lua - Hello Poetry

Jan 9

J

I am black lace kissed with stardust
You are brilliant, well loved, faded tie-dye
Leaving the smell of campfires, afternoon naps
fresh showers, and sleepy smiles in your wake
Bonfire flames licking the space between our skin
Heart beat rhythms drive the music
To sway against our heartstrings
Connected.
Summer rain runs down us steaming
Feel your heat getting closer
warming my bones
melting my center
A shiver runs through me
So in tune, I pulse for you
Aching with the distance
That seems to always separate
Our good timing

I never knew quite how cold I was until I met you.

#fire #campfire #melt #tiedye #love

lua Jan 5

one good photo

one good pose, one good picture
the perfect timing
perfect conditions
clouds lined up
as the planets do
he puts his arm around her shoulders
and they talk
gazing over the cityscape
as if they're the only people in the world

he's no gentleman
he's no man
she tells us stories
of his lies
we listen because
why wouldn't we?
we are them in physical form
a reminder of
why they're together
in the first place

i snap a photo, a couple more
i don't dare
utter a distraction.

#parents #lies #photograph #photo #time

Dec 2023

Oskar Erikson

throwing myself out the window

fine then.

               i'll forgive a memory and condemn a feeling.


                                                               the arteries
bloodless fingers squeezing
               an expression silent.

                         press into gumlines - remind enamel
               no recastings will remain
                                                                           at the end of this.

#throw #gumline #memory

lua Nov 2023

secret spot

i still see you in my dreams
white hallways of burgundy tile and gravel
multi coloured lockers line the walls
sometimes i believe
im in a dream
still a sleep on my desk
before the lunchbell
when things were a haze of quiet noise
do the fish still swim?
does that tree still stand tall?
are the things that i've hidden
stuffed between shelves,
covered by rocks,
still there?
or have curious fingers touched them
traced the loops of my handwriting
wondering who
i am

i wonder, too

i still see you in my dreams
fresh cut grass,
tall windows, plush seats
a corner
hidden from the world.

#school #hallway #library #secret #hiding #wonder #self

Nov 2023

Evan Stephens

"Aspera Ad Astra"

A mouse broke its bones
on my neighbor's floor;
I was called in mercy,
as the angel of slaughter.
My heart was the water
in which it drowned.
Days later, the wound
closed when I met Circe:
my silverish lion's stony
fringe burned away in smolder.
I left her starry thigh,
her eyes like cask strength rye;
They live, we sleep - No,
we're awake, and the night is slow.

ABCDDEECABFFGG

lua Nov 2023

only through my eyes

I don't look like either side of my family
an outlier in plain sight
soap-bleached, dry hair in puffs of smoke
and rolls of skin
undesirable on either side
and i feel the heat

could i have been born well?
untangled as i felt the first few rays of light
maybe meant for a different mother
the storks dropped their package
on the wrong address

my mother, could you dry my eyes?
just for the night
before you empty your wallets
at the big house
before you ruin your liver
and fill the gaps with
*****

maybe i was meant for a different light
a different face, a different body
a different name, a different brain
a different person in my mirror everyday
i sing songs of wanting to escape
as i rattle the metal bars on my windows
i am not mistreated,
rather not treated at all
walking in silence as my sister
freely wails her sorrows into her pillow at night
tiptoeing to not be heard
my brother cackles and screams slurs
at the top of his lungs

they were made for them
perfect children of god
carbon copies of my mother's face and demeanor
i
only through my eyes

only through my eyes.

#family #belonging #escape

Oct 2023

kevin hamilton

via crucis

you left your blueish dress
twisted by the pool’s edge
like a cold monument
to every single misstep
and my heart is overwhelmed
with visions of a dancing grave

via crucis in the morning
carry me to our palisade
while these tiny arcs of light
leave my eyes, breaking easily
and your voice keeps me awake
i believe that i need this

you were wrong
i am nothing
but one more familiar face
amid the pageantry

#fear #depression #anxiety #love #dark #short #freeverse #death #truth