mechanical girl,
of blood and bone,
killed a pig with knife and stone,
she took it's leather to make it her own,
and sewed it on when she got home,
with a curly wig to impress,
and a twirling sundress,
she fooled them all,
but when they looked closer-everyone saw,
it was simply a tale, much too tall.

My neighbor's wife is battling cancer and she needs your prayers.
Please show her that you want her to get better, please show that you care.
Her name is Jane Webb and she's undergoing chemotherapy.
She needs prayers from you and she needs prayers from me.

love you man
A Story From Nam
by
Jude Kyrie

We were seventeen or eighteen in Nam
we became friends forever.
No more than friends.
Soldiers get closer than wives.
We went to sleep saying
I love you man.
We switched letters
For our girlfriends.
In case… well just in case.

The bullets rained
in the clearing that night.
I can still see the tracer lights.
Guys fell down all around me.
Crying everywhere.
Air power cleared them away.

I looked for Joe he was lay there.
I held him close
like a baby as he left us.
His last words
I love you man.
I whispered to him
Not as much
as I love you Man
.
I did not notice I had been hit.
After six months I returned home.
In West Virginia his beautiful girl
Opened the door of a small trailer.
She had a baby boy in her arms.
Her blue eyes welled with tears.
I passed the unopened letter to her.
I lied and said the blood
on it was mine.

She passed the baby
to me to hold
As she read the letter.
I kissed his tiny forehead.
And said see buddy
You’re not dead at all
I love you Man*

perhaps our children are our immortality  © 8 months ago

i’m not good at writing happy poems.
my hands are clumsy and so,
so scared—see, joy is
a vast foreign light,
spreading warmth through
fingertips, skeletons, souls.
and when, dear sky,
was the last time i saw
the dawn?
even to close my eyes
and ride on waves of slumber
is a risk
i fear to take—for what if
when i wake,
the sun and all his lullabies
are gone?
no,
i can’t take
another year in the dark.
and if i do,
if i do sleep,
or rest
or trust
or hope—
please, poem
(although messy,
crumbling,
soft),
keep the sun
with me.

Chloroform rag between my teeth,
just to get me to shut up,
"I miss you."
Feels a lot like cotton mouth, huh?
Feels a lot like scared kid,
like bruised back, shoulder blades,
like walking 10 miles for acid,
just so you can see things like
you're not supposed to.
But that's over.
Sweet like honey dew melon,
like honey drizzled so gently on toast, gold, it's all gold:
gold sunsets, gold hair, gold eyes, gold teeth, shining like the gold ring dad "lost" down the drain. Gold, stay gold, nothing gold can stay, gold.
Nothing gold can stay.
That's what I told myself.
And then the sunset came,
and came again,
and came 30 times
before I saw your face again.
Gold sticks to my hands like cellophane.
I watch my hair melt into a gold puddle,
waiting to freeze underneath your feet.
Hey, nothing gold can stay but
can you try?

Don't open your eyes
Today.
Don't stir from thoughtless
Slumber.
Each word you say is wrong.
Each choice that's made  — a blunder.
Don't try to give your all today
For it won't be enough.
Don't fight against this devil dog
It's bark is not a bluff.
Just go and hang your weary head
Perhaps go back to bed.
You might not win each battle,
So win the war instead.