As if aiming, huddling ever closer to the wall; he draws his superstitious eyelashes into a slit, thus peering at the deceived, continuously manipulated world. Forced to constantly measure the shortest distance between sincerity and lies, he measures, like some eccentric arbiter, the weight of the stake, which is a nest of betrayals and lies. Backwards in the stream of eternal moments, thinking himself over once more, he decides to look away after all. Inside, in the secret depths of his soul, he still keeps his seeing eye open; he still faithfully preserves the ability to see truly, which is not polluted by materialism or superficial exhibitionism.

He knows and suspects: only in the depths of the soul can the romantic dance of the one flame take place, which he has perhaps dreamed of his entire life, - he would immediately regain it if he could have that second of memory that was still liberated and free from everything, because inside there is an irresistible power over instincts and emotions, even the silent, mute human words, which do not need to be spoken at all.

- Like a desolate cauldron, the creative silence surrounds him, which - nowadays - is increasingly difficult to gain in a dignified manner. Like interstellar frontiers, humility and will would lie under a giant dome for days; melancholy, meaningless, petty worries and troubles swim in a large carnival crowd, like so many fish embryos in a crowd. He will slowly and subtly consume his spirit, every drop at a time, if he is not careful, because truer human stars are patiently waiting in the garden of golden hearts for them to be admitted.

The Battles of Life,
through sickness, and through health,
through blessings, and good wealth,
all the trials, tribulations, and
everything else,
the wants, and the needs, and
the envious, and the greed,
the feeling of success, and
wanting to succeed!!!
the feeling of hope, the feeling of fear,
the feeling of Challenges, and
the fact that they are near,
don't give in, and don't Cave in,
Stay on the road of
excellency, because
YES!!!
YOU CAN WIN!!!
Keep your eye on the prize,
Keep working for it, and
YOU WILL SEE,
YOU DO HAVE THE ABILITY,
YOU JUST GOT
TO BELIEVE!!!!
AVOID SELFISHNESS, and
CARELESSNESS, and
ALL OF THE ABOVE,
Do your VERY, VERY BEST,
I AM SAYING THIS TO
YOU WITH LOVE!!!!
THE THINGS that we ENDURE,
with AGILITY, and with STRIFE,
the CHALLENGES that we FACE,
THESE ARE THE BATTLES OF LIFE!!!


B.R.
Date: 6/29/2025

My love for him felt displaced by time.
Like a long summer nap and waking
to find the sun freshly out in the sky.

Only that it wasn't. It was the same sun
in the sky before I slept, and the same one when I awoke at 19.58 pm.

Nothing was new. Instead all was steadfast. Lacking in the fluidity and spontaneity that gave one the ability

to see into a man's soul through the twitching of his right eye.
It felt like a black wren's feather

caught in between two branches.
The proof that although I wanted to fly, I was held back by the familiarity of a place.


So I sit on this short hill in the twilight of my life and wonder what it would feel like to fly uninhibited in the morning sun.

Like a little girl's laughter in summer. Full of crescent moon tambourines and a head covered in a wreath of dried lavender.

As a child peonies surround me
like my mothers' warm embrace,
these flowers, beautifully unharmed
a reminder of this reality that I live.
I daydreamed of being as free as this flower,
of the ability to just exist, without harm.
I am grown now, my daydreams twisted.
A kiss with a fist, a necklace made of hands.
Petals of black and blue, leaves cracked and broken.
Black and white peonies tattooed on my skin
full of love, full of hope
though sometimes flowing red.
I know anger, I've felt anger
but not my own.
I realized quickly that my life was not this of a flower,
or maybe it was. A lifeless and wilted flower.
One that had been harmed, not beautifully.
That had been grasped, not with a caring touch.
That had existed, with harm.