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Simon Bridges Apr 20
We could bathe
In physical truth
                                    Perhaps we do
Neat or distilled
Drip fed
              Like water
In its any forms
Placeless on periodic table

Truth softened
                          In our fragility
        Hardened
                          By others resilience

Worn by the face of a manikin
        At peace within the world
        If that’s what you wish it to be
Honey Apr 20
There are promises we cling to
for dear life,
at times when everything feels shaky.

Yet not all promises are meant to be true —
for some,
are just words
meant to fill a void.

But when those promises remain unfulfilled,
they create holes
deeper than any alphabet can hold.

Easy to say,
yet hard to keep.
Easy to break,
yet the cuts run deep.

Words cut deeper than any knife,
inflicting wounds
that no one can heal.

And broken promises
drop a weight
into a heart
meant only to carry
feather-light weight.
As cast into light,
a shadow appears–
a quiet figure, stitched our heels,
moving as we move,
never speaking,
never sleeping.

It doesn’t beg to be seen–
yet it is always there.

It holds what we bury–
fear, denial, and grief;
the voices of fallacy,
the weight of dreams deferred.
In its void,
It collects the pieces
of what we choose to ignore.
The past echoes there.
The burden breathes there.
The purpose waits there.
Still.
Watching.
Black, like every other.

Peace, legacy, desire, love,
life, time, power, freedom–
the purpose we carry,
even in the dark.

Some move through life unaware of its presence.
At times, the shadow devours us as it follows,
becoming the void itself,
the same void we long to escape.

Like the birds that flow within the sky.
Like the wind that goes where it must.
Like art that forgets its maker.
Like the planets, moving by their own will.
Like a name, whispered into time itself.
Like any form it follows, stone, trees, dust.

It does not leave us,
It becomes whole.
I was supposed to be somewhere holy by now.
Twenty-eight, maybe.
Soft-eyed, loose-shouldered,
eating cherries on a porch that faces west,
“I trust the sky not to drop me.”
“I haven’t wished on a coin in months.”
Instead, I’m awake at 3:47 a.m.
Googling “What does it mean to feel inside-out?”

I keep finding pieces of myself
in weird places—
a sandal from eighth grade
in my mom’s basement—
a song I skipped for years
until it wrecked me—
now it’s the only sound I can breathe to.
A fourth grade diary entry
that ends with:
“I think something’s wrong with the air.”

I think something’s wrong with the air.

I was so sure by now I’d
quit making altars out of absence,
retire from bleeding for the line break,
know how to hold still when people love me.

I thought I’d hear God more clearly
and panic less when I don’t.
I thought I’d be done
being undone
by
a read receipt.

/ Then the break. /

And yet.

I flinch at compliments
like they’re coming from behind me.

Sometimes I still check
if my name’s spelled right on things.
I still rehearse
what I’ll say in case I’m asked,
“So, what do you do?”

(I become.
I break and unbreak.
I drink soda in bed and call that healing.
I make it to morning and call that enough.)
I keep living like the soft things won’t leave.

There’s a version of me
who doesn’t bend into a wishbone
for every boy with a god complex—
and a version
who flosses because she thinks she’ll live
long enough
for it to matter.

There’s a version who never had to explain
the scars on her thigh.
A version who didn’t stay
just to see how bad it could get.

I keep dreaming of her.
Not to compete—
just to confess.
Not to ask forgiveness—
to give it.

She sleeps through the night and means it.
She makes plans and keeps them.
She doesn’t exist.

So I just keep writing toward something
I’m not sure I’ll survive.
There’s a version of me
who didn’t touch the red button.
Didn’t ask.
Didn’t hope.
Didn’t write any of this down.
This one’s for the versions of us that didn’t make it,
and the softest parts of us that somehow still do.
Swipe gently. Speak softly. The ghosts are listening.
What words do you say to your only son,                                                             ­                                                                 ­                                                                 ­                                         
When he's going to jail on a ****** one?                                                             ­                                                                 ­                                        
Do you tell him to be brave & strong?                                                          ­    
                                                            ­                                                          
Do you confront him on being wrong?                                                           ­ 
                                                               ­                                                       
Do you hug him knowing his life is through?                                              
                                                                ­                                                      
Remind him of what he's done to you?                                                      
      ­                                                                 ­                                               
  Do you smile & put on a brave face,                                                   
                                                                ­                                                  
  knowing he'll spend life in a hellish
place?                                                        
                                                                ­                                                      
Do you promise to visit him frequently,                                                      ­      
                                                                ­                                                    
Knowing he'll serve his life lonely?                                                          ­                                                                 ­                                                                       ­                       
What do you say to your only son,                                                             ­   
                                                                 ­                                             
When you know he's guilty on a ****** one?                                          
                  ­                                                                 ­                               
Do you support him as best as you can?                                                          
                                                                ­                                                  
Do you tell him to be the better man?                                                          
  ­                                                                 ­                                               
Do you tell him to tell the whole truth?                                                           ­ 
                                                                ­                                              
Knowing exactly what it's going to do?                                              
                                                                ­                                                  
Do you blame him or blame yourself?                                                        ­                                                                 ­               
You didn't load the shotgun shells                                                           ­             
                                                                ­                                                  
Do you throw your hands in the air?                                                            
­                                                                 ­                                                 
Cry out to God in your despair?                                                         ­                 
                                               ­                                                                 ­  
Do you fall to your knees & pray?                                                          
                                                                ­                                                    
Do you let him find his own way?                                                             ­     
                                                                ­                                                        
Do you cry & break down
inside?                                                          ­            
                                                    ­                                                             
 Tell him there's no reason to
lie?                                                             ­         
                                                       ­                                                       
What do you tell your only son,                                                             ­               
                                                 ­                                                             
Whe­n he's going to die for a ****** one.
For all the relatives of those who are in prison & the pain of loving them helplessly.
Francie Lynch Apr 14
I taught children to write cursive.
And how to drive a stick.
In fact, they learned all my baby boomer tricks,
Like reading, walking, talking.
They learned about winning, and all about losing, with dignity.
They learned about friendship, loyalty, honour, trust,
And perseverence.
They learned that truth, as hard as it might be, was ok.
These cannot be discarded.

And yet, today's child is not for these times.
They are time travellers.
He said I always make things worse.

I traced our last conversation
inside my lip with my tongue,
until it burned like citrus.

My teeth still taste like that night—
miso soup, metallic coffee, a dare—
and the word “almost” said until it split.

I don’t start the fires—
I just know how to fan them
so the smoke spells mine,
so the ashes spell proof.

“You’re welcome for the mirror,” I said,
then, “You flinched first,”
like scripture I was tired of reciting.

He called me a problem
and then prayed for something exciting.
Well, God listens.
And she’s been on my side lately.
(And sometimes inside me.
And sometimes wearing red.)

You say I write like it’s a weapon.
But you brought a sword to my poem.
You heard me speak—and called it war.

I’m not the plot twist.
I’m the motif.
I’m the whisper that keeps showing up
even when you don’t name it.
Especially when you don’t name it.

You wanted a girl who could break
without getting any on your shoes.
Who called it miscommunication
when it was a massacre.
I called it Thursday.

I made you feel.
You made it a crime scene.
Now every sentence tastes like sirens.
But sure—blame me
for the blood in your mouth
when you kissed me wrong.

So yeah—
maybe I do make things worse.
But worse is where the story gets good.
Where you start reading slower.
Where your hands start shaking.

It’s not that I ruin things.
I just ask questions
that don’t look good in daylight.

It’s not that I mean to wreck things.
I just don’t know how to leave a room
without checking every exit
twice.

And labeling each one ‘almost.’

You ever love someone
so hard you forget to be charming?
Me neither.

He thought he was the mystery.
I’m the red string
and the corkboard
and the girl in the basement
with the map of everything that never happened.

You didn’t fall for me.
You fell through me.
That’s not my fault.
It’s gravity.
Or girlhood.
Or God, laughing behind her hand.

Say it again. Slower. This time, with your hands in your pockets.
Zywa Apr 12
Apart from science

it is not allowed by law --


to tell the whole truth.
Comic strip #61 - "Tom Poes en De Waarzegger" ("Tom **** and The Truth Teller", 1954, Marten Toonder), tier 2310

Collection "**** & Lord"
Bonnie Apr 11
What is the meaning of meaning you ask
As if understanding could even unmask
The word described by the word is just cagey
And the search for it, well, that’s pretty new agey

Perhaps it’s the happiness, before we focus on dread
Our beauty that’s fleeting before we are dead
It hums in the silence, it leaps through the air,
It thrives in knowing — and not knowing — it’s there.

Yesterday whispered, “You’re nothing at all,”
Today stretches forward, a tentative call.
Tomorrow might gift me a torchlight, a spark,
Or leave me still wandering blind in the dark.

It’s both the climb and the ache in our knees.
It’s both the summers warmth and the winter’s freeze
It shouts in our triumph, but it hides when we lose,
An whisper of a mumble that will only confuse.

The search for the question, or the answer’s pursuit,
An enigma of itself that will never compute
A cosmic conundrum, a riddle, a game—
the meaning of meaning is one and the same.
The existential topic of meaning whimsically teased at.
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