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 Feb 2013 sierra
Montana
Wanderlust
 Feb 2013 sierra
Montana
You run your fingers across maps
Like you are caressing the cheek
of your dying lover
for the last time
 Feb 2013 sierra
E. E. Cummings
Humanity i love you
because you would rather black the boots of
success than enquire whose soul dangles from his
watch-chain which would be embarrassing for both

parties and because you
unflinchingly applaud all
songs containing the words country home and
mother when sung at the old howard

Humanity i love you because
when you’re hard up you pawn your
intelligence to buy a drink and when
you’re flush pride keeps

you from the pawn shop and
because you are continually committing
nuisances but more
especially in your own house

Humanity i love you because you
are perpetually putting the secret of
life in your pants and forgetting
it’s there and sitting down

on it
and because you are
forever making poems in the lap
of death Humanity

i hate you
 Feb 2013 sierra
Jake Palacio
I looked into the eyes of a beast
And all that I saw was myself.
I saw power and intellect,
Reasoning and will.
And yet the beast was in chains
All the same.
Not literal chains, for that
Would be cruel.
But there stands a fence
Ever so far away.
There’s a good chance the
Beast doesn’t know it exists.
But it does exist, for I’ve seen it.
I looked behind the curtain,
I broke the illusion,
And I saw the true face of Oz.
So what then is worse:
Chains you wear,
Or chains you don’t even know that you have?
And what’s to say that there’s no fence around me?
That I’m not a beast
In a park?
Perhaps there is one who
Has seen behind my curtain.
Yet like the beast,
I live woefully unaware.
So I take my cup of freedom,
With two lumps of salt.
And I keep my eyes open
For fences.
Because just like the beast
We might think that we’re free.
But until we cross the line
And see what’s on
The other side…
We’re really just another
Caged attraction.
 Feb 2013 sierra
John
Your pain is something you wear
Strapped
Pinned
Stapled
Nailed
To your chest

You can't hide it
There's no use
Why would you try to tuck away something so
Gratuitous
Toxic
******
And
Beautiful?

It's too big to hide under your bed
Too shiny to hide in your dark corners
Too smart for you to try to convince it that it doesn't existence

So you're stuck with it
And since you're stuck with it
You wear it
Wear it like the Badge of Courage it is
Like the Medal of Honor you earned
Like the Nobel Peace Prize you worked so hard Just to say
That you finally made it
 Feb 2013 sierra
Pablo Neruda
I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.
 Feb 2013 sierra
Alexis Martin
with your teeth, you left bruises
but I wish they were scars
so I could keep you on me
for the rest of my existence
-
 Jan 2013 sierra
Kathryn Dixon
You fade...
Like a bruise.

Like the ones your mouth left on my neck and shoulders with its lustful pressure.
Your teeth, which brought moments of bright pain/pleasure,
Are now bared in an artificial, animal smile.

Your lips, which parted to ******* skin like it was salvation,
Barely part now to speak to me.
You whispered my name like a prayer.
You screamed it like a curse.
You sighed it in contentment,
And now you won't even speak it in passing.

Your hands, which half-playfully pulled my hair...
Now won't pause to brush it from my face.

All these parts of you,
None more telling than your eyes.
Those new windows, which once let me pry...
Now have blinds drawn tight behind them,
Leaving only a pretty, shiny reflection-
A passing, glancing imitation-
Of the passion they once held
When they beheld
Me.

No color left to them but the muddy colors of
Boredom,
And possibly mistrust.

You fade...
Like a bruise.
Like the one you left on my mind with your brilliant conversation
And beautiful, rusty prose.
Like the many you left on my tongue...
Which now can speak nothing but trite and meaningless words,
Which now can barely remember the shapes
Of all the shimmering, liquid phrases it spoke to you
That seemed so important at the time.

You fade...
Like a bruise.
Once lover and friend,
Now barely one
And never the other again.
Wine comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye;
That's all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.
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