“Are you okay?”

Sweetheart, I write poetry
And some kindhearted people said I write it well
…
That can only mean one thing
My mind is an unescapable hell

“Yeah, just tired”

It's funny how
It's easier to open my skin
Then to open my mouth
And ask for help

when the sun goes down
behind the trees
and locks her shutters tight

the moon comes out
with silver keys
to open up the night

Happy families, smiling,
enjoying time together,
atmosphere filled with their laughter.

And then -

in a moment of madness,
all silenced.

Bullets took over,
dead bodies lying all around.

Terror strikes the land
we call "Paradise on Earth."

I've been lately writing poetry!
Oh? What do I see?
A perfect poetry site waiting for me!
First poem, proud of it!
Oh? Someone in my messages?
This guy seems sweet
And he's hoping I don't get beat!
Pretty songs for me to listen to!
And a drunk man messaging me...?
“You're only making yourself a victim because you're cutting yourself"
Oh? Okay- thanks for the paragraph/drunk rant?

Shining lights on all of my latest poems?
Thank you! You're so sweet!
….oh…talking to me about pedophiles…got it…
Why are there so many sad songs?
WHY DOES THIS MAN HAVE SO ****** MUSIC TASTE AGGGHGDGFGCC

Oh? You wrote a poem about the 764 and absolutely humiliating them?
Great! Good job!
…But uhh… why and how did they make a virus only going after your followers that are minors? Not funny!
Why is this man warning me if they threaten me? Is he trying to make me scared on purpose?
Blaming the Japanese for this virus now, huh?
Oh? Now blaming someone else named Pax to be part of the 764? Crazy

…. going to another website? But you're so fun!
May as well click on the link you sent me so I can join you

Drunk rants with me? That's okay!
Giving me gold so I can freely make poems?
THANK YOU SM
Daily texting
2-10 hour sessions
Why are you drinking everyday?
You're making me concerned for your health
I told you to stop drinking, papa
You promised me you'd stop
All you did was keep on drinking

Commenting on every poem I made
Oh? So suddenly I'm a “nasty *****" when I have done nothing to you? ありがとう!
We have a suicide pact now?
I'm going off the bridge first?
Don't mind if I do

Oh? Another poetry site? Okay…
I really don't like the way this site works, can't we just message each other with email?
Yes? Yay!

People bullying you on the internet? That's not okay!
Why would they accuse you of being a *******?
Letting me join an uncensored group to back you up? Great!
Sending me to a Reddit page to back you up?
Alright!
….oh … they warned me and I didn't do anything….
******* this man is an actual *******…..
gotta go fast like Sonic
pack my bags and leave

Oh? I betrayed you? Crazy
We were just friends
Can you stop spitting my name everywhere?
It's like you're so obsessed with me
Stop trying to be the Eminem to my Mariah Carey
Made a poem about you and you HAD to take it down?
Never thought you'd want to hide your identity THAT hard
Oh? Betting on my suicide now, are we?
Sending me multiple emails, desperate for me to come back to him?
I'm not that ******* naive or gullible
It's crazy if you think that about me
…I did tell you to send those photos of your cut open arms but I DIDN'T THINK YOU'D TAKE IT SERIOUSLY AND DO IT

Being racist?
“Japshit”?
Why are you so obsessed with my Chinese genes?
“I thought I can use Kai because of her Chinise genes because the Chinise was known to be very good spies. ☝️🤓" へー! Didn't know that!
Also, that's not how you spell Chinese, my fellow kind sir
Threatening people to come to America with a Katana and slice us to pieces
So envious, I see
You're just mad because we have a little bit more freedom than your drunk *** does

Oh…. Talking to me about ****
Got it
Thanks
I didn't need to be taught about METART or some **** like that
I'm only 12 years old
You ***** *****

Well…this is the aftermath

That five-seven-five is a scam,
Just nature plus seasonal spam.
A frog in a bog—
Wow! A leaf! And some fog!
It’s a tweet with a syllable jam.

Now limericks think they’re so sly,
With their jigs and their wink of the eye.
But their punchlines grow stale,
Like a bar yuck from Yale—
It’s the dad joke of poetry. Why?

Oh Shakespeare, forgive what’s been done—
Fourteen lines on a love that won’t run.
With their iambic moans,
And romanticized groans—
They're just Tinder swipes dressed as the sun.

Repetition’s the name of its game,
But by stanza three, it’s all shame.
You repeat and repeat,
Till your brain hits delete—
Was it clever, or just all the same?

Acrostics spell TRY HARD down the side,
A format no critic can abide.
Each line bends and breaks,
Just for symmetry’s sake—
And the message gets lost in the ride.

Free verse gets a pass, but just barely—
Too often it screams “Look, I’m arty!”
With no rhythm or aim,
Just vibes and a name—
Like a drunk giving TED Talks at parties.

---

There once was a muse unconfined,
Who laughed at each rule tightly lined.
When pure thought took flight,
It outshone every rite—
For raw truth outclasses form every time.

Irishman sues a dead
surgeon. @75 he says
he wishes to be a full
male gender person
& that wants to have
a ******* transplant
but has declined one
from a black refugee
donor which LGBTQ
say is a contradiction
& is discriminating to
a non native coloured
immigrant in Ireland.
He said he’s not racist
BUT he don’t want to
have a 2 tone phallus!

I gave them the love I never received
they gave me the hatred I've never seen
I gave them every piece of me
they admitted to using me
I lied for them
they lied to me
love cant be one way down a two way street

I wish I was a poet
But I'm just another person who learned that puting the letters of the the alphabet together, forms words.

snow while flakes
in the passionate write,
that the mellow
snow seems to bring.

an angel wakes
from a dream she awakes
that the yellow
sky loves to sing.

She smells the bake
of nearby lovely cakes
and she swallows
what they will bring.

Slower.......

She's not focused on hate,
or the storm we create
or the waste of harrow
She ***** off with her wings..........

My Heart

Belongs to you
On the best of days

Other days it’s mine
and you don’t deserve

One ventricle, chamber of it.
Not a bit.

Not at all, love.
Not at all.

Sometimes I simply can't breathe
Or that's what it feels like to me

And he's not here anymore to point out
That if I can talk to him I'm breathing
That the loud noise in my ears is the air
Rushing in and punching out

He's not here anymore to remind me
It's my mind playing tricks and
Perception is key and its
Just my anxiety

No. Worse than that.
She loved you in every single one, just not ours.
She cared for me once in all my life when it benefitted her.
And cast you out when it was convenient to save you.
She loved us in all but one.
And we got the shortest straw...

You all have
A little bit of
"I want to save the world!"
In you

I just want you to know
That it's ok if you only
Save one person and
It's okay if that person
Is you

Everyone knows or should know
About the First Space
The natural or physical world we live in
Second Space is where
We are supposed to go in the afterlife
Whether it be Heaven or Hell
Purgatory or Limbo
However, not everyone believes in that.

Only the ones with hearts of gold
Can make it to that Third Space
A place beyond the reach of any star
A majestic palace in total darkness
Where pure spirits sway
Providing soothing blue light
To compensate absence of day
It is a place where invisible lyrists
Play music nonstop and sing poetry
Reminiscent of Orpheus' flair
A place where disembodied dragons
Spew black fire animating you
With the magic of dark energy
Which would give you a corporeal form
Much finer than what you had on Earth
Except that such new body won't require
Food, water, or whatever
Your previous frame craved for
Your revolutionary system shall include
A mechanism that would operate
Like a power source for nourishment
And other kinds of necessities
That ****** functions require
It be like having a tiny sun within you.

But there are conditions:
You are not permitted to touch
Or get close to the others of your kind
You are not allowed to make noise
Interrupting the flow of things
The first time you violate such rules
You be sent to curious solitary quarters
Having no bottom and no end
Where a minute can feel like an eternity
Your second violation will cost you
The privilege to be there
And you will be sent back to either
The First or a suitable Second Space
The reason you are sent there is because
You were a paragon of kindness
While living on Earth and your reward
Is not to accommodate
Your humanly desires but to assimilate
The mysteries and wonders of Universe.

In a world fraught with injustice, dread
Poverty, cruelty, vanity and insanity
Someone should think of such fantasy
That may or may not inspire
Hope as well as faith in humanity.

the saddest part of dying
is what you forgot to do
the ideas born in lucid dreams
that vanished in the hue
the mountains never seen
the oceans never crossed
the poems written on scraps of paper
a lover's smile now lost
the tears you held inside
the chances never taken
the landscape of your life
an oasis now forsaken

i guess i got you man that's gotta count for SOMETHING

All I want is your time,
An effort in matching your rhyme;
You brigthen the darkest of times,
The little moments we spend sometimes.

All I want is your time,
The moments of growing thyme;
You don't make me forget the pain,
You give me the courage to fight again.

All I want is your time,
This request is no crime;
The joy and sorrow we both face,
Is best countered with our warm embrace.

Poured measured and forged
mistakes debates
fears and many years
Son of a Son to a Son
tempered
to remember
assembled
never
dismembered.
I am the blacksmith
you are the sword
a father not your lord
God plexed tenacity
steel tempered capacity
every boy deserves favour
my time is gone
be bold stay strong
love ad's character to labour.

"El petricor danza en silencio—
tu sueño enciende el ocaso.
¿O es tu pelo en mi almohada?"

all morning
the cold mists

jeweled tiny pools
upon the stubborn grass

of december
silvering

a single blade
a single strand

of a spider’s web
simply sparking the grey

of the day
away


life can be like that sometimes


obstinately one side
of the coin

one minute
then joyously the other

one secret second
later

I read our messages from the past and smile so hard...
but then I go back to reality forgetting Im no longer yours
and you're not longer mine...

D eny
U nderstate
N egate
G eneralize
E scape
O verthink
N umb

Claws rip me inside-out
The path of my spine allows it.
I look up at myself
Surgery scars, shaky limbs,
Pale skin, scabs, and veins.
I’m slouched over, limp
As fire burns through my bones.
The room is spinning through,
my heart is falling out of my chest
My lungs struggle and shake.
The paramedic questions me,
I see his blurred figure through tears.
They connect the wires,
Words fail me this time.
Sweat is dripping down my body
Cold needles caress me.
This is going to be a long night.

Pride is everywhere
Comes in many forms

The rich man is proud
of what he has
The poor man is honored for having less

The talented are proud of what they do
The less talented are proud of their hard work

The religious are proud of their religion
The unbeliever proud of his unbelief

The established man is proud of his social status
The counter-cultured proud to be outcast

The learned man proud of his intelligence
The simple man proud of his simplicity

If thre is a universal sin would not pride be the first

God hates the men of pride
He thinks they are the worst

Harder to imagine, Difficult to trust
if you have the will, you gotta clutch.
                                                             -Asher Graves

Looking in the mirror
Wanting to end my life
Blackness befell me
Wrists I cut with my knife.
The blood oozed out
Upon the bathroom floor
Was my death to be unseen
Behind a closed wooden door.
Three weeks earlier my lover
Had died,
I worshipped that woman
Thousands of tears I cried.
Bereavement of a love one
Is so hard to take
So slitting my wrists
Was not worthless mistake.
Some people say it’s a
cowards way out,
But you know what
I haven’t got to live with that.

Inside the shadows of my mind
I search
and reach
and try to find

I kneel
And dig
And scratch the black
Aching for direction
An answer back

What buried treasure will I find
What happiness
Motivation
Peace of mind?

Is there really any reason to be found?
What’s it all even for?
Maybe it’s just darkness
And dirt
And nothing more

© 2025 Joan Zaruba. All rights reserved.

Today I crushed
With my new motorcycle
I wish you knew..

First thing came up to my mind was you

I thought
“I wanna always trend at the top”
But if every one
Liked every thing
What worth would it be
If no matter what dumb thing I say
Everyone agreed?

To be in a place
Where you feel
The warmth and the grace
Is a thing that
Don't often
Get replaced.