I thought I was being saved
by Peter Pan
until they evicted us
from Neverland.
We thought we could outrun
debts higher than numbers
we could count—
the bills we must pay
to Foreverland,
when childhood became some distant
part of space-time
that mocks your
hilariously brief existence,
Where life is a fluorescent-lit
doctor’s waiting room
where you twiddle your thumbs
waiting for death to get around to you.

And then there’s the fear of death,
that an optimistically counted eighty years
of ******* are annulled by the
billions of years surrounding the beginning and end
of everything in existence you will ever possibly know—
ensuring that a Nobel Prize winner and a drunk on the
street, have essentially accomplished the same ******* thing:
existence.
And so goes the life of Foreverland…

(I buried my optimism
to see what it would do—
I’ve grown no fruit
and should I be surprised
the ground’s as barren as my faith in you?
I sold it up and gave it a price—
my ignorance, my security,
And you can have the sacrifice
I make to exist in a world
I’m sure I lost everything to.
So what is it now?
What’s a mortal like me to do?)

The sun slowly rises outside the window,
I watch the peaceful ascension for a while
drinking coffee from an old chipped mug
tasting the moment as much as the brew.

The day before me is one that is far too busy
breakfast is to be made and errands to run
but in this moment my mind can only drift,
a leaf lost on an autumn field of reflection.

I savor a sip and allow the moment its due
thinking back on my youth and its ambitions
I find them unfulfilled but lacking in regret
then weep as I realize there will be one to come.

Daughter, I have worn so many hats in my life
played the roles of heroes and foes on its stage
obtaining my titles and fighting for positions
but your father has been my favorite one.

It is through your eyes I’ve seen this world,
as your tiny fingers unveiled for me it’s beauty,
in my lessons to you, you taught me to dream,
gave voice to my song, and rhyme to my verse.

With you I’ve surfed the shores of foreverland
holding your hand along its tides and beaches
living this amazing dream that began with you
a dream my youth could have never dreamed.

Today, we’ll laugh and play our games together,
finding joy in all those tasks that lay before us,
I’ll hold your hand and call you my baby girl
assuring you my hand would always be there.

But one day, like me today, you’ll watch a sunrise
with your tears blurring its wondrous beauty
my promise will break, the one all fathers make
and that day will fulfill my life’s only regret.

On that morning my breeze will have calmed
my leaf will have found its place in the field,
leaving you with just a memory for a father,
daddy’s little girl without my hand to hold.

Weep child if you must, for that’s living too
then close your eyes and lift up your hand
and I’ll find it, I’ll be the caress of the wind
to lift you back to the shores of foreverland

Where each wave is a forgotten memory
that crashes on those timeless beaches
where a father’s promise is never broken
and daughters are forever daddy’s little girls.


Joey Jones

beautiful wild soul
into the night
never land         foreverland
paths of ghosts and violets

lunar spirit
surreal soulful fight
natural         neutral calm
closed eyes, dreamscapes mind

; I witnessed the diminishing
last glance of glimmer,
blast of galaxy in my own
rugged almond-brown iris
before it turn all pitch black
from a well-known being
to a now stranger soul
everything and everyone
turned into a total vacuum
but of broken pieces;
of broken promises;
of torn relationships;
of torn heart;
of glitched perception;
of glitched beliefs;
of shattered self;
of shattered life.

I then, see through my eyes
a total different land
eccentric logic of wisdom
everything I knew became untrue
like a pool of treacherous
I turned around til it focus
my eyes somewhere in event horizon
where there is no exact beginning
but certainly never-ending
oh Gaia, look what you've become
Look at your self
look at me
holistic brevity of keen evil
stealing happy pills
keeping on their hidden pockets
shining argentum of sharpened utensils
a girl wishing a nightmare
a boy doing the nightmare
i run, run and run faster
before I could ever sense danger
but the thing I realised
is that no matter how I runaway
the more I came closer to trap
my flesh reject the force
thrown helplessly on it
drowned in fiery of pleasure
this must be a false paradise
a dungeon of cruelty clothe in beauty
no one will truly admit
no one will ever notice
a need for freedom and peace
no, not the fake, short-term ones

an outcry for help from my voiceless mouth
Finally echoed in Foreverland
A Great Voice answered
In a very powerful splash of pure purity
That nothing and no one could withstand
Hoping in a certain foundation

I could finally see goodness
my eyes turned into color of life
tears of blood finally washed
wipe out all the imperfections
not even a single dust remain
people of the same eyes as mine are gone
to a much better place
moved to the permanent residence
my eyes witness perfection
no, not the fake, short-term one
eternal rejoicing
forever singing
songs of glory
End of mourning
Start of praising

Where do you go when you’re too old for Neverland?
Trapped in a foreverland
Staring endlessly at a broken watch.

As a child I cried for inanimate objects,
Feeling haunted by buildings and plants.
I used to stare at the trees outside my window,
Wondering if they were more comfortable bare.
Solace in winter solstice.