#standstill
As I walk the tightrope
On the edge of sanity
I silently scream
Making my pleas
Shall I topple either way
Lose my footing in a daze
Which side will I land?
If I land at all
Where'll I fall?
Fooling you
Fooling me
Inside my mind I make my plea
Please help me understand
Understand what I don't know
I make my way on tippy-toes
Living life on a throe
Throw away, throw my mind
I need to leave my past behind
Behind me is another door
The door I think I'm striving for
I need to I turn, I need to go
For you, for me, for who, who knows?
Follow me, keep me safe
Trying not to contemplate
I'm scared, I'm lost, I've lost my mind
I'm wondering who is behind
Behind it all or is it fate?
Because of all the mess I've made
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 5:29 PM UTC
joined at the hip to the road
footfall journey at three miles an hour
decades of slog in sticky mud
coming up clean with resolve
a place to sit all your own
unique slot in the universe only you could fulfill.
Apr 18
Apr 18, 2026 at 5:26 AM UTC
Traffic is flowing at parking
lot speed, happy isn’t on
the windshield, and horns
sound like seagulls fighting
over a single *******
In the rush to everywhere
we sit in the nowhere any
of us wants to be praying
we’ll get just one more
car length closer to an exit.
The standstill bullies humor
dependent on a clock that
keeps ticking away any promise
we’d be on time for an appointment.
Sitting in faux metal plastic
we act like we are the only
set of wheels the pavement needs to feed.
Sep 23, 2025
Sep 23, 2025 at 8:00 AM UTC
This summer, I’ve thought a lot,
About how I’m in a liminal standstill.
The crossroads of life,
Childhood to the left, and adulthood to the right.
Which way do I go?
I don’t have a choice.
The only way to go,
Is forward toward the void.
I must go on,
Listening to the songs that spark my envisioning,
Imagination bleeds into reality.
I must accept,
That there’s never enough time,
But that’s okay.
I’ll water her flowers and try not to complain,
Because she means the world to me.
The singer and the lyricist,
Moved on from their precipice,
Perhaps I can do the same.
I’ll rise, like a daisy,
Even when the world is feeling hazy.
I’ll remember what the Wendigo told me,
And what I learned from Dracula’s kidnapping.
It’s humbling to find,
That I’m at the world’s whim as much as it’s at mine.
Just a change in my paradigm.
I’ll make sure I won’t be like Vain,
Or like Russel, used for his brain.
I’ll overcome my fear and drive,
And leave my other fears behind.
Acne won’t entrap me forever,
There’s always another summer,
Though the heatwaves might be a ******
I’m all in,
Avoiding artificial interactions.
I’ll try to see what they see,
And overcome this anxiety.
Oh, what thoughts can be stirred from a monochromatic shade of grey,
But I’ll fight through the haze.
I’ve seen,
That the last summer of reprieve,
Is as much of an ending,
As it is a beginning.
Sep 18, 2025
Sep 18, 2025 at 7:23 PM UTC
Here I am
Sitting at a simple desk
With a simple light
And a simple book next to me
The bookmark is sticking out on page 10
And in order to move it further
I will have to read
I will have to work
I will have to put my mind to it
Excuses
But life is the same
I feel like that bookmark
Someone has to move me
But doesn’t put their mind to it
I am next to that person
On their simple desk
Under their simple light
Located in a simple book
Why am I left there
Stranded between words
A complete standstill
Because of someone else’s excuses
Aug 29, 2024
Aug 29, 2024 at 6:52 AM UTC
Retirement is nice,
grandad shows it in his chair:
never to get up.
Aug 13, 2024
Aug 13, 2024 at 3:28 AM UTC
The dense cloud cover
hangs still, lowering itself --
and taking a rest.
May 19, 2024
May 19, 2024 at 3:36 AM UTC
Life used to revolve
around us when we were young --
Today it still does.
Aug 31, 2023
Aug 31, 2023 at 4:40 AM UTC
Splashing, dashing waves
in the shoaled harbour: a ship --
it is sailing past.
Dec 10, 2022
Dec 10, 2022 at 2:39 AM UTC
Travel like a tree,
as if I'm always at home --
The world's coming past.
Aug 28, 2022
Aug 28, 2022 at 3:30 AM UTC
The nights are silent,
the ferries out of service --
everyone in bed.
Feb 6, 2022
Feb 6, 2022 at 4:07 AM UTC
The snow stops traffic,
all I can do is stand still --
with my own shadow.
Dec 21, 2021
Dec 21, 2021 at 3:19 AM UTC
They say things must change
With me the whole world stands still
Life just stays the same
Mar 4, 2021
Mar 4, 2021 at 1:53 AM UTC
Rainy days mud
my garden, the golden root is rotting
my wishing well spills over
I am spent
flaccid roads to the city
get me nowhere, no one wants
to pay for that, the world stands still
my little son is sleepwalking around me
by touch, cow and calf look
at me and frown, sighing
vapours muffled by the fine droplets
of rainy tears on the globes of my eyes
the sachets of water in which the world
always is upside down
a violet hangs and thinks:
mud will become waterproof
slate, eventually
Dec 15, 2018
Dec 15, 2018 at 3:38 AM UTC
It all came to a standstill,
A day when time stood still,
A beautiful world, fogged and grey,
Grief was its own land, okay?
But the sun arose the next day,
And we woke up anyway,
When the past was a distant land,
Time stood still, not so grand........
Feb 22, 2017
Feb 22, 2017 at 10:37 PM UTC
Abrupt.
That's what you are,
Blunt with charisma,
Daring from afar,
You are eloquent
In your awkwardness
That matches mine
Exquisitely.
Oct 30, 2015
Oct 30, 2015 at 9:39 AM UTC
(Haiku X 4)
Something sharp's inside
Piercing deeply soft walls of
My throat, chest and heart
Can't swallow...can't move
In this too long a standstill
Punctured by fish bones
Deep inside my flesh
Cut by a stiletto knife
Life's balms can't heal...why?
Even when pulled out,
Mind never forgets the pain
Life's fish bones leave scars...
Sally
Copyright March 2015
Rosalia Rosario A. Bayan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mar 26, 2015
Mar 26, 2015 at 3:30 AM UTC
the world is slowing down
a mist of milky gossamer moves in
between
my will and things to do
the clear shapes of objects
are growing soft and dull
the moment's urgency
yields to my ponderings
of possible decisions
abstract rigidity arrests the words
things stay forever as they are
is it a sense of death
that delicately touches on my neck
and steals from me the comfort
of continuous change?
life seems to walk away
in long and measured stride
the kitchen clock has never been so fast
it measures time
from here up to the stars
it counts
and blows
the moments of my delicate eternity
one by one
into the past
* * *
Mar 15, 2015
Mar 15, 2015 at 5:27 AM UTC
I hate you being here in my space reminding me of all my mistakes
I know better but I don’t ever do better
My life is at a standstill whenever I choose to stand still with you.
You
of all people, I choose to stand with you.
I tire of playing the victim.
Tired of being the damsel in distress,
I’m more than capable of rescuing myself
But it hurts now, like it always does
and I feel lonely in your company like I always do
and you look at me with eyes that seem lost in someone new and I know the truth
I’ve always known the truth..
You have never loved me and I let you use me
Use me up until I had only a few drops left.
I let you.. I always let you..
Nov 6, 2014
Nov 6, 2014 at 11:25 PM UTC
Eternity is in our hearts
Smaller than I knew
It can be but meet seconds
As long as I stand with you
It doesn't always last forever
Fleeting as the morning dew
It's those perfect moments
With family friends loved ones too
Eternity is when time stands still
Those moments that our love grew
The moments we want to never end,
from them precious poems we drew
Sitting here I realize
That surely I will fail
For homework I do not have
Eternity to prevail
Oct 30, 2014
Oct 30, 2014 at 2:44 PM UTC