The pressure cracks my bones
like a lofty barrel
Weighing a top my tormented back.

My rib cage once housed a humming bird
That half dead, plague ridden thing
flew away long ago.

i might be done writing here forever.

i'll miss you.

gently interrupted by velvet mountains
burnt sienna soil stretches through olive trees
that lift their limbs toward blue expanse
where pillowy clouds drift with ease

shadows lengthen as the sun spreads
a warmth perceptible to the view
energy and life pouring into ripening fruit
soon harvest gathering will be due

tracks of vehicles between the rows
show signs of tending that's been done
through summer's growing season
and years before when they were begun

saplings planted there with care
by tanned, robust yet gentle hands
have grown taller year by year
where now a stately orchard stands

Synonyms for AFFLUENT include
Prosperous, which indicates
more coming-in than going-out.
It also includes Opulent, which
implies lush plenty at hand.
Also synonymous is Substantial
which suggests great amounts.
There’s even Rich, which can allude
to many different kinds of things.

Webster says these synonyms
of affluent always refer to
money on it’s many forms.  I disagree
They can also refer to vocabulary
The only treasure everyone can own.
You may not have a dime to spare
but you can write a verse that sings
and rhymes that make us cry
Just by using words that turn out
to be more valuable than gold.
ljm

if only any crowd i enter
could give me that same old
mystic ecstatic airborne drug
of elated nightblindness...

or at least a break from this
damp dormant disillusionment,

you would definitely find me
anywhere roaming rampant
restless and so discontent—

        —instead of gasping
        for oxygen that
       we didn't already
        use up together,

or suffocating myself
with the refused exhales
i used to scream out
as soon as you weren't there
to listen to me obediently
accordingly silently suffer...

                 you did tell me once before
      that you will do to me
                     ...whatever you wanted to;

well, now that i seem to
no longer matter to you,
would you be so kind
and take away all this*
useless infected air away too?

       cause if breathing
   just means to inhale
            the same breath i used to
         cry out every single night
    i let you scar and bruise me...

with eyes brighter than the sun
at things we thought were once childish
maybe we're too caught up
in things that don't really matter
I must have forgotten
these things happiness was the truth
we were searching for
tell me now, a spark was not enough
we have firewood, we have fuel
and yet no fire comes
life is kind of dumb right now
spending all my time online
maybe within I'm too guarded
to know the difference
between trust and vulnerability