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 Nov 2021 CZ
Christian Bixler
There is a quality to desolation
that I have never seen.

I have been in a desert, touched
the aridity of it’s soil, and its
air like hot feathers
on my breath;
I have seen the sea far out
with only a blue smudge on
the horizon
to mark our return.
But I have never felt that terror,
that awe and loneliness
that has been spoken of,
and said by the poets
and deliverers,
to bring ones face
to God.

Do not misunderstand me.
I have felt these things;
at the end of a trail
leading nowhere,
on a *****
with loose stones
for footholds.
I have been in places of terror
and beauty,
and been overthrown.
But not wholly.

Perhaps
I have not been still
enough, have not lingered
in those part-wild places
that have seen the summit
of my fear, my longing.
Perhaps even they, even
they, have what I seek.

Perhaps
I have not been still
enough.
https://youtu.be/YQQAsEEZorQ
 Nov 2021 CZ
Lori Jones McCaffery
She never refused my assistance.
She never refused my checks.
She never refused my loving her.
She only refused my sharing
Any small part of her life.
I wasn’t to know of her feelings.
I wasn’t to meet any friends.
I never got told her ambitions
Or shared when she met a new love.

She never said to get out of her life-
Not in so many blunt words-
Just ever too busy to meet me.
And only Voice Mail on her phone.
I’m strictly forbidden web browsing
And everything possible’s blocked.

I own nothing I that I can give her
That didn’t come from my exe’s mom,
The only mother she seems to admire.
My treasures will go to my sister’s kids
And their children, who don’t even know me.
Her windup of my earthly affairs
Will be quick and “Call One Eight Hundred”.

For someone who tried so desperately hard
And never gave up for a second
It seems life’s given me so little back
It almost was not worth my efforts.

She never will change - it’s too late for that.
There’s naught I can do to repair things.
My life’s ended up in a very dark corner
And that’s where I’ll finish my days.
ljm
My only child, my daughter, just found a new way to stab me in the heart.
 Nov 2021 CZ
Zoe Mae
Forgiveness
 Nov 2021 CZ
Zoe Mae
I want to go to my grave unafraid,
at peace with choices I've made
I want to go to my deathbed
not regretting every word I said that day, with clouds in my eyes and raindrops on your face
If it comes down to forgive or never live, I'm unafraid
Because I can do both today
I will do both today
 Nov 2021 CZ
Seranaea Jones
-

There were five of us working late
when i saw this creature crawling
rapidly across the concrete floor-

one of the employees counted the
legs on its right side, he said there
were seven-teen of them–

more than enough
to carry all of us

We left it be to continue its destiny
in this place where we must make
our living as everything else dies
outside in a midnight autumn frost

A curious distraction,
this singularity —

moving about thirty-four
steps per second in the
midst of a ten hour shift...


s jones
2021


.
a nightshift moment
circa 2011
 Nov 2021 CZ
Seranaea Jones
-

imagine resting in a realm
where the universe is
draped by a single
shadow—

the sensation of cold sheets
lasting until one assimilates
the other–

leaving some sleeping,

and others just
passing through
...


s jones
2021


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