Michael Stefan: Favorites

Feb 2021 Michael Stefan

Claire Billings

Romance as a person from a broken home is constantly pondering whether it's love
Or loving the feeling of finally being wanted

Leaving you in loveless
and poisonous relationships
in the sake of filling the void your parents created

Feb 2021 Michael Stefan

end of love

Feb 2021 Michael Stefan

Sarah L

end of love

Dead rose stems,
papercuts from love letters,
and discarded gold

Grayscale summer memories,
the chill of a touch once warm,
and waterlogged eyelashes.

Yelling, screaming, LONGING--
voices with the chalky grit of sandpaper,
spitting leaden insults.

This is the end of love.

Title inspired by a Florence and the Machine song of the same name.

#love

Feb 2021 Michael Stefan

Zoned Out

Feb 2021 Michael Stefan

Christopher Elwell

Zoned Out

The shushing
Of cars on the main road
Like waves and pain
Zoned out
To get us through the day
Like stars in the daylight
Overpowered quietly
By the sun's rays
Making me squint
Blurring a language
Garden birds know
Nothing about
As they fuss instead
About a few seeds
And a bowl of water
And squirrels arguing
Over a handful of nuts
And who buried
What, where
And all of us
Sharing a passage of time.

Feb 2021 Michael Stefan

It was the Longest Winter

Feb 2021 Michael Stefan

sandra wyllie

It was the Longest Winter

stuck as a splinter
in my hand. I remember December
as the coldest month, the first
Christmas you were not here. And people

said “wait til next year.” Next year
is a stillborn birth. And all I can do
is weep at the girth of deaths. Underneath
the wreath on the door is a sign –

don’t stand around here without
the shot. I’ll take mine in the mouth. I’ve
shot myself in the foot. I’d walk out
on myself. Irreconcilable differences I’d claim.

Feb 2021 Michael Stefan

Devil's Out Of Deals

Feb 2021 Michael Stefan

Amanda Kay Burke

Devil's Out Of Deals

Life is lonely without you by my side
Solitude is too hard to bear
Haven't heard from you in a week
Breaks my heart that you don't care

To spend one more day with you
When you were still head over heels
Would gladly make any sacrifice
But the devil is fresh out of deals

With desperation on breath
Questions on my mind
Beg the universe for answers
To explain why you left me behind

Who is there to ask except you?
Silence selfish solution
Noble effort is wasted in vain
Sees no resolution

**** air right out of my lungs
I choke on the emptiness
Indifference is a vacuum
Swallowing happiness

Out of methods to trick myself
Truth I'm scared to face
Cannot wrap my mind around it
I am so easy to replace

You fooled me a second time
The blame lies not on you
On my own naivety
Believing promises were true

Short-lived
Still so significant
The words sincerely spoken
They serve as evidence to proof
Loving you will leave me broken

People warned to stay away
You were nothing but trouble
My untainted innocence wondered
"Could anything bad be so warm when we snuggle?"

Adoration used to exist in our smiles
Lately it isn't found where it should be
Could forever for you end so soon?
An eternity would not be enough for me