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 Apr 2015
Craig Verlin
There is an incredible sadness
that sits upon the city like
a dense fog,
if you look close enough to see it.
It tastes sweet in coughed breath
and in the early, endless night
you can see it there, stagnant
through the windows and
the trees.
There is an incredible sadness
that sits in this city,
corrupting slowly and fully
and without mistake.
The people sometimes know it
and can do nothing,
others embrace it,
most do not know it as it
leans and sits about them.
An old man leans his dark
head against the railing
of the Wanamaker building
steps, coughs twice, a
gloved hand covering cracked lips.
Walk past, breathe in
the sweet stagnation of a
fire that no longer has any
wick to uphold it.
There is a sadness here,
If you look close enough.
 Apr 2015
Kasey
I fell in love twice.
The first, a glorious trip over cheap champagne and the dreams of youth.
Tremendously child-like , desperately adult.
But nothing that burns so bright dies slowly without notice.
And I swore I would never love again.
The second, greatest love
Happened without intention
And saw into the future. And saw reality.
And was a great, great love.
Subtlety spread from an ember to a wildfire,
And I've learned that love hurts more as an ache
Than it ever could as an explosion,
And sometimes feels like loneliness.
 Apr 2015
Craig Verlin
Another drink;
spit in the sink shows
red against porcelain,
fleeting concern.

Another drink;
what is there ever
to worry about?
I could make an
argument for nothing
and everything both
alongside one another.

Another drink;
taste the iron alongside
the bitter burn of alcohol,
the body goes more often
than not before the mind does.
It is unfortunate to have it
the other way around.

Another drink;
spit red again,

I am fighting myself
to keep the pace.
 Apr 2015
Craig Verlin
I was comfortable in bed,
Sunday morning’s as a kid
in the blooming heat
of a late Spring morning.
I could hear the phone ring
and my mother move slowly
to answer.
Muffled conversation beget
an anguished cry and
hustled words of consolation.
I couldn’t make it out from the noise.

I didn’t quite care because of
the hangover aches that
wracked the young limbs in
atrophy of the body and of the soul,
instead keeping eyes closed from
the light in the window and rolled
into a drifting sleep.
It wasn’t until I re-awoke
and staggered to the kitchen
that I saw her shaking her head,
crying slightly atop the kitchen counter.
A quick glance upwards with
tears renewed in strength.

Death need only come in quick,
effortless seconds upon a blackout night.
Hell need only come in a phone call
and a mother’s terrified explanation.
 Apr 2015
Tatiana
Tip toe carefully down the never ending path
that twists and winds into the woods
littered with leaves of different hues
that fell from dead trees so high above.
But their golden figures make no sounds,
as your toes ghost over the tops of them
dancing down the path.

Searching for the end of the path,
getting lost in the deep dark woods,
and wondering why wandering is such a pleasant thing to do
yet so crippling as well.
The toes stop moving as loud sobs were heard,
they came from behind,
at the start of the path.

Don't go back lonely dancer
whose toes twitch towards the sound.
It was a choice to dance with death,
one that you couldn't turn down
since no one else would ever dance with you.
Don't float back over those golden leaves
they will turn brown.

But yet those toes turned away from the end
and back to the sounds where it all began,
and what the dancer saw they almost couldn't comprehend,
how could one person care so much for a failed friend?
One who had no grace in life,
who couldn't handle it,
who had to leave it all behind.

You stood on your toes to see around the bend, you leaned
just enough to see toes, connected to feet, connected to legs, connected to...
connected to... with a person kneeling, staring at the hanging form.
Run dancer run,
look at what you have done.
You can't go back, the past hurts you like it always does
all you can do is dance with death, alone again.

Calm, poised, point your toes, you failure!
The deadly mantra you had forgotten echoed in your head again
as your feet hit the ground,
tripping on sticks and brown leaves
and you fall down,
your body in agony,
dancing no more.
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