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Shivam Sehgal Jun 14
I saw a person in the same disguise,
looking straight into my eyes.
Strange: it wasn't me this time.
He had a fire, burying itself inside,
like a dying ember, in the forest mist.
But I recognize that shimmer in his gaze.

I saw it: I saw
My strange reflection swiftly walked closer to me,
and it whispered in a mystic way,
You were meant to burn.
A poem born from a moment of stillness — the kind of silence that speaks. It's about identity, loss, and the flicker of purpose hiding in pain. Sometimes, our reflections reveal the fire we've forgotten.
abyss Jun 13
Dreams, so many dreams
Some forgotten, some waiting to happen

am I one of those dreams?
forgotten after the morning alarm
or waiting to come knocking?

forgotten, or waiting to happen
am I a forgotten dream,
or are you waiting for me too?

dreams, so many dreams
overflowing with them

will I reach them,
or will I have to forget them?

each day, an ache that never ends
but when —
when will it be enough?

time.
time is cruel for a dreamer.

and what am I
if not a dreamer?

a dream
or a dreamer

I guess I’ll know someday,
but not today.

time, time is cruel for a dreamer
sometimes too slow
sometimes too fast
a never-ending agony

dreams,
so many dreams

some forgotten...
just like me

and yet —
I keep dreaming.
my first poem ever.
the first two lines wouldn’t let me sleep,
and somewhere between silence and thought,
the rest found me.
White Owl Jun 13
Too pure to touch,
Too perverse to honor.
In any case,
Too human to revere.
The ocean's bride
And the meadow's daughter
Uncross their fingers
To show they're sincere.
White rabbit, black rabbit,
Opposed halves of one.
The flouted is sought,
The belovèd, shunned.
The night mourns the light
With funeral tears
Soon after invoking
The death of the sun.
Jun '25

This one's about identity, people pleasing, double standards, and having zero idea who you want to be or how you should present yourself.
I used to talk too much.
Nowadays, I just sit in silence.
I want to tell everyone how I’m feeling—
I want to talk about everything.

But when the time comes,
“nothing comes out of my mouth—
nothing I truly want to talk about.”

So I speak of daily things,
of weather, work, what we ate.
I nod. I listen. I float.
But my soul—
“my soul wants to say something,
But I shut myself down.”

Inside me,
there’s a scream that no one hears.
It claws the walls of my chest,
cries in pain, grief, sadness—
like it’s been caged for years.

There is a trench,
deep and echoing,
carved by time and distance—
“created throughout the years of my life.”

While many grew
in the warmth of their parents’ arms,
“I spent my childhood far from them.”
I learned how to be silent
before I ever learned how to speak.

I feel emotions.
“I just don’t know how to express them.”
And when I try—
when I dare—
“it goes horribly wrong.”

I want to open up.
I want to tell someone.
I want to say:
This is how I feel.
Please understand.
Please stay.

“But when I do, everything goes south.”

So I quieted myself.
I taught my voice to whisper,
then to vanish.
I tried—
“and still try—
to talk less, to stay silent.”

But the silence isn’t peace.
It’s pressure.
It’s weight.
“I failed before,
and I’m still failing.”

Now I don’t know what to do anymo'.
I am deep below my own trench,
and still falling into the deep, dark below.

Will I ever hit the bottom?
The point where there’s no further down—
only up? I know I feel like a clown.

But still,

No more confusion.
No more sadness.
Only hope and happiness, I guess.
Peace of mind.
With all the past behind.

I feel lost. I don't feel like me.
I feel like I’m falling.
I feel empty inside me.

- THE END -

© 2025 June, Hasanur Rahman Shaikh.
All rights reserved.
A poem from the heart of the fall—when you're too deep to see the surface, but still quietly holding out for light. Written from a place of despair, and maybe… the start of healing.
Now I don’t know what to do anymo'.
I am deep below my own trench,
and still falling into the deep, dark below.

Will I ever hit the bottom?
The point where there’s no further down—
only up? I know I feel like a clown.

But still,

No more confusion.
No more sadness.
Only hope and happiness, I guess.
Peace of mind.
With all the past behind.

I feel lost. I don't feel like me.
I feel like I’m falling.
I feel empty inside me.

- THE END -

© 2025 June, Hasanur Rahman Shaikh.
All rights reserved.
A poem from the heart of the fall—when you're too deep to see the surface, but still quietly holding out for light. Written from a place of despair, and maybe… the start of healing.
Ian Starks Jun 21
The box said
‘1,000 pieces’
Yet the picture is complete.

I watch from the lid—
unfitted.

There was never room
for 1,001.
Maria Leslie Jun 12
You are my dreams
that I have been waiting for for a long time
but I met you at the wrong time,
in the wrong place

You are the one behind me
who shines
despite the decade
I have been dreaming of

I thought I could be with you
then and until now
I can't reach you anymore

You are the one
who is always behind me
that I want to achieve
You are the one
who always takes my place
reminding me
but I can only breathe
in the past

I see the lights in my dreams
But it’s gone away now
It’s far away going back to my past

To this day,
I still feel you in my pulse,
in my past,
still drawing memories.

I know I let you go
a long time ago
and accepted that you're gone
but there's a melody inside me
that I want to have you

the thing inside me
that's hard to forget

Something in there
that I can’t let go

the karma of the past
that was left behind
but has been covered
by years and decades

I try to forget it
even if I run some distance
you are inside my heart
you are in the past of my dreams
that are one of the pillars
of my personality
and my dreams

I see my cold shadow in the past
that I can't reach you anymore

The broken destiny and dreams
told yesterday
Mystery come back to me
But it’s over now
You remain my heart before

I see reflections in my dark dreams
because I see my reflections.

I see it now
And I still feel it
All along it was all reflections.
Written: 6.11.2025
Reece Jun 11
One day, I met the Wendigo,
It told me things that I’d rather not have known.
My family asked me, “Where did it go?”
Who was I to tell?
It visited me later that night,
It gave me quite a fright,
It said, “Scream and I guarantee you won’t survive!”
So I closed my mouth and didn’t dare rebel.
It told me,
“People hunt what they don’t understand,
They can’t even decide who they want to be.
They act like they have this massive plan,
But in reality, they’re afraid of becoming a nobody like me!”
I asked meekly,
“What do you mean?”
It snarled its teeth,
And said to me,
“Some people believe that identity,
Is solely based on how they feel.
But it also has to do with society,
And the people they are around,
And how they are seen,
Not just what they believe.
They think that they can hide,
From the person they try to bury,
Under estranged beliefs,
So they consume whoever they see,
Who doesn’t believe their facade,
And they become like me.”
The Wendigo left,
Quiet as a mouse.
I set up on my bed,
And contemplated the truth I found.
I am me,
But when I talk down to myself,
Try to believe I’m worth less than everyone else,
That isn’t my identity,
That’s an askew belief.
Identity isn’t solely based on me…
A more metaphorical poem than I usually do, but I wanted to branch out a little.
It’s a sign of weakness, they said, to show your face: “too pale, too tired, too human.”

My mind is racing, looping like a broken wheel… Do they hate me?

Every glance feels like a weapon; every word, a cold dissection. I try to walk through the crowd unseen, but I am simply raw meat on a butcher’s hook, spinning slowly under the fluorescent lights.

And then I see her. She laughs, and I think it’s a kindness, but she looks away too quickly. My fists tighten; the world sharpens into jagged edges. Pull her hair, I think, rip the scalp off, strip the mask, and see if what’s underneath is as hollow as what I feel.

But the moment passes, like all moments do. My pulse somehow slows, the crowd swallows me whole again. I have no mouth. I want to scream. I can’t. I want to decide something, anything, but the choices aren’t mine to make.

Don’t you see?
Nothing is decided by us, in this modern world.
It’s a strong bond to appearances.
I turned this poem into a song.
I took note of your scathing criticism.
It’s the best joke of the century.
Hell, even of the millennium!

  “You should’ve learned how to change.”

Change? CHANGE?!

I changed so hard I broke the mirror
And swallowed the shards for breakfast!
  (The taste is particularly exquisite)
  (Taste? Heck, you can call it a rebranding!)
  (With a side of narcissism and a pinch of performance — natural for an artist!)
    (Believe me — it digests easier)
    (And leaves less of an aftertaste)

I became:
  Gene Kingstone,
  Ásgeir Geirmundsson,
  Frodo Clayhanger,
  Rakin Badr Shamoon,
  Ouya Ishikawa,
  René Bérubé,
  Sargent Fresne,
  Fabien Giroux.

Eight names, a thousand apologies.
Eight lives, and not a single one wasted.

Look at the barrel you set aflame!
And I’m the neologism you feared to create.
A poem about identity.
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