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#pastandpresent
I went to the window for a last puff of fresh air, expecting nothing but the quiet of night. And there he was— a man bent over our garbage, phone light trembling in his hand as he searched for food or something like it. Thirty meters. Nothing more. Close enough to touch a memory I thought I’d buried. Below him, a monster-truck show packing up, bright metal and roaring engines pretending the world is loud. Above him, the cats didn’t even look twice— just kept digging, as if men in the dark belong there. And me? I stood in the window, smoke in my lungs, salt in my eyes, thinking: I was him. Once. Not that far ago. And something in me wanted to go down, to say “come inside,” to give him warmth, food, a moment of being seen. But I couldn’t. It would hurt him. And it would hurt me. In that life, kindness feels like a spotlight you can’t bear. So I stayed where I was, puffing into the cold air, crying quietly for a stranger and for the ghost of myself standing beside him. A man in the garbage. A man in the window. Only luck, and a few brutal choices, separating the two. And tonight, for a breath, they recognized each other.
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Dec 8, 2025
Dec 8, 2025 at 9:41 PM UTC
The Man in the Garbage, the Man in the Window
Is it worth walking the tightline of life as a drunken trapeze artist— feeding on grass from the greener side? We are gentle, grazing creatures, trading paint against the rail fence, peering through cracks at a better life, always just out of reach. I meet the ceiling of my limits, hanging from the rafters of myself. I face the wall as if it could talk back, as if my skeletons could speak through the plaster of the closet that hides them. Beneath the roar in my chest, a lion would still cry— but never in front of their pride, perhaps because of pride. A new man, mane brushed clean, yet what is new when the old still haunts, when it’s harder to forget regret than to accept what must be accepted? So I obliterate the past, declare death to the old self— all the undone things, all the debts unpaid. On the cards I’ve been dealt, I keep a poker face for enemies. But I never play a hand just to impress; I clean up my own mess, one move at a time. Watch every step you take. _This is life’s tightrope_.
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Aug 23, 2025
Aug 23, 2025 at 5:17 PM UTC
Life’s Tightrope
I'm not saying I did nothing wrong. But now I'm doing it right That's all I'm saying. Nobody can throw my past in my face I'll tell you all about it start to finish No shame I engraved the darkness on my skin Wore it like armour . So maybe sit down, Take notes. To hell with what we used to be. Now we are, what we need to be. Listen, like advice whispered From your most unethical friend With a voice laced with sin To validate your wicked desires.
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Jun 10, 2025
Jun 10, 2025 at 4:31 AM UTC
Forged by what came before
It's impossible for your past to repeat itself. Every moment is new.
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Dec 27, 2024
Dec 27, 2024 at 8:39 PM UTC
Reminder #3
I am torn Ripped apart Fragments of regret pile Cherished memories make it harder To let go of years shared as one I want to carry on Make the most of life without you I chose this path without you And yet I cling to distant highlights of our lovereel How brillant and sabotaging that our brain only recalls the good after the darkness has lifted
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May 5, 2019
May 5, 2019 at 11:38 PM UTC
Swallow history
On autumns ground I walk, As winters snow sky blindingly glows. In the thylacines footsteps i tread, On a path the future presents. Sitting in a cafe, I realise, The tea I have just had, was built from a billion lives. Who tasted the leaves. Who told the others. Who invented the farm. Who planted the leaves. Who planted the seeds. Who made them grow. Who picked them. Who told the nation. Who created the plough, made the grow more effectively, created the axe, learned to chop a tree, learned to shape it, learned wood floated, came up with the ships, made the first boat, made it sail, told the others, discovered nations, learned their language, spoke it, found what they wanted, got tea, got it back, gave birth to 200,000 generations who split off as cup makers, baristas, cow farmers, milkmen, sugar farmers, sugar packers, cafe owners and tea farmers. 'CHEERS!' We are indeed standing on the shoulders of giants, but the weight will build on ours. Swimming the route laid out by the Baiji.
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Oct 21, 2017
Oct 21, 2017 at 12:14 PM UTC
Thylacine's Footsteps
She stumbles Her Way Thru the Present, But doesn't Trip over Her Past.
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Oct 21, 2015
Oct 21, 2015 at 12:06 AM UTC
Stumble (17 syllables)