#motto
To: the "man" with the gym-floor philosophy.
From: The vacancy you tried to occupy.
Date: Today, right after the punchline.
Thank you for your recent contribution
To the ongoing archive of things i have to survive.
Not to mention:
the drama.
the other boy.
the comments.
the exit strategy.
the map on her arms.
the stage turned stampede.
the playing nice i have to do.
the distance of my chair v. the exit.
the "text me when you're home" ritual.
We, the Women of this World, have reviewed your "motto"
regarding the weight of hands
and the specific math of holding someone down.
The Board of Directors found it
“predictable,” yet "vibrant as a neon orange."
we noticed you opted for the
"classic predator rehearsed smile™"-
a bold choice for a man
who looks like a cheap costume
trying to play the part of a person.
Regarding your question: “why aren’t you laughing?”
Please find the attached spreadsheet
Of every woman who has ever heard
The rattle of a cage and been told
It was actually a symphony.
You’ll notice the "humor" column is empty.
You’ll notice the "exit calculation" column
Is overflowing in long, jagged strips.
Please be advised:
We are currently over-capacity
On poems about the way the room goes cold.
Our inventory of "citrus-stained warnings"
Is at an all-time high
Because you keep insisting
On peeling the fruit before it’s offered.
If you find the repetition tiresome,
If you find this "rape poem" a bit redundant,
Please refer to the previous six thousand years
Of feedback we’ve provided.
We would love to close this ticket.
We would love to stop the harvest.
But until you learn that a punchline
Isn't a substitute for permission,
We will remain in the wings—
Scrubbing the scent of your "funny"
Off our skin until it bleeds.
Apr 9
Apr 9, 2026 at 9:19 PM UTC
today, a man laughed.
he tossed out a "motto",
"if one can hold you down...
then two can **** you."
he said it with that rehearsed, plastic smile,
the kind that expects you to join in
on the joke of your own disappearance.
“it’s funny,” he said,
and I wondered when I became a vacancy,
a space to fill,
a fruit to be peeled and discarded
before the juice even hits the floor.
i am sitting in the wings
and the words are under my skin,
a sticky, cloying residue
of a "motto" i didn’t ask to learn.
i try to think of the next scene,
but the air is thick with the math
of how many hands it takes
to break a person open.
i am still sitting here now.
the longer i stay, the more the room
turns to acid.
i feel it under my fingernails,
the sticky, cloying residue of his "motto,"
a smell that won't wash off
no matter how much water i use.
no matter what soap i use.
no matter how hard i scrub.
no matter how red my skin turns.
he thinks it’s a joke
because he’s never been the one
pressed against the wall,
watching the rind be stripped away
by someone who called it "funny."
i am counting the seconds again.
not just to leave the room,
but to get away from the way
he looked at my arms
and saw a harvest
he thought he could own.
i can’t stop the loop.
the sentence is a rind
stuck between my teeth,
bitter and impossible to swallow.
i feel the rottenness of it
creeping up my neck like a rash,
the way his laughter
felt like a hand on my shoulder
that I wasn't allowed to shake off.
he’s just standing there,
vibrant and toxic as a neon orange,
unaware that he has turned
the simple act of breathing
into a calculation of exits.
i am sitting with the weight of it,
feeling the safety
peel away in long, jagged strips,
leaving nothing but the pith—
white, dry, and trembling—
while he waits for me
to find the humor in the hunt.
i am standing here now,
holding the leftover skin of the day
like a witness who hasn't been called.
i see the audience shifting again,
ready for the "next" poem,
the next fruit, the next kit,
as if the telling is the tragedy
and not the joke itself.
....well.
scrub all you want;
some stains are meant to be seen.
maybe we won't need any more poems
if you just listen to this one.
Apr 9
Apr 9, 2026 at 9:06 PM UTC
Lactate motto naku smile.
*this poem,
for my friend, who has hit the road,
in ways others only think they have done or know,
miss her firecracking wizardy,
she, the only inky reason
still talk to god,
to cover all the bases,
employ every tool and invention,
to make sure you are a-ok alright,
on the journey to an unknown destination*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lactate motto naku smile
That is Apple talk.
My Apple language master
señor spell check,
thus advised and improved upon me,
way back on April 3rd of this year.
I wrote:
"last attempt to make you smile."
Apple translated my ginger finger snap taps
into American English as
"Lactate motto naku smile"
Stumbled on this oath, this midnight eve,
this phrase, duly nated and nested,
amidst our very long exchanges,
which someday soon,
am going to edit excerpt
as one most readable single poem,
a tribute to you, not,
that you, my traveling friend,
you already greedy got
no, just a dialogue
just a par example,
of how friendships are born,
how words lactate from each of our *******
how relationship are birthed and nutured,
in a crazy place, where language lovers
are the nuclei of a dying breed,
once called the human place
*** back in ancient history,
way back on Sept. 29th
our first communication
tween our mutual alien races
tee hee, me wrote first
as follows
Each individual word,
was a separate message,
for such devices deserved of self-respect,
sometimes want their power demonstrated
on a stand alone basis and here that follows was how
Presented and Conceived
Nat Lipstadt Sep 29, 2013
This
Nat Lipstadt Sep 29, 2013
Message
Nat Lipstadt Sep 29, 2013
Is
Nat Lipstadt Sep 29, 2013
For
Nat Lipstadt Sep 29, 2013
You
Nat Lipstadt Sep 29, 2013
Only
Nat Lipstadt Sep 29, 2013
Can a man fall in love with a name?
you permissioned me a
multiplicity of yeses,
thus began our star trekked voyage
in the stellar spatial space of the
galaxy of humanity
but part of your new trajectory,
a new orbit in a new spaceship
you champagne smashed anointed as
Mirabel
Now I know you hate my habit,
of slipping in a definition,
making the lazy reader
unself-sufficient,
but I grant, nay, take this liberty, I dew,
while in your quiet traveling disappearance time
Mirabel
is a female name stemming from the Latin word mirabilis, meaning "wondrous" or "of wondrous beauty"
what ya know, ** **
nothing could be fina,
than to be in your minda,
nothing more apropos,
than calling your ship in Latina,
a wondrous female beast of beauty
ok I know I go on too long
as is my wont, my nature,
but I could not shorten my course,
in any other way,
Ok,
I
Guess
I
Could
Have
Said
I miss ya terribly
somewhat more succinctly
but what fun would that be?
May 14, 2014
May 14, 2014 at 12:22 AM UTC
Motto is my logo
Intention is my motto
Success is my intention
Key is my success
Hard work is my key
Will power is my hard work
Confidence is my will power
Hope is my confidence
Belief is my hope
God is my belief
Courage is my God.
Nov 5, 2019
Nov 5, 2019 at 7:11 PM UTC
she's no deva of mine
no caterpillar concubine
no cocoon consort
no butterfly courtesan
she's four tigresses in one
suckling, wandering, denned and leashed
And I'm following the track of them all
She's my white tigress of Nanjing
and though I haven't ever practiced kungfu nor qigong
I have applied to be her jade dragon
Or at least one of her green dragons
In order to help her to reach one of her nine illuminations.
So I fused my qi and ching and shen
and turned myself into a Knight of the Order of the Porcupine
and offered to gently tatoo with my quills
Her mound of Venus
with a motto of invisible yet immortal ink saying :
"Qui s'y frotte s'y pique"
Written phonetically [kisifrotsipik].
I thought because I sat just like a buddha
I was at that moment a buddha
I thought that if I breathed like a green or jade dragon
She'd let me have a bite at her immortality.
No way, my tigress said :
You just can't be and have been
Aug 28, 2019
Aug 28, 2019 at 5:28 AM UTC
Take your own advice
Don't just give it to others
See if it works
Live without regrets
That's mine
I should take it to
Never live thinking
What if
That's always been my fear
That the what if's
Are the suppose to be's
Life can only tell you no
Then you can go on
Maybe I should
Live life to the fullest
Get rid of the what if's
And go with what I feel
Someone recently convinced me
Listen to yourself
Because you listeb to your gut
And follow your own path
That leads to your own happiness
So I'll start with my motto
And stop having "what if's"
Because some what if's
Are should haves
Jun 29, 2019
Jun 29, 2019 at 6:43 PM UTC
“There’s always hope”,
she said, as
she turned away
to battle.
“There’s always hope”,
I whisper, now.
Though it doesn’t
Seem like that at all.
“You have no chance”,
They said,
Towering high
Above me.
I know.
But that won’t stop me.
Jun 1, 2019
Jun 1, 2019 at 10:18 AM UTC
1; fear will not **** you, but it can eat you alive and make your insides rot.
2;you must allow yourself to thaw before you can melt--the cold was meant to allow you to feel your own heartbeat. don't ignore it
3; you are alive, even if just barely. make sure to lift your eyes to the sun to know that it still shines even amongst the dark.
4; breathe in with your nose and out through your mouth. you are a passageway for ancestral air and you should take that responsibility seriously.
5; your blood is not special, nor is it ordinary.
6; it is only by chance that you are here. a line of perfectly timed decisions birthed you--remember why you're here.
7; look at the mountains. they were here before you and will be long after you're gone. one day you will become the air that surrounds it.
8; you can lose your footing, but don't despair. sometimes you fall into a new path and it's like breathing in clarity you've never once known.
9; listen to what you're body tells you, it knows you better than you think.
10; when everything turns to dust remember you have the ability to start over. it cannot harm you to wipe the slate clean
Oct 30, 2018
Oct 30, 2018 at 9:04 PM UTC
no diminution in tiredness arose
gnome hatter how off tin ma dis bows
Zoe let his bot tee succumb,
via mental application
of autogenic phrases
and/or counting crows
cuz upon awakening,
aye immediately wanted ta doze,
thus this artful dodger hankered to expose
extreme cockamamy idea incumbent,
where corporeal essence gets froze
zen, the scientific procedure named
emergency preservation
and resuscitation (EPR)
more familiarly known
as suspended animation
pursuant under the appellation cryogenics,
where living tissue no longer grows
old, a wishful yearning
approximating immortality i sup hose,
yet this copacetic drowsy
generic human struggled in vain
trying with utmost effort to stay awake
Swiss to hobnob among urbane
feeling helpless (fearing
he might be narcoleptic),
nonetheless aye didst train
intent concentration
(and/or feeble exertion mustered)
to swat away worrisome thought
this hypochondriac,
could be afflicted with mononucleosis
since lassitude less likely sprung
from overcast and rain
knee skies, which type weather
generally energies me
to conjure a quatrain
sometimes complex versus
written straight away plain
panacea hit upon finally
to ward off sleepiness,
whereby literary endeavor
boosted by a strong brew
namely fair trade
manufactured coffee chew
zing among socially conscious entities,
and hoping to do
some dollop of positivity
without fanfare I eschew
to fulfill personal hue
man conscientious anonymous impact
that some benefit will en sue.
May 27, 2018
May 27, 2018 at 6:27 PM UTC
This is my plea; this is MY submission
So I petition you to stay away from vain tradition
It’s rudimentary my dear Christians!
Follow Jesus not man, don’t listen to magicians
The inscription was handwritten on my heart
Its perfection has forever been positioned
Jesus was not a politician, so why place restrictions?
Where’s the distinction?
This isn’t a competition
There’s only the affliction of a life spent in derision
The road less traveled can be protection, reflection, and salvation;
This is my position:
You can put a gun to my head wish me dead and I still won’t regret my decision - to follow Jesus!
Apr 9, 2018
Apr 9, 2018 at 10:55 AM UTC
-
-
I’m trying to make my own sun
If not, succeeded
Then, I will, self be it.
-
-
Mar 30, 2018
Mar 30, 2018 at 8:36 PM UTC
It's hard to notice small achievements when your mind is set awaiting impatiently on the end result.
Feb 6, 2018
Feb 6, 2018 at 5:14 PM UTC
By Arcassin Burnham
You're pulling your punches if you think life's impermanence
won't catch up..
paranoia on 100% every time , your thinking you're gonna get
shot or cut..
Not safe anywhere , your so old school, you don't get the motto..
I was thinking more about what i used to be in this country then
i ran out of ammo..
didn't have anything left to fight with at one time,
somewhere in my life,
you were a waste of time,
in all of the bad times,
i didn't think that i would make it far in this condition,
i'm just so surprised,
there isn't enough time,
enough time to waste my time,
Sacrifices being made , and i always had to listen what people say..
Kids are mean and family don't really care about you , they just
want you to pay..
Surreal feeling , so subside,
i can not wonder,
level-headed thoughts in people heads for summer,
Feeling sorry for myself,
i take the pain off,
wishing i could feel her touch that she claims is soft,
Surreal feeling , so subside,
i can not wonder,
level-headed thoughts in people heads for summer,
Feeling sorry for myself,
they don't care about your dreams,
they don't care about your health,
didn't have anything left to fight with at one time,
somewhere in my life,
you were a waste of time,
in all of the bad times,
i didn't think that i would make it far in this condition,
i'm just so surprised,
there isn't enough time,
enough time to waste my time.
Jun 17, 2017
Jun 17, 2017 at 11:33 AM UTC
Be it in the sea or on land my duty is
the preservation of life
Be you woman man or child,
it doesn't matter if your ugly or fit
but remember this before you leave.
"BRUSH YOUR TEETH,
Its a major gag reflex condition you
don't want my chunks in your mouth.
When I give you the kiss of life don't use
tongue, I have a wife who would divorce
me quicker than you know...
My job is to look good and to
always looked tanned with a smile.
*"Please don't drown, as the sea water leaves
patches on my skin fading my fake tan,*
Jan 15, 2017
Jan 15, 2017 at 4:31 PM UTC
Blood, sweat, smile and spit
Jesus loves you you piece of ****
Jun 16, 2016
Jun 16, 2016 at 9:39 PM UTC
" the spectator "
i am not writing for 5k
i'm not preparing for compilation
i am not trying to set new record
i'm not trying to impress you,,i was just saving my life
the thing is.... I feel like dizzy because i am lack of sleep
doing alone all the laundries
then i need to wake up early to hang those over
even though i am too sleepy!yet 12 hours of driving is await for me
i am telling you this because my privacy
is just like a book on the library
you can read me all over again,if you want to pick me up
but then again,,there is a policy beyond my legacy...
" ONCE YOU ARE GETTING STARTED TO TURN ME ON
YOU WILL STAND-OUT AND I WON'T EVER LET YOU DOWN "
MY SWEET AND WARMTH ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO ALL
EVER SINCE THE DEBUT POEM OF MINE,,HEARD BY A CALL
starting from then on
my INVITATION and INAUGURATION
boost my self to face more aspiration
and i do believe that " a day after " is our comprehension
such as my own motto in life and it goes something like this...
" Tomorrow will never be the same beautiful as you unless you keep
yesterday seems to be precious,, for you to surprisingly
survive the essence of today's challenges! "
Dec 3, 2015
Dec 3, 2015 at 2:55 AM UTC
The lazy man's rule in the South
If it's snowing,
I ain't going.
Sep 23, 2015
Sep 23, 2015 at 6:57 PM UTC
One can only hate,
as much as he had loved.
Jun 12, 2014
Jun 12, 2014 at 3:05 AM UTC