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 Jan 2015
Craig Verlin
Like the snow and the cold and the everything
piled upwards atop bare shoulders.
The absence of love buried deeper
in the chest than the hatred.
Hatred at least meant that
there was something to feel.

Leaning against the steps,
an early morning in January
as the snow and the cold
and the everything piled upwards,
I watched as you looked through me
and walked right on by.
 Jan 2015
Craig Verlin
The articulation of her body
holds a dialect of grace
as it twists and turns in eager
pleasure.
The music courses over her
like a shower head and the
silence is overwhelming;
when I look into her eyes
all is quiet,
dimmed in timid respect,
to the beauty and the depth
hidden deep beneath the caramel.

Her laugh dims the lights
and stops the band as I realize
I am the benefactor of such
grace, born from the breast
of a woman to whom I walk
always slightly behind. Her eyes
meet mine and only mine and
there is something there on
that dance floor, something
divine in the touch
of a hand.

Now, retrospect has glazed these
memories, adding
a golden hue
to that beautiful skin,
and that silver dress,
draped from her like
garland from the body
of almighty Aphrodite.
And that was love,
that was love,
there on that dance floor;
love in my eyes and love in
my heart and love in
every step we took
swinging in the Sinatra breeze
with old men like tigers
waiting for a misstep
--here you are old men!
here is my mistake
look what I have done!--

And the articulation of her body
dips and curves in beautiful
cursive away from me,
as I lay in the same place,
seeing her waltz into the night,
but am further and further apart.
That was love there on that
dance floor,
and the old men watched,
in awe and agony, waiting.
--Old men look how your
patience has paid off! Look
how she dances away even now!-
But there was love on that
dance floor, so even as
your articulation turns
sweet movements
harsh and jagged,
even as you climb
above and away from me
with every breath,
you cannot deny me that.
 Jan 2015
PrttyBrd
I see the days end drawing nearer
Still foggy without getting clearer
The choices I've made
My dreams they invade
Staring back as I look in the mirror

Forgiveness is merely a virtue
Won't alter the fact that I've hurt you
Now filled with regret
Wishing I could forget
Still, my treacherous acts don't avert you

You see me as some kind of Savior
Despite my appalling behavior
My smile cannot hide
The demons inside
From that truth, I'm unable to waver
2614
 Jan 2015
PrttyBrd
She wept for her children
At the end of the day
Wishing God gave them a mother
Deserving of their best

She wept for herself
As she lay upon the pillow
Feeling she fails them at every turn
Hating herself for their shortcomings

She wept without knowing
Her best is more than good enough
Their tests strengthen her resolve
She is exactly the person they need her to be
12015
 Jan 2015
Craig Verlin
She had a boyfriend
back in Miami,
she said,
and she would love
to have me,
she said,
but she just
couldn't do that,
she said,
she loved him and
she would just feel
awfully terrible about
it if she did,
she said.

I told her if she didn't
want to then it seemed
logical that she shouldn't.

Oh, but darling how
I would love to,
she said,
and I'm so drunk
it would be easy,
she said,
but I love him
I promise I do,
she said.

We were in bed
and she lay atop me
saying these things
and the devils the
both of us fought had us
up against the ropes.

I ****** her then,
and once more in the morning
before I dropped her off
at the airport to fly home
to that wonderful and
terribly ignorant boyfriend,
the one she loved so much,
quite obviously a better
man than me.
 Jan 2015
PrttyBrd
the clock chimes
but no one counts
the days move at will
forward, backward
days stand still
the ticking of seconds
lost in the minutia
of the everyday
endless mind chatter
and negative self-talk
heart in a vacuum of speculation
what if -
coulda, shoulda, woulda
WILL NOT
DO NOT
STAY IN THIS PLACE
strain to listen
can you hear it
it's there
in the undercurrent of life
lost beyond yourself
tick tock
a shadow of a sound
tick tock
time never stops
tick tock
feel the minutes turn to days
a sense of time thrown away
on nothing
it's easy
so much easier
to wonder
what if -
why me -
than to take a deep breath
and realize
the world does not revolve
around a solitary soul
and no one is ever
the reason someone makes a choice
choices are made of free will
or they aren't choices at all
good or bad
tick tock
tick tock
tick tock
can you feel it
tick tock
tick tock
tick tock
it's the minutes of life
left behind
in a cloud of never was
tick tock
the clock chimes
but no one counts
the days move at will
forward, backward
days stand still
11915
spoken word
 Jan 2015
DaSH the Hopeful
The light is struck away in a cold confusing slash of night
  Black creeping at my windowsill signifying the strangeness of unfamiliar surroundings
          Changed and twisted by the lack of sound the sleep of others brings
      I stay roused in the dark
      Silence biting at my ears
            My mind asking itself rhetorical questions
            

        Pacing and pacing and pacing
         and pacing and pacing


Staring out my window at slanted shadows that seem to smile back
           They're very telling
They want to get in, and bad.
  


       *I pray to God they don't.
 Jan 2015
Tyler Lynn Pulliam
trudging through mud waist-deep
these lungs are billows of smog and
these hands are brittle claws
world-breaker, I am fate unseen
through the clearest of lenses,
and the most acute of baubles
simple phrases caught in raw
and searing throats
with these ideas, my brain molds
an even more bothersome equation
tlp
 Jan 2015
Craig Verlin
The neighbors are having a party.
Young women are seduced by young men
and the cycle of life has evolved into this
degradation of humanity in the 21st century.
I have taken a large part myself.
Now, however, I sit a room away
with this keyboard, a case of beer
and this pack of cigarettes,
bullying this keyboard as I
punch words out of thin air.

I would take my party over theirs any day.
 Jan 2015
Tyler Lynn Pulliam
Truth be told, I was skeptical.
Was this worth the cowry shell equivalent?
My mind was a dry skin covered foot caught on a fleece blanket.
My tongue, lined with the taste of that earthy bile.
Distant isles between Alaska and Ayahuasca,
but it all comes rushing back. Jungle visions.
-
I
        take
                    ten
               ­              sickly      
                                          steps
                ­                                     toward
                                                          ­         the
                                                             ­              teetering  
                                                     ­                                      ethereal
                                                        ­                                                  edge.
-
She's once again lined with that finespun glow.
I'm once again letting the little things go.
She's letting me know for the very first time.
I'm struggling to find words for the very last rhyme.
-
                                        Trudging
       ­     tip-toed
through
                                           ­                       the
                  nonlinear
      narr­ative;
                                       elegantly
                                                       ­     elephantine.
-
Lick your wounds, traveler.
Set your eyes to the pale star's gleam.
Dogma unraveller
with an elementary scheme.
We are nature's instruments.
We are watchers in the night.
Softened slightly by the dissonance
of the dearly departed Wight.
-
He's slipping in and out.
Orbium linguam avium.
Labra lege: hic sunt dracones.
Let us dine on cremated elves.
-
     m sw ll   w  ng sw rds   nd st rs.
R zn hdzooldrmt hdliwh zmw hgzih.
I a         a  o   i          o      a         a  .
I am swallowing swords and stars.
-
.ecnatsbus em evig dna eniltuo ym nekraD
.savnac eruza siht otno seye s'ti tsac dluow nuS eht hsiw I
?suhpysiS fo redluob eht I mA
.noitcerid gnorw eht ni gnilbmut no peek I
-
We're sailing on the calmest of waters,
but there is not a drop to drink.
Bad news for the boy who only rejects omens.
I will not hang a dead bird around my neck.
Retrace the lace and my hazy days of habit,
then let me know your honest opinion.
Exhibit an execution by exsiccation of the most exuberant exiles.
Or am I the only one who's thirsty?
-
                                                      ­                      Who here is the ghost?
I know **** well it's not me.
                                                             ­                            Who said that?
I know I did.
                                                            ­                                        Didn't I?
Couldn't be.                                                              ­            
                                                    ­                                                    Am I?No.                                  
                         ­           Hopper, this isn't sinking in.
I am not a liar.
-
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01101111011­100100110011101100001011011100110100101100011

011011010110000101­1000110110100001101001011011100110010101110011

-
I was supposed to be writing something down.
Some kind of secret; some kind of rune.
Can you help me find our primal core?
Your carnal truths are mine to keep.
Weren't you supposed to be going somewhere?
The flea burrow, no, The Doubling House.
For in those halls of mold and paper walls
your memories were uneagerly forged.
It's time to shed your summer skin
and begin to eat with your hands.
 Jan 2015
Craig Verlin
The women often leave quietly
and without a fuss.
They have a right to
come and go at their leisure.
There are times, however,
that they leave and
they are loud.
They are louder than
a man can imagine,
or possibly stand,
and they throw their
shoes or their bottles
or their broken hearts
with reckless abandon
towards you.

Those of the last sort
are what hurt
the most, it seems
—although the other objects
do damage, quite the same—
I only smile, smile
with a terrible sadness,
What else is there to do?

The door slams and
the curses echo off
of the thin, plaster
walls of this emptied
apartment, and I am
left to pick up the shards
of glass, broken picture frames,
and pieces of the love
they carelessly
left behind,
smiling, always smiling.
What else is there to do?
 Jan 2015
DaSH the Hopeful
The only thing i solemnly swear
Is to violently tear
A hole in the sky
And climb through the air til im finally there
A few died on a cross just to try and be heirs
Facing facts God's face is black and they're inherently scared
If i reach a throne
Physical or metaphorical
I'm dealing miracles like morphine drips
And you could score a few
Otherwise
Im holding torture tournaments
Inside the gates of heaven
God begging ME for mercy as i torch him and his brethren
Eleven times over I've tried to bind Jehovah
To a book men have died for trying to be soldiers
Writ in blood the words inside lose all their touch
Im losing all this blood just to try and feel the rush
Of turning the last page and alighting all the brush
Don't back away from the flame

Its just me

Talking to US
I am Legion?)))
 Jan 2015
DaSH the Hopeful
When those you supposedly hold close grow comatose
From the cold wind you blow from your collective holes
You'll know
The strength of the silence bearing down on your throat
Ripping your stupid little thoughts to shreds as they're spoke
You're nothing and never have been and I'll let it be known
In the absence of the annoyance you call your voice
These men you fill your life with will resound and rejoice
They could never fill the void you left in yourself
You're pathetic, worthless, and far beyond help
Dedicated to the more treacherous members of the Herring family. They know who they are.
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