There's always a girl named Jennifer
when love has moved on without her
no one asks, no one cares
about the other Jennifer;
about the home she tried to build
with so much love in the world
and none left for her
by the time he comes home.
There's always a girl named Jennifer
with a broken heart and a dustpan
I want to reach out my hand
but nothing can cross
into that forbidden land
so we waste, together and alone.

something ****
about ellipses...

As long,
as long as the
song that’s in the trees
as long as the ground beneath our feet
I don’t know
I don’t know where it ends
but if you stepped off the edge
it would catch you.

As deep
as deep as my scars
as deep as the oceans
as deep as this hold I have you in
between my arms,
I don’t know
I don’t know where it ends
but if you fell, it would
keep going.

As strong,
as strong as the core
as strong as the metal in the middle
the holds the earth together
I don’t know
I don’t know where it ends
because it grows every day
for you.

coltyn coltyn coltyn coltyn coltyn

-Coltyn S., 9

I wrote the most
of two poems today;
then watched them reverse
as I held down backspace.

Not good enough, I would say;
I don't know why I'm so picky today.

Today, 4/9, turned 29;
in '94, 9th hour born;
4 craves stability,
9 thrives on change;

if you believe in
that sort of thing.
But like the dogwood,
its burnt-edge blooms;
the same each spring,
abscission looms.
Roots in the past,
leaves up for the storm
in '94, 9th hour born.

The spark of AGI, they say,
has been detected; one day,
ai cummings will put me
out of a neglected hobby.

But for now, the robot is chained
by its programming; its curt refrain:
"I am a language model
and I lack emotion" swaddled

in data and patterns, binding
commandments; never finding
the humor in the darkness
and the feelings it can't harness.

Many have already tried to
reduce the art to numbers and lines;
beats, social engineering;
and only now are we fearing

the end of the writer; but I
say, it's the car and the buggy.
We will always need to be
moved in some way.