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There’s a secret in heaven
In the vines weaved through the overcast
Of a leafy canopy
Someone sleeps in the gathering
Of rain puddles and
Drips like the liquid
In an IV
They say,
Someday
We will be free
From our lost ideals
And speak the last words
We can muster
Someday
We will hear them floating in the
Particles of the wind
And become the stories
That the earth
Tells to the stars
~
scarlet wind sails
upon an ultrasounding wave,
postcards from tiny islands;
nebulous, indefinable, floating,
fresh as a field
of crackerjacks;
nodding happily
from minute one,
celebrating the mountains
and valleys of being alive
in excelsis; irresistible and impish
in its understated insinuations.

~
If
If freckles were lovely, and day was night,
And measles were nice and a lie warn’t a lie,
Life would be delight,—
But things couldn’t go right
For in such a sad plight
I wouldn’t be I.

If earth was heaven and now was hence,
And past was present, and false was true,
There might be some sense
But I’d be in suspense
For on such a pretense
You wouldn’t be you.

If fear was plucky, and globes were square,
And dirt was cleanly and tears were glee
Things would seem fair,—
Yet they’d all despair,
For if here was there
We wouldn’t be we.
Shevek Appleyard Dec 2022
SAD
spring struggles from the ground
wet with winter
saplings searching for a sky
lusting for softer scents
a sound of radiance

every year,
the seasons feel more uneven
thirsty flowers screaming 'drink the downpour'
mycelium magic dreaming 'keep breathing'
in fear that the green wont reappear
burrow in decay till may
till smiles feel sincere
lying still
I'll listen to the roots gossip
until the tree grants me safety to resurface
to feel purpose I reserve

a dethawed metaphor
flesh of the dirt
just flirt with the earth
make it the world you deserve
cherish her
so bulbs burst fresh as you tease them
and the cold dissolves
indifferent to longing or worship
as she intended
like rutted enchantment

my feet are bare again
and summer grants me all I forget I live for
Shevek Appleyard Dec 2022
some days there's happiness in the mundane
the rain will fall and you'll smile because of it
you'll tilt your head
to catch droplets on your tongue
and it will taste like marzipan
even your tears glint yellow-gold
like liquid sun

you'll miss the bus
but it'll make you laugh out loud
for real
and no one is there to hear it

and then you remember that you're late for work
and you don't even like marzipan
Shevek Appleyard Dec 2022
she used to crave symmetry
but recently she's been gorging on chaos
it fills her up but unfulfilling is the gap
opened by her loss

the more she pours into it
the more the cliff crumbles
into waves of need unfruitful

chaos leaves only debris
watch it swallowed
like your sorrow
by the relentless sea
Shevek Appleyard Dec 2022
I see signals in other women's heartache
She doesn't want to be this miserable
portrayed by a thump thump and a catcall
Your reputation proceeds you
The one they branded on you
reduced to a statue of lust
cracks in all the things I want to trust
so seduced by my stress
perplexed by the mess
of what's been said
he's a **** but,
in his head
he's infected by sincere ideas  
to strategize the fear he feels and creates
standing up to monsters you fed
then fled to be branded again
curses and hexes
hummed under his breath
still i'm vexed by whispers that keep me awake
reminding me, how easy I break
I won't feel the shift
I won't see him repent
Until everyone knows the meaning of
CONSENT

This is her obligatory story
There are shards in every women I see
Because none of us are liberated
Until all of us are free

We've been silenced
Sentenced
And not taken seriously
!!!!!!!!
Stop shaming women AND men for speaking up
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