Beat* a thousand beats,
Crumble a thousand crumbles;
But no single formula, nor restless colloquy
Can mend the deafening black gravity nestled in this cage.
May grow flowers, but disintegrates to ash.
Soars to the highest peak, then jolted with a fatal blow.
Comedy or tragedy, truth or dare, numbers or letters, fidelity or treachery;
What does it choose?

Courage, dear heart.

There was a little, stuffed, ratted lamb
I used to carry around.
they found it in my closet hidden away.
What they don't know
Is that's where I used to stay.
Hidden and safe
From the war outside,
Forbidden to come out; I promised I wouldn't, But I lied.
Certain things you can't unsee
But I didn't take the ratted lamb with me.
I left it hidden away like I should have been.
Instead, I instilled a fear of men in my head.
that was the first night I didn't bring my little lamb to bed.
The old ratted thing was all I could protect.
Sure her little life wasn't perfect, always hidden out of sight.
clothes pins on her ears so she didn't hear the fights.
But I did my best to give her all I could.
Taking care of her the way I knew I should have been given care.
I became a Mom to the ratted lamb, because my Mom wasn't there.
She never once closed my ears with clothes pins.
I'd forgive her if she did.
But what's unforgivable, is that she didn't like how I hid.
I guess she wanted me to live in reality and not to be sheltered.
But I sweltered in the heat of truth.
so my little lamb I sheltered, my little lamb I soothed.
I still have the ratted thing, we sit side by side.
But now neither one of us has to hide.
Except for from time to time
When I hide from the memories
That brew
Inside.

© copyrighted Nicole Ann Osborn

You make me view
A black and white world
In technicolor.

sometimes enough is enough
sometimes logic is messed up
sometimes you just have to say
**** it and go your own way

Had you a viral video,
you’d watch it
more than once.

2. Instagram hearts
make you smile,
even from strangers.

3. Which would
you rather:
***
or
Zuckerberg
friending you
on Facebook.

No, this isn’t a Cosmo quiz —
it’s a social experiment.

Because no one ACTUALLY
answers these questions honestly
without looking like
that ****** at the pool
trying to get as MANY
high fives as possible.

Yet, we all do it.
Alone or in public.
Day or night.
LED screen spice up our lives.

It was probably
best embodied
by that girl taking
selfie
after  
selfie
after
selfie
after
selfie,
filmed for minutes
on the way to school,
the video soon posted,
by her dad
trying to teach  her a lesson?
Or trying to get attention?
Either way, he might as
well have hashtagged it
#socialsuicide.

Like most humor
we laughed at her
because we are her.
We see a dripping
characterture
******* to
itself in public.

Wait, it,
sounds wrong
when you name it.

But there is
a name for it:

Digital *******,
aka
Self-adoration
aka
Narcississism.

You won’t agree
that you do it too.

But I’ll bet
most of you
get excited
thinking about
notifications too.

Why is that?

You’d never admit it.

You can say
I smelt it, so I dealt it.
Call me a preacher,
a hater, or a hypocrit.

But I'd rather you call me a
digital masterbater too.

And then remember the last
time you opened Instagram
or Facebook
or Twitter
and took a selfie
or hashtagged something
or posted a status
that your still breathing.

How long has it been —
a minute, an hour, a day?

Now try making fun of her.

For Joe Cole's Magic Challenge**

Magic Words

He practiced his magic out there in the yard
on the crest of this fine summer’s eves
A trick he had found waiting there in his heart,
he knew he just had to believe
~
For there was a girl who smiled oh so pretty
on a front porch right there, up the street
And all he could hope was that magic would help him,
if only a chance just to meet
~
He set up his props, a box made of cardboard
and showed it was empty inside
Then took a scarf, tinted blue like the heavens
and still he had nothing to hide
~
He looked her direction and grinned when he notice
that she was now looking at him
He put on his hat and rolled up his sleeves,
the time it was right to begin
~
With a wave of his hand, he made her appear
from the box with a scarf colored blue
Just three magic words, she needed to hear
when he whispered to her, I love you

I want peace in my heart,
create black holes in dark memories.
Out of the holes crawling spiders,
they start to spin webs out of my thoughts,
my smallest defeats, my indifference.
In these sticky webs they catch my light,
swallow my energy, my time.
Gorge themselves big and bold.
Sometimes I can hear them smacking
or maybe they snickering?
I don't know.
I know.
Soon they will burst.
Their black, viscous blood will spread.
Everywhere in my mind.
The last little light will drown in this evil liquid.
I will turn again into this ******* zombie.
Controlled by darkness...