Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
 1317° 
badwords
The nineties sold us unity:
bright sitcoms,
Benetton colors,
commercials where everyone smiled
as though inequity had been resolved.

But the decade bled on screen—
a Black man beaten on asphalt,
a truck driver dragged from his cab,
bomb dust in Oklahoma,
children hunted in a school corridor.
Unity was the costume;
violence was the stage.

Then came a Black president.
For a moment,
the story looked complete.
"Post-racial," they said,
as though history had closed.

But the mask split.
Social media tore out the gatekeepers.
The hate that had been muted
found its tongue,
found its profit,
and screamed into the feed.

Division pays.
Unity does not.
Violence is systemic,
holistic,
from home to street to state.
Silence makes it whole.

The ethic remains:
If it is wrong, you stop it.
Otherwise the cycle turns,
profitable, endless,
calling itself America.
 908° 
F Elliott

The prophets wore it,
woven of thorns and laughter..
the jeering crown,
the mark of those
who dared to name the truth.

Kierkegaard wore it,
penned as insane,
pushed to the margins
by voices too clever
to risk listening.

The fool’s crown
is given freely
to any who refuse silence,
to any who lift their voice
against the beast,
against the fortress,

  against the lie.

It weighs heavy;
not of gold
but of ridicule,
a diadem of mockery,
a garland of exile.

Yet it fits more honestly
than all the jeweled circlets
worn by the deceivers,

for it is fashioned
from truth spoken aloud.

If the crown is madness,
let it rest heavy.
For it is made of truth,

and truth is the only jewel
worth bearing.


In every age there are voices that attempt to confuse liberation with license, or ******* with freedom. Erich Fromm named this distortion with surgical precision:
the flight from freedom is not into responsibility but into its counterfeit—submission to external idols or the exaltation of an isolated, empty self. To have without being, to enthrone pathology over love, is the mark of an age that has lost sight of its own humanity.

Kierkegaard, long before, had already discerned this same danger. His warning was not abstract but painfully exact:
when the crowd forsakes truth, when reason itself is inverted, what should be called sickness is exalted as health, and the very house of care becomes an asylum of unreason.

It is here we remember his words: “People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use. And when reason is banished from the asylum, madness passes for wisdom, and truth is left to cry in the wilderness.”

History brands its truth-tellers as fools, its prophets as madmen. Kierkegaard bore that crown. So did the prophets before him. To be mocked, dismissed, and pushed aside is the inheritance of all who dare speak truth against silence. This piece embraces the crown of madness—not as shame, but as the only crown worth wearing.

And if the crown feels unbearable, take heart.. others have worn it, others have staggered beneath its weight, and even in their anguish they saw it as the strange seal of truth. Kierkegaard himself, mocked and maligned, turned his scorn into a confession of holy madness. His words remind us what it means to bear such a crown…

"No, I won't leave the world--I'll enter a lunatic asylum and see if the profundity of insanity reveals to me the riddles of life. Idiot, why didn't I do that long ago, why has it taken me so long to understand what it means when the Indians honour the insane, step aside for them?
Yes, a lunatic asylum--don't you think I may end up there?"
~S.K.
.
Master of all lies. A man who cannot walk his talk is a fool. Sweetheart, you wear deception like a crown, but it is cracked, tarnished, and heavy upon your head.

You preach that gossip brings no wealth, yet you lap at every whisper, every rumor, every shadowy tale, as if it were gold dust falling into your palms. And yet, what have you earned? Not riches, not glory. Just enemies. Just the bitter taste of contempt.

Ah, I suppose I must be important then. After all, you spend your days, your hours, your every waking second, collecting fabricated stories as if they were treasures. Stories with no proof, no merit, no weight—yet you hoard them like a miser clings to coins.

Meanwhile, I hold a reverse uno card. I play when the time is right. I collect receipts, evidence, proof—a ledger of truth that outlasts your smoke and mirrors. I sip my piña colada in the sun, watching as the foolishness of your efforts collapses into absurdity.

You speak of honor, yet your tongue drips poison. You say discretion is valuable, yet you scatter secrets as if sowing weeds. How quaint, that you believe your duplicity is cleverness. It is folly, pure and unadulterated.

Every lie you tell is a stitch in the shroud you will one day wear. Every whispered rumor is a brick in the coffin of your credibility. You may not see it now, lost in your small victories, but it waits, patient and inevitable.

You paid attention to me, and in that attention, you thought to craft control. You spread my story as if bending it could bend reality itself. But reality, darling, is not yours to shape. It bends only to truth—and you are far from it.

You call yourself shrewd, a master of strategy, yet you cannot see that your currency is contempt. Haters, enemies, the shadows of those you slandered—they are your true legacy. Not millions, but resentment. Not respect, but whispers behind your back.

Be wise in investing your time. Time is the only coin that cannot be reclaimed. And yet, you spend it lavishly, casting venom where it serves nothing but your ego. Sweetheart, did you ever consider that silence and dignity could yield more than gossip ever could?

Some people pay back respect and silence. Quiet, unassuming, steadfast. They move through life with integrity, and their restraint becomes their armor. And others? Others pay back karma. Slowly. Deliberately. Remorselessly.

Do you feel clever now, as your words coil through circles, twisting perceptions, stitching shadows into my name? Do you not feel the weight of the eyes you cannot see, the judgment you cannot escape?

Your lies are like smoke. They drift, they burn, they suffocate. And yet, when the wind shifts, when the truth rises, you are left coughing, choking, grasping for a foothold that does not exist.

You cannot walk your talk. You cannot own your words. You cannot contain the chaos you so freely unleash. A man who spreads venom while preaching virtue is no master—he is a jester, dancing on the graves of his own dignity.

Haters do not build empires. Shadows do not create legacies. Gossip does not enrich the soul, nor the mind, nor the life. You trade ephemeral attention for permanent disgrace, and call it cleverness.

Do you hear it? The whisper of karma, patient, deliberate, circling closer with every lie, every manipulation, every act of malice. You cannot flee it. You cannot bribe it. You cannot charm it. It waits.

Time invested in venom is time wasted. Energy spent on deception is energy stolen from creation, from love, from truth. And you, master of all lies, squander both recklessly. Meanwhile, I sip my piña colada, receipts in hand, reverse uno card ready, knowing exactly when to play.

Some will remember your cruelty in silence. Some will repay it without words, letting the weight of justice fall unnoticed until it is too late. Some will let the universe itself deliver its verdict, patiently, with precision.

Sweetheart, you gained haters, not millions. You gathered contempt, not respect. And one day, perhaps, you will realize the truth too late: gossip is a currency the soul cannot spend, a poison the heart cannot digest.

Be wise in investing your time. Some people pay back respect and silence; others pay back karma. You will find which is yours, eventually. And when that day comes, the mask you wear will crack, the shadow you cast will falter, and your lies will finally meet their reckoning.

Master of all lies. A man who cannot walk his talk is a fool. And fools, darling, always pay their debts. Meanwhile, I drink my piña colada, collect my proof, and laugh quietly—because time and truth are mine, and yours are already running out.
 520° 
island poet
is like no other early morning, man reborn, in the delivery
room of sky blue, the offsetting water deeper bluish hue,
the trim-all-around of the mixed salad greens of the staff's
scrubs as they usher in unity,  with no imp-unity, the risks,
while the supervisory sky, disperses cumulus clouds in
peppercorn patterns of white chains, or big wide solitary
brushstrokes on a a ****** canvas, gettin' the feel in the
palm of the heft of brush, the viscosity of the paint, the day's
palette reflecting available colors in order to create a uni~cued
original of what has been painted an uncountable times before,
and before…

tho short weighted, was the sleep of the prior night's restful,
he awakes to the early morning light, the sounds of early
island rouse him, even, arouse him, for the August chill
foretells of the early onset of memory loss of the peculiarities
of this summered simmering, human warming and baking
and natural braking of the slowing of the heart rate, to better
accommodate, nature's hints and hidden reminiscences
of the true purpose of the summer's intervention upon our
collective and unique bottling, our individualized containers,
un~lidded, uncovered, eager for the fuel of sunrays replenish-
ing the length of our lives by the elixir of the summer

it is a chill 63 Fahrenheit at this time of day as we crossover
to the nigh day, from the cooling air conditions of dark,
the occasional helicopter intrudes upon the morning's calm,
the water placid, the geese honking regarding my watchful
rewarding presence, a slew, a bevy, of female vocalists, to
ease this transitory performance unfolding, and though one
feels the existential of his solitary singularity, as he thinks,
nay believes, he is the only one in attendance at this ritualized
emergence, he takes in the cool of, the heat of, the admixture
of both, the clashing integers of each, and he, fully invigorated,
goes silent, for once more, he has uncovered new combinations of
old words to accept and describe a new day's creation, miracle of miraculous, defying the odds of this ventures's success, his own continuance  on this sheltered but open all around island implanted tween two tines of land, as if all the surroundings were created just to protect this, wholly holy place…


7:00am
Silver Beach
Shelter Island
Aug 19 2025
 369° 
ebonymarie93
I conceal the brightest parts of myself, as if they’ve lost their worth
 358° 
Cassie love
In my fantasies,I dream of a silent place,
Where only the birds dare to sing,
Their sweet melodies lighting up the morning.

A shelf full of books,
Each page breathing me back to life,
Whispering i belong in between the lines .

A garden blooming with flowers,
so radiant they seem to smile,
Filing the atmosphere with their fragrance.

And a fireplace comfy and enduring
Waiting eagerly to keep me warm
As i read my favorite words
It's about the love I have for a silent home, blooming with flowers, a shelf full of books, and a warm fireplace
 352° 
guy scutellaro
madness masquerades
as mornings that come
and go

and dancing madly backwards
Pan plays his lute
down desolate streets
disappearing into the raging sun
of all possibilities.

the sad mornings that come and go, and

all possibilities considered

far from the haunted clocks
and cracking glass
margins shout
where walls never meet

in forgotten stillness.
so dance on silent ledges,

walk the high wire,
jump into the fire,

welcome madness passionately.

do something completely unexpected.

enjoy the imperfections,
kiss a stranger,
laugh when you should be crying,

madness is magic,
so strip down
naked as the wolf in the forest,
logic be ******,
howl along with the howling wind.
 349° 
Arpitha
What do you do
When the pain in your head
becomes too much?
Threatens to explode
and harm everyone around
Can’t contain it anymore
Losing grip
Going out of control
One misstep and
It will come crashing down.
I questioned why criminals aren’t punished
And this is what they say,
I was told they only have their freedom taken away ,
For we are not to judge they say
We have to respect one another
No matter what they’ve done!
Will they ever learn
To respect us too
I haven’t got a clue!
But some do!

I worked in a prison as a nurse
No it wasn’t really a curse
I showed my respect
Didn’t ask what they had done
We all got on delightfully
In fact it really was quite fun!
 276° 
Nat Lipstadt
"And the older I get, the more I'm sure
That more by itself never was a cure
Some days I've got nothing to show for except
Walking the dog and walking the floor"
Mary Chapin Carpenter
<><><>
it's been twenty years plus
who can remember exact,
the last time I had a full-time four-legged
companion to share my bed, greet my head with
wagging tail, and joy incessantly, overflowing and drowning me
with face lickings and hugs of a topsy turvy twisty body,
and smiles and curdling yowls of deep throated
cries of obvious joy and the
first thing I'll do when the nectar of next
life's staging begins to commence will be me to get
such a dog as heretofore I remember as an unadulterated purest joy,

I'll still walk the floor,
long walks, yup, outdoors, early morn,
and late afternoon day settling setting endings,
dog and me, freshly bathed, settling in to watch
some British crime and ****** mysteries sleuthed and
solved by folks I'll never meet, but whose company enjoyed
over the distance of an atlantic sea and about seven feet,
and maybe dog  curls up next to me, by my pillowed
head, or between my happy to snuggle legs,
don't matter much, dog & me,
will discuss an alternating
rotation satisfying our
mutuality,

and even when I  still walk the floor, which be a task for evermore,
he can walk beside me if he chooses, cause choice is
what's it all about

with a true companion


nml
Girl and Her Dog
Song by Mary Chapin Carpenter ‧ 2025



Everyone asks when you're growing up
"Who do you want to be?"
I never had an answer, couldn't figure out
Why I couldn't see myself as some future other
No one's partner, no one's mother
No one's answer, no one's lover
Nobody but me
But the older I get, the more I see
That more by itself never worked for me
Keeping it simple as it can be
Walking along, just him and me
Mornings here with a coffee cup
Songs in my head, looking up
If the rain holds off, we'll be in luck
But we're lucky anyway
A long time ago, I got married once
It didn't take long to find
That the words I heard coming out of his mouth
Were not the truthful kind
I thought about moving to LA
Maybe upstate or the UK
Anywhere as long as it's far away
From what I left behind
And the older I get, the more I'm sure
That more by itself never was a cure
Some days I've got nothing to show for except
Walking the dog and walking the floor
Mornings here with a coffee cup
Stories in my head, looking up
If the rain holds off, we'll be in luck
But we're lucky anyway
In summer, neighbors leave tomatoes
In fall, dust coats your tires
Spring greens up every shadow
In December, we lay a fire
I figure I'm finally old enough
To know who I want to be when I grow up
A girl and her dog riding in the truck
Wave as we're going by
Now the older I get, the less I need
Just a good old dog underneath the trees
Keeping it simple as it can be
Fitting together like a puzzle piece
Mornings here with a coffee cup
Whistling for him while I'm looking up
If the rain holds off, we'll be in luck
But we're lucky anyway
We're lucky anyway

<>
1147am mon aug 8 twenty five nml hat lipstadt
 267° 
Yashkrit Ray
Not gone,
You are just farther,
Far from me.
When it gets darker,
You are just farther.
Hanging in the expanse
Like a crystal.
Staring at your home,
You are not gone.

An extra in the collection.
A collection of infinite
Sea of stars,
And pages of memory.
Some packed in my skull,
Some hanging out
Like a treasury.
Staring at your home,
You are not gone.
In loving memory of my grandma....................
 233° 
Victor Hugo
I.

À qui donc le grand ciel sombre
Jette-t-il ses astres d'or ?
Pluie éclatante de l'ombre,
Ils tombent...? - Encor ! encor !

Encor ! - lueurs éloignées,
Feux purs, pâles orients,
Ils scintillent... - ô poignées
De diamant effrayants !

C'est de la splendeur qui rôde,
Ce sont des points univers,
La foudre dans l'émeraude !
Des bleuets dans des éclairs !

Réalités et chimères
Traversant nos soirs d'été !
Escarboucles éphémères
De l'obscure éternité !

De quelle main sortent-elles ?
Cieux, à qui donc jette-t-on
Ces tourbillons d'étincelles ?
Est-ce à l'âme de Platon ?

Est-ce à l'esprit de Virgile ?
Est-ce aux monts ? est-ce au flot vert ?
Est-ce à l'immense évangile
Que Jésus-Christ tient ouvert ?

Est-ce à la tiare énorme
De quelque Moïse enfant
Dont l'âme a déjà la forme
Du firmament triomphant ?

Ces feux-là vont-ils aux prières ?
À qui l'Inconnu profond
Ajoute-t-il ces lumières,
Vagues flammes de son front ?

Est-ce, dans l'azur superbe,
Aux religions que Dieu,
Pour accentuer son verbe,
Jette ces langues de feu ?

Est-ce au-dessus de la Bible
Que flamboie, éclate et luit
L'éparpillement terrible
Du sombre écrin de la nuit ?

Nos questions en vain pressent
Le ciel, fatal ou béni.
Qui peut dire à qui s'adressent
Ces envois de l'infini ?

Qu'est-ce que c'est que ces chutes
D'éclairs au ciel arrachés ?
Mystère ! Sont-ce des luttes ?
Sont-ce des hymens ? Cherchez.

Sont-ce les anges du soufre ?
Voyons-nous quelque essaim bleu
D'argyraspides du gouffre
Fuir sur des chevaux de feu ?

Est-ce le Dieu des désastres,
Le Sabaoth irrité,
Qui lapide avec des astres
Quelque soleil révolté ?
 228° 
brandychanning
that place with comforting as theme overriding,
essentials of dream, complex, shelter, cocoon,
which/whether, almost irrelevant,
if and or,
don't matter when you are at home,
light, fierce sun rays eyes filled,
moonlight stars invading one's composure
now!
time
to alight, feet on the grounding,
rain,
pelting, not an inhibitor to the poem
in me, its resonating drumming me up,
to a beating, a lyric, a thyme of rhyme,
fragrantly repeating in my head, home,
home is where the flagrant poems are
born, delivered by no midwife, from
the ***** of my entirety, all five sensoria,
commanded by multiple generals on
different battlefields, coordinating a
battle plan, exhale, attack, coordinate,
brain, eye, smell, movement, urgency,
taste, words gushed, light emitted from
the fingertips, you cannot write as fast
as required, you, self, afired, and afeared,
losses will be greater than expected, but
no matter when we carry the tide behind
us, sweeping the obstacle of ego, pinging
pain, the hesitation that collapses courage,
oh god, oh me, be brave, lead me into the
breach,
the hole, the aperture that will allow a totality
of me to exit, to escape, to compose, p r o p o s e,
the confines of my uncontrollable uncontained
unconscious natured being and fervent annouce,
on this day,
this poem shall be
written in its fulfilling, exiting fulsomeness,
&
entirety,
and let me rise, raise up, lift and shout,
one more last time, like the first time, praise and glory,
hallelujah to the parts of me that gifted me this
poem in-the unity-of-unison, uncensored, un~
inhibited and finalized momentarily perpetual,
with an amen amendment offered up too all and to
me…
amen, amen, amen
and let us rise up to morrow and once more,
write up to ride to birth the essentials of my next
homebound
be-ing
8/18/25
LA, CA
 216° 
Michael Powers
Can a light give off its glow,
if no power makes its flow?

Can a rose give off its beauty,
if not pruned with simple duty?

Can a river quench a thirst,
if its very source is cursed?

Can a house stand tall and strong,
if its very base is wrong?

Can a mirror show a face,
if a lie has clouded its space?

Can a song be sweet to hear,
if its notes are born of fear?

Can you and I love our neighbors as one would embrace themselves,
if our love is just an empty shell, placed on a dusty shelf?
When it’s agenda-driven, a betrayal, a pitfall, "Much Said"...... ©

Michael Powers
"STYXX ON FIRE"
 203° 
Phenomenological
Can sweeping moths settle,
Sink neatly, swathed by shadow
Onto lightly curling leaf.

On white fluorescent light
They are blinded, and
Are spun in carousel circles.

My light blinds me too,
Keeps my eyes spinning
In carousel circles.
 187° 
TOD HOWARD HAWKS
Have you seen
"THE ELEPHANT MAN"?
It's about you and me.
In varying ways,
both of us
are he and the
kind doctor who
sees him as
a human being.
The freaks are
those rulers,
those dictators,
who treat human beings
like garbage, or worse.
I, for one, feel his heart.
It matters not
what he looks like.
What matters is
that he loves his
real self and you.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS
I'm a monster and a demon,
while we feast on chickens,
once alive and running around
all of their mothers weeping....
I'm a monster while the sheep
wails and are tortured.
I'm this boogey-man
which they say
while we feast on salmon.
Did God actually say
that systemically
we could use machines
and pump the steroids
into them,
from the age of children.
I'm the worse of mankind
You can try to surround
and destroy me,
after your lamb roast meal
and dessert of
forced  milked ice-cream
I'm a monster as you feast
on chicken tortured at the least
and your sunday roast,
of lambs reared for a slaughter
and you laugh like a flipped quarter.

Believe that you're morally correct,
as I travel around the coast.
I'm leaving my cabin,
experiencing
the country
I'm over
your toxicity
and good-bye
forever.
Dead
is
your meaning.
This is not meant for giving anyone a guilt trip but we are all guilty of it. We can't call ourselves monsters when we know how poorly animals are treated, which we eat. In other words, stop being hypocrites and fighting each other as we all live in sin. No one is above anyone when we are turn  a blind eye to ourselves. I am just as guilty and I don't deny it. Humans I regret hurting and of knowing animal suffering. I live with those demons and do my best not to them surface. I hate myself when I can't control them/
 165° 
Elena Rosi
I want to write. But there's something that won't let me.
I want to talk. But when I do, my voice feels empty.
I want to help. But I'm becoming selfish.
I want to be me. But when I was, I would say that I hate it.
I want to live. But for the first time, I just don't feel motivated.
 159° 
Caits
I could just as easily
see you with your hands around my waist
as you kept me company
while i made drinks for our friends
and i triple checked my math
and you took the one
I wasn’t sure about
and said it was lovely
because
you love me
as i laugh
and we both play pretend
and i’m making
what i will come to call, the—-
1 oz of hibiscus simple syrup
1 oz of earthy gin
1/2 oz Campari
3/4 of lemon juice
3-4 slices of grapefruit
use one large ice cube and shake well, strain if preferred.
place pinch of kosher salt and rind of grapefruit in glass
(optional top with a soft prosecco)
 153° 
The Blue Bottles
the mirrors image is telling me
to focus on health and priorities
to take care of myself and maybe eat
I have no clue what's wrong with me
 126° 
heidi
Ruffle of feathers,
I hear a 'coo' above.
The voice of the sky.
8.18.2025
 113° 
Ivan
going without
so they don't have to
 93° 
lana
not everything
that is broken, should be put
back together
just pretend that together has 4 syllables😭😭
 88° 
Мaggie
if the reader
falls in love with the character of a book,
their love can be eternal.

he can over and over re-read
each part of his beloved.
he can just stop for a while
and gently touch the mirage.
he can even ****** a piece
and carry it for a lifetime.

but what happens
if the character
falls in love with the reader?
 83° 
David P Carroll
The Coalition of the
War Pigs vote for eternal wars.
No To Wars
 81° 
Joy Ann Jones
In the wildest place,
my mouth stopped with stars,
I came to the end of words;
the parched mint, bitter
paper plank

where I lost my balance,
on one foot teetering
along that roadway where gold-
flashing fireflies stand effortlessly
on air

to send their fragile signal
out,
every night a nocturne
of one less
til I and the last firefly

danced alone
in the wildest place
sending our last ignition
out
to find our kind

or else fall quiet
and one
with the wild that
will neither be spelled
nor known.




©joyannjones June 2023
 78° 
F Elliott

They called Kierkegaard insane,
poor man, poor fool..
ink turned against him
by a city that feared
his furious clarity.

That label is given still:
“mad,” they say,
when a voice rises
against the hidden thing,
the shadow crouched in the soul,
the beast that feeds on silence.

It is not flesh that is cursed,
but the fortress
built stone by stone
from secrets unspoken,
where the child’s cry was buried
and the monster kept the key.

Yes, let it be cursed again..
that ancient predator
that left spirits trapped,
that tried to leave others
shattered in its claws.

If eternity should open,
even the darkness of God
would rise against it,
tumbling the beast
through endless years,
stripped of its power,
stripped of its stolen faces.

Call it madness,
call it folly.
The words remain jagged,
for truth has teeth,
and silence has killed enough.

At least the monster was named
when others smiled politely
and called it “past.”

At least there was no collusion.

And if the witness is written off,
so be it.
Better condemned
for fighting the beast
than praised for leaving it
enthroned.



There is always a risk in fighting the beast: the risk of becoming monstrous in the process. To call it by its true name, to drag it into the open, often looks like madness. Kierkegaard wore that label, and so do all who refuse silence.

The truth cuts jagged, not polished.. and yes, in the fight, one becomes scarred and monstrous. That is the price of standing against the darkness. This piece is not for the crowd. It is a cry against the beast itself, spoken into the universe entire.

Yeah.. exactly..

"Control yourself,
take only what you need from it--
A family of trees wantin'
to be haunted"

https://youtu.be/fe4EK4HSPkI?si=hyG3BpKE6I8bn82p

for those who understand,
no explanation is needed
xox
 76° 
Michelle
Hate is merely ignorance
Ignorance it is,
Lack of interest
Fed by fear
Of something one cannot understand
Ignorance, so it is
Knowledge it is,
Valuable,
Precious,
And necessary
Where hate is simple
And ignorance is everywhere
Knowledge makes one work to obtain it
Kindness is the root of the soul
Curiosity stands opposite to hate
 73° 
Zahra
In youth, love
  is concentrated
like sugar in a
drink-
restless,
rushing
fizzing.
 64° 
Christopher
Heavy, is your loss
"Pitter-Patter" of claws, silent
A lack of weight, weighs.
 64° 
이반
IDK
Utak ko'y nagugulumihan,
sapagkat ngayon lamang nasaksihan,
ang ganitong pakiramdam.

'Di ko mawari kung tama pa ba,
O, dapat na bang iwasan
Para di na lumalim pa.

Ngunit, ako ba ay magiging masaya,
Kung ikukulong nalang sa hangin
ang bugso na kakaiba.
 62° 
Yashkrit Ray
Hatred with violence
And the fear within.
Freedom from distress,
Tranquility lingering.

Only fairness,
A state of harmony.
Presence of justice -
A true symphony.

Peace is not a treaty.
It's the truth.
 59° 
Agnes de Lods
I laid my body on the tall grass.
She wrapped me in a rustle of green.
I closed my eyes in the shadow of a tall pine,
curling up so the pain wouldn’t spill beyond my heart.

Consciousness sinks into nothingness.
I feel the particles of my “self”
breaking into a million molecules.
I flow through the grass and seep into the earth.

Now my body puts down roots,
nestling against the pine that weeps with resin.
My emotions pass through the trunk of the tree.

The thread of memories is a long earthworm,
crawling through the empty
corridors where once blood pulsed.
White bones remain still,
slowly dissolving into the vessel of eternal life:
Earth, water, air, lost particles of light,
and my longing for the final union.

Doubts hollow a chamber,
soft and warm – my new home.
When my dream ends,
I will dwell in it.

Now I am the pine.
My needles, bark, and resin
radiate invisible light
for this space, for this world.

Yes, I was once human.
 48° 
Traveler
I often wonder if you actually exist,
are you real or simply a matrix glitch.
A fragment in my data stream,
a figment of some creative theme. Across the worlds beyond the seas,  the matrix offers all of these possibilities..
If you’re real how can it be proven?    Perhaps my imagination conjured what you’re doing,
where you are, where you’ve been,   I could have easily created you way down within..
So please let me know for sure,
that there’s more than AI’s out there..
Traveler Tim
Hand me a cigarette
And tell me another
Beautiful lie before
The sundown
What a lovely scene...
 42° 
Phenomenological
Has your soul ever been displayed,
Framed by thick wooden-glazed borders,
and set up in the gallery of another's life?

Can you say the painting of you
Beams with joy through heavy clouds,
Sliced by sharp shards of glass-like light?

If not, may you then brush-up yourself,
Quick blots of pink on sunken cheeks,
Lighten the shade under each eye?

Or will you draw the curtain,
Blind me to me, and you to you,
Pinch out the last flicker of fight?
 42° 
Soph
Could I be your sky,
so close,
yet unreachable?

Could I be your brightest star,
looking so near,
but still so far?

Could I be the angel watching over you,
endless love,
too far to give?

Could I be your best memory,
didn't think you'd miss me,
but you do now that I'm gone?
Next page