Here I am,
a tangle of roots
buried deep
and reaching down
deeper,
looking for a sign of life.

But no,
I sprawl and
twist around,
widdershins,
round and round
the battering thump
breaking the walls
under my flesh.

My waking hours
remember,
thick with the weight
of words left unsaid,
an iron on my tongue.
Unmoved.
Unperturbed.
Stagnant and decaying,
until I’m a stranger
to my own voice.
A crow lost in a cornfield
lulled by a scarecrow’s
siren song.

Like a crow,
plumes as dark
as a saint ‘s hope
wandering in the arms of limbo.
Wings bruised
for hammering obstinate bars,
voice hoarse for singing the blues
over dissonant chords.

Over and over again.
“Like a broken record,” they say.
Singing the same old song.
I have been.
Songs like plastic bags
of cans that digs into a tender
palm until the blood supply is cut.

What does the sky
Feel like on my wings
The stretch of endless blue
Soft wind threading through my feathers?
Tell me, the feeling has long escaped me.
Emptiness ringing in my ear
in the space between
where song once lived

Time has a way
Of erasing memories,
Of erasing wounds
and hardening them into scars,
of stepping into clear water
and muddying it.

Now the air is stale,
silence dense,
solitude burning red,
my bones rubbing against
my soul,
Leaving blisters and scuffs.

These heavy eyes,
the sky’s allure has faded from their gaze.
they have learned to shrink
into this smallness.
no horizon here
only walls,
and the dust taste of dullness
is vapid.

How I miss
how the sun makes
the salt on my skin rise,
or how the rain can seep
into my thoughts until
it colors it sad.

Now, there’s just fields of
milky grayness, playing labyrinth
until I reach the end,
only to be devoured again.

And sadness is too mundane a word,
at most it’s an espresso
that keeps you awake,
A defibrillator,
that jolt that makes eternity
an agony.

I am but a riddle I cannot solve

He fell for her the moment he saw her at the Carnival. Entriguing, yet Mysterious, Enchanting, yet Seductive. He couldn't keep his eyes off of her, like he was in a trance. He just had to get to know her. He wanted to get close to her. Curiosity kills the cat, and he was very curious to know who this mysterious woman was. It was something about her that he can't help but to be drawn to her. Like a Love spell was cast upon him.  So, he tried to follow her through the crowds of Happy People as he swiftly moved through the crowds trying to keep up, it seems as if she moved farther and farther. The more he moved the farther she moved. By the time he made it through the crowds to a clear distance, she was gone. He was disappointed. It had seemed as if she had suddenly dissipated into thin air. Was she really there or was he looking at a apparition only he can see, as if she was trying to get his attention??? He knows he not crazy, or that his mind is messing with him, He knows what he saw, like an Angel before his very eyes!!! She could've been an Angel in Disguise, He has No idea where she could've gone. Could He have been dreaming, Well, He is wide awake. That same night while sleeping, he sees her in his dreams, Is she trying to give him some type of message??? He just didn't understand. So, finally, He just forgot about her after some time. About a month or so later, he decided to stop by a Coffee shop for coffee before heading to work. As, he waited in line, something caught his attention, as he looked to the right, There she was, the mysterious woman from the Carnival!!! His eyes had widened, he just couldn't believe it. It was really her, sitting alone, enjoying her Caramel Macchatto. She felt his glance, looked up and smiled at him. He smiled back, he grabbed his coffee, and felt it was okay to approach her. So, he did, and he asked was it okay to sit down, and she said yes. Since discovery of her at the Carnival, they started talking. Come to find out, she's very distanced in the same area as he, and they have a lot in common. This to him was Love at first sight, He searched for her, and actually gave up trying to find her, however it was fate that brought them together ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️


B.R.
Date: 8/13/2024

The captain, withered and old, was trapped in his house
Missing the sea, like old captains do.
                                                                    Suddenly,
An earthquake shook the land, and he believed
He was back in the ocean, and a wave had broken
His ship.
                  The old captain went out to the streets
Shouting at his crew i.e. the passing pedestrians
To shape up.
                         Though cars zoomed past, he walked on
To the middle of the road, thinking the vehicles
Were dolphins greeting him.
                                                      He tried to kiss them,
And when a cop stopped him, and dragged him away
He yelled “Pirate!” and hit the cop on the head,
And ran away.
                           Last I heard, he’d drowned in a puddle.
A fitting end.

If i had a bottle of magical reagent
I'd take out a third of it
and put it in the sky
and turn the sky as blue
as it should be
if i had a bottle of magical reagent
I would take out a third
and put it in the lake
let the lake return
to its rightful clarity
If I had a bottle of magical reagent
I would take out one-third
and put it in my heart
let my heart be restored
to its original innocence
if there's such a bottle of reagent
I'd think to myself
i would sit
under the azure welkin
watching fluffy clouds
smooth flowing waters
I'd feel as light as the breeze
and my heart as wild
as a bee.

the feeling of art bleeds from my nail beds,
plump from euphoria, drunk off wine that's red.
i feel electricity within my hands.
some have only known it through ***'s command.
my joints swell with anticipation,
the poet's tongue knows no abnegation.
ready to send life through these tired veins.
let emotion take these fraying reins,
and pluck these tendons like piano strings.
hear the way the keyboard clings
with each stanza, each brushstroke.
what suffering could they evoke?
i feel my blood pump through me.
pelted by the rhythmic breathing of the sea.
these feelings crashing into jagged rocks.
breathe in this break from writer's block.