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Zywa Jun 2023
Father chases me,

we run around the table --


three times, always three.
Novel "Kind tussen vier vrouwen" ("Child between four women", 1972, Simon Vestdijk, written in 1933), § 6, page 285

Collection "Inmost"
Hollie Jun 2023
Down on knees tying to clean up
last night brought the endless cycle
of breaking everything inside
I don't care enough to not care
I'm over it I think to myself
As though those words mean anything anymore
Sitting white knuckled jaw clenched
I want to give up every time you leave
But I put everything back in place
For everything to look like we're starting over
For when you come back it'll be okay
You can play house with my feelings
And I'll put a smile on
Hiding how tired I am to not mean more
Or worth being better for
Recognize toxic habits and relationships
Carlo C Gomez Jan 2023
A heavy cloud hangs over the sky
in rumble tumble
and I can bend the universe
If I can get there first
I'm a tautology guy
so latrine cakes arrive one after
the other in succession
they may be a mystery to the ladies
but they’re very familiar to gentlemen

Here we go clockwise from the table
and in one straight shot
we go to places unwished for
but barely unimagined
places that cheat the polygraph
places of stalled-out civil wars
and infinite permutations
places of frequent flush and analysis
places that drain out of each one of us
and right into the undone sea
Zywa Aug 2022
People only change

when someone else forces them --


They can't change themselves.
"Het volgende verhaal" ("The next story", 1991, Cees Nooteboom)

Collection "Willegos"
Bansi Adroja May 2022
I like traditions
reading the same book on holiday every summer
watching Frasier re-runs with my morning coffee
going to the same restaurant on my birthday
with the same seven friends
meeting at the pub on the corner
for a white wine buzz before heading to the city

Crawling back to you like I do every time
and promising myself I won’t
Maurice May 2022
Time spent with family
I'm able to break free
from all these bad habits
constantly chasing after me.
They never truly go away
sticking to me
like a shadow sticks
to the concrete.
Time spent away
distanced from my past
I feel finally free
from the demons in me.
Now I'm home alone,
I'm all on my own
I was naive
I thought I was free.
Knocking on the door
I hear a familiar sound
it's my shadow; the demon
I've been found.
5/25/2022
Eyithen Apr 2022
I pluck the weeds out of my head every season,
All the bad, the negative thoughts, the unhealthy habits,
so the flowers have room to grow.
Until the next season,
when the weeds regrow and I must pluck them again.
I grab the base, pulling up the roots,
Without roots, they won’t grow back.
They do.
Our brain, Our mind, our command center,
Without thinking, they control our breathing,
Heartbeat, while processing our vision, hearing,
So much more, always giving us signs.
We can look outside to rain, convincing ourselves,
It’s going to be a gloomy day, everything seems,
To go slow even the actual time.
Some people say no one can control them,
If we hear, read, see, somethings enough,
We even start doing them every day,
How did almost, everyone in the country,
All about the same time, decide they were,
Going to carry a bottle of water or something,
Every day even if not thirsty, habits born stay,
Cell phones the same, ever hear of people,
Leaving their kids in a car, their phone, no way.
The Original: Tom Maxwell© 3/16/22 A D
9:45 pm
Bansi Adroja Mar 2022
I still sleep on the right side of the bed
add sugar to my tea in halves
keep my keys in my coat pocket
with notes of the things you said

I still wonder what you'll think about the mess
and all of these bad habits I have left
because I'm not myself anymore
just a version you kept in your head
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