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These lungs are still. 

As flameless fire,
We are breathing dead smoke.

Looking back at our love, 
began full of sparked ignitions and frictions of heat,  
red flames of 
passion 
love
lust 
trust
and comfort 
perhaps over sticks not coal.

We heard a whisper...
"to enjoy a lasting fire one must have a good foundation,
coal is key
not sticks nor paper
or it will burn out fast"

When tested, our fire sizzled out.
flameless love sticks was all we had to work with.
no foundation of coal.
nor that signature paper.

We've sat blowing at these sticks from all sides 
with hope of catching one last spark, 
trying to awaken the fire once again.
Campaigning within ourselves
let's live again, lust again,
love Against and beyond
ourselves

Have we lost sight of the ground?
taken by the wind of life's happenings
now barely touching at fingertips

we've forgotten the lips
that whispered
foundations of a true love's lasting fire.

are we hopeless?
our love flames are breathing on sticks
not coal. 

both locked on exhale 
no oxygen to our souls
back, neck and head coiled 
like a lifeless corps
hanging from the spine

we are dying, Love
we've blown all through and through
and I know somehow I still love you 
but while sitting in this thick cloud of smoke
I fearfully ask
how do I breathe for I and you?
Copyright © 2017 Tsholo Khumalo
Dakota Jan 2018
my net worth is three sheets
of crumpled paper and
an empty shot glass.
i am not pretending to be
anything refined, sophisticated,
worth your time.  

i’ve ruined the best things in my life
without even realizing it, absence the
only clue; there was no bother to tell me.
i am left with flaws but i am not sure
what they are because I’m too
much of a liability to be told.

there are empty matchboxes strewn
all upon my cluttered mattress
with holes burnt into it.
i have a tin lunch box full of
dead lighters; six years worth.
i never throw them away.
my bad habits exist in
every flameless flick.

will you increase my net worth
by leaving a pack of Marlboros in
my mailbox? i might not be deserving
of an explanation, but it would be
a nice peace offering. if you add
a lighter to the mix, i’ll make sure
the amethyst fades and you
no longer dream of me.
120715 #4:30PM

Just a thought,
To where everything’s ******,
Eyes in leer – flameless –
You are Beauty.

Open eyes, open skies
Open realm, open lies.
White as snow, I was
You’re the apple in spells.
As I lived, I have died too.

With rustic munitions,
You gashed my heart out.
With your circles in hoax,
You murdered me.

A sunless morning,
A moonless night,
An air so humid,
An unsalted oceans.
For in time so impeccable,
Befuddling in misdemeanors,
You’re the Beauty who’s a Beast.

Just in time,
**Forgiveness is an erudite.
Alin Jan 2015
She sees a wish lantern in the sky
a cloud crosses
it disappears
reappears
winks
and speaks

“Hi
I am here
for you!
.
You the boldness on the path of heart
You the ace who sees me
You the gaze who creates me
.
Your wish is my command
wish me a wish of love
whatever you wish
shall become true
so we flourish equally
as your love appears to you
I’ll be a real star
that hangs in the sky”

“I wish you become a real star”
she says
and smiles
“Isn't that such a good one as love?!?”

The wish light murmurs pitifully
“you should wish a wish
for a love in your heart
only then I can become a star”

“I wish then the love wish of the one in my heart be true”
and smiles
“Isn't that such good one as love!?!”

“So be it then”  the lantern says
“Your wish will be granted
the moment  you look high up
find a place for me to alight
so I can eternally be a light
in the sky
you can only wish though one wish
and you can’t take it back when once wished
is this your wish?”

Before she can reply or look up
a sudden fierce breeze
as if summer
blows the leaves
along the bushes

a  scary “red Foxjinn” jumps out
dances madly
standing straight like a human

with one feet on one world
and another feet on another world
stretches his hands
and shows her a transparent oracle ball
made of her lover’s heart
presenting all truth there is inside

“Beware of what you wish for!” it says
“Here!
Do you see!
The one in your heart
has already grown up
fully devoted for another”

“Aurora is her name :
a true love with one sacred green eye
She makes his heart burn
like flameless fire
his fire creates magical desire
full of passion
you can see them make love in northern sky”

“but
if you wish a wish for me first
that I shall be served
as the king of the two worlds
eternally
respectfully
with festive meals
daily
I can reset the story
in my hand
and he -
he can be all yours
only”

She frowns  
looks down  
gets saddened  
a teardrop falls
evaporates
vapor covers her face
as her cheeks  heat up  

‘the  trickster!’ she says
angrily
she is very angry
so angry that
'Oh beware of my fury!'
she expands the volume of the  
-just sparkled by the tiny irritation of the unrighteousness-
like a firework  
and  erupts:
“I wish you become the dawdler-king wishing love to everyone until you truly learn love”

that moment
the creature stumbles
slips on one foot
and lands with both
onto her world
transforms
to a faceless beggar
living in the dark only

She looks up at skies
sees the slowly disappearing wish light:

“Oh the bright light
I already have my part
I have got what I have
and don’t want what I cannot have
I saw you once
spoke to you
I know now that all love can come true
only when I know to wish true
let  the love wish
of the one in my heart come true
and shine through’’

A beggar in the deep dark whispers
‘may all your wishes come true’

the wish light disappears that moment
'maybe another cloud' she wonders
a street ad appears
cuts her way
until she sees the written
‘the skies are yours!’

She looks up
beyond above the giant board
and sees a twinkling star
alight in the sky.
for a dawdler-king
based on a true story -  
I am grateful to little miracles that teaches us daily and which we desire and dare to see
Stara Nov 2015
I've felt passion
And I've felt pain
I've felt the warmth
On a rainy day

I've said goodbye
So many times
Each one with a kiss
And- a heart that I miss
But- when I'm here
and when I'm stable
My heart doesn't let me
Be loving or able

I've felt pain
In the brightest of places
Full of life
and smiling faces
I felt numb
With no desire
A constant stillness
A flameless fire

I felt passion
In the darkest times
I let my mind go
I forgot how to rhyme

I imagined black holes
A strong magnetic pull
A downward heavy spiral
Where my energy flowed

I've questioned myself
I've suffered in my skin
I've searched and wondered
Then began to begin

I let the sun kiss me
On my bare skin
Yet I felt freezing cold
Shivers from a deep strong wind within

I've broken the chains
Of my education
And I've bent the rules
For my own revelation
Christos Rigakos Jan 2015
We are to come and leave and not return,
But hand our secret scroll to those who'd be.
I'll pass the writings on which passed to me,
And shrink to blackened ash with flameless burn.

As far as those who'll be--of whom will earn,
That secret scroll containing some of me,
Quite like yet quite unlike, in no way me--
They'll mourn for I'll have gone and won't return.

To live on in a heart or memory,
Is not living or life or anything,
But trite consoling words of sympathy--

A metaphor or best a simile--
suspending truth, and grief that loss will bring.
In truth no more am I nor shall I be.


(C)2015, Christos Rigakos
GaryFairy Aug 2015
clueless versus innocence
there really is no difference
one is polite and one is offensive
neither is based on resistance

do you want to remain nameless?
blameless, i guess is subjective
like a fire pit that remains flameless
our language is defective
we have so many words that mean the same thing as another word... still, we choose to take the same meaning, and make it a put down...but only toward the ones that we don't like
Mateuš Conrad May 2016
so you end up reading a book review,
about the mad myth-makers of mother russia,
the Kremlin is in thrall to men once seen
as ideological crazies: black wind, black snow,
pristine glitter of the western hemisphere:
if you regret having a conscience,
blame someone else not having one either,
motto no. 1...
Euro-Asian in russian politics:
Leicester City F.C. owned by a Thai...
mongols mongols everywhere! and not
a german to converse with! rant of the ancient
mariner... rereading, plagiarism and cheap humour;
anna akhmatova's son lev gumilev
chopping his leg along with firewood in a siberian
goo goo (dubbed the prison of the wingless
anchor of national sentiment, i.e. an eagle, quasi),
why is language to be or become an IKEA
(Sweden, Abba, great meatballs)
of putting together a table, a chair, why not take
stance with Burroughs and Tzara and make it
random? a few pedestrians along the way,
you never know when such randomness might convene
you to talk Taj Mahal postcards.
the fiend from KGB riddled east Berlin...
coca-colonialists - cola-nationalists, bought
Alaska, sold three-quarters of America to China...
#loveyourimperfections... selling love is not
like selling perfume... the thing you're selling is
an an Ayers rock sized ****... thing stank so much
you're welcome to see one bush in an acre
that's the outback...
orthodox christianity? didn't get it...
catholicism is too bureaucratic...
the Koran contradicts the genesis story of
a fire that's flameless, as the Israelites marched
a fire ahead, smoke behind them erasing tracks,
the Iblis of the Koran...
da, smert! it's all coming together like
an over-fried egg... with aleksandr dugin,
a guitar-strumming russian beatnik (
hard to be a beatnik in plateau without angry
Brooklyn streets) -
(ras)Putin based upon max stierlitz, KGB-backed
t.v. from the 1970s... or Hans Kloss,
limanov co-founded the national bolshoi party
along with behemoth (the alcoholic cat
who played chess in the Master and the Margarita)...
you've not been given any instructions,
you're already fazed with advertising interludes
changing your attention like looking into
a kaleidoscope between your favourite program...
16 years in Dresden, 22 years in England & Scotland...
but if you spent that same amount of time,
either 16 or 22 years, you might have
come across accounts of German girls after
world war ii... in the book we, children from station
ZOO
by a Christiane F. (Christine F.) -
how the three allied powers were supplying
******... teenagers on ******... the western powers...
the new treaty of Versailles... teenagers on ******...
the western powers... east Berlin waited and waited
and got the emergence of Rammstein;
o.k. fair enough, teenagers overdosing and dying
but at least three world cup titles by FRG...
and GDR doing the doping rounds of revising
world records in sprinting and acrobatics at the
Olympics... in unison the chemists just say:
please use our compounds, our additives, dope up,
all the civilians are using recreational drugs
at some point during the week, please let the
olympians use our talent to increase their potential!
ella Oct 2014
an eternal longing for a flame i cannot stand to feel. never will i comprehend the reason why my lips melt off when we kiss. they blister and bleed, so i pull away. i can’t bear the pain and stench of my burning flesh any longer. winter is approaching, the leaves will soon cease to exist. through this change i have misplaced my sweater. i feel the warmth though, i’m not quite sure exactly where it’s coming from. is it you? it is.

i can smell you.

i slowly creep my way over to your dancing flames. i watch in wonder, awe, and terror as your multicolored flames burn through the night. you’re breathtakingly beautiful, but then i notice something else. i manage to slip away from your beauty and see what i hadn't seen before. there are icicles dancing around you. circling your flame. your weakness… they sing and call to you. sirens they are, seductive and alluring. you let them come to you in the night, and corrupt you... you start to die down. slowly. sizzling. your light is dying flat. you push them away, for now. i stand watching mesmerized by your tricks. yet i'm sickened.

it’s dark now, pitch black. not a sound to be heard, except for the sizzle of your, what used to be known as flames. you’re nothing now. yet, i still stand watching. alone, in the dark. there is nothing left. you’re no where to be found and neither are they it seems.

i leave what i brought for you, on a rock beside your flameless pit.

matches.
a m a n d a Aug 2013
[because not everyone understands what i mean,
though it's obvious to me]

when i say
"you are beautiful"
the meaning
depends on the
[context]
if you know
(and everyone around you knows)
you are a striking
shining
beautiful woman
then i mean,
"you are beautiful."

if you are a person
that has just
spilled their guts
their art
done some
amazingly selfless
act
then i mean
"you are *beautiful
."

however,
if i'm speaking
to
you*,
and i say
"you are beautiful"
i am saying it
in a
g a l a c t i c
                      |cosmic|
(cellular)
e l e c t r o n - like way

i am saying
that thoughtful look
that comes across
your face
lives in
my heart

i mean
that when i see
your body
i
temp
orar
ily
lose
my
breath…
and my first instinct
is to pour
glitter gold glory
over
you
which would
bring me to tears

when i say
(those words)
i mean that
your neurons are firing
in perfect time
that every decision
you make and
emotion you
reveal
is
right

for you alone
- these words -
s t r e t c h and
enfold
and include
trust and love and
judgement
without these
[there is nothing solid]

i don't call you
an     a i r y    beauty
or a flameless cute or
a lone handsome
your brain connections have
shown themselves to
be level
calm

you are beautiful
because i said i
wanted to give you
something
    and you said
       you already had everything
  and i knew in that moment
             that you meant those words

you are beautiful
because your voice
was made for me alone
to hear my name being said…
   so that it sounds like a drum

you are beautiful
in the blue
        of your eyes
   and the little part of
      your ears
the corners of your mouth
   the softness of
your hair
the hardness of
              your thighs
   the strength in
    your arms
the sureness
          in your chest

my beautiful one
i only want you to know
    that since i found a
beautiful
      cosmic
   ethereal man
like you
  i want you for myself
      i want to show you the way

if others have failed
   to see you for who
you are
     then they are
vile creatures, indeed

when i say
you are beautiful
   i mean i see the creator
                  in you
       the spinner of reality
   who deftly grabs his
warped or broken world
         and shapes it anew
without leaking dark bitterness
onto others
      while plucking strings
   and summoning images
            from the wild vastness
of imagination

you have caught my
eye     my
      ear      my
            body
wild one

in your presence
i listen and i connect
       i watch and i remember
              i feel every touch to the core

in the stillness
these words bombard me

because i could never
say this to your face -
   i would sound
    like a silly
          over-emotional
                   unstable
girl.

so instead i lamely say,

"i really like you."
"you are beautiful."

but believe me,

i am no girl.
i am not silly.
i am not over-emotional.
i am not unstable.
i am simply a poet.

i see, i feel, and the words come.
these words are true and rather
   un-emotional at times
        more like scientific facts
being fed from the environment
     and filtered through my senses
             my brain
                     my chemicals
and spit out in
data called poetry.

here is the data regarding your beauty.
interpret it as you will.
Sam Temple Aug 2014
slight motion causes distant fog to swirl
as grey becomes blue
highlighting the green field
in the pre-sunrise morn
watery eyes look across dew covered grass blades
individually
weaving a tapestry of braids
soft chipping symphony
thrushes abound
startled hooves crash through unseen underbrush
and the first light at first blinds
then offers the tree line a perfect outline
refraction action dances through
millions of mirrors glisten
diamond style
and vaporize instantaneously
flameless fire engulfs
my peaceful meadow  
claustrophobia grips me
as natures’ noises and notions
envelope me
frantic squabbling of scrub jays
elk whistle too near
branches crash as the wind storm
tears the mountain away
I lay still as a soft white light emerges
a beacon in the sky
signifying reality
home base
something to focus on
as the fog clears and blue replaces insanity
I slowly stumble across the shiny green
filling my hat
with enough fungus
to share with the community
some seek spiritualty through preachers and pastors... bishops and books...monks and magic....not, I.
Christa tomasulo Jul 2016
In the early sun, a dew soaked swing set basks in rust as we play
I find your eyes at the window watching.
Smiling.
I am safe. I know this.
Concrete paints my knees red.
And you totter over with peroxide and a hug.
I am safe. I know this.
You'd find a path to the sun if only it stretched my popsicle lips into a smile.
I stalk home past midnight; a stomach gurgling with liquors I can't pronounce.
I find you on the couch flipping channels as your eyelids turn weak.
You approach me with a slap I was expecting.
Then a hug
Then a slap
Then a hug.
I am safe. I know this.
I'm panting with worry. My mind racing. Each thought like a poorly aimed bullet.
But you somehow find a way to extinguish them in your fists.
Until my smeary wet mascara stained cheeks swell into a laugh.
I am safe. I know this.

It is winter and you sense my eyes so flameless, fragile.
I am restrained by the presumptions of my fate.
My arms have been ripped from my sides so naturally you tear off your own limbs for my use.
Your appendage helps me to climb.
I'm out of the ditch. Because I am loved.
I am safe. I know this.  
It is industrial where the stringent work. I cower at the mass of its stolidity. But even then I find you, the earths drippy clay molding to my quirky nervous and dissatisfied self.
Everywhere else.
I am safe. I know this.
And my dear mother.
You are loved. I hope you know this.
Meg B Mar 2015
You know that feeling
you get when
you drive at night, and you
just want to feel the car fly, so you
push your foot as far as
it'll go down on the gas,
down to the baseboard,
your engine howling like a wolf in the
moonlight,
yet somehow it doesn't feel
fast enough?

That's what it feels like
getting over
you.

Getting over you is like
sneaking home, trying not to awaken
the parents that you
left dozing,
but every
single
solitary
stair
creaks underneath your weight.

It is the
new routine with the
broken ankle;
the unanswered
correspondance;
the sailing ship on
the windless ocean;
getting over you is the
road taken and laden with potholes;
the refusal of the snow
to melt,
my feet slipping out from underneath me
on the remaining ice.

Getting over you is the
flameless fire,
the un-Happy New Year,
the series of unhappy poems.

Getting over you
is the bottle of champagne I drank
to quench my thirst for you,
the texts I sent you and didn't remember,
the tears I shed as I begged the
universe (and anyone else in ear shot)
to explain why it had to
turn out this way.

You know that feeling where
up is down,
left is right,
inside is flipped outside?

You're gone.
I needn’t any evidence to prove this
Like lawyers say Res Ipsa Loquitor
To mean facts speak for themselves
Steadily sited on the driving wheel.
And my hands widely open in glorification it was a time boom that had enslaved my feelings
The blast that left my white shirt colored with artistic pictures
In bits of red, pink-scented with lip like marks.

My heart pumped like ‘I dare you for more’.
“Relax and keep calm,” were the words from her lips.
Later………I mean later,
Those around us only saw shadows that fought in a distance
Changing positions like salsa dancers.
And at this time I read her lips.
Theses two chapters seemed like a thousand pages
So short in terms of pages but enjoyable to read trust me when I tell you
A full composition settled into two, all that you know be it French
You can never get bored while you read these pages.
The smiles gave me more comfort to keep going
I wouldn’t mind reading them again and again
And even ask for extras time.
Eyes closed in deep meditation and not to absorb shyness from the surrounding
A little closer was my whisper
For it was an intensified moment.

I think I have something better for you, she claimed.
Oh yes say it before I burn with flameless fire,
Am your chef and so I make the menu
Sit back let me cook  a mighty dish for you.
And when she served, my taste buds swore
Bleeding with saliva.
I was completely drowned into her
Shallow as a bottle top but a ladder needed to climb out
I was fed with apples, berries, and nuts
Then she added, belch not before sunrise
I have got extra of what you haven’t tasted.
Tashea Young Mar 2017
2 melanized hueman beings mesmerized by the beauty of their interior extending to the exterior shells
falling under one another's enchanting spells
Time was frozen the room grew still but the eyes spoke their own language in silent yearnings of screams and yells
becoming each others eye witness
Treasuring  each other temple of sacredness
Exploring their magical majestic nakedness
Both unapologetically shameless
Igniting a fire, So passionate yet flameless.
Infecting each other with love as if it was an air borne illness, quite contagious.
Feeling the wondrous Joys of  unfiltered bliss
Picture This ...
The natural beauty the 2 shades of Brown pigmented bodies shimmering as nuggets of Gold.
2 magnificent souls are as a flower in the spring ready to unfold.
The energy flowed,
True feelings get exposed
And they both glowed.
In the darkness of unlit room was the bride and Groom, Taking turns radiating similar to the sun and and the moon.
All 3 eyes are open wide.
As both of their worlds collide.
they drink of each others water fountain flowing from inside
their fleshy beings have died
their hearts cried
their minds wonder
The Temperature was hotter than the summer
She began to stutter words she can hardly utter
while he was captivated by this wombman he called "Earth mother "
  Telling her he loved her and he would place no one else above her.
  As the sound of their pulses and hearts were beating like a drummer.
Its was something more than *** that both had to discover
From the moment her touched her,
Revealed was their true colors.
She become him and he became her,
Reflections of one another.
Going pass what Was Happening under that black silk cover.
their spirits elevated high, ascending into the sky,
she bites her lip as he kisses her thick inner thighs,
She is intoxicated from his testosterone and from the sweet smell of her pheromones he gets high.
They close their eyes for a brief moment as their minds escape and their spirits tell this earthly world Goodbye.
He taste the delicious juices overflowing from her yonnie As she screams out, "Oh Papi".
Needing him so badly.
Falling in love with every bit of him, Madly.
He takes his Royal Phallus and places it gently inside of her Royal palace.
Reaching Heaven Bliss with Every single ****** and every single sensual kiss. Their hearts are pounding like the sound of the fist banging against the wall so loudly.
He was climbing her mountain till she reached a peak at her valley.
Both have become vulnerable and open.
Then she pleasures him until she starts chokin, Chokin on the words left unspoken.
Understanding the words they don't speak because the connection between them is unique.
As the slows jams are on repeat, she sits on his face like a seat until she gets tingles all over her body and feel weak so then he flips her over and dives in to her sacred waters so deep.
Praying that this is a treasure he hopes to keep. Placing her legs around him while making the bed squeak
moving to the rhythm of the beat unleashing the soft moans of her inner freak.
Grasping  a handful of  bodacious, firm, and soft **** cheek.
The juices again began to seep.
Reaching high levels of intimacy so deep.
Time has stop and their souls sprung a leak. Finding out the truth about one another that they have found the love in which they both seek.
Such a sweet treat!
He has swept her off her feet and She had him feeling like she was that missing piece to the puzzle making him feel whole again as if he was once broken but now complete.
Olivia Tierk Oct 2010
In flameless air I can not breathe
In hopeless love I won't receive
In saddened days I blur my eyes
Emotion is my final demise
KAT Oct 2018
I've traveled long roads and neighboring cities
have spent nights in unknown beds and ****** motels
I've woken up to mornings of hangovers and cigarette butts
and have fallen in love with strangers and lost travelers

I have stories that only I can recount
and a broken heart that no one is willing to repair
I've gotten used to people coming and leaving,
loving and falling out of love with me.

Because I am the girl with a lipstick stain and smudged mascara on
with an empty bottle and a flameless lighter
I am the girl who is often forgotten
mostly by the people whom I always remember.
Jodie-Elaine Jun 2020
If I had to say something now, in this moment of a great nonsensical sense of loss it would be that I too, can’t stop falling in love but am stuck in the 1950s, I can’t carry a tune or stand in line so there is very little hope, they said hope was the last thing in the jar, and when the lid slammed shut, we were saved from it all. That earth angel knew what she was doing, wholly like a lock of blonde hair from Doris Day, when she set the paper moon on fire, and I guess Bobby knew it too, when he dunked it underwater, hoping to send it somewhere flameless and soggy, beyond the sea. I cried into the moon, tripping over my slippers and I put my head on the bookcases’ shoulder, Paul Anka and Chubby Checker themselves couldn’t quench the tears, I was twisted you see, and I didn’t think it could be the same again. Time to put the cardboard cut-out down, the picket signs chopped to fences and I dragged my toes, I fell in love with the plastic walls, the table I built and a thick, encompassing sense of home, like a teenager in love, I don’t know why they did it but the high crooning voice of Lymon helped me unstick from the walls. Some spirit of left creativity, me and my bereftment belong together, tied when Ritchie Valens dropped us down behind the chest of drawers, I yelled to grab a hand, but it fell quietly onto the curtain pole, impaling itself. Nathaniel entered the room, came looking but answered the ringing with a “Hey, Mama” and left. I couldn’t save my own last dance, I didn’t know that I was it, it drifted and said it would meet me someplace. It said it would meet me when the air clears, it’s getting late and tonight I look something dear and washed up. I miss you so dearly, send me. I hadn’t known that that would be it, this impressive but horrific amalgamation, and I’ve been here for too long.
The screen is dark and blank, I can’t see anything past it here.
Here in this empty space where it all was.
Stream-of-consciousness poetry heavily inspired by music
ABadPenname Apr 2015
Miserious
& useless. Pretty problematic.
—I came twice on my own,
Then lifted leg against the party house;
my desires don't come to me.
   I am flameless (without fire),
And my prose is without life
as well—but coming along.
Remains a lifeless means of conversation.
   Grammatical Corrections:
Irritation, a distinction of the
"Left & Right" brains:
One side with thoughts of you— a
Desperate, romantic fraud, and
so indulgent of the sensuous.
And one classical side of head is
Dull and thirsty for the knowledge of things. If all we are to each other is our actions, then I must be one hell of a catch.
Dying Embers Nov 2015
Lost in those brown eyes
That smile at me
As your vise like grip of love
Clenches upon my heart
Ice cold fingers digging in
Burning in a flameless fire
Forbidden desires
Consume me
Body yearns
For a demons touch
Heart aches
Desires foresake
The unrelenting pain
Of a souls lust
Terry Collett Oct 2014
I can't believe
how raw I feel
despite the length
of unwound time.

The gripping heart,
like fingers
squeezing tight,
the same flow up
behind the eyes,

the same sensation
around the throat
like one about to choke,
like the inhalation
of flameless smoke,

the opening up
of wounds one thought
were healing,
that rawness,
that deep plunging in,
that cold hurt feeling
still sinking in.

O my dear one,
my dead son,
O you just beyond
my reach or seeming so,
tell me where you are
that I may go.

No, no,
I know,
time's hand
will tick it
soon enough,
I guess,
whether months
or years or countless
decades, like ocean's wide.

Still raw,
still seeking
that place to weep,
that place to hide.
A FATHER TALKING TO HIS DEAD SON.
Silent colors swaying away,
Like a blade that cuts the stars.
A far reach,
Yet close enough to blind.

The emotional synesthesia of my heart and mind,
Conspire to light the fires beneath,
And set myself ablaze on the flameless pyre.

I stare at the wares that I have created,
As I continue the debate with me, myself, and I.

Ticking away.
The timeless eyes.
Bear witness.
To the lightless skies.

The silent colors.
That only I can see.
These synesthetic linguistics.
That fall away.
Onto the synthetic pages.
To which you read.
this is the color black that i read with today.
I just follow what my mind tells me to say,
and hopefully one day,
the words that I write,
will cure this fight,
that I believe may never end,
if not but when this happens,
I may just  walk away,
because without this fight...
I wouldn't even know what to say.
Satsih Verma Sep 2023
For a patch of happiness
you rushed into the arms
of clouds. Only to fall back with tears.
The glazing authority of moon
hangs on the poverty of spiked wisdom.
Betrayal is the norm of celestial thinking;
how can you accept a dropp of death?

What is your motive
in watching the pain?
A path, a tunnel,
a precipice. The collage of purity
has the innocence of sorrow.
And truth, sails like a phoenix.
There is complete silence.
The flameless fire collapses
lapping up the anger.

Pouring out all the heart beats,
emptying the mind
darkness lowers the wheels
between muscles and bones.
Your body is eaten half by dusty thoughts.
Claustrophobia chokes the little stanzas
you are afraid, some one cares for you.
Whit Howland Nov 2019
Flameless
more like angry slashes

black and red
xs and crosses

the rest is
scattered flecks of paint

question
what is fire and do I feel it

now
when and where it counts

somewhere deep
beyond the soul

I'm searching in you
dear artist

for a poem
or at least a spark of one

and like you
it's not about the flames

eternal
or otherwise

Whit Howland © 2019
Abstract Word Art
rey Jan 2019
I’ve lost control of my own body.
the sadness and despair that has shown up
has decided to stay.
my words don’t feel like my own
the slashes in my wrists
aren’t what I want
the burning in my soul
is flameless and smoky
I didn’t want this,
i want my control
i want MY control!
it’s my body,
but my brain
lost it’s reigns.
i’m scattered and messy
and i can’t do anything about it
the lack of motivation
to the lack of sleep
turned my normal life
into a living hell.
why has my life
become a hassle,
where is my control?

i can’t control
my feelings
because they’re
far too strong.
i can’t control
my fears
because fear
has overcome me.
i can’t control
my dreams
because they
left.

what have i become?
sorry i took a break from poetry because frankly i didn’t know what to write. i’m sorry. here’s one that took me a half hour to write while laying in my own tears :)
Cute Naa Nov 2018
The heart of man, in all angles
Made of rock, snow , fire and ice
Its hinges made of steel
Locked to the soul

The heart of man like steel
Passed through flameless fire
Its edges solidified by lava
Its cracks filled with ice

The heart of man yearns for love
Never ready to be received
Never ready to let go
And never ready to reveal itself

It sobs in the dark so softly
Yet hardens up before daybreak
It patiently waits for its true love
But not even ready to make a move

The heart of man so strongly attached to its soul
And not willing to be separated
But eventually slips out of its sockets
Into the hands of its newly found soul.
Briscoe Aug 2019
As I lie in bed,
Light falls like a stranger’s memory
On the walls of palest grey,
And tonight, of love, money and dignity,  
I have nothing to say.
I have known every name and noun.
Vow and verb, vowel and word
And finally find nothing to say.
I suppose that’s what must be done,
If the floor lies in blatant disarray.
I suppose that’s what must be done.
There’s a pattern of bricks and torches
That are on a screen and are nothing more
But the firing of neurons and the burning of my eyes.
I would walk out into the night
Were it true that I could find my shoes.
For I cannot dare have bare feet bear the ground
And be mauled by such an unnatural place for them.
Laptop lit up
Like electric candlelights
With candid candescence,
Why would I dare into the fray of night,
Or daylight’s thriftless touch
Which would age and burn me
Like a vampire on a pile of wooden stakes
That kindled, burnt, dwindled and burnt out.
Ladies and Queens of the night,
Gathering in a circular court
And being veiled behind that smoke
And the strokes of grey paint
That were here before anyone.
She crescendos and sharpens into a crescent blade
That glints and glistens by sunshine in the night.
Like his scythe, which cut through the light
And drew nothing but the dew and due payments.
I wonder if he would bother come by
And thereby transport me but not my body.
For why would he come try
And change my position
When no other conviction
Has succeeded.
Without and within the voices they sing
Don't dare.
Care without the face that does.
Share without the side that shows.
Despair and depreciate without the face
Of sorrows and woes.
It's all rolling along and I’ve done nothing wrong.
Made no mistake.
Made no call to heartache.
This is all.
This is the hall of the humbled king,
Who still bears his solitude
But reduced like Vesuvius
Has no longer his magnitude,
Only that he was destroyed flameless.
Without and within the voices they sing.
For he was born and has borne
Nothing of importance since, but innocence.
It is, I suppose. It must, I suppose, be done.
It is, I suppose, of no great importance.
Me without you in my life  
Is like a leafless fall
This would be my world so quiet
so lost without you
So alone with no one to hold
my life would be so cold-
A lost soul with no hope with no love
A snow winter without you to keep me warm  
A flowerless spring with no green in spring  
Here was trouble seems to always find
Me and makes me blue  
Me without you I will stay confused
like a boat without water to take afloat  
It is like a colorless rainbow a sunless day.
A starless night with no hope of love
Dead winds on a sleepless night  
Me without you I would dye
Being without you.
Is like the ocean without a wave
the beach without sand
and a flameless fire
A doubtful night of dreams of hurt  
And badness on my mind wondering  
What you are doing all the time without  
Me holding at night  
Me without you
Is like a book without words
without pages
A man without a face,
and a child with no name
a love that never came
All I would have is the rain
I am tired of tears I need laughter  
I need to feel your love
I need a body to hold me all NIGHT!
Do I need to say more?

- Judy Emery © 1980
The Queen Of Darken Dreams Poetic Lilly Emery
THE QUEEN OF DARKEN DREAMS POETIC JUDY EMERY

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