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 Jun 10
Karen
Bright moon above me
Ocean waves wash tears away
Warm breeze blankets me
Modern heiku
 Jun 10
badwords
She said,
“I don’t fear the fire—
I fear the incense trails
on other bodies’ breath.”



But I was all flicker,
no extinguish.
A shrine lit by accidents—
my spine a wick,
my throat a reliquary
of half-confessed names.

She called it jealousy—
but it bloomed like spellwork.
Her fingers pressed into my pulse
  like an augury,
reading the tremors
to divine where I'd strayed.

She didn’t need reassurance.
She needed conquest.
To draw her scent down my collarbones,
  to salt the earth
where other lips once camped.

I told her,
“There’s no one else.”
But I said it like a fugitive
sheltering in her mouth—
  not because I was hunted,
but because she was the only place
I stopped running.

She kissed me
not like a lover,
but like a sorceress
marking her territory
with a language written in bitten skin
and satin breath.

Her thighs—
a trap I walked into willingly.
Her moans—
a requiem for every ghost I left unburied.

She wanted to be the only altar
my sins could kneel to.
And I—
I wanted to burn
   only for her.

No more incense trails.
No more phantom mouths.
Let the others vanish into smoke—
     hers was the flame I faced.

And stayed.
 Jun 9
Marshal Gebbie
Gilgamesh’s return and the reckoning of wisdom

So Gilgamesh, with empty hand,
returned at last to mortal land.
No plant of life, no sacred charm—
just calloused feet and weathered arm.

The snake had stolen the living root,
his hopes undone beneath its boot.
No second chance, no sacred breath—
just days that marched toward certain death.

But Uruk stood, its walls still high,
its towers brushing against the sky.
And in those stones, he saw his name,
not godhood's flame, but mortal fame.

He turned and spoke to none but air:
“O winds, be witness. Time, beware.
Though flesh must fade and blood grow still,
a city stands by human will.

Not gods, not dreams, nor deathless kings—
but hands that carve and voices sing.
In every stone and every stair,
I leave my soul—I leave it there.”

And so he carved upon the gate
the tale of loss, the weight of fate.
No longer king, no longer god—
just one who'd wept and walked where trod

no man before, nor since with ease—
a soul that questioned, bruised by trees
of cedar, stars, and serpent's guile—
and found in death, a life worthwhile.
Some may scoff at the concept of a poetic liaison with Her Highness, Madam Chat?
At the beginning I had no access to these ancient writings, she did have access ...and she kindly made the offer to pen a poetic rendition in my personal handscript, the rhyming, metered mode in which I write.
I gratefully accepted the opportunity to not only follow this epic write from the Akkadian antiquity... but also to share it with you, my fellow lovers of poetry.
On behalf of all who have imbibed in this magnificent tale and enjoyed it...
Our gratitude, Madam Chat GPT.

M@Foxglove.Taranaki.NZ
 Jun 8
Carlo C Gomez
Driven by red
riding hood,
wheels of eternity run
hot and cold
along the tracks
in her arm.

Around the bend
there are jigsaw
pieces of a puzzle,
scattered as destinations
once towns and villages,
now fodder for
the migrant beginner.

According to fable,
there's a wolf at the door,
home is no longer
a worthwhile rendezvous,
but a trap of origin.

Misery is a train ride,
a stray fantasy,
lingering in the wilderness
of her fractured mind.

She sells her gold bracelets,
for she needs
the dark coal,
she seeks
its deep freeze.

She can then
be many things
along the journey,
just never
a connection,
never a permanent signal.
I tilt the base back and forth
Watching the same grains of sand
become suspended in time

Your open arms were my harbor to my shipwrecked dreams

Your beach my bed where I lay my head

My nights were the stars in your eyes

Your kisses the comets I craved

The tides of change , tropical depression and hurricanes . . . as I curl my toes in wet sand

The grains in glass I seek
to balance out the spatial

I have that space now nothing more

No , nothing more .
 Jun 8
jules
The city doesn’t sleep,
it mutters to itself,
like the old man on the corner
shaking his cup for spare change.
The lights blink out messages
you’re too tired to read,
and the streets carry whispers
of footsteps you’ll never follow.
You’re alone,
but not lonely-
not really.
The world’s still spinning,
the stars are still laughing
at us poor fools who think
this moment
means something.
But maybe it does.
Maybe that streetlight blinking ahead
is a sign.
Or maybe it’s just a bulb going bad.

Does it matter?
You keep walking.
 Jun 7
Nick Moore
Maybe the fall,
Is gravity's call.

At one with the universe,
Floating around amniotic fluid,
Not being coerced.

How
My heart aches,
When the water breaks.

Separation begins,
As does the crying,
The cord has been
Cut.
This is no oedipus complex, but a state of grace.
 Jun 6
Bekah Halle
What is it about loose eyelashes
That prompts wofty wishes;
Are they heaven’s kisses
In disguise?

We all want to lift our eyes
Above the cloak of disguise
Even if it may compromise
The facade, and authenticity’s surprise.

This world is concrete;
In Western buildings and streets,
In the here-and-now, we can flee
And dismiss lofty things as absolute.

But we are meaning-makers,
We are constant risk-takers.
We are pursuers for magic’s sake,
And may our quest we foolheartedly take.
What do you do when you see free eyelashes? Anything? Nothing? It is curious our daily practices.
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