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Mike Essig May 2015
“I loved you long before you loved me. It's the only thing I have you beat at, and I'll bring it up every chance I get.”*

She was sitting on the beach
wearing the tiniest bikini
staring out at the perfect Adriatic.

She sat alone, which considering
her beauty and elegance
seemed some cosmically bad joke.

Unlike myself, I approached her,
flashed my guileless 17-year-old smile,
and said hello, fully expecting
a giant older brother or even
Poseidon himself to appear
from nowhere and ****** me.

She spoke a lilting English
with an accent I could not name.
She said her name was Marisa
and she was twenty-one.

Next morning, in my two dollar room,
after an exhausting night of abandon
during which she moaned and peaked
three times, she dressed as I lay
shrivelled and worn out
as a mummified banana.

She told me she had come here
to be alone a little because
next week she must marry
an older man whom she did not love
chosen as was custom by her parents.

She said she would remember me
as the last morsel of passion
she would ever know in this world.

She kissed my forehead and left.

I had no words.

I never knew her last name
nor ever saw her again.

The Wheel spins, the particles dance,
we can never know the trajectories
that chance encounter can engender
nor what shapes the next round brings.

The next day I left for Greece
uncertain of what had even happened.

I still don't know. I never will.

But I think I may have met her again...

  ~mce
Mysterious encounter. 17-year-old gets lucky and has no clue what happened. A 63-year-old suspects it is happening again, only better.  RLA
MCKNZ May 2015
I want to dance under the Northern Stars,
and harmonize with the birds in Rio.

I want to taste wine on the shores of the Riviera,
and swing from the trees in the Amazon.

I want to walk the beaches under the African setting sun,
and swim with the fish off the Coral Reefs,

I want to reunite my soul with where it has been,
before it was within me.
cv Apr 2015
they lead me towards the center,
a crowd gathers.

i laugh
as i get dragged,
their faces
wary
(of me? but why--)

i inhale,
then exhale.

they wrap a thread
(a rope? i don't know~)
around my neck.

it tickles,
and i giggle louder.

then the stool underneath me is kicked.
finally,
i can find my way back to you.
wes parham Apr 2015
Fallen angels and pixies and such,
Look into Earth’s skies,
Remembering much,
Of their life as it was,
Time and energy fields,
From the young star above us,
To the way the wind feels...

Could it ever compare
To the home that once was?
Oh, I say to you, “yes…”,
Yes, it can,
And it does.
this was a super fast bit written in response to a friend's poem.
It's more whimsical than I tend to write, but it flows and I will own the optimistic mania that it seems to hold.
Read here by the author, with a brief commentary:
https://soundcloud.com/warmphase/next-time-around
Mike Essig Apr 2015
When asked why I am a Buddhist,
I usually reply, "Because I'm
the kind of man who needs
a great many second chances."

The Dharma Wheel keeps spinning.

Turn after turn, life after life,
eternally, world without end:

another chance to get it right.
   ~mce
Of course, everyone is a Buddhist, know it or not.
cv Apr 2015
breathless,
i press my
red, iron lips
on your
cold, unmoving ones.

i'll find you again.
Mike Essig Apr 2015
If I can but
squeeze through
the narrow Bardo
one more time,
perhaps
I'll get it right.
  - mce
Bardo: see the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
Eli Hashaw Apr 2015
With windswept hair and time-scarred skin
I stand bleeding beneath the blazing sun
I open my heart and power seeps in
Blood turns to ash as I turn to the flame
Time stands still as the ages burn away
Feathers formed from unshed tears
Shield me as night turns to day
Wounds sustained while
Bound to my plight
Seared closed by
Ancient Light
Thy eloquent beauty
shines through
end
s

Agape
Authentic
Anamnesis

Thy thirst for Knowledge
is
an ineffable well
yearning for rainbow crystals
formed in round drops of the purest waterfalls

We both share this Thin'
To our strings
Acquainted
_ _ _ _
_ _ _ _

My oldest friend
My blood kin(d)
''Eagle Feathers''

My silence speaks of Love. . .*  
so
Listen Tenderly to
Effervescent Spiritual
Winged~wisdom~Warrior

Within the s~Light(est) memory
our chests are risin'to
THE RHYTHM
breathin' proud prairie Airs
Poundin' as One

Ridin'
By my side
Gallopin' like the Wind

Be brave beloved brother
I'll cherish Thee eternally, as
Cherry Bears Berries
**"Small Paws"
To my Indian brother, who loves
the speed of light, its
velocity;. . .
and flowers.
Bridget Allyson Mar 2015
See the sorrow through tired, old eyes
A minute like a century
For I have lived a thousand times
Have died just as plenty
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