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I.
Lain down, unconcealed
toward the window
shoulder to hip -- a shadowy cursive
perhaps penumbra

II.
Seated, face in utter profile
standing, sorting laundry
washing dishes, guarding
the radiator

III.
Hair eschewed in
conjugated waters
double-exposed
roots and
foliage -- wisps
of sugarland
in subtext
their dark net
cast over a pearly bright sea
discovery left
to the imagination
For Eleanor Callahan
I made up two things,
People — or lovers’ rings.
One writes the lines,
The other paints the signs.

So let me share how they feel,
Let me present them as if they were real.

Dorothea or Niki — the dreamer in me.
Doesn’t know which she is anymore.
She’s the version I write in my poetry.
Me as someone to adore.

She speaks in stanzas, dreams in rhyme,
Wishes for a love to last past time.

And then there is Poppy Piume,
She’s a lot like my real world friend.
But in this poetic arc that isn’t her doom.
Here — we are the a story with no end.

She answers in dreams, if not in the day,
A voice I imagine when I drift away.

In my imagination there is no goodbye,
But in sad reality she doesn’t even reply.
So I write, as she paints, and I try not to cry,
And I pretend our silence is just a lullaby.
Inspired by reality, but not there anymore.
 20h
Warmer Vista
I cannot silence it.

Words simmer forth from void to
Bone to skin.

Seep through
Sludge
Gold flecked river bottom

Rising up
Steady and thick with spirit
With blood
All of your silenced selves

Lanced from the wounds of the
Midnight hour
You clutch your own skin
Hot and red
Strip away the heavy years that
Told you to be quiet.

Howl in agony,

Sing

Whistle the ghosts in through the Windows cracked just so
The crisp night air weaves like
Snakes of ice
Around your neck and now

You write

You write

You write.
Rain falls softly on the purple flower as it swings to and fro
in a field where everything blooms according to nature's will
Steadfast and strong the morning sun rises in the East  
upon a lush carpet of grass soft as the ancient winds of time

Light piano keys caress my mind as I close my eyes and enter
into a reverie as bright as the orange tulips that seize me
Ferns and chanterelles bathed in beams of pure light  
I am part of and whole of, this amazing greenish forest ...

Rivulets of quiet waters glide through the sun kissed earth
aerial slides from eagles and other winglet creatures of sky
Loyal and faithful mother earth is constant with her affection
in this solitary paradise made of homosapiens of every kind

Stunned into silence I inhale the chirp of the dancing bird
exhaling into the pinery the offspring of my very soul
I cup my  hands and drink from the river, a thirsty fish
longing to finish the journey I begun, ...centuries ago.
Ridgehead
Barreleye
Bristlemouth
Loosejaw
Daggertooth

The names he was called
The identities he became

Things of that nature run deep
And crush like the depths of the sea
 4d
David
Man  can be pugilistic
With time ,with self
The clock that shouts
In the morning light
A cloud
Like a wet soggy blanket
It's relentless pursuit to cover my head
This day will rejuvenate with swollen intent
Cobwebs a mere obstacle
Callous hands caress, alleviate
The roots of adolescence
A perpetual child is my fate
My neurodivergent mind is overwhelmed with pressure, struggling under the weight of the sea.
Yet, amidst the chaos, God reaches down to pull me from the depths and set my spirit free.

-Rhia Clay
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