#rhymed
If you were crowned a Queen one day,
and offered me your lands to lay,
a kingdom given as a gift so grand,
or castles built by your command,
with golden shields and treasures bright,
and jewrly collections out of sight,
I would not reach for any of these things.
I only want to live as living goes,
to walk the path that no one owns,
nothing more than this quiet need
that grows inside and will never leave.
And so I envy rivers as they go,
the way they wander, always flow.
I envy bread as it gently bakes,
the life it gives, the warmth it makes.
I envy fire’s fragrant breath,
its smoke that dances so close to death.
I envy roses, though I try,
their beauty I can’t justify.
I envy bees in honeyed lands,
and April calling May with hands.
I envy clouds of drifting blue,
so free to go where winds lead through. I envy couples pasing by,
with love that flickers in their eye
and this, I know, is not a light desire.
But a troubling fire.
I envy roads that choose their way,
that stretch beyond where feet may stay,
I envy trees that line the track,
and never once look turning back.
I envy meadows in July sun,
where summer’s heat and stillness run,
I envy mountains, streams that fall,
the way they answer nature’s call.
I envy violins that sing
in silver notes on tremblling string.
I envy Oceans, Time and Space,
their endless, unconfined embrace.
I envy clouds of drifting blue,
so free to go where winds lead through.
and this, I know, is not a light desire.
But a troubling fire.
Apr 15
Apr 15, 2026 at 1:19 PM UTC
/each line corresponds to a line from the opposite end, moving inward/
They call it a feast.
Crowned mouths carve a throne.
They measure bodies with unblinking eyes.
Teeth learn the taste of skin.
Salted breath drips.
They season it with hunger.
They start with the younger.
Red smiles gather at their lips.
Knuckles grind under the chin.
What’s left is named mercy, written as lies.
Even the floor remembers bone.
We are left the least.
Jan 30
Jan 30, 2026 at 10:58 AM UTC
Being Slavic is a living weight,
Concrete blocks where pigeons wait.
Streets cracked open, puddles wide,
A stray dog follows at your side.
Celler jars bubble, sour and sweet,
Pickled cabbage, fruit compote to eat.
Mushrooms hang from beams in dust,
Leaves for tea, old wood and rust.
Living rooms hold glass and plates,
Old lace curtains, fading fates.
The tables flowers wilt and lean,
Cold sausage waits beside the screen.
Gardens bulge with stubborn spuds,
Hands in dirt, backs bent in mud.
Summer heat makes soil your friend,
Each seed a prayer you plant to end.
Night comes crawling, streets are rough,
Drunks will call you, bluff by bluff.
Laughter spills like broken glass,
You hope your step is quick to pass.
Schools are prisons, walls bare white,
Tables scarred from years of fight.
Carpets rare, blackboards cracked,
Lessons whisper, spirits lacked.
Living Slavic is quiet, hard,
Smile a luxury, life a guard.
Talk with old women on the bus,
Hope your country will last for us.
Jan 19
Jan 19, 2026 at 1:23 PM UTC
On the high ridge lives the happy giant,
Laughing where the pine trees lean.
His shadow keeps the snowfields quiet,
His boots know paths I’ve never seen.
Happy giant, broad and mild,
With moss in baerd and crow at heel,
Will you carry off this tired child
From rooms too narrow, days too real?
Come at dusk when lamps go blind,
When light forgets my name.
Lift me from the measured din,
From bread earned slow and hope kept tame.
We will sleep where stone stays warm,
Wake when owls begin their call,
Drink from springs untouched by form,
Hear no clocks, no bells at all.
Let the village keep its vows and sums,
Its folded hands, its counted breath.
Lead me past the alder drums
Into a life that smells of death.
If freedom asks a body lost,
If leaving means Im lost to ground,
I’ll pay the price, I’ll take the cost,
Carry me where joy is found.
Jan 17
Jan 17, 2026 at 2:09 PM UTC
You burn with pride, a blazing crown,
And cast your glory halfway down.
You offer me a borrowed gleam,
To wear your light, to live your dream.
They call it love, that golden gleam,
But I am tired of your dream.
For what is love if I must be
A paler shape that mimics thee?
You rise and all the world takes note;
They write you songs, they learn by rote.
But me? They only praise my face
When I am bathed in your embrace.
I’ve played that role, taking on your fire,
But I am no echo of your bold desire.
It’s this, I’d rather not be bright
If I must steal another’s light.
Let others ache to share your flame,
To chase your warmth, to speak your name,
But none of them see what is true:
That all I am is made from you.
So keep your gold. I’ll take the gray.
I want to dim, to drift, and to decay.
To be myself alone, though small and plain.
A hollow stone, without your chain.
Let planets spin around your throne,
But I would rather be unknown.
Do not shine for me, bright one.
I want no light that comes from sun.
Aug 29, 2025
Aug 29, 2025 at 11:01 PM UTC
You must be drunk or high
If you think that you're the guy
Who's going to change this world
With a poetry supply. So why even try?
A couple of sly rhymes and a clever word
scheme won't mean a thing when you die.
So, throw that to the side
and allow me to guide you. Back to the carousel,
Go ahead, take a ride. Those feelings will subside
Once I've got you back inside. You might as well have fun
'cause you can run, but you can't hide.
There's not a single space
Where I can't find your face
And when you try to elevate,
I'll put you right back in your place
So don't make the mistake
Of trying to take a leap of faith
Cause we'll be here again
But, by then, it's too late
You'll wind up a disgrace
And make your poor mom sob.
You'll lose that one shot at that cozy office job.
You'll still feel alone, and you'll still feel worthless
And all this disturbance because you think
you have a purpose? All this to be a servant
for people who don't want service?
You must be **** determined
to make a fool of yourself, but don't worry
It's all cool; that's why I'm here to help
So, just follow my directions and stay
the planned route 'cause you'll get chopped down
If you try to stand out, and your words don't matter
So just shut your **** mouth!
...Listen to my voice, and this will all pan out.
C'mon, have I ever let you down?
You know who I am. I am doubt.
Jan 12, 2025
Jan 12, 2025 at 5:25 PM UTC
This sleep has sunk to catacombs
Where dreams are dreaming of themselves,
And where they slump to deeper shelves
A dim and voiceless banshee roams.
Interlopers jostle memory,
And pressing on his signet ring,
Take on the seal of realer things.
Truth’s rejected for hyperbole.
Delusions stack in strata, drowned,
Lives never lived, in parallel,
That puzzle sleepers who can’t tell
Where waking lies, so lies confound.
Aug 16, 2021
Aug 16, 2021 at 4:33 PM UTC
For ***** to bounce is very rude,
Unless they dropped. Ascendancy
Is boldness we don’t like to see.
And roundness really is quite lewd.
For spheres, directions are the same,
And favoring the vertical
Is impudent in a mere ball.
A proper toy should be more tame.
Jul 30, 2021
Jul 30, 2021 at 1:42 AM UTC
Desiccated youth has bones like cork,
So porous strong in cells.
Lost time perfuses emptiness.
And heavy dolor quells.
Jul 23, 2021
Jul 23, 2021 at 12:52 PM UTC
Supine, roads sprawl so lazily
That they collapse to planes,
Not aiding stumbling travelers
As knotted sinews strain.
Jul 15, 2021
Jul 15, 2021 at 10:23 PM UTC
The trouble started on the day
After the day before.
Youth and hope and love decay,
And regret won’t restore.
It seems this old and weary world
Holds much more bad than good.
I’d have assayed, but I was hurled
In this life before I could.
A world of cloud and bitterness,
A life of scrape and thorn,
So who would ever acquiesce
Ever to be born?
Because briars outnumber flowers
By ten to one at least,
Weakness humbles mighty powers.
Famine goes before the feast.
But feasts are more than fillings ups,
And hunger’s just a pinch.
And emptiness can’t stopper cups,
And straitening can’t cinch.
Bounty and joy are plenitude,
And destitution lack,
So revel in what’s nice, or lewd,
No loss can take it back.
A single flower fortifies
To brush away the burs.
Striving wins because it tries.
Forlorn despairing errs.
Jul 9, 2021
Jul 9, 2021 at 1:00 AM UTC
Badinage and Persiflage
Make such a merry pair,
Chatting and bantering all day.
No spiteful gossip there.
Each goes without acquaintances.
Each has one single friend.
As solitary sprites, they speak
Of words, without an end.
Jul 1, 2021
Jul 1, 2021 at 10:47 PM UTC
Some thieves have burgled every house;
The rich are sorrowing
At sacrilege and heirlooms lost,
Spoons, silks and sapphire rings.
The poorer tenants mourn as well;
Their losses are their doom.
Without the coin for food or rent,
Hunger and eviction loom.
Just down the street, a misanthrope
Who lives in an old tub
Cackles at their lamentations,
And gives his hands a rub.
He used to own a battered cup,
That and a bowl for alms,
But then he saw an urchin drink
Right out of his cupped palms.
He learned that cups were luxury,
And threw the thing away.
He’s happier in poverty,
And that’s just how he’ll stay.
He boasts to passers-by he’s safe,
Since thieves can never steal
Knowledge or virtue from the good.
Wisdom alone is real.
How better for that mendicant
If thieves could somehow take
Self-satisfaction from such prigs.
Oh mellow him for pity’s sake.
Jun 24, 2021
Jun 24, 2021 at 11:17 PM UTC
A drunkard’s guzzled several days,
And staggering outside,
Dull and disoriented, seeks,
But cannot find, a guide.
The hour proclaimed is even six,
Twice daily otium.
The arrow hangs at bottom rim
Like a dead pendulum.
The birth and dying of the light
Are symmetry in dim.
The day is leaching into night,
Or morning’s failing him.
Jun 18, 2021
Jun 18, 2021 at 12:02 PM UTC
Black shadows are all sycophants
That mimic every shape.
White shadows seal their bearers up,
And bury what they ape.
Black shadows curl off thick sunlight,
And launch themselves from dust.
White shadows flake from winter’s breath,
Congealed as vapor’s rust.
In two dimensions, or in three,
Shade and snow are booleans,
Dark in intersection tracing truth.
And snow in difference.
Jun 3, 2021
Jun 3, 2021 at 4:57 PM UTC
The crystals groan, whenever crushed
Under a melting tread.
Snow faithfully fulfilled its oath,
And did just what it said.
In recompense for stinging cold,
This mantle vowed to be
Finer than the finest of white sands
And never slippery.
Jun 3, 2021
Jun 3, 2021 at 4:54 PM UTC
The elevator’s sealed its lips.
It keeps its secrets well.
Inside might hunch a nameless face,
I really cannot tell.
To stand, a pair, so silently,
Bound in an unvoiced pact,
Is sore and heavy awkwardness
Light coughing can’t redact.
An almost empty iron box
Is crushing loneliness,
Better to take on dozens next,
Shame smothered in that press.
Anonymity’s a heavy weight
To carry between two,
But shrouded multitudes can share
Whatever burdens you.
May 19, 2021
May 19, 2021 at 9:19 PM UTC
King David was a righteous king,
A shepherd loved by God,
And Joab did the ugly work
Without a single nod.
A principal can stroll the halls,
Grandfatherly and kind.
His number two’s the children’s bane,
Reviled in student mind.
The highest of the high can shine,
All warmth and lenity,
Their trusted second is the sting.
Cursed in synecdoche.
Every Adama needs a Tigh,
All discipline and screeds,
Since troops can sooner love a chief
Untainted by cruel deeds.
May 19, 2021
May 19, 2021 at 9:18 PM UTC
An hour-glass stands up nice and straight
On a flat, polished end,
While bells suspend like carrion
On rods that never bend.
Grains of sand in a transparent bulb,
Mustered in a smooth cone,
Slip through a graceful crystal neck
To toll in silky tones.
But as bells swing and clang, they gulp
From a meridian,
One sideways to the zenith zone,
And fill themselves again.
A bell will always know the time,
But still politely wait
For eager hands to yank their cord,
Even when slightly late.
But a depleted hour-glass sits
Until impatient hands
Can flip it over on its crown
And fill its heads with sand.
May 11, 2021
May 11, 2021 at 5:20 PM UTC
The moon is grim and sly, and keeps
Pale secrets from her twin.
She hides the darkest of her blushes
Behind a slivered grin.
Her greater, fertile, sister earth,
Greater in girth, not age,
Knows a pallid, pock-marked cheek
But not a shaded rage.
A barren spinster, gray from birth,
Can scarcely bear to see
From callous sister such a show
Of broad fecundity.
May 1, 2021
May 1, 2021 at 11:06 PM UTC
What tempted me to join the queue?
It must be some great treat.
Only delight could keep these souls
Shuffling on blistered feet.
I turned a corner hours ago,
Quite perpendicular,
But as I count the corners off
I’ve tallied five so far.
The walls are clean, but they’re not bright,
Scrubbed to sobriety.
I passed a blotch I’d seen before,
But it might lie to me.
This line may loop into a square,
And no one’s first or last,
And all who’ve shuffled patiently
Are doomed to lose the past.
Did I ascend to this closed floor
By staircase or by lift?
Outside must lie some wider world,
Denied a precious gift.
The walls are bare of openings,
But we need only one.
Quiet can’t be the sole reward
For everything we’ve done.
Apr 23, 2021
Apr 23, 2021 at 1:09 PM UTC
The sheets and blankets are too big
For such a little bed.
They drape their fringes on the floor,
And dribble dreams with red.
The brain can’t sluice the nightmares out
Though a grate stopped with cloth.
Thick curtains collect spiderwebs
And flutterings of moths.
Apr 23, 2021
Apr 23, 2021 at 1:07 PM UTC
The ocean waves are murmuring,
And some who walk the shore
May pause to hear some wisdom there,
And linger more and more.
The seas are older than the old,
And jealous of regret.
Their murmurs wash out memory,
And make a soul forget.
Apr 9, 2021
Apr 9, 2021 at 12:54 AM UTC
I tell myself there's no shame in silence.
After all, it's you sent me away.
Why do you appear now, crying
after me? Did you want me to stay?
Whisper in her ear and paint me
like a villain if you need.
You've got the harness, pull it out;
Keep her suckling at your ****
Does it warm your flesh and tickle you
to feel her shakes and cries?
When she knows your love's the only love,
Does that make you crack a silent smile?
Does your aging daughter's love fulfil
the gaps around your nest?
Does it make you feel the abundance
of nourishing love inside your breast?
Jul 31, 2020
Jul 31, 2020 at 11:24 AM UTC
Beyond the bounds of vast and stormy seas
Surrounded by the tides of shifting sands
There showered in the moonlight gently sleeps
A gem concealed within uncharted lands
Though none could claim its beauty for their own
I, fool, had thought it simply must be mine
Could not resist the tantalising stone
So smitten by its mesmerising shine
Beneath its shell a gently warming core
With power to fulfil a dreamer's dream
An ordinary man, and nothing more
Yet to my awe, the jewel's tender heart
Forgave the fool who craved the treasured gleam
Decided to become my morning star
Jun 14, 2020
Jun 14, 2020 at 6:36 PM UTC