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"Remember, remember,
The 𝘍𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘩 of November:
Gunpowder, treason, plot.

For there is a reason
Why gunpowder & treason
Should ne'er be forgot."

Aye.
Drop all the bawny
And read it right:
One will notice
The exclusion in remembrance
Of plot proper.

What drivel, what rot.

A nursery rhyme,
Meant to lull asleep a populace.
You hear the story
That they were religious nuts,
That was projection.

Not a soul on our side
Was for balmy superstition.

We who was folks of science & virtue,
Philosophy proper was our standard -
What that had been & is corrupt.

Remember the Fifth
And remember his brother;
Two blonde youths,
Two tawny royal lads,
And one whom they slaughtered.

We fought for the expansion of freedoms,
Civil liberties & such.
For the likes of social programs now widely enjoyed -
Schooling, healthcare, and the like.
For not a soul among us to know hunger,
That they might have daily - bread
And the like.

A son named
After a king usurped -
Woodville, or Wideville;
For it is a large world,
But really quite navigable.

And a King who took a new name
In honor of his slain uncle,
D̲i̲c̲c̲o̲n̲ C̲l̲a̲r̲k̲e̲

Once more, where moored,
The only survivor.
Might is nary ever really right.
They too saw that
On the Isle Wight.

This line;
Long & tried,
Persecuted & replanted.
Forevermore,
As it had been before
And doubtless shall be again,
Wearing the verdant festoon.

In Old World, like New;
Truth is always the fashion,
Justice is always the passion.
"The Welsh dream," they said. "A Brit's nightmare!"
Cadmus Jul 17
🤴

Approach, dear dreamer, if you dare,
But know my skies hold thinning air.
My steps are stitched in woven flame,
My name, too sharp for lips of shame.

You came with hands of dust and thread,
A crown of noise upon your head.
No sword, no gift, no golden key,
Yet thought to tame a storm like me.

Did Daedalus forget to warn his son?
Even Icarus soared closer than you’ve done.
You chase the sun but dread the cold,
A heart too timid, a hand too old.

I dance where only giants tread,
I feast where lesser men have fled.
I wear the stars, I breathe the skies,
I kiss the sun where eagles rise.

So take this truth I lay in rhyme:
A throne too high commits no crime.
It’s built for those who carve through air
Not those who knock and gasp for prayer.

🤴
Footnote:
This poem is a declaration of unreachability - a message to those who approach greatness with presumption but without worth. It evokes mythological imagery (Daedalus, Icarus), not to flatter the dreamer, but to caution them: wings of wax and hollow pride won’t carry you where gods walk. The throne is not cruel for being high - it is simply not meant for the unready. This is not arrogance. This is altitude.
Some things get past death,
But not what's right
And yet neither what's left.

It's like a portal as obelisk,
It's like an orb of light that's electric.

No matter how you view it-
It's all lookings, each perspective.

It's a thin bridge,
A causeway that's been setup for you
If you just find your way
And choose to walk it.

If you're not careful,
And you're not a wanderer nor sailor,
You'll slip and fall into the marsh.
And that's like a nefarious ocean.

If next time around
You want to remember;
Walk the steep mountain passes,
Down through the valleys,
Past the swamps & wetlands,
Through the deserts & oasis,
In the towering forests & clearings,
The fields of caverns & caves.

You just have to figure it out
Before you die.

Have you been learning?
"I hear the old man had a son."

"No, truly? Surely not."

"I can attest to it, I played witnessed
As part of their caerimonia."

"I'm moving him to Rome,
He'll live as my slave
And I'll make him a gladiator."

"Oh-**, that's rich! He died like an insect,
Sipping poison."


"How are we going to get away with this?
The walls are starting to close in."

"Relax, just change the dates. Make some edits."

"Nobody will notice?"

"I highly doubt it. Plus, they'd have to prove it. And we're sat on top of the evidence."

"How many times has this happened?"

More than once.
The Listened Confession
You think I speak of blood lineage,
Clearly I hold the whetstone,
But that's because you're dull.

Maybe,
I am.

From my shine, shimmer-
I'll stay solid as file;
Whether if needed firm or gentle,
Soft or abrasive.

In address to the west,
The rising sun.

At least, that's from our perspective.

From the hammer
Who shaped the stone.
Mencius, what is that they're doing?

Zhǐ! Another immortal walked from the sea;
Leaf & cordage finely chopped,
Throughly masticated & combined,
Left to the air to then reside
And collected after dried.
How most strange & curious!

You say the nobility call this parchment,
But for humor as irony
And because of the sound made
During the process of hammering,
The craftsmen call it paper?
And, like with tattoos,
They use pastes & fluids like dyes & resins
To stain drawings, shapes, and characters?

The lesser the weight of tablets,
Well-traveled with, easily read & clearly,
Markable with ease; readily inviting change
After change, reflecting our fragileness & resilience, offering record of our thoughts & accomplishments, a chance for the more prolific scribe and the library diverser & denser?

How wonderous a creation,
How gifted the craftsmen,
How genius the inventors.


Wow. That was so long ago
Before I was born.
But then compared to much else,
This fledgling has yet to have flown
From the small enclaves it nests as home.
Kitt Sep 2023
onslaughts of parasitic butterflies devour her liver each eve
sparing just enough to grow back the next day
her night clothes are torn under razor beaks
then mended each morning by the nimble-fingered Narcissi
who do not lament her predicament,
but sing mellow little tunes in C minor,
a statement: there is no latent compassion for Pandora
nor for her descendants in Greece or in Rome.
from a word usage prompt
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