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Amanda Kay Burke Oct 2023
Never be frightened
To reinvent character
One part at a time
Never be afraid to reinvent yourself
Toothache Sep 2023
I’m rocking back and forth against the hull of my loneliness,
Stuck in knowing it’s goodbye
But not being able to say I love you
or I’m sorry.
I’m crying with joy and longing as I lie in the love and conversation around me,
Wishing it were mine.
I’ve been high so long my heart rate stopped going down with the sun.
Going over it all all over again all the time.
I feel like a child again, terrified by the the dark, the wind, the eyes of men.
I’m breaking down in the line at the gas station.
Looking out the glass wall at a Lovecraftian highway,
Flickering florescent lights like the ones from The Exorcist.
On my way to a cavernous husk of a family dinner,
Most of them gone now.
Just me, my mother, and my widowed, bereaved, great aunt.
There’s a stupid old cardboard cutout of a mascot next to me grinning too widely, holding up its product.
I scream and tear it’s head off it’s body
In my mind.
I have work on Monday.
This is life.
newborn Aug 2023
stillness of fear
creeping upon the backside of my neck.
wingless.
sometimes there are echoes echoing from my cynical brain
slamming the alarms, singing the warning calls.
a twinge; so sudden and immersive.
this primal fear;
a part of me that aches in the depths of a realm unheard of.
silence is feeding off my weakness
yet i am too proud to put an end to it.
i just feel anxious about everything and it makes me feel stupid. i don’t like myself.

written last night, but published: 8/12/23
We Are Stories Jul 2023
does a sacred stone
still retain its worth
if it was never taken
from it’s hidden earth?
could it truly be
a treasure trove
if no one sees
its alluring glow?
-
is my mind right to tell me
that invisibility doesn’t cause irrelevance?
or is that just a way to cope with
the ever feared unfounded-forgotten-pestilence
Celine Ngo Jun 2023
im scared
ive barricaded my door
cried a river into my floor
someone save me

im scared
i thought i was strong enough to be on my own
but now i'm afraid to be in my own home
someone please save me
november 2021
William A Gibson Jun 2023
your crackling, humming streetlight
bending bright and blue
I’ve never known a eye
to burn as hot as you

I've cut this trail in whiskey
I've lost an ugly war
you cut your beam against me
you cast my losing score

the bottle knows it’s shattered
it's fragments spark the ground
what else could you uncover?
all bodies have been found

I gave you my confessions
your file on me complete
you have no rope to hang me
or bind my hands and feet

I'll always find the shadow
then steal another day
your judgement fades in twilight
your flame is washed away
Mark Wanless May 2023
i heard a distant thunder
acknolgment of truth
it called me to make a wonder
from memories of youth

sat upon the stairs afraid
heard a painful cry
asking for assistance
i sat upon the stairs afraid
Thomas W Case Apr 2023
Sometimes, I think I feel too much, like I crossed into a world of shadows; like there's been some kind of mistake.
Life seems to sharp, to vivid,
too right there in my face.
I feel like a stranger.  It's as if I were on a bus, and out of the tinted windows, things looked vaguely familiar. I pull the string and get off.
It's the wrong stop, it's the wrong world. The bus has disappeared;
there's no way home.  I used to stand on a bridge that a river flowed under. And off in the distance, high atop the ash trees, the eagles were nesting. They were so beautiful and serene.
I can't watch them anymore. It breaks my **** heart to see all the concrete and construction inch closer and closer to the little slice of heaven they found in a piece of nature
that seemed vaguely
familiar.
There they were…
Lying on the bed, with her head resting below his shoulder, listening to his heart beat, and praying it never stops.
One leg draped over him, as if she was afraid he’d free from her embrace. As though her leg, a restraint, holding him in place, keeping him from leaving.
Her arm resting on his body with her hand on his chest.
There they were…
The safest place she could think of.
Her favorite place to be.
She was with him.
Their love, shielding them from the chaos of the outside world, while she silently worries, that he’ll someday leave.
He notices, and reassures her… he’s here to stay.
“He’s here to stay!” She thinks to herself. She’d finally won the fight against her own mind.
He said it himself! He won’t leave!
She could finally feel at peace.
His reassurance and validation was all she needed to believe.
And just like that, she could finally sleep. See… he made her feel safe.
He said “Let me love and protect you! That is the job I want!”
So she let her walls crumble, opened the door, and she let him step in.
He dusted the cobwebs, and drew back the drapes. He painted the walls and straightened the frames. He fixed the creaky doors and floors, and mended broken shelves. He brought light to the darkness, and color to the grey.
He even bought flowers for the empty vase, that had seen better days.
He just strolled in, and he made it a home suited for two.
He said “no more need for walls” and he put in a sparkling moat. “You’re safe with me, you can rest and unload.”
She didn't yet know, that what she’d need protecting from, was him.
For when he’d rip it all away.
He loves her.
He loved her.
Up until one day…
And there they were.
Both, unaware and unafraid.
A poem born of fear, because if he leaves, it’ll shatter me.
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