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Nigel Morgan Oct 2012
When Zuo Fen woke day was well advanced into the Horse hour. In her darkened room a frame of the brightest light pulsed around the shuttered window. A breeze of scents from her herb garden brought sage, motherwort and lovage to cleanse the confined air, what remained of his visit, those rare aromatic oils from a body freed from its robes. Turning her head into the pillow that odour of him embraced her once more as in the deepest and most prolonged kiss , when with no space to breathe passion displaces reason in the mind.
 
The goat cart had brought him silently to her court in the Tiger hour, as was his custom in these summer days when, tired of his women’s attention, he seeks her company. In the vestibule her maid leaves a bowl of fresh water scented with lemon juice, a towel, her late uncle’s comb, a salve for his hands. Without removing his shoes, an Emperor’s privilege, he enters her study pausing momentarily while Xi-Lu removes himself from the exalted presence, his long tail *****, his walk provocative, dismissive. Zuo Fen is at her desk, brush in hand she finishes a copy of  ‘A Rhapsody for my Lord’. She has submitted herself to enter yet again that persona of the young concubine taken from her family to serve that community from which there seems no escape.
 
I was born in a humble, isolated, thatched house,
And was never well-versed in writing.
I never saw the marvellous pictures of books,
Nor had I heard of the classics of ancient sages.
I am dim-witted, humble and ignorant,
But was mistakenly placed in the Purple Palace . . .

 
He loves to hear her read such words, to imagine this fragile girl, and see her life at court described in the poet’s elegant characters. Zuo Fen’s scrolls lie on his second desk. Touching them, as he does frequently, is to touch her, is to feel mystery of her long body with its disregard of the courtly customs of his many, many women; the soft hair on her legs, the deep forest guarding her hidden ***, her peasant feet, her long fingers with their scent of ink and herbs.
 
He kneels beside her, gradually opening his ringed hand wide on her gowned thigh, then closing, then opening. A habit: an affectation. His head is bent in an obeisance he has no need to make, only, as he desires her he does this, so she knows this is so. She is prepared, as always, to act the part, or be this self she has opened to him, in all innocence at first, then in quiet delight that this is so and no more.
 
‘A rhapsody for me perhaps?’
‘What does Liu Xie say? The rhapsody is a fork in the road . . .
‘ . . . a different line’, he interrupts and quotes,’ it describes people and objects. It pictures appearance with a brilliance akin to sculpture or painting.’
‘What is clogged and confined it invariably opens. It depicts the commonplace with unbounded charm.’
‘But the goal of the form is beauty well-ordered . . . . as you are, dearest poet.’
‘You spoilt the richness of Lui Xie’s ending . . .’
‘I would rather speak of your beauty than Xie’s talk of gardening.’
‘Weeding is not gardening my Lord.’
 
And with that he summons her to read her rhapsody whilst his hands part her gown . . .
 
Over the years since he took her maidenhead, brusquely, with the impatience of his station, and she, on their second encounter deflowered him in turn with her poem about the pleasure due to woman, they had become as one branch on the same tree. She sought to be, and was, his equal in the prowess of scholastic memory. She had honed such facility with the word: years of training from her father in the palace archives and later in the mind games invented by and played with her brother. Then, as she entered womanhood and feared oblivion in an arranged marriage, she invented the persona of the pale girl, a fiction, who, with great gentleness and poetry, guided the male reader into the secrets of a woman’s ****** pleasure and fulfilment. In disguise, and with her brother’s help, she had sought those outside concubinage - for whom the congress of the male and female is rarely negotiable. She listened and transcribed, then gradually drew the Emperor into a web of new experience to which he readily succumbed, and the like of which he could have hardly imagined. He wished to promote her to the first lady of his Purple Chamber. She declined, insisting he provide her with a court distant from his palace rooms, yet close to the Zu-lin gardens, a place of quiet, meditation and the study of astronomy.
 
But today, this hot summer’s day, she had reckoned to be her birthday. She expected due recognition for one whose days moved closer to that age when a birthday is traditionally and lavishly celebrated. Her maid Mei-Lim would have already prepared the egg dishes associated with this special day. Her brother Zuo-Si may have penned a celebratory ode, and later would visit her with his lute to caress his subtle words of invention.
 
Your green eyes reflect a world apart
Where into silence words are formed dew-like,
Glistening as the sun rises on this precious day.
As a stony spring washes over precious jade,
delicate fishes swim in its depths
dancing to your reflection on the cool surface.
No need of strings, or bamboo instruments
When mountains and waters give forth their pure notes . . .

 
Her lord had left on her desk his own Confucian-led offering, in brushstrokes of his time-stretched hand, but his own hand nevertheless, and then in salutation the flower-like character leh (joy)
 
‘Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart’.
 
Meanwhile Xi-Lu stirred on the coverlet reminding Zuo Fen that the day was advancing and he had received no attention or conversation. It was whispered abroad that this lady spoke with her cat whom each afternoon would accompany his mistress on a walk through the adjacent gardens. It was true, Zuo Fen had taught Xi-Lu to converse in the dialect of her late mother’s province, but that is another story.
 
Lying on her back, eyes firmly shut, Zuo Fen surveyed the past year, a year of her brother’s pilgrimage to the Tai Mountains, his subsequent disappearance at the onset of winter, her Lord’s anger then indulgence as he allowed her to seek Zuo Si’s whereabouts. She thought of her sojourn in Ryzoki, the village of stone, where she discovered the blind servant girl who had revealed not only her brother’s whereabouts but her undying love for this strange, ungainly, uncomfortably ugly man who, with the experience gained from his sister’s persistent research had finally learned to love and be loved in equal measure for his gentle and tender actions. And together, their triumph: in ‘summoning the recluse’, and not one alone but a community of five living harmoniously in caves of the limestone heights. Now returned they had worked in ever secret ways to serve their Emperor in his conflict against the war-lord Tang.
 
She now resolved to take a brief holiday from this espionage, her stroking of the Emperor’s mind and body, and those caring sisterly duties she so readily performed. She would remove herself and her maid to a forest cabin: to lie in the dry mottled grass of summer and listen to the rustle of leaves, the chatter of birds, the sounds of insects and the creak-crack of the forest in the summer heat. She would plan a new chapter in her work as a poet and writer: she would be the pale girl no longer but a woman of strength and confidence made beautiful by good fortune, wise management and a generosity of spirit. She needed to prepare herself for her Lord’s demise, when their joyful hours living the lives of Prince and Lady of Xiang, he with his stallion gathering galingales, she with her dreams of an underwater house, would no longer be. She would study the ways of the old. She would seek to learn how peace and serenity might overcome those afflictions of age and circumstance, and when it is said that love’s chemistry distils pure joy through the intense refinement of memory.
This short story with poetry introduces the world of Zuo Fen, one of the first female poets of Chinese antiquity.
There is no need to dwell on the exterior cliche of an injured soldier, the propaganda is superficial. Civilians have only plastic green men, heavy dusty movie set costumes, and Army-of-One heroes to populate stereotypes. Keep your images larger than life, no use touching up a paint-by-number. Mine was banal, foolish, and 19; enough said.

One fence is the fraternity itself, the next is brain injury. No other way to understand but be there. A Solid-American-Made-Dashboard cracked my forehead at 45mph.
Crumpling into the footwell,
unaware that the flatbed's rear bumper
was smashing thru the passenger windshield above me
the frame stopped just shy of decapitating my luckily unoccupied seat.
Our vehicle's monstrous hood had attempted to murderously bury us under,
but the axle stopped momentum's fate and ended the carnage under dark iron.
Shards of my identity joined the slow, pulverized, airborn chaos.
Back, Deep, Gone.

Unconsciousness is the brain's frantic attempt to re-wire neurons, jury rig broken connections, the doctor's desperate attempt to re-attach, stand back and say, good enough. Essential systems limply functioned, but unessential ones were ditched. Years later a military doctor diagnosed an eventual triage: Hypothalimus disconnected from the Pituitary Gland, Executive Function damaged, long pathways for emotional regulation interrupted.

I woke up still kinda bleeding, crusty blood in my hair, a line of frankenstein stitches wandering across my forehead.   My sense of self had literally dissolved into morning dust floating in a sterile hospital sunbeam.  My name was down the hall, words and the desire to speak were on a different floor.  Life became me and also a separate me under constant renovation, a wrecking ball on one half, scaffolding and raw 2x4's the other.

Waking up in the hospital, I realized I needed help to get the blood cleaned up.   A nurse came in, largely glared at me in disregard, and quickly left… for an hour.   She returned and brusquely dropped a useless ace comb and gauze on the blanket over my feet and abandoned me again.  This was my introduction to the shame of a VA hospital.  I minced my way to the bathroom, objectively examined my face in the mirror with shocking stitches above one swollen eye.  Gingerly rinsing my hair, the water ran pink in white porcelain.  I remembered the sound in my skull between my ears when a doctor scraped a metal tool across my skull, cleaning debris before stitching.  I recalled that in the ER I was asking Is he ok, repeating it like a broken record, knowing I should stop but I couldn’t.  There was also perhaps a joke about an Excedrin headache.

It was morning, and since there was no such thing as time or purpose or feelings anymore, I wandered to the hall with my only companion, the IV pole. One side was a wall of windows, and I was, what, 10 or 12 stories up from the streets of a much larger city than where I crashed.  The hall was warm and sunny.  I wheeled my companion to a blocky square vinyl chair to sit next to a pay phone.  I didn’t have any thoughts at all, or care about it.   After about an hour my first name floated up from the void, then with some effort my last name.  It took the rest of the morning to remember I had a brother.  After lunch we resumed our post, and I spent the afternoon in concentration piecing together his phone number.  God had pushed the reset button.

Thirty years ago the doctors didn't understand head injuries; they only recognized the physical symptoms. At first there was good reason to be permanently admitted to the hospital.  My blood pressure was unstable, sometimes so low that drawing blood for tests caused my veins to collapse even with baby needles.  My thyroid had shut down completely, only jump-started again with six months of Synthroid.  I had to learn to live with crashing blood sugar and fluctuating appetite.  For years afterwards, any stress would cause arrhythmias, my heart filling and skipping out of sync, blood pressure popping my skull.  Will the clock stop this time?  

There is always at least one momentous event in every person’s life that becomes punctuation, before and after.  The other side of Before the accident truly was a different me.  I have a vague recollection of who that person may have been, and occasionally get reminders.   Before, I was getting recruiting letters from Ivy League colleges and MIT, a high school senior at sixteen.  After, I couldn’t balance a checkbook or even care about a savings account in the first place.  Before, I had aced the military entrance exam only missing one question, even including the speed math section.  They told me I could chose any rating I wanted, so I chose Air Traffic Control.  Twenty years later, I thumbed through old high school yearbooks at a reunion.   I saw a picture of me in the Shakespeare Club, not recalling what that could have been about.   On finding a picture of me in the Ski Club I thought, Wow, I guess I know how to ski.   A yellowed small-town newspaper article noted I was one of two National Merit Scholars; and in another there’s a mention of a part in the High School Musical.  

This side of After, I kept mixing right with left, was dyslexic with numbers, and occasionally stuttered with word soup.  Focus became separated from willpower, concentration was like herding cats.  The world had become intense.

(chapter 1 continues in memoir)
It begins brusquely in the dark, a hoary noise,
a tune which all the cats in town enjoy.
Yes, they stare at the stage for a sparkle of gold
to come forth from the shadows, the sound will take hold.

Rippling through the room, a devilish groan
rises, spirals high from an aged baritone.
The other musicians join in this depressing affair
and the men in their fifties are still fused to their chairs.

The sulky cello, whining trumpet slither into the mix,
the sadness fills the ears of several dozen beatniks.
Then with no caution comes a madcap flow
of music from the star performer, frantic yet mellow.

And it slows, then picks up, goes on for what feels like a year,
this rugged Jazz, no words but my, **** sincere.
Like something so eccentric that can't be left alone,
everyone captivated by the golden saxophone.
Written: May 2012.
Explanation: A poem written in my own time. To guide me in writing this, I used the poem 'Piano' by D.H. Lawrence, which is slightly similar in style.
Onoma May 2017
as rain brusquely clears a
window's record, and a screen
grays the glinting heads of
drops.
as the bacon-brittle bars of a
fire escape press against the
dully scratched green of
distant trees.
melancholy skims the ears,
sews shut their fetal-shaped
holes.
The underground monastery,
a feat of such majesty which imposes on me a sense of tranquility
until the Koltsevaya line to Komsomolskya tube rushes in,
they
push past me quite brusquely
as if I'm just a part of the tapestry
while they're making history in
the underground monastery.
Michael Archer Mar 2017
The walls cry-out as they burn.
A tumult of roars wreathed in the crackle of blazing matter.
Which is louder?  
Perspective will tell.
The one who assaults,
Or the one assaulted?
The roar, or the crackle?
The giver, or the receiver?
Pleasure in two forms, two-faced gratification.
One hand for dispensation,
One mouth for sublimation.

And do we not all sublimate?
Base impulses, rank ideas,
On the surface, vindicate?
The residue of consequence
Brusquely scrub and expiate?
Perspective will tell.

We espy hedonism, unbridled delight,
And may envy those who bathe in these muddied pools,
Focusing our most ephemeral sense on dazzling cacophony,
Ignoring the estranged husband of hedonism,
Shunning the divorcée of delight.
Which is truly louder?  
Perspective will tell.

In Oscar Wilde’s Salome the moon is thus described:
“She is like a woman who is dead.  She moves very slowly.”
Pandemonium in the hall, the howling of wild beasts,
But she remains “a woman who is dead,”
And “she moves very slowly.”

The divorcée of delight,
A pitiful coming-down.
The remnant of misuse,
The scarring of abuse.
One reads on a stone:
The hardly-lovéd daughter of overuse.
And the one who gazes overlong is warned:  
“You look at her too much.  
It is dangerous to look at people in such fashion.
Something terrible may happen.”

The walls cry-out as they burn,
And they cry in desperation.
What we see is conflagration.
The light:  A brilliant exultation.
The crackle:  A herald of termination.
But when ash is blown in silence,
It is dangerous to look at what remains:
Scar tissue.
Slow death.
Residue.
The head of John.
The bones of Salome.
Broken glass.
Wilted flowers.
Cracked foundation on hollow cheeks.
Red lips the stain of blood on ivory cloth.
Festering flies.
The beating of vultures’ wings.
The snoring of satiated beasts.
The stumbling home.
Apologies.
Sublimation.
Conflation.
Expiation.

One’s well-mannered pause until the other’s end,
So that the one may pause…
And begin again.
Kathy Z Jul 2013
I've only written poems about love.
Most of them-
filled with angst, overflowing
not unlike
a flooded river,
maybe the Nile
in spring.

I don't really use lipstick,
or mascara for that matter,
because makeup,
is just something to hide behind
a shield that people are trying to cast off
every day.

writing a poem without inspration is like
trying to describe a chocolate eclair
without taste buds.
Maybe that's why
this is so hard to write.

But I had pleaded for another wish,
on a birthday candle, one day in May
Blowing the little flame out,
I rode my hopes on that little spark,
making sure that there were no embers left in the ashes.
Maybe I missed one,
I'm not sure-
because that wish still hadn't come true, to today.

The voice of an aucostic guitar strums into my ear
my only comfort
against this dismal highway.
And my earbuds are unbalanced
the right one louder then the left
and no matter how much I tilt my head
it's still uneven

Someone once told me
"Tears taste like the ocean"
that same person wiped away those tears, brusquely saying,
"Don't cry. I don't want you falling asleep tomorrow."
I held that as an act of kindness,
one of the few close to my heart.

The taste of coffee is too **** bitter.
Yet I crave it,
holding its warmth against my hands
and blowing the excess steam off.
Starbucks, in winter.

When flipping through paintings of angles and demons, I wondered
do angles really have halos?
do devils really have horns?
Who created the idea of supernatural creatures, at all?
"Superstitious freak" I mutter, slamming the book shut
and getting up to get another book
called
Lord of the Flies

The blinking crusor and the white screen that's staring at me right now
4:45 a.m in the morning
I couldn't sleep.
So I check my email-
it says
You have no messages.
For some strange reason, that's always the time when I feel the most alone.

I wonder
if people these days would ever write something,
just for their own benifit, and not for the lust of getting reviews
or compliments
of others.
I'm a filthy hypocrite, and I embrace that fact,
writing pointless stories just for the sake of getting compliments,
telling me
"You're worth it"
and
*"amazing."
Anne M Feb 2013
On the precipice of something great
they stood--or, rather,
sat--weaving hopes
into their palms and throwing shadows
just to find the ground.
Whatever they never were
fell from the soles
of their swinging feet and clattered
as it struck
the sides of history.

For a moment,
they let the madness
of memories
overwhelm their senses.
They could've gone so astray.
They could've been so static.
A half-written screenplay.
A near-forgotten attic.

But they had escaped
the ever-churning wheel,
the silicon bubble of this reality,
and burst brusquely and permanently
into possibility.

And they were exhausted.

So the rainbow-chasing was left
for another day.
A fervently promised tomorrow.
For tonight
they collapsed side-by-side
back into the present darkness.
Inspired by some of Glen Brunson's work.
PK Wakefield Oct 2012
i have coughed a small star
from my throat it tumbled
by all love though littleand
frail it charged urgently for
reckless girl things sinking
deftly into sweet crimson
parting miles of sound it
brusquely twained still blood
pushing rush(hearts clamped
)it pried from hinges doors
singeing crisply all downy
things and it though unfurled(
small; by all love)a fist of
hulking lust
Kimberly C Brown Apr 2011
I sat idly waiting,
watching her through her bedroom window.
She indeed was the one,*
and how happy she would be when I told her
she would be my first.
Coming down the steps
and
walking out the door
I watched her still,
anxious for the moment to come
when I would hold her in my arms.
It was snowing out;
the contrast of her dark skin
against
the white snow,
a mere smudge she would have seemed
if not for the golden glow that surrounded her,
it made me to recall
a single chrysanthemum struggling in a field of snow.
I closed my eyes
imagining the taste of her,
wondering if she would have the scent of a flower,
or
if she would smell of fear
when I took her,
sliding myself into her gently
-never brusquely-
but in a way that would supersede even her
*if only for a moment.
The title is sufficient warning for some....
PK Wakefield Sep 2011
i swiftly, will into casually skies, wade fire into them and they alight on me cut like
sharp little eyes those heavens got such brusquely painted vaults all blue and slightly
they swim with whiteness in them are so puffed and drifting lazily on copper swooping
twilight they become a bit usual. but i comfortable and dauntless sleep in their heart, my blood ,
crinkles on the waxing moon's lustrous ***** (and it does roll crimson beads down through
each marvelous breast to upon her belly and becomes a singing bird of autumn and it dies
A Slow Heyoka May 2019
If we were a perfect hook and latch
Where one fell for the other abruptly
We would but miss our target catch
A few millimetres out
We clash quite brusquely
Kimberly Brown Jun 2013
I sat idly waiting,
watching her through her bedroom window.
She indeed was the one,
and how happy she would be when I told her
she would be my first.
Coming down the steps
and
walking out the door
I watched her still,
anxious for the moment to come
when I would hold her in my arms.
It was snowing out;
the contrast of her dark skin
against
the white snow,
a mere smudge she would have seemed
if not for the golden glow that surrounded her,
it made me to recall
a single chrysanthemum struggling in a field of snow.
I closed my eyes
imagining the taste of her,
wondering if she would have the scent of a flower,
or
if she would smell of fear
when I took her,
sliding myself into her gently
-never brusquely-
but in a way that would supersede even her
if only for a moment.
jg Apr 2017
I find myself at the perfumery store once again, looking at the man behind the cash register with desperate eyes asking for your perfume, pronouncing it's brand name as if it were a lost essence of you...

I find myself with the container inches away from my nose, and with my mind in a trance where i'm fulfilled brusquely with memories of you that reach out for me and pull me out of the lonely darkness surrounding me.
what use are such soft lips
if you kiss
even the most beautiful words
so brusquely
Steph Portuguez Jan 2020
Headache:

Illusion,
hidden,
non-existent,
unexpected persistence.
Annoying obsession with their secrets
plead guilty to an endless stagnation of the thoughts, watch the time,
don’t you dare to run that fast,
what an unfair distance of my past.

I’m in love with the moment I believed the lies.

Merry ******* Christmas:

The smell of December afternoons remind me of my beloved lost field,
a place where their fears didn’t fit.
The ocean at night, the foam of the waves, the unknown submerged, the revenge of the whales.

The sincere,
hideous,
laughter of the kid,
charming snort of embarrassment,
disaster and awkwardness well deserved for the king.

I’ve never felt the snow of the winter’s tale,
never believed in the white bearded obese man,
the red walking miracle in flesh or in the newborn baby on a December night.

But when I look at the skies, I do try to look for that star, I do sit calmly on the swing of my hometown park, tried to comprehend the distance between me and the unreachable sky.
Wish I have a big enough fan so I can scatter the clouds, wish I could find someone else
as intrigued and dissatisfied as myself.
But what if there’s no one up there?

Friendship:

When we were all friends,
remember! When our ties weren’t supposed to be unleashed, when our blood our pinky were as sacred as unique.
Remember! The sunset at that abandoned ***** beach, the ringing of my ears unexpectedly started to emit, that sublime but creepy melody, that made us all smirk,
as well predictedwe lost the sun that evening, my peers.
We lost it all, the carless state of being ashamed, the bruises and the scrapes.
Our disgusting bitten blue nails, the eggnog sticked in our greasy hair, the ashes from Mr.Bobby’s dog, the lust and hopeless mood on our road to fictional love, the promised goodbye, our last play on the trash, we didn’t know it was the last.

Bedroom:

When did I stand up from my bed? Looked at the ceiling, increasing emotions of defeated.
I rejected the successful, luminous path.
Neither abomination nor ambition, I spied on their lives, neither shame nor proudness for them.
They became the ensembles of relate, the shadow of triumph, the dinner for the lions.
I was still standing there, my toes were nailed to the soil, my neurons were paralyzed, almost to the void. My heart was projecting an image of familiarity, a far but so near remembrance of sweet tragedy.

Fantasy road:

That dead end road, that nightmare but dreamy  orgasam, I never claimed to stop.
I just wanted to sit, on that beautiful but desolated long street.
Heat penetrating through my **** cheeks, our lingering truth was shut down by the stormy roof, the instant picture of our nostalgic bereavement, that half smile of nearly achievement.

Smile in the war:

The yearn for crying of joy, bliss, felicity that feeling of undestroyed.
Never cried it but so desired it, I want my red lipstick to be wiped off, my mascara to be inked into my leather and soul.
I want my jeans, my sneakers to be burnt off, all in flames, cremated remains into its lust.

Episodes of coconut:

I’ve always liked to go through the tempest alone,
one day I won’t be able to let go.
I erased the paranoia by holding my tears, supress the tsunami in front of my dears.
When my voice breaks, my hands start to shake, I look away.
Please don’t hug me, my heart might explote, I don’t wanna sail again this flood.
I’m the the Dictator of Happinessland, I’ll be smiling even when my ******* will be full of sand.
I built the highway of miserable state, I found comfort on being wrong in a good way.

Friendship:

There are just shadows walking, now all I see are their ghosts.
****** up and vanished from the streets of the yesterday.
Actions, promises, we were gonna be last the ridiculous standing.
It never mattered, It won’t never matter.

Bedroom:

I’ll disintegrate myself supposing someday I’ll try my best.
I’ll decompose myself shouting from my mattress, my cave,  such a shame.
Friends are called dogs to me, human companions are named Mom and Dad.
The more pathetic it gets, hide your bother, don’t watch me cry.

Child in the last row:

I used to think that someday I would understand, “when I grow old I’ll celebrate to be them”.
The times at the backyard, the mud  in my palms, my old tamagotchi was my lethal weapon on display, these naughty aliens won’t get my by any chance.
I peed in the line to brushing  my teeth, nobody remembers how I cried, nobody remembers me  in fact.
I was the first to get caught in the game, my rolls didn’t allow me to run, I tried to keep my posture, I still fell, that garbage can just got in my way, what a winner I became.
The teacher’s room was our getaway from the tumult of recess, what a 12 year old badass.
We’re just practicing the flute, it’s too much of noise outside ma'am.
I’ll just spin on the chair until the bell rings, keep making sounds with this stupid instrument that I never learnt to play.
The Winnie the Pooh mural never meant nothing to my eyes, the words  “don’t rush and sit to enjoy” were just a low whisper to my ears. I  feel nothing when I left. I’m feeling everything every sunrise on this Earth.

The failure of the butter:

The bathrooms smelled like purification of golden ****, the humidity didn’t permit me to look at myself, I prefer to watch them put make up on their clean, pretty flesh.
I used to fall to the wet ground even more oftently back then, I weirdly enjoyed it, those goofy laughs gave me life. These times we’re inseparable, the grass and bullet ants will never disturb us at any predicted chance.
The destroyer was disguised as ourselves and the mysterious minion, the so called inevitable time. We were just pretending to care. “Change” the old enemy of many out there, a bittersweet goodbye to you, my dear idiotic  friend.

Heartache:

That old pathetic wish to go backwards to the point of start or the moment you’d like to be frozen in time. The universe might be immense, the complainings of my mind are not that irrelevant to care. I was built to properly play their master game. My energy is too low, pass me another battery of wise ignorance. I’d like to be normal and logical again. The acceptance from the tribe, the acceptance of our lie.

The end of the train rail? :

I’ll brusquely let my back lay on the soil with this rocking chair, I’m trying to restart this smudgy aged brain.
As I  fell to the void, as my spine cracked, my skull brutally bounced, my memory gently engaged the regret. The free gift of my private sold ache.
As a venomous serpent I spread the bitterness to my environs, my well kept tears where drowning  my designated  ones, their love was on doubt, I owned the fault. I owe them all.
The psychedelic trip was ruined by my old desperation, my frustrated self,  scratching inside from home sweet home of indignation.
Memories of ****** and self- joy,  blurred, exported and deleted to the never void.
I experienced the underated pain, I praised to gain and gain, I lost the nostalgia of the better days, I locked my desires of the will to vividly feel, I warmed up my limbs to melt down my putrefaction of thrills,  I sank myself into the state of not that sad and crippled ****,  I missed the unforgettable moment  of getting trapped next to the not so evil man, I poorly drew my fate, I’ll miserable forever stay. I camly crawled on the sand, “agony let me lay down”, I felt envy of the moon, I watched all of your glances, you all seemed like wondering when it was going to end.

Am I still here yet?
Brian Densham Mar 2017
Bruscamente (brusquely)*                                                     ­                             
Cupid!   Wingèd cherub warrior
Pluck this arrow from my heart!
Pierce one more compliant with your
Sweet love potion’s little dart!

Pesante (sadly)                                                         ­                                       
Leave me empty in my sorrow
For my lover has betrothed
So at least, until tomorrow,
Every form of love is loath

Scherzando (playfully)                                                     ­                             

In the morning, I’ll endeavour
To uncover unpledged muse
Then your little bow and quiver
And your arrows I … could use

Semplicemente (plainly)                                                       ­                     

Sweet paradox – mocks tragedy
For love … is love’s sole remedy
Canadian Spelling
Copyright 2003 B.Densham
Suhail Umar Jun 2017
And they count me two,
At least one and a part,
Now I am being branded on its own,

Was good at sums,
Multiply and divides,
Came to me inborn, inherited

They stared at me,
Brusquely through corners of eyes,
Oh! There was one of acumen,

Not to be befooled,
Not blown away, missed I never,
I sailed through the early hours of my youth,

It came in a continuum,
Even at the moment and then,
Rest, I am not as good as thee,

I forgot you,
Did you not recall me?
Did you want that or that wished thee,

Deep in the thoughts,
Sailing in memories & memoirs,
It’s you, entire I wished to be,

You walked away,
On a diverse path, poles apart,
You chose to amend my destiny,

Fly you did,
Never for a minute did you halt,
It was too hurried, I couldn’t follow,

I want not to recall,
To be in motion,
All through this tide,

Crippled emotions,
One twist so curved,
Refuses to let safe as I cross,

Built to tear down,
Anything remainder of me,
I refuse to evaporate, burn it may

Replenished by my blood,
Happy in my displeasure,
Seeks to bring down the pile of me,

I breathe, I continue to,
Happy & in high spirits,
One too many tags fastened to me,

I sail, sail & sail
Through the blue, I set away far and wide,
Scares me no more the tide,

In the midst,
Of my, my, my existence,
My psyche takes a detour,

It fetches me you,
Dazzling in your presence,
Haven’t felt normal for times,

I hate the sea,
Disgusted for its tides,
Splash water on my face, bring me back,

May possibly I be excused,
And rent out in my thoughts,
Can I only live in my fantasy, if there only I want to be,
Elizabeth Foley Mar 2019
“Once upon a time”
The age old fairytale
About each perfect little princess
Finding her perfect little male
From birth into adulthood
We read about princes and knights
We’re promised a perfect match
To join us on our plight
So we sigh and sit and wait
Or sit and work and sigh
Always quietly wondering
If our prince has passed us by
Then with each lunar passing
And each trip around the sun
Our age brusquely informs us
That our prince may never come
No knights on noble steeds
Ride up to right our wrongs
There is no handsome nobleman
To play us his love songs
Except for those of course
Whose love proves insincere
The ones who leave us jilted
And actualize our greatest fears
With each disappointment
Another petal falls away
Slowly killing any magic
Leftover from our early days
Until one day an unassuming
Handsome man appears
Offers a ride on his white horse
Then promptly disappears
esther rugoli May 2014
a desperate hope
in a deep hole
to reach the brim was stl far
.the ladder found me hopeless
brusquely i climbed up
to the last step i found myself shaken down
and the persistence made me climb again and pushed me to the brim.
after ward i walked around the brim of the hole .
i didn't feel like taking a look down the hole but where to go......to be continued
standing near the brim my back facing the hole finding where to go
finding no where to direct  and i thought behind my back might be some
Sunny Gulati Jul 2018
A maverick personality with

a bohemian style of dressing.

A flowing beard and a hat worn obliquely.

He was a painter par excellence,

exhibiting his piece de resistance.

His painting was to any eye a treat

but a part of it was left incomplete.

Left inadvertently or maybe intentionally.

My curiosity got the better of me

and prompted me to inquire brusquely.

The artist answered rather politely,

“I leave it incomplete to stay away from conceit.

To avoid being coloured with it vainly.

And prevent my ego from craving more than what my skill can achieve.

The incomplete painting now made sense to me as I continued to  marvel at his masterpiece.
Tom Salter May 2020
“Bountiful
            Beauty”
broken
         beaten
burnt
         by
badly
          behaved
  boys
           bearing
  burly
               bodies
brusquely
                  built
             by
                “Boisterous  
      Benevolence”.
smallhands Sep 2016
winter brought cabin fever, which was harder
to diminish because I was in love
illumination whites intensely, brusquely,
despite the heavy woodwork flaunting comfort

beauty was within the blustery coats, fear was
whittled away due to blooming images of us together
it waxes in beams dripping thick happy wishes
from corners bright

what was brutally captivating fed me, ushered
out the cold, which would always delve through
broken ideas of love and lace them back together,
the same as they were before, and tighter

-c.j.
Jon Watkinson Apr 2021
A smooth and straight, an ordinary road
But in contrast to the houses of the area with trim hedges
Round their gardens with their cherry and apple trees,

That smooth and straight, and ordinary road, was an outsider
And ditto to re-occupied Nissen huts.

Heath grass had been cut short up to the edge of the road.
Down the centre there were proper markings
And cat's eyes.   Now, I retain a picture of a squeaky clean
Smooth surface, colour a silvery, smoky grey.   

Cars, trucks, some US military,
Would pass you by, grouped or singly, brusquely,
An air of unconcern native to them,
Engines' noises punctuating dominance

And if you ever thought to walk, even slide
A foot onto this road, vehicles
Would not stop and there would result outrage.
Sometimes I dreamt of a distant city.

I figured plain buildings hard to get to know, imposing,
In my mind it would be a quiet place
And, of course,
Important.  Fifty miles; what
Anyone would do there, beyond imagining;

It all meant something different
At less than seven years old.

Those days we caught a bus, which went the other way,
To go to school.  We had to cross that silver/grey road,

That inflexible road, then walk
A furlong or so up a gentle *****

Across the grassy heath to a winding
Road shaded by a deciduous wood, with crows;
A bendy, friendlier road.

With some of us larking about we went in a group
To wait for the bus.
Anywhere near that first road,
I walked close to the parent escorting us.

I would always feel unsafe near such an unkind road.
During private times she bounced like a volley ball. Linda was dwarfish, sinister & bald. Her stringy hair was matted. Soon she would know death. The sisters hungered for a man's brutal love as neither chick had known of such a thing & were desperate to be plumbed as the term is often understood to mean.
   One day a man showed up. He knocked & Linda, the sister of Lisa, answered. “Yes? Do you want something?” The man didn't want anything from her. “Well?” She asked. But still the man said nothing. “Speak up!” Linda demanded. The man stood silently, a muted testimony to the hard-driven life that he had lived since boyhood. Linda slammed the door. The man knocked again.
   “What's going on?” A naked Lisa asked, fresh from the attic.
   “There's a man knocking on the door.”
   “Well,” Lisa said, still naked, “I'll see what this is all about.” Lisa flung open the door to find that the man was naked. “What's all this?” She demanded of the strange man who remained silent.
   “Let me get to the bottom of this!” Linda said, who was now naked, as she brusquely pushed her naked sister aside. “Listen here buddy,” Linda informed, “state your business or get lost!”
   “You tell him!” Lisa chimed in.
   The naked man grinned and then smiled. Lisa & Linda did likewise. The dew was drying on the grass and it wasn't half as dewy as it had been 20 minutes before.
   “We'd better do something about this before everybody knows,” Lisa opined.
   “What?” Linda asked. With that the mysterious naked man walked away.
   “That's strange,” Lisa observed. “We may never know the meaning of his visit.”
   Linda sobbed: “Some day he'll be the best husband in the world!”
Lisa was tall & unattractive. She had dull-pink goodies on her storeys one & two. During private times she bounced like a volley ball. Linda was dwarfish, sinister & bald. Her stringy hair was matted. Soon she would know death. The sisters hungered for a man's brutal love as neither chick had known of such a thing & were desperate to be plumbed as the term is often understood to mean.
   One day a man showed up. He knocked & Linda, the sister of Lisa, answered. “Yes? Do you want something?” The man didn't want anything from her. “Well?” She asked. But still the man said nothing. “Speak up!” Linda demanded. The man stood silently, a muted testimony to the hard-driven life that he had lived since boyhood. Linda slammed the door. The man knocked again.
   “What's going on?” A naked Lisa asked, fresh from the attic.
   “There's a man knocking on the door.”
   “Well,” Lisa said, still naked, “I'll see what this is all about.” Lisa flung open the door to find that the man was naked. “What's all this?” She demanded of the strange man who remained silent.
   “Let me get to the bottom of this!” Linda said, who was now naked, as she brusquely pushed her naked sister aside. “Listen here buddy,” Linda informed, “state your business or get lost!”
   “You tell him!” Lisa chimed in.
   The naked man grinned and then smiled. Lisa & Linda did likewise. The dew was drying on the grass and it wasn't half as dewy as it had been 20 minutes before.
   “We'd better do something about this before everybody knows,” Lisa opined.
   “What?” Linda asked. With that the mysterious naked man walked away.
   “That's strange,” Lisa observed. “We may never know the meaning of his visit.”
   Linda sobbed, “Some day he'll be the best husband in the world!”
Before scant opportunity
to make amends totally tubular slips away,
I (one generic doubting thomas)
reach out across cyberspace without delay
jumpstarting and kickstarting reflections
linkedin with fifty plus shades of gray
snapchatting and twittering
do you know the way to San Jose?

A random destination
I imaginatively mosey
lackadaisical bridging divide to Oakland,
whereby poor excuse for papa doth pray
ye will accept mine attempt

to mend figurative fences - slay
the beast of burden oy vey
once for all under woes
to paternal parent who cares -
singing yippie yie yay!

Impossible mission to banish and  
vanish woes that didst zap
thee when yours truly (delinquent dada)
fictitious and/or transgressions
he doggedly, cruelly, and blithely
years gone by did yap

pained fallout across precious progeny
alienation doth still wrap
hermetically sealed darling daughters
none other than yours truly fell prey
to his self made abominable trap

scheming adulterous liaisons
just barely avoiding marital mishap
though irrevocable psychological fallout
heavily impacted metaphorical didst kneecap
father/daughter relationships annihilated
with ear splitting emotional thunderclap,

thus only apology offered accursed philandering
soiling restitution, whereby
reparations forever swallowed
into a figurative (bay sic) wide
gulf course teed off handicap.

No matter probable (understandable) aversion ye
experienced toward lame casanova wannabe
unfaithfulness tarnished potential virtue thee
need never invite papa
into your confidentiality prithee

regarding filial rapport with Zayda
(my father) forgiveness key
as I too grieve since grim reaper will emcee,
when labored breathing ceases and Boycie
joins grateful dead.

Awareness pronounced inevitably his passing will
(does) sadden heart and soul of indomitable gal
regarding said lass, (who brusquely reciprocates)
possessing academic energetic,
italic opportunistic skill

cuz, I recognize
no vibrant rapport exists between us,
nor could or would I impose
to beget profound sharing when nil,
née nonexistent bond prevails

never knowing mine dad's mein kampf,
a moost bitter pill,
hence quite so many decades in future
when basic life functions analogous to uphill
battle, grandpa Matthew Scott
witnesses rigor mortis, which sets mine
once upon a time washboard abdomen
into matted, flaccid, and bloated flesh
as if drowned in the Schuylkill.
Lisa was tall & unattractive. She had dull-pink goodies on her storeys one & two. During private times she bounced like a volley ball. Linda was dwarfish, sinister & bald. Her stringy hair was matted. Soon she would know death. The sisters hungered for a man's brutal love as neither chick had known of such a thing & were desperate to be plumbed as the term is often understood to mean.
   One day a man showed up. He knocked & Linda, the sister of Lisa, answered. “Yes? Do you want something?” The man didn't want anything from her. “Well?” She asked. But still the man said nothing. “Speak up!” Linda demanded. The man stood silently, a muted testimony to the hard-driven life that he had lived since boyhood. Linda slammed the door. The man knocked again.
   “What's going on?” A naked Lisa asked, fresh from the attic.
   “There's a man knocking on the door.”
   “Well,” Lisa said, still naked, “I'll see what this is all about.” Lisa flung open the door to find that the man was naked. “What's all this?” She demanded of the strange man who remained silent.
   “Let me get to the bottom of this!” Linda said, who was now naked, as she brusquely pushed her naked sister aside. “Listen here buddy,” Linda informed, “state your business or get lost!”
   “You tell him!” Lisa chimed in.
   The naked man grinned and then smiled. Lisa & Linda did likewise. The dew was drying on the grass and it wasn't half as dewy as it had been 20 minutes before.
   “We'd better do something about this before everybody knows,” Lisa opined.
   “What?” Linda asked. With that the mysterious naked man walked away.
   “That's strange,” Lisa observed. “We may never know the meaning of his visit.”
   Linda sobbed, “Some day he'll be the best husband in the world!”

— The End —