A ghastly Japanese orchid thrives with engulfing stems.
This night flower pierces itself into the black earth.
She is layered with thick soil that gives way
to the forest of frost, swallowing the green weeds beneath.
The Atlantic sea shifts itself to the pattern of fixed stars and chaos above,
there will always be drops of sadness falling to the earth.
Somehow they make their way into the sunrise,
mixed in with the rain that I can taste in my cup of black tea every morning.
A hurting brain that molds itself into the pattern of mundane phrases, my head a moon.
Mania and depression consuming this red heart.
A stolen life with shifting moods. Always changing. Never constant.
Perhaps I consider myself lucky when love finds me
sleeping in the corners asking me to simply wake up.
So I will open my eyes and just exist.
Filling the lungs with whole breaths.
Letting the warmth of my existence radiate.
Believing in the surrounding beauty of a green earth that always survives the magnitude of the storm.

Tonight, in the darkness of this dimly lit earth,
The infinite stars burn with a translucent color of yellow
resembling the
bulbous moon
shifting, watching.

The trees stretch their willowy spines
over sprouting flowers
against a backdrop of watercolored silhouettes.
A cold rush of air trickles through
leaving behind drops of dew;
lilies, laburnum, larkspur.

Dawn, with her elongated fingers and wispy breath,
steals away into the night.
Patterned and fixated on the early hours of
rose colored reveries when all the earth
bows to the morning star.

And here we lie.
Broken people eclipsed
with secrets, wishes, dreams.
Waiting for our chance
to mask, to revel in the beauty
of a single muse.


Kara Troglin

There used to be days
where the sea met my toes
and my hair would tangle
and salt would stick to my skin.
I would lie down along the midnight shores
and listen to the echoes of madness.

The darkness
would swallow me up,
its soft, feathery insides.
I remember tears,
my throat closing in,
silent, static.

Cold air would seep into my bones.
Wet, distant, lonely.
A permanent malignity sifting
through the chaos of my mind.

Twenty-three years now and the same sun rises
along the rim of a big blue sky with layered clouds.
A myriad of kaleidoscopic colors leaks through
surrounding me with nostalgic warmth.
Remembering everything that brought me here.

That sticky, unbearable Texas heat
whirling in the wind of a summer afternoon.
Sleeveless dress, sunburnt skin, watermelon smile.
Five years of beauty growing into a thin young girl
who wanted to learn about everything,
Shifting into the youth of an actress in an over-the-top
melodramatic performance at a local theatre.
Selling art and collecting coins to travel
across our globe, and then,
my first plane ticket to Vietnam.

Nineteen came dressed in bittersweet wanderlust.
Packed my bags and drove my car to Portland, Oregon.
Four cameras, disheveled notebooks, ink-stained hands.
Those tall forest trees of enchantment,
a photographer's dream.
Traveling down the west coast to desert lands:
Seattle, San Francisco, Santa Fe.

Somewhere in there I ended up sleeping beneath the stars
with a belly full of wine in Alaska.
The summer solstice singing me a song while tears brim up my eyes
because the world has never looked more lovely.
Aurora borealis shimmering her lights above
a reflecting ocean of pastel
Reds and golds, blues and pinks.

A lucky lady who has touched corners
of love and sadness and wonder.
Burned imprints of goodbyes
in the crevices of my mind, but this is who I am.
Living and breathing in this extravagance.

She endures the internal progression
of a lingering goodbye.
Sifting through the waters
as days become years.
Yearning for tranquil solitude
to offer closure.

Split between two halves.
The moons are plenty full of madness
with a world of ever changing seasons.

Suddenly the rains begin
and she sits beneath the canopy tree
contemplating her next hour.

Mindless laze
To pass the days
Not love but love lost
Life seemed to be tossed
Like a ship at sea.

A cage to snare the mind
Oh the pain and ruthless bind
An escape you cannot find
Tearing ripping at the soul
Leaving nothing but a dark,
Empty hole.

Dark is the mind
Light left behind
Time is never enough
To find one to confide.

Eyes close shut
Dreams have long disappeared
Only the cold reality that you've always feared.
Images of demons, and burning flesh
A terrible ending but you don't distress.

Somewhere out of the pain and defeat
There comes a fulfilling peace.
As strange as it seems
you know that it is done
A feeling of relief.

Dark is the mind
Light left behind
Time is never enough
To find one to confide.

Never to return
You take your last breath
Lying on the floor
Heaving your chest
Asking yourself why
Where it began and what you've become
To the beast you begin to succumb.

To give up life
A thing many fight to keep.
It seems so selfish to take your own
Ending yourself, I can't condone.
Dark is the Mind.