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Night falls— once again,
the cold moon offers no answer—
Why did you leave?
My mother once said:
No one is born turtle-shelled.
It’s the world that distills us into
resilience—pressure folding us
inward, like soft fruit behind
a spiked rind.

Inside, we are tender—
even the durian has
sweetness.
 Jun 10 Thomas W Case
Maria
Will you remember her?
She was so fun after all!
She laughed by eyes, laughed softly.
She was so light and airly at all.
Will you remember her?

Will you remember her?
She so loved all sunsets,
Loved stars and caught their light!
She ran away in her sleeps some place.
Will you remember her?

Will you remember her?
She so adored winter laugh,
Snowdrifts to be higher, the snow to be white
And bitterlly cold and not in half.
Will you remember her?

You will remember her!
She so loved to love!
She gave of herself wholeheartedly!
She couldn’t live without love!
You will remember her!
Love is often so simple, so light, so airy, so pure, so real. But we just don't see it. But then, when we remember, it all comes back in our memory...
Thank you very much for reading this poem! 💖
I read four words today.

Just four.

But their weight
stills
me.

I bow my head and
turn them
in my hands.

What are you asking me?
What are you trying to tell me?
What do you see?

I fold the paper.

I close
my
eyes.

Just four words.
(Part of the 'Four Words' collection. The other work is called 'I Wrote Four Words Today')
 Jun 10 Thomas W Case
Sadia
The pen moved
as ink met the paper.
It watched
her write him into a poem.
Line by line,
he became the soul of her story.
She couldn’t bear to end it
afraid he’d become
just fiction.
So she set the pen down,
left it unfinished
without a period.
We saw the preacher,  
we heard him too,  
when—with a hanky—  
his puffy palm  
dabbed our sweat  
off his temple.

He exclaimed:  
“Woe unto those  
who don’t give  
to the Lord,  
for the kingdom of God  
is not theirs!”

The sermon—  
like snorted crack—  
zombified us,  
the aspiring saints,  
into rummaging  
our exhausted mines,  
as we reached  
for remnant alms  
with palms  
drier than his.
The first two lines just popped up in my head this morning. A few hours later, this piece is born!
Ambiguity
Seven Times
Maybe one and two
Or many verbal words
Scatter our grasp
For sense and meaning
A puzzle thrown
In the Air here and there.

Here these words
Are pieces unconnected
Even as the word, THE,
Can take us to "the" beach
Or to " the" room
What you bring can
And Might
Be your rescue. Maybe.

You are here.
In the dark or light
Where one can't be defined
Without the other
Just as the meaning of you
Lives never in just one place
But resolved
Simultaneously ambiguous
This is your beauty.
I listened to an interview with Ocean Vuoung, poet and professor about William Empson's book Seven Types of Ambiguity (1949, 2nd edition) which you can find as a PDF. Ocean is such an eloquent and deep thinker. As poems or prose are read or digested will we ever be able to know for certain what was going on for the writer or poet at that given time? Do we apply it to our life somehow? Do we seek refuge because we know there is no one to rescue us?
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