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I once did meet a lady fair,
With twinkle bright and wild-eyed stare,
She bowed to me, then just like that,
She farted gaily in my hat.

The tavern roared, the fiddles played,
A legend in that hall was made,
No crown of gold, no feathered plume—
But thunder sealed my cap of doom.

And though my pride was blown apart,
She won the night with fearless art;
Not queen, nor saint, nor diplomat—
She’s the woman who farted in my hat.
Born unknown,
died in a line.
The record is cold,
but the words are mine.

Infobox frame,
sidebar fate,
“Poet, creator—
Years too late.”

Bullet points rattle,
works in a row,
Hunter and Hunted
still on the go.

Downpour drips,
Perhaps confides,
each one a map
where the silence hides.

Future unfinished,
program erased,
4-0-4 echo
in a ghosted space.

They tag my cats,
my Portland flight,
my lover abroad
in the sleepless night.

Systemic erosion,
philosophy’s bend,
freedom by water,
stone at the end.

But listen—
the archive won’t catch my breath.
It flattens the pulse,
but it misses the depth.

I live in the margins,
the breaks, the rhyme,
revising myself,
line after line.

The words I write
Save you time
More wrong then right
And now they rhyme

Stay in school
Stay off drugs
Writing’s cool
Avoid the thugs

But carve it deep:
no lesson’s true.
The page deletes,
and so will you.

Ink on the skin,
then paper burns.
Each breath a draft
that never returns.

Laugh at the motto,
recite the creed,
the archive swallows
what no one reads.

The headline fades,
the sidebar lies,
a poet dies
and no one cries.

Obit in draft,
a ghost in rhyme,
born unknown,
erased in time.
Here lies what was never spoken,
the half-light between the words.
It lived in margins,
in the hush after laughter,
in the silence where a gesture
outweighed a phrase.

Born of hesitation,
raised on glances,
subtext thrived in the footnotes—
always italic,
always unsure.

It died today,
flattened by bullet points,
archived by algorithms
who never learned to wink.

The cause of death:
clarity.
The murderer:
explanation.

Mourners recall
its sly vitality,
its lean grace,
its habit of smuggling
a second heart
beneath the first.

No grave marker needed—
the ghost of subtext
still lingers,
but only in rooms
where people leave pauses
long enough
to hear it breathe.
All those songs about waking up in a lover's arms--
I don't know what they're talking about.

Oh, I've known the happy wedding night mattress on the floor
amid the stacks of packing boxes
and the delicious view when the world narrows
to a single cherished face.

The bee, though, doesn't live inside the bloom,
and goes still inside a jar.
Touched on every side by an adoring indigo night,
there is still just one Moon.

Allow me morning alone in my garden
with just my mug and dog.
It doesn't mean I never loved you, or loved you less.
There is only one dawn--this one
and it only waits so long.
2021
You prostrate,
Fold your hands,
Bring tears to your eyes,
And ask for forgiveness  from
Allah,
And yet, you are not prepared to forgive your fellow human being.
18/9/2025
Of life,
Is to be useful
Righteous,
Caring,
Than sweet eloquent whispers of fake promises.
18/9/2025
Joy
. . .
that which has a secret inside itself . . .

which is :
that exhilaration that is serene and untouchable . . .

that self contained God-like feeling
that is completely independent of all of the chances and changes of life

. . . . Joy . . .
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=HmR2IZjuMVc&si=MOPsDXUsm0ETU7Gs
Sometimes, a faint crack appears,
and threatens a fragile surface.

that space between two sides,
two forces...is never an easy spot.

Standing there long moments
figuring out the mending
the patching up
the giving of light to minds,
darkened by rage and confusion;
spreading your arms wide
to convince, to encourage,
so both sides may soften...reach out
to each other...to diffuse tension,
to melt the ice that freezes good
energy, to let the warmth invade,
and make the connection last.

Ahh, the process is so tiresome
at times...enthusiasm is numbed.

When aging limbs grow weaker,
it becomes wearisome to repair
creviced connections, to be a bridge
for those who prefer to be apart.

Sometimes, it's best
to let islands remain islands.
they may be better off isolated,
at peace when they're on their own.


sally b

© Rosalia Rosario A. Bayan
    March 26, 2023
Stacked green crates by the futon,
records quiet as buried letters,
each sleeve longing
to be drawn out into daylight
by her small, thoughtful hands.

I just want to play that Nick Cave again
teenager’s resolve in her voice,
she drops the needle on "Tupelo",
traces Peter Murphy with her thumb,
holds Kate Bush to the light
like stained glass.

She laughs
at the ****** box on the speaker.
I tell her it’s never going to happen.
She grins, unbothered,
says she only came for the vinyl.

I watch her tilt each sleeve,
never touching the grooves,
brush the dust,
lay the needle like a secret,
slide the disc back without a wrinkle.
Each time I’m surprised
by her precision.
It’s the third time
she’s dropped by.

She makes mixtapes.
Pressing pause, pressing record,
stitching songs into a spine of hiss.
Once, to me, or to herself,
she said her father wanted a tape.
She’d mail it when he had
somewhere to send it.

She follows me across the bridge,
talking about her brother,
an ex-best friend,
mimicking her professor,
how he wags his tongue
when he writes on the chalkboard.

I haul a duffel:
apron, uniform, boots heavy with grease.
She skips in the rain,
strumming cables, humming
the last song played, still floating.

I unlock the door,
steeped in garlic and kitchen sweat,
boots leaving grime on the boards.
She isn’t there-
only the crates, stacked neater,
jackets squared, spines aligned,
as if her care was meant for me.
The room settles with her absence,
yet holds me upright
in its small, thoughtful hands.
From the Corpus Christi Journals (1993).
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