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 May 2014
K Mae
dreaming with expansion
breathing silence we emerge
for our party we are hiding
resistant to defining
let alone deciding
who we are
 May 2014
wes parham
Raise, for your experiences, a city.
Build a warehouse, down the block,
Where you’ll keep the cosmos.
Build a bookshelf, within a brownstone,
Where some other things can go.
Like the time you grasped a flower,
Felt beneath, felt the spines that
Pricked your skin,
Made you cry.
But that shelf will be revisited many times,
In this fragile, crumbling zip code,
Forsaking more majestic memory palaces,
Because the vision reached your soul,
Through pain,
Of all that beauty, soft, red, enfolded into itself,
On such a slender stem.
Revel in the joy, but don't forget the pain. It is your god-given right and a valuable ally once accepted and befriended.    
One of the devices for memorizing inordinate amounts of data is to imagine a place and travel through it, mentally, placing items here and there along the way.  Recall is achieved by simply traveling through this imaginary space again, where the logic of placement becomes a natural mnemonic for recall.  Time and Memory are themes I find myself flying to again and again.   The flower was a person I felt wounded by, but learned that nothing is as it seems.
Hear it here, read by the author:
http://soundcloud.com/warmphase/the-memory-palace
 May 2014
Camellia-Japonica
I awoke today to a truth,
one that I had been lying for
with potions and lotions.
I am old. I am fast approaching
the age when young, I thought
was ancient. Truth be told I'm not
that old but, the outside of me is
wearing thin, my mind is still proof of
my juvenile molecules.

Youth gave me bruises, when seen were
black and blue, age has bruised me but
with a different hue.
How true that poets refer to youth as green
and salad like, fresh and new, for if we knew
that age brought, not only wisdom, but a
wrinkling of the body and soul, we may take
a detour to a roof and shove off
falling, whilst calling for our younger days
© JLB
My salad days,
When I was green in judgment.
William Shakespeare, "Antony and Cleopatra", Act 1 scene 5
 May 2014
Camellia-Japonica
Pretty in pink, I'd like to think I can write
you a ballad but all that comes is a pallid
canvas of colourless words.
I fail to bring the vibrancy in my heart
to life, descriptions of you, of your love.
Damaged, though I am, I know that you
and you alone love me.
In a way that no sibling, parent or other knows.
Yet,
acid drips from my lips aimed like an arrow
to your heart.
Fastened together by something more than
Love, why do we fight with such spite?
What sorcery binds us?
I love you, but that makes you mine
to ****.
Men may **** the things they do not love
but we women **** what we love the most.
© JLB
Do all men **** the things they do not love?
Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, Bassanio.
 May 2014
Shane Oltingir
If I had to give my son advice,
To, on his little life, shed light:
I'd say don't do drugs, and if you do.
Do Class C in the mornings,
And Class A's at night.
If you're gonna do it, do it right.

If I had to give my son advice,
To save his little heart from pain:
I'd say never love at a distance;
Your heart will succumb to a lonely bind.
For words, are far too nervous,
and probably won't get there on time.

If I had to give my son advice,
So his smile remains a genuine jewel,
I'd say be sure to marry a writer.
Smile as much as you possibly can,
And if they feel it worth defending
They will rewrite, and edit out your problems,
And give you a happy ending.
 May 2014
Lady Ju
Every new day is a mystery
Yesterday becomes history
Wondering are you still missing me
I close my eyes
And feel your heart's still whispering
..."I do" -Lady Ju
 May 2014
C S Cizek
When kids pop more pills than balloons
at a fair, take more rips from bongs
than Beyblades, shake hands with *****
dollars and plastic bags, steal more money
than hearts, are in more mugshots than family
photos, **** more than war, sell more ****
than lemonade, read more billboards than books,
go through more girlfriends than socks in a week,
text more than they write, inject more ******
than flu vaccinations, drink more beer than fruit punch,
put their lips around more pipes than Popsicles,
and die more than live;
then we'll know we've failed them.
 May 2014
marina
i.
no matter what your teachers
may tell you, your grades are not a
measure of how smart you are, that
has more to do with how you handle your
heart, and i have never seen anyone love
more fiercely or smart than you.  

ii.
i have let boys touch me just because
i was scared to lose them; don't let them
lay a hand on you without you asking
them to, you are worth more than that.

iii.
people will walk away, but you've known
that already.  keep your chin up so that when
they turn back one last time, they know that
you don't need them.
you don't need them.

iv.
i hope you find somebody that holds your
hands, even when you're nervous and
they start to sweat.  if they pull away,
you come find me and i swear,
i won't let go.
i just love her more than words
 May 2014
Julie Butler
I could write entire novels
slowly down your body
my lips pretend to be a pencil
and your spine, my only hobby
gripping tightly to your chest
as if your bones are now my desk space
carving letters of my longing
down your arms
my lungs are desperate
for the right to be your air
while my breath endures this chest ache
forgetting what a life outside
is like
your ribs become my breakfast
your body is a mountain
I continually climb
and your neck becomes a bite of hope
that haunts me all the time
your skin is like an ocean
your salt becomes my wine
you build with your two legs
a space for me to live inside
and I study what you're made of
I compare you to the sky
like the moon you glow on top of me
like the stars you blow my mind
 May 2014
Wanderer
Gazing down at me
In starry eyed brilliance
The apex of your pleasure
Reached with sweated brow
Clenched teeth and moans
Energy released leaves love's scent
Heady. Hazed. Humming.
My body curls into yours
As worked out lungs catch up
To our finish line
 May 2014
Gwen Johnson
You may not think that you are
But you are beautiful
You may not see that you are
But you are beautiful
People may not say that you are
But you are beautiful
You may reject it
But you are
And always will be
Beautiful
This is for anyone who doesn't think they're beautiful!
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