Of velvety petals,
thy beauty grows
rising from the night shadows,
a rose blooms in the moonlight.

Thy thorny stem wraps around
the bushes, as thy scent lingers
in the night air, bringing its lovely
perfume for everyone to enjoy.

Your lacy trim and blood red decor
is so divine, it makes you shine
within an enthral sky.

Ode to thy rose,
may you bloom forever
within the enthral realm
of a great design as a poem
plotted and cultivated by
my poetic mind.

©️ 2025 By Amanda Shelton

Sometimes I sit and wonder
If maybe everything is pointless
I ponder it now my head in my hands
If this world was designed to disappoint us.
All these nice bands that soon burn out
Little children you thought would be cute
But all they ever seem to do is pout
You date, you love, you celebrate
You break up, you cry, you hate, you mourn
And all the while.. All the while they all look at
You with that same old look full of nothing but scorn
You could die and they wouldn't even care
Not until you're in the grave and the mortician fixes
Your hair... But they're there for you now....
There for you now... But why would you care..?
Six feet under dead and gone so who...
Who ******* cares that they're even there?

- "Flower"

I’m an ordinary girl
Born of ordinary parents
On an extraordinary day.

They came from ordinary people
Who lived out ordinary lives.
They never really had a lot
And seemed content with lesser.

How is it then that I was born
Always wanting something more.
Seeking that beyond the screen
Not satisfied with all at hand.

Why did I not fit the mold
That formed my sis and  brother.
It seemed to work out fine for them
But was a prison cell for me.

I bashed through those restraining walls
To seek my future my own way
Finding cliffs I could not climb
And oceans I could never swim

There was a narrow path to take
But I preferred to dance the edges
Gathering the shiny baubles
That melted in the setting Sun
And left me where I am today
Living an ordinary life

And seeking to plant Hollyhocks
Where only cactus ever grows.
                   ljm

Music, sweet music plays its instruments
filling these caverns of glass and steel
a giant bowl of melody's bubbles sloshing
until the swing of rhythm walks and reels
each bypassing person made whole
with bass, fiddle, guitar and peak mandolin

Music, sweet music dreaming a tune
bringing together musicians, ants to sugar
each grain full of heart's energy, swoons
interludes exhale to breath resurgent
whining, tunning up, plucking old timey
song and prance to cort generous chiming

Sweet music's music, strolls through, lofted
making way's sway to new combinations
singles and couplets, thrum out, turn softest
slow then at pace, not race, in syncopation
no humdrum here but humming and druming
you're invited, incited to join in this strumming

-cec