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 Dec 2016
Finley in Despair
We are so fragile, us humans
it can be realised in the blink of an eye
a bout of sickness
a terrible accident
yet at the same time
we can endure so much
pain, suffering and loss
sadness, loneliness and worse
our bones break and heal
our minds wither and mend
together we can pull through
the discrepancy of
our bodies fragility and the mind's will
we have strength in numbers
we find solace in companionship
we are not solitary creatures
we are man and woman
father and child, mother and daughter
lovers, friends and whether we like it
or not
we are neighbours

I cry when my fellow man dies
a part of me dies when my mother cries
I scream in frustration for my sisters
seemingly still living in a man's world
I long for success
but never at another's expense
when you suffer I suffer
when I suffer you suffer
so much suffering, so much pain
we are too quick to place the blame
and fall short on finding a solution
that works for all of us
we are individuals in togetherness
we are all the links that give us protection
and we are all the chinks
in this armour
 Dec 2016
r
I head out at twilight
only to return each dawn,
wading the muddied waters
of my youth, and mysteries
of a history misremembered,
or wishfull, wistful memories,
wanting to revisit in dreams
those things that defy the laws
of physics, yet knowing I can't
go back, and each breath I take
reminds me forever of that fact.
 Dec 2016
Jonathan Witte
Some nights it
is alarmingly
imperceptible:
an exoskeleton ascends
on iron rivets and steel;
unseen scaffolding tapers
to a steady pulsing point
of phosphorescence—
a mechanical heart
circulating red light
into leaden clouds.

Some nights the air thickens
with cordite, grief, and snow.

Tonight with winter here
we can see the tower’s
beacon blinking through
a tangled scrim of trees
half a mile across town,
and yet even with our
bodies squeezed together
like radio dials in the dark
we are unable to tune it in—
the signal that would calibrate
our estranged transistor hearts.
 Dec 2016
Rainey Birthwright
.
When I fell, from you,
Into loves' violet eye,
Sea spray in my ears,
I was on the strands,
By the creeping seas.

Sky called, a tannoy,
Screed from seabirds
And the sands sunken,
Tapered me by footfall,
Such recurring dreams,

Air howling our names,
The horizon lit in flame,
We were twined in kelp
And arms rail embrace
On strands where I fell.
 Dec 2016
Anne Curtin
My five years with my Dad
   His last five years with me

Slipping Cori's wedding ring on her finger
   In front of our crowded church

Purple t-shirt faded and misshapen by washing
   My safety and freedom color

Kneading bread with Grandma
     Untill the stickiness was gone

1947 edition of John Keats poetry
           Broken binding and old book smell

Silver dollar minted in 1922
           The year my mother was born

Singing in church choir
               My name sewn into my robe

Collection of small ceramic birds
From trips and birthdays

Waiting in line to vote for Hillary
Grandma is smiling
 Dec 2016
Seán Mac Falls
.
Love out of touch, we could not bare
Alone, with loosed arms overreaching
And love sparkled dancing,
On the breaking rim of a star,
Innocent and new under the constellations
Of the pinned gods' eyes.

We told ourselves the story of ourselves,
Each one, a penned, perfect fable,
Each one a journey into the dark,
Under the faint and rising milky ways,
Where even shadows, poor,
Are always, almost, lost.

Out of conception, and pining dream
And the myths we most want to make,
Out of dream, would we soon awaken?

This then is hope, a stroke, as we dressed,
Children spinning yarns below the stars,
Is the game, the game of let's pretend.

We would not bare, love out of touch.
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