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 Oct 2023 Bardo
Druzzayne Rika
A celestial glow, the cosmos ignite,
A soul departs, bathed in silver's light.
Free from the shackles of mortal clay,
It ascends to realms beyond our earthly day.

A spark of starlight, a cosmic dance,
In the tapestry of time, its essence enhanced.
With the universe's secrets entwined,
Its spirit echoes through the cosmic mind.

Though the body may fade, its essence remains,
A radiant thread in the cosmos' veins.
In every star, in every breath,
The soul's eternal dance defies death.
 Oct 2023 Bardo
Donall Dempsey
THE ONLY EDEN

Granny unable to
see

would build me
touch by touch

with her blind fingertips
search for the face

she would create.

Here my cheekbone
coming into being

there an eyebrow
newly born

here an eye
there a philtrum

sculpted from sunlight
hewn from nothing

here blind seeing
fashioning me anew

her fingertips
butterflies

forming this
living portrait

of the face
I own.

Her fingers feeling
for each nuance...each tone

the music of me
plucked from thin air

one moment I am not
then I am

all there.

I made all the more
real.

More realer
that I could ever be

emerging from
her fingertips

as if I were
God's Adam

and this her tiny garden
the only Eden.
 Oct 2023 Bardo
CJ Sutherland
Higher education a privilege not a right
Financially universities are out of sight
Choose A college, not cloaked in hypocrisy.
The one you can afford is mediocrity
Most try hard to resist Temptation’s sin
However eventually they just want to fit in
A feeble experiment, try something new
College students surrender without a clue
Not quite full grown , a woman or man
They do what they want because they can
Transitioning into, anything, something
They are on a quest to stand out, to shine
Their Grand Adventure to seek, to find
Escaping the rat race, a struggle , The grind
Considering all possibilities what is best
Experiencing the excitement of life’s zest
Contemplating who and what to become
A leader or A follower, success for some

They are Young , gullible, ignorant trusting
Naïve, Unsophisticated , easily deceived
It doesn’t matter if what they are told
Ridiculously implausible Is NOT true.
It’s something For them to believe in
It’s something they need to hang onto,
They drank the College Kool-Aid
Step One

Newbies, full of dreams, leave for college,
Young adults ,barely retaining knowledge
When They come home for thanksgiving.
In a crazed haze, moral confusion, Ensue
Erasing their history, they once  knew.
volatile temper, They jump to conclusion.
Their past reduced to just an allusion,
Monumentally,This is the very first time
They are allowed to have , Boisterous  
opinions of Worth and make it plausible.
Their thoughts, glimpses of intelligence.
A New Affirmation of personal dominion
Acknowledge Pronouns, how they Identify
Parents must; be content, conform, comply
Specifically, Never question, or ask why
College Kool-Aid
Step Two

Ready to argue , On every point
they sneak off to smoke a joint
College Kool-Aid
Step Three

Repeatedly They are taught ,Every parent
has filled their head with a million lies,
and their generation is much more wise
College Kool-Aid
Step Four

Indoctrination overtime Many discussions
Unfold Laced with Drugs, beer and wine.
They were taught to believe what they knew, as they grew,  twice told tales lies,
Which made disillusioned Parents sigh.
Absent minded they started to drink.
Consciously they never stop to think
College Kool-Aid
Step Five

Their tribe no longer Included; family,
Sister and brother, father and mother
Yes even Nana and Papa were deluded
Generations, traditions all up rooted
Drink longer and Stronger
College kool-Aid
Step Six

Taught to Destroy the entire world
Once held high ,our flag unfurled
The American flag now burning
Patriotism, A relic from the past, turning
Historical statues dismantled, pulled down
Americans look around, our foundation
The Rubble, pieces, broken on the ground
What made America special , not found
A College Marxist generation now enlisted.
The young and old, morality, sold twisted
Uncontrolled they no longer can be told.
The fruits of College Kool-Aid
Step Seven

Deception , humanization , foundation laid
Bourgeoisie hidden lurking in the shade
Powers that be ,One World Order parade
College staff, every teachers too, mixed
their evil brew, served, what they made
College Kool-Aid
Step Eight

mind bending manipulators Deployed
All means possible ,Our country destroyed
the Long term effects, fruits of Kool-Aid
America reimagined, A coo  from within
Attack on every front, Revolution begins
They don’t care what, they don’t care why
Contrived motives by the great divides
Parent and child on opposite sides
Our children are now walking away
from their family they once knew.
Those That nurtured and gave love too.
Master control takes hold, kitchen Bare
Congratulations!, Graduated, unaware
Receiving their diploma with a blank stare.
College kool-Aid
Step Nine

Brimming with anger, hatred, deep inside
Gross distain ,They don’t try to hide.
USE their Parents for a Financial ride
for their College Education with pride
Bewildered Parents don’t want to believe
Their youth would practice to deceive
Deception, achieved, Illusion never fade
College Kool-Aid
Step Ten

No more nonsense and No more pretend
Our Traditional education Now at an end
leads to communist Marxist, emancipation,
Marching, Molotov cocktails in the street
Mostly peaceful protest, burning the elite
Generations, bewitched , never knowing
Depravity showing , Take over growing
Illegal immigrants, parents cannot defeat
Inevitably America flounders, at the Brink
Eventually everyone will drink, once made
College Kool-Aid

Morally gone, zombies, walking dead
Education formed what is in their head
Decision time, Take the Red pill or the Blue
Really that’s all they’re taught to do

Easier to Control when empathy is gone. Honestly, How do We Combat this war?
How do We reason with our children
with 1 foot out the door. The erosion of
Families , Morality ***, Marriage, racism,
Transgender ,M/F , giving/killing Birth
Everything is controversy on this Earth.

Relax borders open we’re going for a ride
United States Civil War, treason, spies
Hear the battle cry, How many will die?
Defending America’s right to be free
We are At the precipice, On bended knee
By design ,by those who hide in the shade

GOVERNMENT
well played
After all,
they MADE
the Kool-Aid
This is an example of an epic poem .
As a  college Educator and a college student I see things from both perspectives.! Watching the young adults I know navigate I experienced this firsthand. To hell in a handbasket
American, Or land .10/23
 Oct 2023 Bardo
Thomas W Case
Time melts away like
a Dali painting,
and my mind flies north;
a Canadian goose against the
loose gray sky,
freer than any man's ever been.
Yesterday, I was a
melancholic little one, feeling all of
Seasons in the Sun, on the radio.
5 years old, in the
backseat of my mom's black Plymouth.

Mom's gone.
Dad is too.
I'm getting old, but I will
never stop searching for that
gold in the heart.
I'm finally the simple prairie man that I
always longed to be.
I smell the autumnal night, and it's
nothing but cattails and bass from here until
that big orange fire paints the
west end of the lake.
 Oct 2023 Bardo
Thomas W Case
I will not trade
my serenity for
madness.
This sadness only
lasts a little while.
I don't want to be
in Wonderland anymore.
Everyone is crazy.
whichever way I
turn, left or right,
it's lunacy.

I deal in reality now.
I won't play croquet with
the queen, no matter
how much she smiles.
The game is fixed, and I
know it.
The deck is stacked.
The cards are laid,
and I see the
***** behind
her eyes.
Your tragic family:
The little wealth
You had is gone.
No place
To call home any more.
No welcoming friends
To take you in.
There’s nothing left to do
But leave.

Leaving should be
Very easy.
Theres nothing left
For you to pack.
Nor any trunk for
You to put things in.
No need either
For a suitcase -
You’re wearing
Everything  you own.

Who can help you -
They need help too.
Who can find
An answer in the ashes
That are the tombs
Of relatives,
Cremated
With no prayers spoken.

How is it
You must fly away.
You have no passport;
You have no funds
Beyond the dollars
In your pocket
When you ran.
You can’t go to
The bank for more
The contents of the vault
Are charred.
And papers with
Your name on them
Are gone.

You cannot call.
The wires are down.
The towers melted in the blaze.
The Post Office
Is in ruins.
And no one answers
When you shout.

You have friends
And relatives
In other places
That are safe.
The only thing that you can do
Is wait
For them to come and save you.
I hear jet engines
Revving up.
Hope must not be
Let to die.
             ljm
I wrote this after the Maui fire and somehow didn't post it.
 Oct 2023 Bardo
Donall Dempsey
THIS TOO TOO SOLID FLESH

My body
disowns me.  

Slams the door( making the
little blue china cups rattle on...
...their little blue china saucers ).

'COME BACK. . !
I scream

but it is only
a thought.

The silence
mocks me.

I've an idea
of what to do

but without my body
I can't see it
through. . .

Nothing about me
is real.

How thoughtless of my body
to just up & leave me
like. . . that!

Now I am
just a disembodied thought

floating invisibly
inside my flat

scaring the cat
raising hackles

unable to turn the **** TV
off....aghhhhh
3 hours of Big Brother.

My body is snickering
just outside the door

listening to my soul roar
with rage

at being
unable to translate
thought into action.

Oh how I long
for the body's flesh

even...yes...even
its fatty bits.

My body enters
grinning: "Ok...ok
you're forgiven!"

& I enter it
eternally glad to be
human

this mesh
of spirit
& soul

And yes...yes
. . .flesh!
 Oct 2023 Bardo
Donall Dempsey
FRYING THE TEA

Her bedsit.

"Only enough room to lay my hat
and a few friends!
she Dorothy Parker's me.

We sit
only atoms apart.

"I'll fry you up
some tea!"
she says all eagerly.

"Oh...?" I oh
politely.

She puts the milk
in the frying pan...first.

Then the water and only then
a single teabag.

"I've never had fried tea
...'til now!"

My mind grinning from
here to here.

"Come here!" she smirks
hotting things up.

Kissing me to allow
the tea

time to stew.

The atoms between us
achieving Brownian Motion.

Forgotten in the frying pan
the tea wonders why

( on its incredibly stewed journey
from cool to cold )

why it was ever made
in the first place.

Humans can be hard
to understand.
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