Disaster:
A sudden event
An accident
A Catastrophe
Great damage or
Loss of life
A volcano
Decimates
The population
****
One
In ten
Teach them a lesson.
A decimation is punishment for the whole
Make an example out of them
See? It could be your skeleton
Freeze framed in a blanket of ash
Fossilized
An example made of you
for those who come after
Before us there was no disaster
Only event
The earth is that man
Holding the rifle
Righteous in his conviction
But he will not pass out cigarettes before he shoots you
It's all a choice:
End the war
Or we end up
Another fossil on the side of that grey gravel road

"his state struck me in comparison as isolation, loneliness. But solitude is different, and female solitude, when it is truly chosen, can be blissful."
~Cerwin Dovey

So now I am carving and clawing
Into myself.
Initially it is painful
I am breaking myself
Slicing through my own flesh
Cracking open my rib cage
In an attempt to find this place
where I can be alone
comfortable
and blissful
in solitude.
It is a chaotic effort
as I dissect each part of my self
examining my interior with the utmost attention
as I try to become familiar with each pulsing vein
each cell contained
memorizing every piece
Abhorrent or admirable
I attempt to become
familiar
with each flaw
and each virtue
loving them the way I would
if they were contained
elsewhere.
The way I love each sparkle
or scar
in a lover
or a friend.
I am listening intently
to every conversation
with myself:
my own, lone audience.
I must become intimately acquainted
intoxicated
with my own thoughts
my sole company
so that I may eventually crawl
into the cavern of myself.
Safe within the walls of this skin.
The bars of my rib cage.
The pulse of blood through my heart.
The absolute
bliss
of this chosen solitude.

j.e.puckett

I will not cave into myself
for you.
I will no longer quiet myself.
I have done that for far to long.
I will let my heart consume
the world.

These poor sheets
Unwitting casualties of our bedroom warfare
They never asked for this
They intended to be respectable and clean
Stretched taut over some
regal queen

Have you ever seen that
Pseudo-inspirational quote
About how you're made from
Tiny bits of star stuff
And therefore should always remember some ******* about how special you are?

I think it's amazing that people
Use some ****** metaphor like this
To remind others of their worth.
Literally everything is made of
Tiny bits of star ****.
That's not special,
and that's not unique.
What is amazing
Is that you, alive, right now
Came from a one in a million
Combination of perfect  
universal circumstance.
A tiny ball of rock
happened to end up
the exact perfect distance
from a fiery gaseous orb
To be the exact perfect temperature to support life.
That little orb happened to have
An abundance of oceans
For that life to evolve into amazing little creatures.
Those creatures eventually
left those seas
Slowly becoming
Something absolutely new.

You are the product of millions of years of coincidences,
and natures trial and and error. They all lead to you,
A bundle of cells all communicating and constantly working together
In such a complex
and fantastic manner,
that we still don't
completely understand
how all that flesh and blood
And water and electricity
Can work together to not only allow us to run and walk
and eat and breath
But also to discover and contemplate and create and
truly, consciously,
THINK
In a manner that,
as far as we are aware
No other creature can.

You have the capacity
To imagine and dream
and choose and worry
And love and hate
And feel both joy and pain.
Those are things that nothing else
On earth,
Or in our solar system
Or anywhere else in
this known universe
Can do the way you do.

So use that unique cognitive power
To be aware of just how truly incredible you are,
Not as star stuff
But as the fragile,
Beautiful collection
Of flesh and bones and blood,
That against all odds has become
You.

j.e.puckett

She searched for shark teeth
As I picked up sea glass.
That was the fundamental difference between us:
She wanted something dark and deadly
While I longed for light and beauty.
My water was already
filled to the brim
with shadows.

j.e.puckett