Remember a time you weren’t here
and your day rolled free

honey warm joy
holding your soul
in a cwtch

catching their eyes
and shine of smiles,
lining your insides
for days and times like these

we build these pots
and stocks to tide us by
with the benefit
of no selfish deficit

allow yourself a sip
to reminisce
and ease the days
until we can replenish
togetherness

Feathered Fiends
by Michael R. Burch

Fascists of a feather
flock together.

Alternate:

Conformists of a feather
flock together.

I came up with the "Fascists of a Feather" epigram after Donald Trump repeatedly praised authoritarian "strong men" like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Rodrigo Duterte, Xi Jinping and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Heroic Americans fought a war against fascism and many of them paid the ultimate price, so why is Trump giving comfort to the enemy of democracy?

The alternate version of this couplet was written first and won a National Couplet Contest sponsored by the Society of Classical Poets. The couplet has now been published in one form or another on the websites of major newspapers and news services like TheHill.com, Haaretz.com (Israel), ******.com (Australia), Cleveland.com (as the headline of a letter to the editor), Reddit Political Humor, and Humane Conservatives Unite Blog. Sometimes the epigram is quoted in reader comments, sometimes by the writers of letters to the editor, and sometimes within articles.

Keywords/Tags: fascists, flock, together, fascism, conformists, nazis, blackshirts, brownshirts, dictator, tyrant, autocrat, despot, totalitarian, cultist, militarist

curious humans
nations working together—
toilet paper wars



© 2020 by Mark Toney. All rights reserved.

Words can hurt. Words can heal. Words in a book can make you believe anything is real. Words can bring people together or tear them apart. It all depends on the kind of conversation you want to start.

Every member of our family
              is a spark that keeps


the flame of hope alive..

Never blow out the chance

to know those far away.


Because  they could be the spark


that keeps us lit on our darkest night..


Family is all that keeps the obscurity at bay..


                 even though we don't realise it


                                                           there the little spark,
that keeps us from sinking into the darkest of places..

The clock was wrong so we leapt ahead,
and now I’m left as good as dead.
The days without you drag on like lead.
Then nightfall comes with darkness and dread.

I know we can’t make it work, but we have too.
I know I can’t go on without you.
I search to fill the void in my heart
But the only key is the one who tore it apart

Forever is a long time, it’s scary to hear.
It’s even scarier to live for forever in fear.  
We ran before walking despite advice from our peers
you tripped on your feet and we fell like our tears.

So for now we take two separate trains
To seek out answers to our internal pains
Although our tracks must split this way
What keeps me going is knowing we’ll meet again...some day.

I saw you in Black and White,
Sadness from first light,
I took my brush,
and painted you blue,
now we’re the same hue,