They want bodies.
Warm, compliant bodies. Moving parts.
Hands that open doors and flip switches.
Spines that bend but don’t break.
They want eight hours of labor, plus the commute,
plus the side hustle,
plus the ever-present smile that says,
"I’m lucky to be here."

But bodies need rest.
And there is nowhere to rest.
No shoebox. No storage unit.
No couch, no floor, no friend with a spare key.
Just asphalt and backseats—if you’re lucky.
Just parking lots and fear and pretending to be fine.

We’re told to buy the things that prove we’ve made it:
the ergonomic chair, the smart toaster,
the streaming subscription that numbs the noise.
But where do we put it?
Where do we live with it?
They expect us to consume while we disappear.

They want machines
—but with human elegance.
They want efficiency
—but with soul.
They want labor without the laborer’s needs.

We are the product and the producer.
The face and the function.
They demand dignity at the front desk,
but deny it in the zoning map.

We work full time,
and still live in our cars.
If we have one.
If it hasn’t been towed or repossessed.
If there’s a safe place to park without being harassed.

Why?
Why can you clock in at dawn,
and still sleep under stars you didn’t wish for?

Because they want bodies.
But they do not want the burden of keeping us alive.

They call her names,
send their curses through a screen.
She blocks them,
but the words slip through the cracks,
curl beneath her skin.

She scrubs her face,
but the insults don’t wash away.
She sleeps,
but the whispers slither through her dreams.

Years pass.
The usernames are gone.
The accounts are deleted.
The laughter has moved on.

But the words—
the words still stay.

I was just a little girl
Watching chaos unravel, helplessly
Confusion became a daily routine
Silence, my only defense
And I honed the art of observing pain.

Day by day
I saved up pieces of disappointment
Until the jar began to crack
Spilling exhaustion
Hardening into quiet rebellion
Sharpening into well-trained disgust.

We stopped looking, even beneath the bed
Where is the sorry we deserved?
Where is the responsibility you clung to so tightly?
Where is all the change you once promised?

But whatever
You're here, technically
And us?
We've mastered the art of needing nothing from you.

I was on the edge
not of a street,
but of everything.
The kind of tired that sleep can’t touch.
The kind of stillness that feels like disappearing.

And then
a glance.
Soft, unplanned.
A stranger with blue eyes that didn’t ask,
just saw.

No words, no story,
only silence between us
that somehow said,
“Stay.”

One stop away
that’s all.
But in that moment,
it could have been another universe.

I didn’t fall in love.
I fell into the possibility
that maybe, just maybe,
life isn’t done with me yet.

Don't pretend it isn't still stuck
At the back of your mind
Don't blame it on bad luck
You know you're the reason you're
Falling behind
Couldn't you have done more
Held on for a bit longer
Been a little bit stronger
Well now look at who the crowd’s
Laughing at; you screamed a bit too loud
For the pain you've gone through
Why’re you
So weak? Answer me
Seriously
Look me in the eye and tell me
You aren't just a mess sitting in
The corner. They told you you'd win
In life; the only thing you can do
Now is prove them right, you
Know what I mean?
Stop lying to yourself. You haven't seen
Worse. You know
You're fine. So go.
All it takes
Is one step off the edge to make
History. One last breath.
[The admin has kicked ‘Natural Death'.]

I'm just a sparrow
longing for sky
and if I had wings
I could fly.

Resurgam

Prophecy spoke full healing,
I believed it to be in this world;
But alas, I conclude now, with deeper understanding,
It shouldn't be so, but done in the new world
What lies within, surpassing time: everlasting.

It comes in rage—
silence spilling
like ink
onto paper.

A sinking feeling,
sharp and familiar,
knocks on my door.
It’s Tuesday.
It’s always Tuesday.

I feel her weight
pressing through the walls,
settling on my chest,
burrowing deep
into my flesh.

Her wild eyes
cut through the dark—
searching, knowing.

I hide
behind the curtains,
soft and useless.

I’m afraid
she’ll eat me alive.

The door stirs—
opens
the fire grinning.

Flames climb,
and smoke thickens—
curling into the corners
of the room,
into me.

But it’s alright.

I hardly breathe
anymore.

….
….
The door drew fate.
A face amidst the darkness?
My anxiety inflates.
…
…
A passing day draws in darkness,
each day an eye sees me.
My senses urge, trying to decree;
For It finally began,
It now watches, it can now see.

…
…
I have fled my place,
But will it ever follow?
I closed the lights,
lifted them in darkness,
My feelings ever hollow.
…
…
I may be crazy,
But this is forever true.

It was never like this,
It was my fault.
I had defeated my own nightmare no less,
But my actions caused it to bless.
A cage in a basement I made,
It turned that to its charade.

Now I shall find something to confront,
It shall never leave my front.
An existence that shouldn’t exist.
I shall annihilate that, fist with fist.

An old shadow, with yellow flaming eyes.
I looked in past at time, I try,
Four preceding angelic numbers of time,
Guided times hand to defeat;
It was something, my greatest feat.
The nightmare that I caged.

𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘥
𝘵𝘰 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵.

For I shall now figure this cursed time,
Else I will meet an inevitable demise.

I have spent days
beside you and a
thousand nights
alone, dreaming
on the edge of
spineless books
too afraid to jump!
now I find myself,
drinking, dancing,
laughing with the
forgotten writers,
wrapped up tightly
with all their solitary
words, words scribbled
in relatable misery, I have
fallen in unrecognisable
love with their loss,
their lust, their insane
style of adventure, their
relentless drunkenness,
their sorrow, their suffering,
their almost unbelievable
grief …
Clay.M

How to live in
this world
when the world is
wherever
you are

your trust is truthfully misplaced
my acts, are falsely praised
i feel my brain being stretched
from the inside out
my rotting flesh
has an unbearable stench
the squelch of my remains
my blood, a liquid courage
or an act of self-sacrificing cowardice?

My hair had enough breakages just as my heart.

Truths are axioms to
Relinquish the
Unknown, but they build a
Trojan Horse where in
Hides reality ready to
Surprise and conquer with doubt

connection begins,
where fear ends.

she woke my mind
with a consciousness
  undefined,
moving like a slow kiss in the rain
she conquered my demon’s reign
and became,
yeah
she became my mind unrefined
and
a slow kiss in the rain..

And I guess there is a truth
in what they say.

That you will break my heart
in many ways.

And you did, so well,
in rhythmic tunes.

You have broken my heart
too good, so soon.

Today when I held the pen to cast a spell upon this empty sheet, I found myself getting defeated from the world that surrounds me.
With innumerable wonders around me, I find my words trembling seamlessly,
And as I look for my muse, I find myself neglecting the exceptionally aligned nature, just a dewy view.
Stars that aren’t as pleasing as before,
Prosaicness that gathers me makes my heart sore.
This mundane night isn’t as poetic as it was yesterday, just an empty soulless ray.
This ink doesn’t cast a beam, this sheet can’t make my eyes gleam.
Those swaying trees which resemble the approaching spring aren’t the cause for the poetry I bring today.
Because my shaky hands are making my pen stumble today, maybe my heart had only this much to say.

My mouth is a magpie.
I collect syllables like shiny things
and scream them into soup.

Alphabet in disarray.
Syntax on fire.
Verbs wearing fishnets.

I said please but it came out pyre.
I said love but it burned at both ends
and tasted like lightning bugs
smothered in saran wrap.

This isn’t poetry.
It’s a word riot.
A sentence rebellion.
A grammar glitch in God’s inbox.

I built a language out of side-eyes and stutters,
called it flinchlish.
Conjugated heartbreak like it was Spanish.
(I hurt, you hurt, we—
don’t talk about that anymore.)

Sometimes I write elegies in emojis.
Sometimes I tongue-twist psalms into punchlines.
Sometimes I just scream into Google Docs
until it autocorrects sorry to spine.

My voice is a thesaurus
spun too fast in a washing machine.
Everything comes out wrinkled,
wet,
a little more
mine.

a stream is a river is a sea is an ocean
a cycle of water breaks free from the same waters
and if anger is the conditioned emotion
we follow same circles, same eldest daughters

If you have to lie, then deep inside,
You already know the truth you hide.
The words you twist, the stories bend,
Can never heal, can never mend.

A shadow creeps with every tale,
A weight that grows with every veil.
The truth, once bright, is lost in gray,
Each step you take leads you away.

You know you’re wrong with every breath,
Each word you speak, a quiet death.
If truth is gone, then so are we-
A bond can’t live on false debris.

If you must lie to make it through,
Then face the truth: it’s not worth you.

The Fall

       Once there was a routine of going
To bed and turning out the light
There was a dream I dreamt
Each and every night

Like a hero I would suddenly appear
And save a beautiful damsel in distress
But ultimately she would save me from
Myself and my heart of a shattered mess

I would fall in love and the healing would
Begin and a smile would return to my face
Pleasure would replace the pain
Leather would transform into lace

And now the dream has become a
Reality because I’ve found you
Now every day I have to pinch myself
Because I can’t believe that it’s true

Everything is more than I could imagine
From first sight and our first kiss
I pray that I’m not in the twilight zone
Suddenly to be removed from my bliss

Leaving me with a heart pierced several
Times by a shoemaker’s Awl
Slowly dying from a loss of life because
I couldn’t survive The Fall

Written By:Charles Kean
04/06/2025

Of your body are your eyes,
They shine bright and dim
As you go through different emotions and feelings.
4/4/2025

You smell like gardenia
as in late spring.

I'm walking away
for I might pluck you—
& you’ll wither by dusk
after a day.

For your sake
I'm walking away
& waiting for another
fierce bloom of May.

The evening maple trees
Are so Still with so much swaying

The evening stars
Are so pretty and chill
With so much love to be sparkling
WithIn the roses blush,
With the sunflowers sweet laughter
The lillies with the sillies
The irises with their modest beauty
Loves own shy and exquisite gaze

And any flower you happen
To fancy and love sweetly ablaze
Any accent shall do
When it is felt that I love you

The Evening maples
are so chill
And still
with so much Rose swaying

Reynaldo Casison