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Nupur Chowdhury Sep 2018
Dust motes and sweat stains
Faded graffiti over rusted steel plates
Advertising everything, from politicians to a massage parlor,
The engine roars disgruntled, in smoky rancor.

I stepped on your feet, said I was sorry
Tell me mister, could you tell I was lying?
Pushing through the rush-hour crowd
I finally found my footing and was proud.

Well, there’s something to be said for low expectations
A word of praise for cranky co-passengers.
Not that the polite ones aren’t fun,
When they smile and roll their eyes like they’re so done.

And it’s not that I’d ever expect sincerity,
At 10 on a rainy Tuesday morning
I’m not a nihilist, or even much of a cynic by default
But at 10am, I take nice with a bucket of salt.  

I put on my headphones, crank the volume up to max,
Sway to the shrill screeching of pirated tracks
I’m sorry, did you say something? I can’t really tell.
It’s not you’re uninteresting, it’s just that this song is swell.

And maybe I could’ve made more of an effort
Gotten to know your name, exchanged toffees and emotional support
Maybe you’d have told me your story, if my ears were free
Maybe we could’ve found something worth a keep.

But you see, mister, it’s not you it’s me
At 10 on a Tuesday morning, I’m not the best company.
I hope, tomorrow, you’ll find a co-passenger worth your time,
As for me, facelessness suits me just fine.
The Dedpoet Apr 2016
Poems, the consciousness of minutes
Plucked like corn from the ear
Of language,
Between the here and now
Of echoes reflection,
A door to everywhere and nowhere
At the desk,

An escape from the peoples,
From the abyss that fills,
From the sulfuric melancholy
Where unconquerable ruins
Lay at the foot of memory
Armed with an assault of words.

The beneficent metaphorical
Divinities of the moments we
Connect like spinning webs,
You, me, him, her,
They, poets and every one else.

We compact time ripping off
The facelessness of vanities,
Provokers of thought,
Erupting the sensitivity and
Stirring the pit of emotion.

Every poet must know a lover
To cut the cord from the ink
And commit to the experience
Of the realised, words become
What we have done.

Nouns, pronouns, adjectives, these things
Are tools to the inner soul,
We become prophetic and speak
The Fallen,
We know the children of dust
And ignite the realised poem
In each of them,
This is how poetry exists,
How philosophy exists,
And love,
And even hate.
And if these things don't exist,
Then I do not exist,
Neither do you.

Somewhere in the darkness
A prisoner of words begins
Writing the light brighter
than any under the sun.

The first of first, her hair in the
Motion as she flicks slender finger
With her eyes gushing in a half
Smile, the music on the radio,
The memory of Mother, everything,
Everywhere, poetry is life,
It writes itself!

And here in this decalogue,
Every love survives,
Every pain manifest,
Streaking in the heart the
Blood races to the fingers and
Bleeds words to paper.

Every poem is a sacrifice,
Time, energy, pieces
Of you, pieces of I
Scattered in the penumbra,
We become as crystalline structures,
Transparent translation of the
Spirit that burns.

Every man and woman
Writes the experience,
Life and its unique constellation
Of emotions, enormously
We must write the world,
The poem is real,
The images speaks itself.

Poetry is life,
Deserve your poem.
Alexander K Opicho
(Eldoret, Kenya;aopicho@yahoo.com)


My people have seasoned the art of begging
They don’t want to beg when begging is necessary
My leaders have compelled our people to beg
Begging that what they have leeway to graft
Begging is couth only when it’s necessary
But not because there is plethorae
Of willing donors who are not even better
Addiction to begging is a political syndrome,

Africa has to stop temerarious begging
Otherwise the burden of debt will erode
Your sons and daughters away
In to the ocean of facelessness
For the slave master owns controls
Only labour of the slave
But in contrast to the borrowing vice
The debt master controls the soul
Of the borrower.
dark leaps when
there is the frothing light
beaming a sizable aureole
on your face
this evening
and its palpable brigade.

dark is having your
inwoven dress free
from swaying
pressed against raucous
facelessness of things
rogue and renegade.

and when i have you
not, shining the light
and its intone,
wind felt like
stabs or
i in attendance
of a crazed vaudeville—
trapeze is the hinge
of the void
afloat, upstream, space-hovering;
a display of love
   and not so much
is shown of the vertigo
trapped in a square,
a face
impinged in the seamlessness
of this fabulation
when you've gone
quickly fading out;
    
     light is my remember,
o, dark my
     forgetling.
Michael W Noland Nov 2012
born of blood
from a thorn
of a beautiful flower

from the love
of the horned
adorned
in power

cowering
in the vicious
maliciousness
of the constituents
in the deliverance
to my ridiculousness

saw
twisted shapes
and contorting faces
heard
blurred words
displaced
in hateful slurs
of aggression

and i cannot count the cases
in my tasteless confessions
in my reluctant concessions
in my brutal perfection
of my obsessions

imposed against my will
you're supposed to feel
what they do
right?

opposed to killing
for the thrill
but it sometimes
just feels right

shanky gone unscrupulous

shivering
his shimmied
blood on the walls

stuttering stanleys
still silly stringing
calling for candy
but missed last call
and fell to the floor

as Bruno butchered the boar
in a deplorable fashion

a crime of passion

we were hungry
rubbing our tummies
for the honey
of bee hives

jive turkeys
turning to bunnys
for good times

but we were alive
while others were not

fraught with darkling majesty
sparkling at the seraded points

disjointed
in Freudian
ointments

self anointed
as god

standing over
some butchered
brod from abroad
wiping the fog
of dislodged
eye sockets
from my grog

how you get
from there to here
isn't really a fair mirror
on my intention

i meant to
suspend her
just enough
to face f--k
and with luck
strangle her

but she prayed to be ripped down
in her own way

my f--king way

stripped her
of dignity
wimpering
in little cute sounds

who am i?
but the guy
who spaced

hit her
too many times in the face
and replaced her
facelessness
with ***** toiletries

disappointingly
underwhelmed

still in search of a fairy
to take the helm
and ferry me
from this film

disparagingly
just spare me
the tragedy and grief
blaring from the TV

as i mock
their expressions
in my lessons
of humanity
before the flock

to shelter
my anxiety or not

gonna be
a real boy one day
and conform
to the
wayward ways

the way
of sheep

sleeping
soundly
in decay

blue fairy
gonna
marry me
one
day

be
real
one
day

one

day

1


d
a
y
a rewrite from a couple months ago. there some effed up lines that were driving me crazy.
Maria Hale Mar 2012
It’s night. Deepest darkest blackest night.

I feel the pinch and fear of one hunted,

the prey run out of options.

No help is given, though plainly demanded.

The thin veneer of civilization threatens to give way.



There is no escape from the knot in my stomach

because we’re hemmed in at all sides

and I’m panicking at the facelessness of my enemy,

as I evolve from woman to female.



What is the world where we aren’t what we thought we were?

From adults to children. From children to animals.

Stepping backwards. A warped progression.

Sterilize. Maintain. Control. Clean. Safe.



The world seems to whisper as if someone(thing?) is listening…

Big Brother(Sister?) the walls have ears(eyes?)…



KingdomPhylumClassOrderFamilyGenusSpecies.

Anama­liaChordataMammaliaPrimatesHominidaeHomoSapiens.



Two legs doesn’t mean you’re safe from

acting like you have four.

****

sapiens



Ecce, ****! Fiat lux.

or else we’re doomed.



Intellect to instinct.

Man to mammal.



Walk on two legs now, can you afford to lose them?



Ad insaniam, ut illuminabit…

Vel in flammis tandem finis.



SUM EST.



Chaos is closing in. Can you cope?
the edge of green,
   egress — conscious permission
of some inundation or cataract

  and the raucous facelessness
  of passing figures. army melancholia
in situ — past greens of dread
    and red, some blue of course (in
    dapple of sunlight bordering
      sublimities)

  i submit to its silence and no longer
     ponder its requisites. draped
by fog, helm of pines. the zigzag of
      deliverance swindling the disposable
line of fast-paced time-hover.

       there's no god here. only the
wind, the trellis surmising a component
    of nothing and happening,
  and all ephemera cycling across
   seasons forever changing and their
obsolescence of ways to retain their
    positions until air frizzles
  no
     longer
   than a bated  breath.
biche Jun 2015
I rise before dawn
Most days
There is promise in the brightening sky -

I linger long
Over coffee with hot fluffy milk, as
There is also promise in the rich bitter rush,
Even as it passes me by.

Possibility and memory
Fight over turf
In both your heart and mine -

While inside my tired mind
The voice fed by too many books
Tries to be kind,

And fails.

My darling, she says
You are shiny and beautiful
And no doubt have the smarts -
But you're a *****! Can't you see?
A cold-blooded ***** who breaks hearts.

Not so! I exclaim,
Defending my honor,
I have always walked the high road
And I look back at her facelessness -
Her shallow reserves -
I'm convinced she's a goner.

And then you cheered for me!
Before turning your back,
And looking down at your screen,
Gathering your steam
Traveling as you flee -
You are walking down a path
Toward a horizon I cannot see.

While the voice laughs with cruel glee,
I pray you won't yet forget about me.

Without your eyes to look into,
I stare with emptiness, out to sea.
on a hot day
on a cold night
trees moving systemically to the wind
left, right and center as a dance
leaves jumping for joy
cool breeze soothening the nerves
fat men under sheds
dark men in  white shirts
facelessness of the dark makes children uneasy
chatter from girls, talks from boys
elders glued to radio
mothers in wrappers tending to food
promises made at the dark corners
babies snoring
the breeze stops
mosquitoes alert for food
wrappers make swoosh sound
legs,hand beaten in despiration to ****
the restlessness of the childeren becomes a burden
the radio an unending noise
life is weird
even on a cold night it can be hot.


akinwale damilare
getting real, no mere,
yet first, we shall

utter the unspeakable,
sculpt with our eyes
the faintest image,
hear silence's roundness
circumnavigate our mind's
trying verseliterations.
dream a dying thing;
a facelessness
nor a jell - thinking the
unthinkable,
so that in our desperation,
words morph into
anticipated things written
in lighted calligraph -
and with these, things unmoving
shall grow hands and commune to us
through transmogrifications
and cling onto us...

like a thing drowned in love,
or startled, whichever.
Arlene Corwin Feb 2018
Writing In The Middle Of The Night

There’s something nice about the facelessness
Of  Internet,
The anonymity you get
Despite the photos and the instant thing
You hope will ring the bell
Of those around the global ball.
A kind of secret.
You needn’t tell your thoughts,
Spell correctly,
Use our mouth, make a sound -
Just sit there typing while the world goes round.
North, south, east, west,
You’ve got all the time to test your creativity.
Believe me, it’s the best invention
Since sliced bread, the paper clip,
The toilet roll, words ‘hip’ and ‘soul’.

For people who want name and fame
It is a trip to paradise.
The price   is shekels.
What the heck, it’s only money!
And for people whose agenda is pure vanity,
A dream (both fantasy and joy).

In any case, if I may say it once again,
There’s something I appreciate
About the gate that’s opened
Through the faceless anonymity,
Potential creativity and artistry
Implicit
In the Internet.
Writing In The Middle Of The Night 2.9.2018The Processes: Creative, Thinking, Meditative; Arlene Corwin
It's great!
Nebunebu Sep 2017
Wood-crafted faceless actors sloppily waltz through life; gripping tight to their personal poisons.  Never dare they meet eachother.  Never dare they interact.

"Face forward!  They won't notice your hollow face if they keep their focus on distraction.  They won't notice your broken face; be it they clinch to their own facelessness.  That white-knuckled clinch."

Julian hasn't belonged to anybody.  Some whisper that he never will.  (Whispering to themselves of course)

Dare Not Look Eachother In The Eyes.

Dare Not Speak.

Rebecca chokes on memories of Julian.  We all love Rebecca, but she'll drown on these memories.  Tell yourself that she couldn't have stopped him.  We know,

Shall we test you now?
You are walking through the bunker, as a well-dressed advocate asks your name.  What is your move?

"Dare Not Speak
Dare Not Look Eachother In The Eyes"  The little broken hollow faces said to themselves.
Yenson May 2020
Vacuous things in empty gales dripping
shamed impotent poltroon cackling witlessly
take odious face away and lose thy name to a letter
even kidadult coward begs anonymity for inadequacy

Old lout in fanciful fare seeks Zen knowledge
oh see the mask and pretensions in the arena of harlequins
where acts and deeds unmask to confirm and disgrace the uber clod
our nonentity bully who ascribe Enlightenment whilst a dullard dark

The Narcissist mentalist presents tosh prolifically
in mindless puffs praised by acolytes and him in other guises
childish taunts and deluded piffle showcasing stunted academia
standing that peculiar trait of ignoramus incapable of introspection

Nichiren says though its impervious to bullies
That which you give to another will become your own
sustenance; if you light a lamp for another, your own way will be lit.
our faker zen knows this, methinks not as he's still in the play-ground

Lest it not to mock the afflicted or crippled mind
but to remind that, "Cowardice and Hypocrisy are brothers
Born from Self-Interest, Insecurity and Fear " this a sanguine fact
Our under-endowed zenist (sic) knows hence the facelessness  and abbreviated identity




Do not do shameful things to make yourself hide in shame.....
Worthy persons deserve to be called so because they are not carried away by the eight winds: prosperity,decline,disgrace,honor,praise,censure,suffering, and pleasure.They are neither elated by prosperity nor grieved by decline. The heavenly gods will surely protect one who is unbending before the eight winds.

— The End —