Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
Your harsh whips upon my skin,
The shackles around my feet,
The cuffs on my hands,
Why must I endure this?
What have I done?
Did I cause this?
Was it my fault,
O’ dear captor,
Please let me go,
I have a life I must live,
Upon my last vowel,
A booming voice echoes,
“Memento mori”
I’m not perfect I know,
But please give me a chance,
Give me a chance to prove myself,
Allow me to tear off this mask at once,
This crimson speckled mask.

Thank you my dear,
You have set me free,
Now let this be upon me,
I will now perform my greatest act,
And pull off this wretched mask,
As I tug and tug,
I am not released,
For years I try,
Why won’t it come off?
Will I ever be free,
The mask is all I know,
It has been with me through thick and thin,
This so-called wretched mask,
Is it me?  
What constitutes my identity?
What features make me,
Me?
It is as though I have never left those chains,
No matter how far I run,
No matter how many twists and turns,
His voice follows me,
“Memento mori”,
I’ve reached the end of my crossroad,
Remember,
I must die.
I am the eye on your shelf
I am the scratches of ink
that rip through unbarred arenas-
when sunken bones and unburied prints
amass a clump of
galloping words
tracing measured tracks
of battles forlorn

Hence my history beckons and the
leather straps like tires
machinal; my life
reduced to rubble burn-marks
in a book that
made you look
without a care
for where-
to put it.

another whisper in the wind which once
carried its conquered careful balance
Now sits still as a spineless paperweight
propped up by the heap of dust
in your periphery
Mirza Lazim Feb 2022
Ah, you never see how my looks freeze
and how they stick to the feelings behind the scenery...
And there are times beyond the imaginary
when you do not search, just come across:
a tiny piece of paradise -
which the value is enormous...
A new paradise I found today,
merci!
A harmless and innocent memento:
I have the power to carry it inside
and you are full of leniency...

I get cosmic vibrations at times
feeling the universe testing me
and making arrangements,
the noble angel smiles and whispers:
'never question the grace of destiny'.
We were tried and gifted with what we lacked
and we met our inner selves:
we were hungry to share,
we were for love,
we are for love,
we will be for love, dear...
You will be to relieve,
I will be to live...
To live in the deepest sides of the meaning...

How insanely I miss you...
Emily Nov 2021
Today is one of those days
where I could weep any minute.

Where it feels as if my soul has been laid bare,
and anything can touch it.

The thought of you not being here
to comfort me in these times,
makes it almost unbearable.

How I wish to see you on the other side.
Gabriel Nov 2020
I wake up and you are still here.
You, of course, being something I can't touch,
a feeling, maybe. A high school crush on forever.
You, of course, are not really a you, but an us,
something I can't touch; a promise
to someone, of something. What it is about
I can't remember. What it is all about I can never
remember.

You are filled with every good day I've ever had
and every good day I never will. Your body bursts
with all the things I didn't get to do
because I was lying in bed, or crying in the shower,
or scared of what strangers would think of me.
When you smile, your teeth bare courage, click-clacking
with the memories of speeding down the highway and turning down
an invitation to a very, very quiet concert.

I can't tear myself into two neat pieces to hate and love you all the same,
I want to pick the meat off the bones and take all the parts I'm grateful for,
leaving you a skeleton carcass that gloats about everything that passed me by.
You, though, are not a meal and I am not a vulture.
I cannot separate the memento from the mori
which, still, leaves me with two choices.
Pretend none of it ever happened,
or accept the whole impossibly beautiful, unimaginably ugly thing.
a short poem inspired by unus annus
Aditya Pandey Oct 2020
Let's Die
Let’s Die
Let’s die for a while
You, me
Let’s die

Let nature rust us meanwhile
Let’s shed this skin and masks we wear
Let’s break shell like a caterpillar
Let’s aspire to achieve a state of flow like a serene river
Let’s ask question that speak truth to power
Let’s ensure that no one is devoured
Let’s hold each other’s hand to uplift each other
Let’s make sure that everyone’s voice is heard,

Let’s put a stop to this brutal abuse and killing
Let’s put an ethical WHY before each of our dealing,
No matter how much we are unwilling
Let’s not wait for someone to break the railing
Let’s be the one who doesn’t lead the crowd
Rather stays in the centre and feels proud
Let’s ask for more humility from the all encompassing creator
As we are nothing but “just a pale blue dot,”
arrogantly moving in the vibrating vastness of the universe

Let’s end the cycle of degradation and humiliation
Let’s stop lying for pursuing immediate gratification
Let’s question fundamentals that we have been taught
Not to dismantle all but to grow without them getting rot
Let’s make this death a rupture moment
Not the one that spills blood and resentment
Let’s **** some memories to begin afresh
Let’s hide for a while in each other’s chest
Let’s make this body weak and vulnerable
Let’s carry someone else’s pain on our shoulders
which for them is unbearable

Let’s fall sick,
Let’s live our last wish,
Let’s fulfill someone’s last wish

If we do,

It will be enough to live a life and
call it worth lived
when we die

Aditya
(by all, to all, for all)
Luna Maria Jun 2020
as if
I am not thinking
about death
all the time
life is so fragile
Coleen Mzarriz Mar 2020
You must look back,
all the things in this world will last only for a moment
do you not remember me?
My one and only.

Morie, I know how it feels like
to perish with your own hands,
will you endure for me?
Or will you live for your selfish acts?
Morie, you must remember me.

My eyes were glued by the way
you stroll your naked feet
down that hollow path,
I could not penetrate my emotions
I buried beneath the tenders of this black forest,
your face was glowing  like it was sun-kissed.

Your lips curving into a flawless beam,
it was filtered with the hue of a poached tomato
your fists were of terrified by what it discovers
the smell of your honeycomb fragrance
stuck through my nostrils and your soft brown silk hair
sways into your naked back,
oh, what a sweet body I am yearning to taste.

I am dying to be with you
how I long to run away with you
how I craved of you lying beside me
I am reckless to know,
I am in great remorse.

You were searching around,
your emerald eyes pierce into mine
the way it forced me to meet you somewhere
in another realm where I am no Death, and
you are no Prisoner of the dead.

Until your soft voice let out an awful cry,
Morie, do you not want me?

The distant thump of your footsteps
taking you away from me,
brought me back to my reverie.
Why are you doing this?

You ran as swift as you can
go around in an endless loop
you can't escape me, you can't hide forever.

Morie, how does it feel like
to perish with your own hands?

I am here to bring you back
of your lost memories
of your lost soul wandering
yet you rose from the dead — hid under
the rainbow cloud
the clock spending until the last dime,
traveling hands will decide when it's time.

Memento mori
remember your death,
it was destiny that called
you are to be mine.

Morie, remember me
I am Death, I will go after you
the time ticks now
hide before I catch you.
I couldn't let this piece go to waste. Just hiding at the back of my notes.
Michael R Burch Mar 2020
Snapshots
by Michael R. Burch

Here I scrawl extravagant rainbows.
And there you go, skipping your way to school.
And here we are, drifting apart
like untethered balloons.

Here I am, creating "art,"
chanting in shadows,
pale as the crinoline moon,
ignoring your face.

There you go,
in diaphanous lace,
making another man’s heart swoon.
Suddenly, unthinkably, here he is,
taking my place.

Published by Tucumcari Literary Review, Romantics Quarterly, Centrifugal Eye, Poetry Webring, Poetry Life & Times and The Eclectic Muse. Keywords/Tags: snapshot, picture, photograph, photo, album, memory, keepsake, remembrance, token, memento, art, replacement
Next page