He gave her the Earth, the Moon and Mars.
Still she said she needed more space.
      So he gave her the air.
   ljm

Down at the bottom of this hole
I worked so long and hard to dig
I can barely see the sunlight any more.

My feet are molding from the salty damp
That doesn’t come from rain
Or subterranean springs or rivers.

My shovel leans against the wall,
It’s wooden handle crimsoned
On the dirt that also isn’t paint.

Impossible for wind to reach me
Way down here, so what’s that howling
That I hear?  Could it possibly be me?
                ljm

The word I can’t find is gagging my pen
Gates slam shut when I knock on the door
The thunder clouds rumble and crash while
The sea nears it’s ebb and the seagulls all land
To scratch in the sand for what I have lost
Intellectual handcuffs chafe but hold firmly
To the cast-iron pipes of yesterday’s genius.
My pencil has a broken lead; the poison seeps
Into the veins that hold my life together.
Fist pounding breaks the thinner ice along the edge
But the navigation channel remains frozen
And thoughts ice skate away to music I can’t hear.
Like a hungry bird chick in a broken nest
Chirping with an open mouth for sustenance
From Mama lying dead below among the leaves.
I know the meal will not appear.
                           ljm

Seven times seven to the seventh power
Will tell you how much I love you this hour.
If you tripled the stars and a few more could borrow
It would give an idea how I'll love you tomorro  
                                            

The mouse in the maze is very weary.
It’s way too much concerted effort
Just to earn a grain of corn.
The route is always changing
And someone turns off and on the lights.
The music plays the same song, over
The humming of the ventilators
And the shutter bangs incessantly.

The mouse is tired of stupid games.
No one cares which way it runs,
Or how much corn drops into the bowl.
The smell of *** in the far back corner
Makes the air unpleasant to inhale.
The will to win another piece of corn
Battles with the need to find
The exit that is at the other end.

Notes have to be written down
Measurements and timings
Fill the logbooks of the staff,
As bored and weary as the mouse.
Protocols must still be followed
Finally the time clock in the hall
Clicks over to the magic hour
And mouse and men can all go home.
            ljm

Rumbles of
          Thunder
Light the candles of my mind
safely shielded from the
          Winds
of conflagration
Fire has never been my friend
There are
          Ashes
on my forehead
from the rubble at my feet

Mainsails billow in my consciousness
as a crimson mistral sets my boat
Out to sea
to search for the
                    Giant Drum
That lightning plays upon
when dybbuks from the ocean deeps
                   Rise Up
To sink my craft and all aboard in
                      Flaming Parodies
Of a movie Viking funeral
        **ljm

I was told poems mustn't rhyme
Those that do show infantile minds
A child can rhyme two with glue
Or find a metaphor for the sky being blue

Rhymes are easy
Essence is hard
I use conventional flow
As my not-so-trump trump card

Stop. Branch out.
Find the words to reach deep down.
The soul wrencher's
The tear jerkers
The love felt on a whim
From first sight
Unable to project true depth
Just imagery
The easy kind
.
.
.

Stick to the rhymes for now
Best to do what you know how

By Arcassin Burnham

Pretty flowers...
They bloom when disasters take place in a matter of hours,
Do you run and hide when the **** hits the fan,
Or do you fall to mind control wearing pair of vans,
Kick back with a can of Miller watching your lady nag your face off,
Was this the life you were planning ahead for in the future when
Everything was so simple and now you got flaws,

Ah ah not me ! My future is solidified like the back of my two front teeth,
Talk is cheap , I don't really care about your criticism , don't bother me,
I'm still on my feet, I'm not six feet deep yet so thats a plus especially,
I'll do what's right for me, I'll find a new resistance out of life though
These trees,
There's nothing to say, who cares if I get too personal any other day,
You're all in the way, I have no place here in this dump , I don't wanna
Stay,
The sweat on my face , brings so much Shame in this existence , I can't even fly
Away,
To the place I belong , I wanna go home.

/

They say get a grip on life son and I'm already two steps ahead,
About to turn into the big two-o this year , glad I'm not dead,
Lead the strong into new beginnings where the promise will be as
Promised as tomorrow,
Lived your whole life being scrutinized in societies eyes bring so
Much sorrow,
Hi I'm a citizen,
That's wonders where we'll all be in ten years,
Do we get more than a mention?
Lying to you on the news , looking at a bunch of words like it's scripted,
Yeah the devils clever too , fighting this off like a muse,
They'll erase you like you never existed,
I was never the type to be weak,
I've been mostly living around women,
It's okay cause I stayed on my feet,
Now I'm more of a man than many men.

/

Feel The agonizing pain of being in the midst of
aggravation,
I was always someone that would go right to the hatred,
When it came down to it , no one would bust a grape and,
when it came down to it i was always yours and,

No folding of the hands while praying to a God That would
be busy anyway.

Foot tapping on waiting room
Linoleum with the pace of test
Result nervousness.

Scent of mostly bad news
Layered on walls in dire need
Of paint and less tasteless

Decor.
Her name is a shot fired at
The shield surrounding her

Continous playback of worst
Case scenarios as her hand meets
That of the doctor

Whose eyes give less than
Nothing away.
Please sit down.

Sink like shards of shattered
Hearts, or float for decades in
Love with the worried man

Awaiting the same news with
Unsteady workman's hands
Around a ***** phone.

It vibrates, and the Doomsday
Clock in his chest skips ticks
And tocks, approaching a

Schrödinger's midnight or noon.
I'm in remission, she whispers.
Then nothing.

Nothing but two unison breaths
Carried across an umbilical
Cord connecting souls that just

Lost their full
Amount of
Weight.

This is Relief.
This is Sunrise;
Spring.

Shattered broken fragments
Scattered about the floor
I've touched each one
And the ones before

Together
Never

Forming a whole;
I'll touch them no more