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 Aug 5 Chuck Kean
Traveler
I don’t judge people when they’re down for the count.
The wheel’s get spinning so fast, it causes a sudden karmic pounce! And life sweeps up the debris, every gram and every single ounce..
Traveler Tim
Free from assumptions,
from the endless “why?”
the burning need for a unique sign.
I move just one small step back
to protect my lands not taken.

Sometimes enough feels quite soft
like a rotten tree trunk covered in moss.
I can sit and rest for a while,
diving deeply into the forest of tangled thoughts.

This time, I would like to be gentle and tender
to my inner world, to my tired soul.
I let it be calm, I allow this time
to give myself kindness.
I entered the room crowded
with tangled thoughts.
Something that shouldn’t exist
takes physical shape.

Emotions strain my heart,
stretching my tissue,
piercing with a dull tool.

I scream soundlessly
like in cosmic space
where all sounds are dead.
Smiling outside,
not to make people feel ill at ease.

Yes, I see gray, lead clouds
above human heads.
Angry Egregores stand  
and breathe joyfully.

I would run but my fear
holds me, whispering:
don’t move or you might wake up
The Writhing Dragon.

I’m still learning how to be invisible,
to one day melt in the limpid air.
Cree‑cree, Cree‑cree,
Papa Limbo,
Lè ou vini,
pa janm antre.

Papa Limbo,
tall and thin,
Creeping ‘round my house again.
Tip‐toe, tip‐toe,
can’t come in,
Salt and brick dust on my skin!

Metcha’ a man
inna’ crooked hat.
Sleeps all day with a one‐eyed cat.

Sings me a tune
through his busted tooth,
’bout-a girl he lost
in a photo booth.

Jump, kid, jump.
Don’tcha fall.
Rusty nails
Rusty nails
stickin’ in a doll.

Gonna' clap twice,
Spin-a skirt around,
Listen to him moan like-a jail-house hound.

Trip that rope
hear his call
He’s still collectin’ girls
for his picture wall.

Cree‑cree, Cree‑cree,
Papa Limbo,
Lè ou vini,
pa janm antre.

Clap two times,
spin about,
Papa Limbo,
you get out!

Red dust, white salt, slam the door,
Shadow can’t cross
my floor no more!
Jump Rope Chant (Creole) inspired by Shay Caroline Simmons https://hellopoetry.com/poem/5129264/from-a-sugar-bowl-womb/
 Aug 5 Chuck Kean
Khoisan
Love flows
like water over glass
it causes, storms
that shatters in pain.
Love are windows of opportunity
ever green forever again
Love gathers, shards
shoots stars
and covers the pain.
He is a young, slender but strong warrior from the Lion people, from the Plains.
He is quite beautiful for a boy, yellow eyes, less fierce than the others from his clan, but no less strong, but never boasting about it.
He is tall, with clothing from Lion fur, white lines as tattoos circling around his upper arms and thighs, and short but wild white-brown hair.
His ****** expression is remarkably filigrane and elegant, but in his open, awake eyes shimmers a subtle, affectionate humor.

The Lion Boy stands, tall, with his white bow in hand, in the Plains, white arrows on his back. Listening into the wind, patient and still.

He is not scared now.

---

Further away by the shore of the wide river sits another boy of approximately the same age, a childhood friend of the young Lion Warrior, on a wet stone by the running water.
That boy is of the Fish Clan, much harder to find in the area, harder to spot.
The Fish Boy is not actually a warrior. He is a creature of the flow and the water. He is a little smaller than the Lion Boy, blueish violet shimmering short hair, turquoise big eyes, shiny skin. He looks slightly absentminded, like he was still in the water, and not beside it. He wears no shoes, and his skin has silver and pearl white spots and geometrical shapes in it.
In his hand he is holding a big bright conch.

---

Their meeting is like a lot of time passed, and no time at all.
They move naturally next to each other, like they had.
The moment is neither a bang nor a whisper, but just the continuation of a long held breath, that now flows freely again, from the heart.
They look at each other, at their hands,
feet... chest.

The Fish Boy cracks that tiny smile first.
The Lion Boy follows.



Somewhere high above their heads a white heron is circling, satisfied.


🌀
I love all good poems,
and how they make me
feel whole but deboned,
de~parted,
sometimes cleansed
sometimes *****,
sometimes ashamed,
occasionally fried,
occasionally enlived,
often all of these,
simultaneously

I love how mine please you,
breaking the knots of anonymity,
unleashing the little white package
strings of connection, and, when yours,
make me guffaw, or even  a better, person-age,
when we weep deep in our  recesses where the
just-beneath-the-surface emotes, are pricked and
brought to the surface, for the first time, or the last of time,
exposed, curated, healed, leaving but a tiny sore, that lingers
on the body's surfaces,where all things.are etched that
are needy for a reminding of the when,
and here, right there, is the where,

but your loving of likes somehow
dissatisfying, like a kiss, perfunctory, skullduggery
or dis genuine, a hit and a move on,which is why,
I treasure your comments, long or short,
insightful or delightful, critical or critique(e),
just a tender heart of appreciation, a snuggle
from the sea, throned out of Jonah's whale...
rounded bellicose belly

but they render me
alive,
when they split and spit me, to you,
you, to each, defined in pieces, gratitude
nuggets, each, treasured, each hugged, each letter,
a custom bespoke of  connectivity and

who needs friends, when your words
embrace me so deep repeat and touch me
in places where my heart must follow on & on.
now many poems you commission with every exposition.
even the dimplest thanks is a vibrato of pleasuring sounds, that
you, you, you, took that particular moment of time to
express the heartfelt, destroys the invidious
that does quiet creepily slides inside us,  
saying I am your comforter false,
but is not!

use your words, that,
they to the children teach; let us too
embrace this honorific so terrific, and touch each other with
comments, a sharing, and the sol shines on
'*we two too, for all to seer and see
a day spent in  food & friendship makes me needy & greedy for your affection
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