Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
 1257° 
Poetato
I wish we never met
Even if fate led us there.
I wish we never talked
Even if the words came easy.
I wish we let silence win
Even if the conversation pulled us in.
I wish we never saw the signs
Even if they glowed so bright.
I wish we never felt that spark
Even if it burned so right.

But everything happened
And still, I wish I could turn back time
Even if I would never know you at all.
 1177° 
Aaron Beedle
The news is a c#%&
That son of a b@#$!
They don't give a f$%!
about talking s&#@
That girl is a s!@$
and that dude's a d!@&
But I blame this boll@&$s
On tabloid pr!@&s
I hate the news. I didn't put much effort into this one, I just wanted to give it a try. I'm pretty sleep deprived today due to drinking tea too late and having to get up to *** 3 times in the night.

Why does my body retain so much tea?

Why does it burn so intensely?

I must eat biscuits to cope with the unpredictable nature of tea.
~
April 2025
HP Poet: Nishu Mathur
Age: 54
Country: India


Question 1: A warm welcome to the HP Spotlight, Nishu. Please tell us about your background?

Nishu Mathur: "I was born in Delhi, a somewhat chaotic yet majestic city with an interesting and rich historic past. Had a lovely childhood and loving parents. Simple, honest and hard working folks. My late father was with Indian Airlines (senior executive management). My mum is a retired Professor. She taught in Delhi University for 41 years. I have a younger brother who is an economist/ professor. I spent a few years in NYC as a child in the 70s. Impressionable years. My love for reading started in school in NYC. We moved back to India in 1979. Did my undergraduate and Master’s in English Literature from Delhi University, St. Stephen’s College. I used to be a voracious reader. Read a lot till I was in school. Had finished reading most classics by the time I was in 10th grade. After that, I started reading contemporary works.

My husband is a technocrat. I have two lovely, kind-hearted daughters, one is an investment manager and the other, a budding lawyer. We love dogs. We had an adorable saintly pug, Now we have two incorrigible beagles.

I have travelled a bit. I have lived in Japan and Canada for a few years and have stayed in different cities in India. I have met incredible people from all over, experienced different traditions and cultures. Learned so much.

I used to teach once upon a time. I’ve also worked as a corporate trainer. Now I work as an editor and content creator for a non profit organization."



Question 2: How long have you been writing poetry, and for how long have you been a member of Hello Poetry?

Nishu Mathur: "I wrote a bit as a child. Then for a little while around 2000. But finally, I really started writing when I took a break from work in 2011. Have been on this site for almost 9 years. I posted my first poem on Hello Poetry in 2016."


Question 3: What inspires you? (In other words, how does poetry happen for you).

Nishu Mathur: "Nature — trees, flowers, the sun, the moon. A moment in time. Something I read that I love. Memories. Something around me that I notice that leaves an impact. I used to write happy-go-lucky, cheeky poems too. Really silly stuff. I once wrote a poem on Indian moustaches. On double chins. Mosquitoes. I wrote parodies. Would love to get back to writing poetry like I used to.

I mostly write when I am at peace. For the longest time I found it hard to express sadness and grief. But I think I am getting over that."



Question 4: What does poetry mean to you?

Nishu Mathur: "Poetry is my go-to-place. A friend, a companion. It is a feeling. It is catharsis. It inspires. It is an outlet for creativity. I am very happy when I am able to write something. I feel rejuvenated. Like I can breathe.

I have learned a lot about poetry over the years. Poetry has also given me an opportunity to know myself and others better.

A poem can say so much in a few words. We can all have our own takeaways and interpretations. Words become magical and beautiful when woven together in poetry. I find that fascinating.

I am not a big talker. So I find happiness and comfort in written words. Poetry helps me to connect with people — thanks to online websites such as HP."



Question 5: Who are your favorite poets?

Nishu Mathur: "Rumi, Emily Dickinson, Vikram Seth, Maya Angelou, Ruskin Bond, Wordsworth, Yeats, Shel Silverstein, Pam Ayres. I love reading the work of fellow poets too."


Question 6: What other interests do you have?

Nishu Mathur: "Besides poetry, I enjoy music. I am trying my hand at painting. I love walking, going for long drives. I used to love travelling but haven’t been able to travel much these past few years. Love watching feel good, happy movies."


Carlo C. Gomez: “We would like to thank you Nishu, we really appreciate you giving us the opportunity to get to know the person behind the poet! It is our pleasure to include you in this Spotlight series!”

Nishu Mathur: "Thank you Carlo for Timetabling me and for your support. Grateful for the encouragement and inspiration I have received and continue to receive from this wonderful community of poets on Hello Poetry."




Thank you everyone here at HP for taking the time to read this. We hope you enjoyed coming to know Nishu a little bit better. We certainly did. It is our wish that these spotlights are helping everyone to further discover and appreciate their fellow poets. – Carlo C. Gomez

We will post Spotlight #27 in May!

~
 821° 
lia
I don’t even know him well,
But there’s something in the way I fell.
A glance, a laugh, the way he stands,
And now I’m stuck in daydream plans.

He doesn’t know, and that’s okay,
I watch from just a step away.
It’s nothing big, no spark, no rush,
Just a quiet little crush.
 617° 
Tommy Smith
her
she was tranquility in the morning’s early,
  moonbeams dripping red lights
and her eyes shifting softly,
she’s my favorite time of day when she smiles and moans
whispers and sees
she’s my favorite time of day
wrapped in moonbeams
dripping red lights
in my solitude and hers
my peace
   in her...
 502° 
D
Little laddie was a baddy,
Broke the rules -
Missused daddy's tools
Chucked rocks at fools
Watched as brother rocked a squirrel
Brother socked a loser
But mummy wasn't a soother.

Tooth fairy principled
Knock-Loose discipline
Lost tooth hits the porcelain
Another root dug out
Pick out the weeds
And let the rot grow from trees

Laddie in a playground
Abandoned by the swings,
Inert babbling,
Whistling through the gap
Where his teeth once yapped

Aghast,
A wolf approaches
Jiggling a bag of mummy's teeth.
Sometimes you suffer from some traumas and need to write about it, this one isn't necessarily my story, but it is something I heard about.
 470° 
Adam Torch
I thought we would be done by now.

But I keep finding more of you
between the lines
and more of me
between the letters.
letters love
 450° 
Jimmy silker
I like the word preternatural
It's like a bridge between
The achievable
And the functional impossible
What we all might do
Versus some Hellraiser ****
The step that says
I can't believe
You got away with it.
 445° 
matt r
soundless scape
(take me to Her)
travel,trapse
cross starful terror
candescently sing
(one last goodbye)
She'll be thinking
Him, not Her&I
 430° 
Jack Turner
Sweet Caroline,
You're on my mind.
You're a crazy minx,
But you're pretty fine.

I can't deny,
I miss you close,
So I read your words
To get my dose.
 401° 
RedMushrooms
They come in many
Shapes and sizes
Some are white
Some are pink
Some are brown
and others are purple
Some you can't see
Some are thick
Some are thin
They might even hurt
One thing that they
All have in common is
that they all have a story.
Whether it's from
Climbing a tree
or from crashing a car
maybe it wasn't an accident.
Thought no matter what
Every
Single
Scar
Is beautiful
No matter what you say
or other people say.
They are as beautiful
As the sunset
over the ocean.
 364° 
Em MacKenzie
Maybe you were never ready
to carry a weight that’s so heavy.
If you can’t set the course,
you’re going to need to follow.
You can bring water to a horse
but you can’t make it swallow.

You have to put your foot down
to ever take a step forward.
From the city back to town,
from space bound to homeward.

But she’s a Medusa with a mirror,
frozen inlove with her own reflection.
You scream your lungs out but even near her,
you’re always ignored;under detection.

Maybe you were never prepared
to share a burden that should never be shared.
It’s been a few years; it’s been some time
since you lodged your last complaint.
I’d like to believe you’re now doing fine,
and you’d like to believe you’re just a saint.

You have to put your foot down
to ever take a step forward.
Follow the air bubbles to not drown
don’t turn a drama into a horror.

But she’s a Medusa with a mirror,
frozen inlove with her own reflection.
If she can’t move will you still fear her,
and her manipulation and deflection?

I sometimes forget Medusa was victim to a curse,
and I never tried to make it better but I sure as hell made it worse.
Maybe Athena could’ve been more forgiving and kind,
she didn’t have to leave her living, or she could’ve made her blind.
She could’ve plugged her ears
so she wouldn’t have to hear the screams
of the men who holds fears
of a woman who dreams.
She could’ve ripped off her nose
or just taken her voice,
sometimes that the way it goes
you just don’t get a choice.

But she’s a Medusa with a mirror,
frozen inlove with her own reflection.
Even if she could scream no one would hear her,
and long ago got used to the rejection.
Even snakes have their beauty.
 314° 
Abi Winder
if i were dead,
what circle of hell would i call home?
 301° 
Dan R
You are my tangerine,
Brimming bitter-sour
Across the wretched, dusty room.

And you brought me
An orange touch of sun
Glitter glowing on my skin.

To wake wide in the morning,
Curtain dances with fresh air
Into my smoker's lungs.

Even to my deathbed remains
The scene of you that will
Leave me between the walls

Of longing and regret.
And to my morning sunlight,
I will never become better.

I say to you, my tangerine,
You are my very will to live,
And to die, if I cannot save you.
 262° 
dread
Trying to teach you that can't is a broken spell,
a collection of words smothered in a fist,
deprived of touching can, before its magic had its knell,

The progenitors of these phrases drown in its graces,
they become the it of their own undoing,
husband and wife to guttural utterances,

Cloaked is the mirror with a window on full display,
smiling through your reflection, praying through convection,
seeking the angel's wings buried in the ground,

It's all dirt beneath their lips,
give them a spear they fancy it a fork,
a hook for their purposes,

There is no can't besides what is in there eyes,

There is no can't and above the bird flies,

There is no can't and here we find ourselves in our minds,

The law to them is of designs,
the life is what they inscribe,
there is no can't, but they can't.
 262° 
Immortality
It was dark in cave,
the air felt cold—inside out.

He held her
as if she were glass,
a lamb
in the arms
of a wolf midnight.

Outside
the sky wept,
but inside us
a flower bloomed—
in April.
I turned 18 today! Ahhhhhhh, happy birthday to me!! Thank you all so much for the love and support. I still can’t believe I’m 18 now. I’ve been ill for a few days, so this birthday hasn’t been the most enjoyable. On top of that, I’ve been caught up with academics too. I’m really thankful for everything I have, but I also want to keep improving and become a better version of myself. I have the best family ever, couldn’t ask for anything better, tbh.
 254° 
Shivpriya
Whenever you come to me in white,  
Your grandeur walks away with my heart.  

It takes my heart away and carries it with you.  

Whenever you come to me,  
Notice me; you are in white, while I happily watch you in adorable yellow light.  

Your white and grand light,  
Do look into my heart,
A heart that has left the possession of rosiness  
To feel the mighty volume of its light within itself.  

Do look at me in my heart,  
And for the sake of this peace,  
Do dip your hands in its grandeur yellow light.  

Whenever you come to me,  
In white along with your grandeur walk.  

I will be at the corner praying for you  
With my yellow heart.  
©shivpoetesspriya
I’m pleased to announce a new update for my writing collection, Songs of a Different World. Here are three chapters that have just been added:  
1. A Transitioning Gaze!
2. A Yellow Light Song!
3. Alone, with the Chasm of the Heart!
 246° 
Kai
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
There it goes out to all of you:
Ghost
RGH
Ryan Geoffrey Hayward
Nephilim Angel
Nephalem
Rose White
Rose Red
Jacob Lives
Hybrid Angel
Tormenter
Bread Crumbs
The Machine
Dirt-In-My-Shirt
Soul Unknown
And etc. ENJOYERS

(Btw, all of these names are RGH's names so if you have these names, please don't feel targeted! The person knows who they are.)

EDIT: ILY ALL SM!!! I DIDN'T THINK THIS POEM WOULD GAIN THIS MUCH ATTENTION BUT I'M HAPPY THAT IT DID!! (⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠) I'M GOING TO VIRTUALLY KISS EVERYONE ON THE CHEEK ONCE THEY READ THIS... or just virtually hug you, yk, whatever you're comfortable with
 234° 
Faith Cubitt
I do have a dream....
one I guess no one else can see.
they all doubt me and I'll lay in bed wondering why?
do they not see inside my mind?
I'm sorry if I fail you I really didn't want to.
I can see it all so perfectly.... the way things truly should be.
Just know I tried....
 221° 
Jimmy silker
I sat on a bench
In the corner of a courtyard
About ten years ago
It was large but hardly vast
Near sixty yards square or so

Surrounded by a rough hewn wall
Round six feet high it seemed
Lost in a peaceful memory
A soft focus pre Easter dream

In the opposite corner
On the diagonal perceived
A fully laden Cherry Blossom
Swelled and shook and breathed

Through its essence and existence
Through it's roots and bark it heaved

As if ready to impart a message
I felt grateful to receive
A holy thing to take with me
When
I stood
And turned to leave

Then out of nowt
A tiny tornado
Appeared at the midway point
Like a spectral referee incarnate
Explaining the rules of the joint

He bowed to both parties
Swirled round the mortal pitch
Encompassing the tree
Every petal gently pinched
Then carried to me
In a widening perfumed gyre
I could feel it's cleansing warmth
An exquisite painless fire

I was encircled fully
Music like I'd never seen
Swaythed from head to toe
In the brightest of pinks and creams
The aroma almost killed me
The most cinematic of scenes.

Then the spirit was gone
Fragrance piled high at my feet
Now I did not belong
My dance card replete
I sniffed back a tear
I stood up and left
It's never happened again
Easter now so bereft.
 217° 
Nat Lipstadt
for she
<>
"I choose to love you in silence, for in silence I find no rejection.
I choose to love you in loneliness, for in loneliness no one owns you but me.
I choose to adore you from a distance, for distance will shield me from pain.
I chose to kiss you in the wind, for the wind is gentler than my lips.
I choose to hold you in my dreams, for in my dreams you have no end"

Rumi
<>

writ in a time, for when
there is never enough,
and yet,
always, waves of too much,
needy for
filling feeling fulfilling

We must learn,
be self taught to:

"Leave a tender moment alone
You got to leave a tender moment alone
Leave a tender moment alone
Leave a tender moment"

ah the tender time is nonetheless
rightly and wrongly
rightly now,

for I have stumbled,
overheated, sweaty, from the night bed,
at 4.30am into another darkened toom,
and I have smacked~stumbled into
Rumi
and her

our paths continuously intersect,
in the same but
in different cities, continents,
and yet,
diffident, differing,
we silently choose
never to close those lady~last few miles
and tie the knot of
eyes, skin, lips
the instruments
that transmit thousands of
neuronal explosions that
seal the deal

so we write in poetry,
in silence broken by the gentility
of fingertips soundlessly
and yet,
boundlessly rocking,
explosively soundings of
tap tap tapping

my music mocks me,
it is definitively god interfering,
advising, conspiring,
wiring into my brain
better lyrics,
idealized notions,
exactly appropriate
and appreciated

with the lyrics urging me on,
and that we must be
self taught to:

"Leave a tender moment alone
You got to leave a tender moment alone
Leave a tender moment alone
Leave a tender moment"

but my heart trembly refuses,
insightful informing
that now,
now! is
the moment to exchange
vows of words,
though un spoke,
they require
written completion
through
& though
apart, alone,
to finally out loud confess
what has always been known, only to each other,
to be
so real

and yet*,

we will never exchange
these sentiments
in out loud words

but though this be lacking,
it will never
diminish
their  ultimate
intimate
truthfulness

and I ask,
is this a poem?

surely
it is that, and
so much more,
an essay, a letter on
invisible NML stationary,
a heart carving in
an oaken barrelling of
ancient vintagery

and that interloper,
Him again,
eavesdropping
on this private communication,
insists that I draw deep
from her favorite
singer~songwriter,
words that say it better,
that for real seal the deal,
in the saddened perfection
of total, enwrapped,
silence:

"Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence"

and
it is time
to finish this task,
it is exactly one hour,
no time at all,
to complete a love poem that
is/was complete,
even before its
composition
and yet,
is never to be be familiar with
the finality of
completion
<>

postscript:

I taste your private shed tears,
hear the howling sigh,
but most of all,
'tis the explosion of
a deep smiling creasing
your lips,
spreading in all directions
saying and stating:

at last, at last!
a lasting, a confessional to you god,
though,
a through and through
silent
jubilation
                                              ­             nml

April 8, 2025
530am
New  York  City
excerpted lyrics from Billy Joel and
Paul Sumon
 216° 
Paul

There is a thickness to Presence
when light has fully come.

It does not press—

   it holds.

It gathers around you
like dusk after heat,
like blankets not laid over
but risen up from within.

You don’t need to speak.
You don’t need to explain.
You don’t need to hide—
because you are already
hidden
in the Light itself.

And in that hiding,
healing begins.

Here, the ache is not judged.
Here, the story is not required.

Here, breath is enough..

  Not because it was taught to grow,
  but because it remembered
  what warmth feels like..


That slow kindle of hope
becomes heat again—
flames returning
to the heart’s own hearth,
too long left cold
by darkness and despair..

A hearth that survived
on wet matchsticks—
built only
by its own need to endure.

---

It is the hearthfire
that feels the light of hope
first.

The more ash-strewn,
the more hollow,
the deeper the heat
of Light’s permeation.

---

So the soul,
once clenched around its pain,

   softens.

Not all at once.
Not forever.
But enough.

Enough to rest.

Enough to believe--

that warmth this deep
could only come
from the Giver of Light

   ..who never left.

And in that warmth—
without pressure,
without fear..

everything begins again.


"..all is quiet on New Year's Day
a world in white  gets underway"

https://youtu.be/ZJq1FS72ZQ4?si=QyhavoDBfewMj9Go

#Warmth
 209° 
Breeze
Tank running empty
Indifference feels like ice
Not much left to give
 206° 
Selma
I wish nothing more
Than to be understood,
To be seen for what I am -
My truest form.
Why do you reject me?

I am not in need of anyone‘s approval.
Yet, it seems silly and meaningless
To live life without someone loving
All parts of me.
I long for commitment,
An interest to my soul
And all that comes with it.
Or is the longing itself that‘s foolish?
 199° 
AM
I’ve never experienced heartbreak
in the traditional sense,
but I’ve felt the breaking of myself,

shattered into little pieces,
to fit in the mold of me

I’ve known the fracture of my needs,

bent and twisted to support you unconditionally,

until I forgot where I ended and you began.

I haven’t known heartbreak in the way they speak of it,

but I’ve mourned the self I never had,

grieved for the things I could never hold,

stumbling over my own words,

falling in silence,

afraid I didn’t matter,
disappearing slowly

No, I haven’t known heartbreak in the traditional sense,

and maybe that’s why I’m afraid of breaking hearts,
because the only thing left in me
are fragments of a shape I was,
before I trimmed my edges,
cutting away the parts of me that couldn’t fit,
Over and over, until there was nothing left.
 193° 
Nat Lipstadt
I asked a woman to change her curls to forever straight,
and offered $50,000 (a sum on my mind that day after a
rough day trading), to maintain said style in perpetuity

she has accomodated me now for over a decade+, but
every every, every now and every then, She pulls me
closer than close, whispers 50K~ok!, and hits me with a
hip swaying pow, her physio~verbal cueball reminder,
that poets must always pay their debts, and even forever
too,
has its poetic limitations
 192° 
César Vallejo
Sin haberlo advertido jamás, exceso por turismo
y sin agencias
de pecho en pecho hacia la madre unánime.

Hasta París ahora vengo a ser hijo. Escucha,
Hombre, en verdad te digo que eres el Hijo Eterno,
pues para ser hermano tus brazos son escasamente iguales
y tu malicia para ser padre, es mucha.

La talla de mi madre moviéndome por índole de movimiento,
y poniéndome serio, me llega exactamente al corazón:
pesando cuanto cayera de vuelo con mis tristes abuelos,
mi madre me oye en diámetro callándose en altura.

Mi metro está midiendo ya dos metros,
mis huesos concuerdan en género y en número
y el verbo encarnado habita entre nosotros
y el verbo encarnado habita, al hundirme en el baño,
un alto grado de perfección.
 189° 
kash
Sometimes I wonder if they see
The real me
Cause if I die
Would they wear the suit and tie
Or look the other way
Opposite direction of the castaway
 158° 
Rohan
You walked with him through the
arcades of the heaven
through the unending gardens of the paradise
Didn't you perceive Dante was so
flushed and shaken
whence with all the love he
looked into your eyes

Oh Beatrice! Dante loved you so, wouldn't you want to know
that for you he wrote a
million lover's lines
Dante loved you so, wouldn't
you want to know
that for you he built
a splendid paradise

I hope, you noticed O Bice, in the roses
he looked for your grace, he looked
for you in the moon and in the stars,
in the sun of morn he looked for your face
And so it was very rough
On earth it was not enough
He built a bridge of million lines
And sought you in his paradise

Oh Beatrice! Dante loved you so
wouldn't you want to know
that for you he wrote a
million lover's lines
Dante loved you so
wouldn't you want to know
that for you he built
a splendid paradise

My love, you noticed O Bice
lives from me half a world away
I look for her in the moon and
in the stars
in the sun of morn I look for her face
And so it is very rough
On earth it is not enough
I'll build a bridge of million lines
And make on earth a paradise

Oh Beatrice! Dante loved you so
wouldn't you want to know
that for you he wrote
a million lover's lines
Dante loved you so,
wouldn't you want to know
that for you he built
a splendid paradise
I wrote this poem just for fun.
 140° 
The Blue Bottles
when you were close
your voice would drown me
your hurtful words
the silence crowns me
i stayed quite because i knew
thats the only way i would keep you
i wept
i barely slept
i stayed awake
every stupid decision id make
i did it for you
for your praise
your time
i wish youd stayed
called us "mine"
for an old abuser
 126° 
indi
i have seen the shadows move
i have held hands with
the monster hiding under my bed
i cannot tell you its name,
only that it whispers in my ear
seconds before i sleep

i have heard the moon sigh
i have let its crescent mouth
laugh at my tears as i watch
silver clouds stream lazily
and a sole distant yellow star
blinks once, twice before it leaves

i have touched the velvet hide of the night
it is true, the world sits on the back
of a quick black cat and she runs
across time, never quite catching
the mouse she’s been chasing
for a while or forever
 119° 
Salvatore Ala
A house finch on a juneberry tree
Feeding
On the fruit
That has yet to be
 112° 
Alice Wilde
I was torn from my slumber
Like moss from a stump
By little kid fingers.

Forcibly ****** back into a reality
I did not want to live.

Because in that reality
My family becomes
Monsters.

And I become a slot machine.
 103° 
Natalie
You say you love me,
but humans are only capable
of looking at what they
can see.
and you are not capable
of loving what you don't know.

and you say you love me
but what is shiny is also
scratched.
the layers of my skin hide
a frostbitten language
only know by the foreigners
you don't know exist.

and you say you love me
but love means
walking through a snow storm
I had already passed
because you know you would
meet me on the other side.
but you turned around
because you couldn't see past
the white casted trees.

don't say you love me
because you don't have anyone else
to say it to.
say you love me
when your mind wont swell
if I don't say it back.
Don't say you love me if you don't know what the word love means.
 97° 
Soul Searching
I don't know why I do the things that I do.
I know that I can get scared,
I know that I can be a lot,
I just feel safe when I'm with you
I think I used to make you feel,
how you make me feel,
I will get back to that,
I promise.
 96° 
Arii
Woken up from a dream,
the world the same
as it’d been left
My bed still creaks,
The sky still rains,
The birds still scream my fading name
My heart still beats,
My legs still break
I’ll burn to death in the wildfire
And wake up,
Still the same.
 89° 
Lance Remir
I refused to let you go
I know that if I did
You'd be gone forever
But you promised
Always and Forever
And I don't want a life
Where promises didn't exist
Bajo las alas rosa de este laurel florido,
Amémonos. El viejo y eterno lampadario
De la luna ha encendido su fulgor milenario
Y este rincón de hierba tiene calor de nido.

  Amémonos. Acaso haya un fauno escondido
Junto al tronco del dulce laurel hospitalario
Y llore al encontrarse sin amor, solitario,
Mirando nuestro idilio frente al prado dormido.

  Amémonos. La noche clara, aromosa y mística
Tiene no sé qué suave dulzura cabalística.
Somos grandes y solos sobre el haz de los campos.

  Y se aman las luciérnagas entre nuestros cabellos,
Con estremecimientos breves como destellos
De vagas esmeraldas y extraños crisolampos.
You are the sun,
Your soul - a galaxy,
Swerving forever
Without an end
Or the beginning,
Pursuing the darkness,
Reaching for starlight,
Just to forget.

Countless lives,
One before another
Or after, sometimes,
It is hard to tell.
In kaleidoscope
Of this trivial violence,
Images shatter
Beneath static veil.
Next page