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Technological giants

We learned early

How to command our angels

To ascend higher than our sins

They offered us immortality

In exchange for our planet's wealth

And naturally

We signed on the dotted line

Like spies selling

Secrets to the enemy

But here we are now

With the well run dry...
!YOU AGAIN!

Your summer dress
comes to rest

upon the balcony

hung up on a thin
wire hanger

(an exotic bird)        

it cries for your body
weeps at being

parted from you
& your curves

a pool of tears
collects at its hem

as longingly it dreams of
the touch of your skin

asleep now
in the sun.

Later that evening
frightened by the approaching storm

it tries to escape
the clamour of its hanger

almost flies off
beyond the reach of my hands

run away to sea
seeking for further horizons.

I calm it
tame its panic

fold it tenderly

carry it like a dreaming
child

lay it to rest
at the foot of the bed

where all night long it sleeps
at your feet

awaiting your footstep

the sunshine
of being

you
again
 Jun 2023 Michael Murphy
Crow
I want to see the northern lights
but I cannot say why

it is said that sometimes
if conditions are right
you can see them from here

but it never seems to work
for me

even if the sky is clear
I cannot see them
when I am told I might

others say they have seen them here
I don’t think I believe them

some set a camera
on very long exposure
to take their picture

I can’t stare at the sky
for a very long time
all at once
like a camera

maybe I want to see them
because I haven’t seen them before

there are other things I want to see
but never have

like the life I was meant to have
with you

maybe if I’d had
a better camera
What
I need to be
is a better me
but the me
that's not better yet
says

'****'
Hurried
   Blurried,
     Wide
        Eyed,
          Attraction
            Action,
              Ending
                Sending,
                  Bedding
                    Shedding.
 Jun 2023 Michael Murphy
Blake
I don't say I love you,
To the most important people,
Because the words are too heavy,
Yet too small
I LIKE TO SAY YOUR NAME

I like to say
your name

when you're
not here

turn you
into sound

conjure you out of
thin air

so that you appear
before me

dressed in sound
only

memory sketching in
the rest of you

as if sound
was just an outline

and love
colours you in

adding the voice last
so I can hear you say.

"Hello you..!"
and there you are

as present
as present

can be.

I like to say
your name

when you're
not there.
 Jun 2023 Michael Murphy
viola
sometimes I wish I had cancer
then people would send me flowers, and get well soon cards.
but I am bipolar
so when I am sick
I suffer alone, ashamed
because too many times
people synonymously use my illness for crazy.

-please stop
 Jun 2023 Michael Murphy
Carla
A bit of a contradiction
How can a sunset be lit by stars
The flaming clouds douse the sky in golden orange
The only star that sets the sky ablaze is our sun
And yet the sunset is starlit

Stars never leave our sky, only our view, our perception
The sky never stops being sprinkled with the trillion grains of sand
But we forget
The clock strikes noon and we forget the stars

We look up to see hope and light and comfort
Constellations dazzle me
And yet, we forget in a matter of hours
Only to remember when they dazzle again

Life is messy
Life is a bit of a contradiction
But support, love, hope and peace never leave us
We just stop seeing them for a while

Only when nightfalls and darkness settles,
Do we realise that sunsets have always been starlit
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