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 Mar 2014 Jai Rho
Gwen Johnson
I don't know how you can look at me
And insist you've done nothing wrong
Like I should believe you
But by now I know you
I know how you turn it on me
Though I didn't do anything particularly wrong
Yet you blame me
You make me feel small
So you can act big
But you can stop the act
No need for a show
This isn't a game
So there's nothing to win
Though you'll keep your act till the end
You don't deserve a trophy for it
I wasn't pleased with your act
I won't stand back transfixed
I won't shed tears
Because this time
I didn't believe the performance
 Mar 2014 Jai Rho
softcomponent
this town burns like old tales of wet villages near Halifax
a hub of nowhere, lined to hubs all apart at travel-trap distance
undistinguished but cultured, the spec manifest of an always rolling boulder;
party party, debit card!

welcome to the corner of the world.
written on March 2nd, 2013 about my hometown of Powell River.
 Mar 2014 Jai Rho
Mikaila
Either you stoke the fire or you freeze to death.
It's called a controlled explosion, and it happens in a little glass jar on your bedside table at 3 o'clock in the morning.
It rattles the bottle of herbal sleeping pills you need to believe
Will keep you under all night,
And plops the water in your little white cup,
And good morning to you, you've got a choice.
It's not a great time, true.
But really, what's a good time for a private apocalypse?
No matter how much advance notice you get,
You never know quite what to wear to the end of your world.
You turn over and twist the lid, and it's okay,
Because black is fine for every occasion,
And if this goes well the only witness is the mirror.
Good morning.
It's not a great time.
But great times are really set-ups in disguise, for jokes you can't pretend to laugh at forever,
And embers aren't so bad if you chase them with water and get it over with.
Because you've got a choice, but...
Between sliding down that ***** and swallowing your medicine with a little grimace like a good girl?
Honestly, what kind of choice is that?
And maybe after, you can turn over and set your sheets on fire trying to sleep,
And there will be scorch marks on your walls
But
When you rise
You shine,
And that engine just below your ribcage throws heat all ******* day
And...
It gets you places.
You've got a choice,
And yeah, it's not the best choice-
It's the fight inside or the loss out there, but...
Nobody likes to lose.
Not even lovers.
 Mar 2014 Jai Rho
Tanner Angelo
underneath me quiet and relenting
it meant much less than either expected

plastic bag tossed by the wind tracing cra-
zy shapes cyclonic and demented

like two giants shunned into a cave by
fearful villagers with pitchforks and torches

forks to tune the pitch to please the ear holes
torch in hand makes brave the claustrophobic

cables thick as thighs pressed under tension
snap and gives the tiny metal box to gravity

twenty one stories, each full of unfamiliar
faces and families and stories of their own

not much longer  'til the ground will meet us
one last kiss before our light is diminished

a last second change of heart, I pry
open the doors and throw you into the hall

why should we both need to crash together?
you suffer minor injury, I take the fall.
 Mar 2014 Jai Rho
APari
Untitled
 Mar 2014 Jai Rho
APari
College kids drink.
It's not the blood of Christ.
And when it is,
they still seem to abuse it.
The church doors are locked.
And my parents called.
And I don't know who these people are
And we're all drunk,
and it feels like skipping time.
Not in a grand sense of the word,
a 5 years ago I was in high-school sense of the word,
but where time doesn't exist, and there we are/

The night shines like gasoline oil.
But we're crammed together.
So I take a walk in bare feet in the mud.

I walk by guys who want to fight
Who smash bottles of Sky.
Shards exploding.

And I want my bed
and I walk home
a mile, then two, then it's three a.m.
Half jogging, drunk walking,
tipsy jogging, singing songs,
car lights are shooting starring
past me.

And no one drives me home this time
and I just want my bed
and I keep singing
some kid cudi song.

And then I'm home back in my bed
and I drink glasses of water
and then strip and get under the warm layers
and cool ceiling fan wind and drift asleep.

And I wake and drink more water.
Then fall asleep again.
 Mar 2014 Jai Rho
A Mink
I've felt guilt
and I've felt shame.
Never together but
both the same.
Blankly stare with
hope from Sane,
trapped in this prison
bundled in blame.
I've felt guilt
and I've felt shame,
both together and
never the same.
 Mar 2014 Jai Rho
mark john junor
the grey sandy soil
gives neath footfall
as he hitches up his oversized jeans
and nervously fumbles with his broken glasses
a caricature of indecisive recluse

his worked hands covered in soils
grips and relaxes with the rise and fall
of the conversation
his tattered shirt haphazardly buttoned
has a lone cigarette sticking its bent form
from the lip of the pocket
like the last standing solider
content to remain till his fiery end

the ditch he labours in
stretches back in crooked line
along the fence
deep in places and shallow in others
like a drunken hedgehog making a shoddy home
he stops and looks back wiping the tide of sweat
from his face
and squints against the setting suns
brilliant golden light
mumbles some rational reason invented
and dismisses all concept of repair

this earthen work of the hobbled mind
shall remain into the windswept rain and years
slowly loosing its form
as the world itself shifts in discomfort
but the man himself will remain to memory
forever unchanged
a hearty laugh rich with the
earthen tones of life well lived
a man that remains forever in sunlight
a man among men
my friend
 Mar 2014 Jai Rho
Emma
Migraine
 Mar 2014 Jai Rho
Emma
My head pounds
And even the
Tiniest bit of light
Can make this pain
In my head
Worse
And you're screaming
At me
At the top of your lungs
Not knowing
That this migraine
Is the worst
I've had in forever.
Because I "used" to
Get them 24/7
All the **** time
But I lied to you
Saying that I don't
Get them anymore
Saying that I was fine
Because I hated
Seeing you always
Worrying about me.
So I lied
Something you told me
Never to do
And I said
They were gone
As I'm silently
Sitting here
As you're screaming at me
About that grade in school
As my head
Pounds to the beat
Of the song
That's playing over
And over in my
Mind.

-e.w.
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