touka

Aug 2016

mike

I sold my soul to the devil and he sold it back to me. I am $35 richer.

touka Aug 2016

bed bug

my fingers burn
like old gas stoves
my eyes, wide open
and will not close
turn
and toss
like 4:00 in the morning
bound to bed
swimming in silk sheets
aware of every thread
against my body
and every breath
every night noise, every "bump,"
and regret.

do you ever have trouble sleeping

touka Jun 2016

désespéré

he took a draw of his cigarette,
he breathed it in
some pure catharsis
the smoke pulled,
he coughed
some cheap tobacco
he was as stale as the cigarettes he choked down

he reeks. of some corner. some alleyway. some one-night stand. some one-night stand IN an alleyway. you can't pinpoint the smells exactly, or how they correlate to one another, but you know you could smell his desperation over the smoke even if he blew it into your face.

#smoke #desperation #cigarette #smoking #smokingisbad #seriouslydontdoit #maybeimjustusingitasametaphorbecauseimedgy

touka Apr 2016

stranded

overcast

in this refuge

downcast

and i would turn my hand, and reach to strike

like that light

in overcast sky

and i am downcast

and as the ground was wet

my mouth would dry

in the monsoon, the downpour as i am downcast

time wound,

and like that light,

my mind would burst

quick to lose count

to unhinge, with screws loose

on a time clock

to unwind,

to lose,

i am under overcast

i leave my hand downcast

touka Mar 2016

en dehors

hyacinth
warm breath on the wind
as her small figure trembling
turns slow, to take humble spins,
feet sweeping softly against land
and in her curves and twists,
and whirls and pivots
each movement
and the air cool on her skin
each movement
her heart grows boisterous,
the thump in her ears,
a tune to lead, to follow again
hyacinth
as she dances
warm breath on the wind

Jan 2016

Keith W Fletcher

As the iridium ball rolls

With obsolescent clarity
Amid moribund metaphysical
Mutations
As the iridium ball rolls
From eponym to epitaph
Engeneering an epoch diarama
In surfeit metronomic hysteria
While time chases time into infinity
Episodic vagaries celebrate
The metaphoric metamorphosis rising to
Metaphysical majesty as vacuous
As any minutiae will
When abstract vagaries
Become the vagrant epitome
Of a mordant mosaic
Made entirely of the lost causes
Torn from the very core
I surmise
As being the virulent....
.....Tragic and irridescent pieces
Left along the allegorical antipathy
Where those that are left behind
By the stigmatation
Of any irascible involutions
Mired in the mesh
Of scribbles and scribes
Left
After the iridium ball rolls By
Leaving vacuous irridescent
Symbols of epigraphical
Proportions
Stymied by
The obsolescent clarity
Amid moribund metaphysical mutations.

touka Jan 2016

life jacket

caught, alone, in austere stream
how I sink to sleep, and wake to float
seeking hands from passing boats
and all the while pray
with this maelstrom's theme
fingertips bleed, and scream
it is constant
to stay afloat
it is constant
I am choked,
by undertow
fight to breathe

i never learned how to swim.