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Zywa Jan 12
Reluctance wants to

be alone, unobserved not --


doing what you want.
Poem "Over de weerwil" ("About reluctance", 1970, Gerrit Krol)

Collection "Willegos"
Zywa Jan 7
No one's listening,

so there is no censorship --


of the protesters.
Column "Je stem zal je niet beschermen" ("Your voice won't protect you", 2024, Ellen Deckwitz)

Collection "Actively Passive"
Zywa Oct 2023
My ear is colour positive
the red rim boils
from your words, a bright
light bursts from the auricle
and hangs in front of my mouth

in front of my held breath
my lips not quite open
my thoughts unspoken

my look colour negative
with well blooded brains
crossed arms, glowing
with suspicion and defiance
with the desire to attack

You won't get away with it
you won't get away with it
you won't get away with it
Painting "Genetiese Heimwee (Genetic Longing)" (1984, Marlene Dumas)

Poem "5. Genetiese Heimwee" (2000, Antjie Krog, bundel "Kleur kom nooit alleen nie" ("Colour never comes alone")

Collection "Changing Times"
Malia Oct 2023
In the past
People used my past to control me
But I’m past that so I smack back  
What they told me.
Try to hold me back
But you can’t tack a label
On a fable, I’m a legend
Even if you say I’m unstable.
If in competition, they done lost to me
Take a shot at me, you intelligence apostasy.

Mockingly, they call me an oddity
Probably a product of my comedy
Step back, laugh, then step on me,
See, free entertainment for the public glee!
“Gee, why the negativity?” they say to me
But I am not listening, glistening
In my eyes, but it ain’t tears
Fears, I forgot ‘em, buried ‘em last year.
Originally a rap, but poetic enough to put on here
Ken Pepiton Sep 2023
Autobio. Belief. Cautious ****,

dear, the cost, of time lost, while aching,
after sitting as still as you can imagine
for as long as you can imagine,
ignoring bowel and bladder,

yawn, and feel the stretching, think again
any work in progress
works best with conjoined minds of the kinds
one finds in old texts, and sometimes, illustrations.
Suddenly life has people init intuitive arting on letting peace be.
Zywa Sep 2023
Days of street protests

stay with me, the repugnance --


the anger, the wound.
Poem "#FeesMustFall - Oktober 2015" ("#FeesMustFall - October 2015", 2022, Antjie Krog)

Collection "May the Might"
Zywa Sep 2023
They have braced themselves,

their heels in the solid earth --


their boots full of fear.
Poem "die sigbaarmaking van allerlei strooptogte" ("the making visible of all kinds of raids", 2022, Antjie Krog)

Collection "May the Might"
tumbledry Aug 2023
I feel the gravitational pull
The tiredness that seeps deep in the bones
I feel the center of the Earth
Calling for my descent.
A sluggish state of living
Where things must churn forward
But rip bits of me off as I attempt to resist
Being swallowed by despair.
Seemingly impossible to make it anywhere
This downward force, my greatest enemy,  
As it’s the only thing keeping me grounded.
Carlo C Gomez Jan 2023
keep the photographs
the city is overexposed again

take more walks in the nearby woods
the world we knew as children

watch out for frogs and detonators
mind the wires

new aerial boundaries at dawn
no one steps inside by choice

adapt to the proper order
and no sleeping under tables

the reflection tower is a good place to start
tourist trap, a certain approximate

bring the thing under the couch
in case of an unexpected visitor

more nightmares cut out of the newspaper
what is an Astra 600?

three different hat sizes
Hannie says yes to ménage à trois

the joy in discovery
the joy in forgetting

like God without a compass
not a lot, just forever
The Oversteegen sisters and friend Hannie Schaft worked to sabotage the **** military presence in the Netherlands. They used dynamite to disable bridges and railroad tracks. Additionally, they aided Jewish children by smuggling them out of the country or helping them escape concentration camps.

The Oversteegens and Schaft also lured German soldiers to the woods under the pretense of a romantic overture and then killed them. Freddie would approach the soldiers in taverns and bars and ask them to "go for a stroll" in the forest.
The Foodie One Feb 2022
In the darkest
and saddest
of Times,
It’s the tiniest
Spark of Beauty
that - still - keeps me
Alive.
© 27/02/2022
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