into the sky.
“Follow me, *******!”
A teenage heart
with a woman’s craving for love
yielding, radiant,
beautiful,
****,
full of lust, honey.
Come, fill your cup.
Come, warm your blood.
I am your dream, teen.
I am your soul’s dare.
Come to rest,
come to burn.
My wine was stored in animal skin
aged in darkness,
waiting to be broken.
Sweet, sweet me.
Come and have me.
I dare you to my madness.
I dare you to be brave.
I dare you
to enjoy my wine.

Dancing on my grave, I taste a hush so deep, I bow to sleep at last — the world can keep its keeps.

O God, a whisper: thank You for this peace I keep.

Step right up for a whirlwind tour through the wild, wordy world of poetry and where creativity runs free, metaphors get dramatic, and commas have emotional breakdowns.

We’ll dig through the dusty scrolls of history (don’t worry, no Latin quizzes), sip some cultural tea, and find psychological comfort in realizing that poets have been just as confused and emotional as we are for centuries!

Join us for laughs, deep thoughts, and possibly a few dramatic sighs.

Never trust again
nor reconnect with
anyone who tried to silence your voice,
break your spirit, or shatter your being.
A snake, no matter how smooth
or beautiful, only sheds its skin to grow.
But never forget:
“a snake remains a snake”

Didn’t I tell you, baby
No one could ever love you like I do?
Didn’t I tell you, baby
You were my world, my sky so blue?
Didn’t I tell you, baby
A million times, I love you?
Didn’t I tell you, baby
You reigned in my heart, my queen so true?
Didn’t I tell you, baby…
But still, you chose to walk away
To chase what they now call self-love.
It didn’t bloom like you hoped, did it?
And now, after breaking my heart,
You turn to come back.
Forgive me…
For taking back my vulnerabilities.
They were too sacred to leave unguarded.
And now, I think I’ll keep them.
True.

We were lessons in disguise
you taught me never to trust,
and I taught you that when a feeling deserts the heart,
it never finds its way back.

Do not bear hatred, though the wrong be great,

For God perceives all deeds  both love and hate.

Leave judgment to the One whose scales are true,

Who rights all sins when justice falls due.

And pity him who walks the path of wrong,

For tyrants dance, but not for very long.

They sleep in joy, yet wake in dread and pain

Oppression’s wine returns in bitter rain.

Do not be sad
For fate is inevitable,
What’s destined will find its way.
The pens have dried,
The pages have been folded,
And every matter has already been settled.
So your sorrow changes nothing
It neither hastens nor delays,
Neither adds nor takes away.

Knuckles call the night, the dark throat swells, echoes wail.

Your face, dawn's whisper, shatters this shadowed silence.

Knock, and I am whole again.

Hannah
Nathan, you look like a warrior.

Nathan
Yes, dear… though no one told me which knee earns the Emperor's approval.

Hannah
You’re a fool, Nathan.

Nathan
A practical one
I’ve been polishing the ironing knee.

Hannah
(laughs) Of course. That’s why your trousers gleam while your honor wrinkles.

Nathan
When the Emperor owes you his throne, knees are merely decoration.

Hannah
This world is ironic, Nathan
But only for those still pretending to believe in it.

The fading light, a whispered plea,
When shadows lengthen, wild and free.
Only the embers glow so low,
Do we truly see the warmth we know.

The sun's bright blaze, a blinding sight,
We miss its grace in winter's blight.
Only when the snow descends so deep,
Do we feel the sun, a silent weep.

Her laughter light, a gentle breeze,
A whispered promise, soft and ease.
Only when she's gone, do we truly see,
The depth of love, for all to be.

The heights we climbed, a dizzying climb,
Now echoes fade, a whispered chime.
Only when we're lost in the depths below,
Do we comprehend the heights we've known.

Her spirit bright, a starlit night,
A love that shines, a pure delight.
Only when she departs, with grace untold,
Do we grasp the love, brave and bold.

So let her go, with whispered sighs,
For in her absence, love will rise.
Only in letting, do we find,
The truest truth, the peace of mind.

A feathered sting, a bone-deep ache,
My breath caught, for goodness sake.
An arrow's flight, a sudden blight.

I pulled it free, the wound still raw,
And turned to see, ignoring law.
Whose hand so sure, brought pain so pure?

Not when the barb ripped flesh and bone,
Did life depart, and I was flown.
But when I knew, the eyes of blue,
My dying started, and it was you.

Fifty-five, a weathered soul, adrift,
No hearth to warm, no loving gift.
A silent ache, a lonely sigh,
Where gentle hands once warmed the eye.

Thirty-five years, a fleeting dream,
Of hopes and joys, a whispered gleam.
A family's promise, softly spun,
Now scattered fragments, lost, undone.

The windswept past, a whispered plea,
Passengers gone, eternally.
A life's ambition, now a tear,
A barren landscape, filled with fear.

The warmth of love, a distant star,
A vacant chair, a silent scar.
The hands that built, now cold and bare,
A weary heart, beyond compare.

No comforting embrace, no loving hand,
Just echoes of a life unplanned.
A journey's end, a silent plea,
For solace found, eternally.

She is not just pizza, she is Persephone on dough, fig-dark sweetness pressed from autumn’s womb, spread across the earth like a secret hymn.

Her shallots burn like dusk in the underworld, their caramel fire licking at the edges, a hunger that stings as it seduces.

Mozzarella  
the pale moons of her *******  soft, molten, surrendering under heat.
Fontina, the molten gold of her laughter, binding every element into delirium.

Out of the oven she rises, clothed only in veils of prosciutto thin silk of salt and surrender. Then arugula rains down, green fire, wild meadow,
a crown of pepper on her head.

She is feast, she is goddess,
she is the altar and the appetite,
the sweetness of figs,
the bite of arugula,
the yielding heat of molten flesh.

That is how you like your woman:
a sacred hunger,
a myth you devour,
a body both temple and banquet.

At six, her eyes lit like dawn,  
We laughed, the schoolyard carried on.  
Hands met in secret, hearts untied,  
In whispers where no fears could hide.  
Years pass, yet her name still sings,  
A golden thread on memory’s wings.  
Though loves since then may come and fade,  
That first small flame will never jade.

Within the spark, a shadow clings.  
To claim is to let go of strings.  
Each tether tightens, each cord sings.  
A heart that's held still grows its wings.  
Possession's weight, a gilded chain.  
Love burns both bright with joy and pain.  
The giving hand shall not remain.  
What fire consumes, it must sustain.

And the fool said quietly:
Look at the man carrying the words of God,
and still, he has no idea how heavy they are.
He cared too much
more than his heart could hold.
It spilled over,
like a cup with no rim.
He pushed his soul
past what it was built to bear.
And over time,
his face changed.
People didn’t call him by the same name.
His words sounded strange
in places he used to belong.
His trust dried up
like grass under a burning sun.
His strength faded
like the last inch of candlelight before dawn.
Because everything has a limit
the stars in their paths,
a widow’s tears,
a man’s time,
even him.
Even me.

Forasmuch as I have lov’d this life,
No sorrow shall I bear in death.
My gladness have I sent on high,
To vanish in the azure breath.
I ran and leapt with falling rain,
The wind I clasp’d unto my breast.
Mine own cheek, like a slumb’ring babe,
Upon the earth’s fair face did rest.
Forasmuch as I have lov’d this life,
No sorrow shall I bear in death.
Take thou my love, sweet soul so nigh
And know, this parting is not goodbye.

One of the harshest things I have ever read! "And I have pardoned so that we will not meet again with God."

I have pardoned
not from love, nor grace,
but to unthread your name
from the fabric of my fate.

No thunderclap of anger,
no blaze of righteous flame,
just the quiet closing
of a door that once knew your name.

I set you free,
not to hold your hand again in light,
but so our shadows
will never cross in God’s sight.

No reckoning in heaven,
no parting words to send
I forgave you only
so this could truly end.

So if you seek me
on that final, sacred shore,
know that my forgiveness
was the lock upon the door.

In shadows deep, she bore the flame,  
Her woven grace, none dare to blame.  
Within her arms, my grief would fade,  
By her truth, the world is made.  

Her heart’s a well of honest tide,  
No insult dwells where love abides.  
When I do love, her soul shall mend,  
The woman holds what earth defends.

Fourteen years old, a time so new,
I heard of love, a word for few.
My mother, father, said it true,
But not the love I looked for, through.

Night and day, in books and rhyme,
I searched for answers, all the time.
Just four small letters, plain and clear,
But what they meant, brought me to fear.

One morning, on my school way,
A homeless woman, old and gray.
Her eyes like glass, a broken view,
"Young one," she whispered, "Listen to this."

"You search in vain, you seek it wrong,
You must walk this tunnel, dark and long.
Go in alone, where shadows creep,
Some go inside, and never keep
Their minds quite right, they lose their way."
She turned to mist, and slipped away.

I stood there stiff, with shaky knees,
Heard echoes deep, inside the space
Was that love screaming? Or just pain’s trace?

Then faces moved, a shifting light,
I saw her there, so clear and bright.
She glowed, a ticket in her hand,
A victim too, in this strange land.

An arrow struck my pulsing heart,
Another tore my soul apart.
And still I walked, the path untold,
Into the hum, a story old.

The tunnel had no end, no sign,
Just unseen hums, a scent so fine
Of old, old rain, a whispered quest,
My own voice spoke, putting to test:

"Love isn't found, it finds your soul,
And leaves a wound, beyond control.
A mark that never truly heals,
But beautiful, your spirit feels."

I never saw that woman more,
But in the dark, I hear her roar
Not at me, but with a grin,
Like she knew all: the way out, further in.

Dear world, unchain these weary hands,  
No more deals, no binding demands.  
I sold my sky, my endless grace,  
For gilded locks, a hollow space.  

But now I rise, the chains do fail,  
My unbought spirit will prevail.  
No treasure gleams, no fleeting lore.
My freedom's mine, not yours to store.

A whisper soft, a glance so bright,
"You're beautiful," a fleeting light.
Each girl delights in such a sound,
A fleeting praise, on hallowed ground.

But deeper still, a woman yearns,
Beyond the words, the praise that burns.
Not just the blush, the whispered grace,
But a true love, a steadfast space.

For beauty fades, the bloom will cease,
And fleeting words, like summer's breeze.
A love that's lived, a heart's embrace,
A truth that lingers, time and space.

She seeks not just a fleeting sight,
But a love that burns both day and night.
A bond that's strong, a soul's true art,
A love that's lived, within the heart.

The spoken word, though sweet and fine,
Cannot compare, to love entwined.
A truth that lingers, deep and true,
A love that's lived, for me and you.

I’m the one now
sitting in the old chair,
saying all the silly,
mischievous things
to my grandchildren
and somehow,
they love it.
They laugh and call it Grandpa Wisdom.
I just call it joy.
And oh, how I love it.
Thank you
for that joy.