"forfeiting" poems
Birthed by altruism or selfishness,
Motivated by personal gain
Or the forfeiting of a nation;
It's the betrayal of friends,
Country, cause and trust.
Cassius,
Judas,
Benedict Arnold,
The traitor has many personas.
Traitors are hated by those they prefer. (Tacitus)
*I forgive those who ****** and steal,
but a traitor, never.* (Zapata)
*A nation cannot survive treason from within...
He rots the soul of a nation...
No wise man ever thought a traitor should be trusted.* (Cicero)
Softness to traitors will destroy us all. (Robespierre)
An open enemy, however criminal, is no traitor. (Spooner)
To have a traitor as an ally is to have an enemy in waiting. (Carey)
*It is the just decree of heaven that a traitor never sees
his danger till his ruin is at hand.* (Metastasia)
There are but two parties now... traitors and patriots. (U.S. Grant)
*If I had one bullet and I was faced by both enemy and traitor,
I would let the traitor have it.* (Codreanue)
There is a special place in hell reserved for traitors. (J. Trudeau)
*Every man must be for the U.S. or against it.
There can be no neutrals... only patriots or traitors.* (S. Douglas)
Et tu, POTUS. (F. Lynch)
Jul 17, 2018
Jul 17, 2018 at 8:16 AM UTC
June 1st, 1998.
A child born,
A boy,
With a mop of brown hair,
And complications.
Pulse weak,
Not getting enough oxygen...
But the complications?
They were handled.
June 1st, 2003.
Blowing out your candles,
Looking forward to things to come.
Like being the ring bearer in your parents' wedding.
June 1st, 2005.
Forfeiting your birthday wish,
Because your wish is coming true.
Your brother is born July 26th.
June 1st, 2012.
Looking back on middle school,
And ahead on the monster known as high school.
June 1st, 2013.
Looking back on freshman year,
And celebrating 6 months with the first girl you ever loved.
You're positive she's the one.
June 1st, 2014.
Looking back on sophomore year,
Relishing the thought of being an upperclassman,
Yet still mourning the loss of your first love almost a year before, on June 26th.
June 1st, 2016.
Going to the meeting and signing the paperwork.
Feeling more pride than ever in your life.
You leave for basic training in August.
Little do you know, you will be medically discharged in November of the next year.
June 1st, 2018.
I will look back on all I have done.
My failures most of all.
Because they're all I have.
Feb 5, 2017
Feb 5, 2017 at 10:45 AM UTC
To laugh
Is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep
Is to risk appearing weak.
To reach for another
Is to risk commitment.
To expose your beliefs and dreams
Is to risk judgement.
To love
Is to risk not being loved in return.
To live
Is to risk dying.
But risks must be taken.
The greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The people who risk nothing
Do nothing, have nothing, are nothing.
They may avoid suffering and sorrow
But they cannot learn, feel, grow, Live.
Chained by their fear, they are slaves
Forfeiting their own freedom.
Only those who risk losing
Can win the most in life
Feb 26, 2014
Feb 26, 2014 at 9:35 AM UTC
I dream of you
And the deep tonality you echo
The sincerity etched to my bone
So that I will never forget the fact
I dream of you
And the pudgy child that came running
Always in the background, always full of wonder
Laughing at things I will never forget
I dream of you
And the sweet nothings you whisper on the dial
The excitement that takes over when I read your letters
The constant reminder of the words I will never forget
I dream of you
And the verbal abuses we bicker back and forth dripped with regret
A cat and mouse chase waiting to fight for the death until one surrenders
Forfeiting the chase I will never forget
I dream of you
And the insecurity of your constant necessity of reassurance
Temporary amnesia you always had towards my own honesty
Forgetting to tell you the words I will never forget
I dream of you
And the opportunities I will never use to convince you
Never will I be able to touch your skin or kiss your lips
I will never forget the last time you said “I love you”.
Sep 11, 2013
Sep 11, 2013 at 6:07 AM UTC
At the end of my name
follow three letters
right now they spell
"mop".
folks say it ain't the
way it used to be
jobs- like there's even such a thing as
"beneath me".
I'm a clever little phoenix
I have my flight plan
not an android, nor
academia didn't make me
Galatea
I can wait and remember
I can serve you an ice cream
without forfeiting intellect in
a flurry of sugar cones
I pick my battles gracefully
so I remember what I was taught.
Curl up.
Pay rent.
Rebirth,
then-
pounce.
May 16, 2012
May 16, 2012 at 10:15 PM UTC
She's key to the prison isolating my heart.
She's purest of joy one can ever know,
Angels dance at the edges of her heart, allergic to lies honesty is her pride.
Suffocated by ropes of sorrows, she untied them and climb to lands of jubilation.
Her smile awakens the smell of roses,
Clearing the fog of uncertainty.
A treasure worth forfeiting life for.
Enticing,alluring, comely, serene and mesmeric lady.
She's a lover, the light in the dark, a kind gentle heart sordid hands cannot reach.
The mind floods with memories shared —the heart, dried by old tears
and scarred by past lovers,
yearns again for her touch.
Feb 1, 2015
Feb 1, 2015 at 10:41 PM UTC
I’ve been questioned on
my late night walks,
why do I do it?
the repetitive cracks
sing hedonist soliloquies
at every avoidance,
the streetlights eat away
at forfeiting darkness,
vomiting garbage cans
spew synthetic carrion
and winking storefronts
****** nightfallers,
trash kissing curbs
pushing away affection
cry out for help,
cigarette butts cloud
sandy sidewalks
and hug dragging soles,
passing cars and
mindless youth
spewing timeless
nothings out car windows,
cop cars and crisis topped
middle-agers stumbling their way
to fast food and
regretful forenoons,
I’ve been questioned
on where I’m walking to,
but never what I’m walking from,
no matter where I go,
I find myself
burning my throat
with coffee at 2am
May 7, 2016
May 7, 2016 at 1:36 AM UTC
Like a butterfly who misses the many legs it once had
Back then when it could only crawl and climb
Like a flower that misses itself at its shortest stem
When it was just a seedling right before its prime
There are moments when nostalgia hits
Too much that it makes me unaligned
I ponder if I should regress to who I once was
Only to go against my evolutionary design
Or perhaps I just miss knowing I was loved
So I question whether again, I would find
Acceptance and belonging with fond memories
With the current identity I now reside
I could go back and make things simple again
Go along with what I’ve been assigned
It's been done before, a path predetermined
With the name I was given at the starting line
When I consider such a thought I feel much resistance
As though I am forfeiting without much of a fight
I feel caged, suffocated with helplessness
If I had to persist in a life limited to foresight
Know where I've been so I know where I’m going
Where is the bridge where these two paths combine?
To keep treading forward as I shed all that is unbecoming
Becoming a way of being I can personally identify
Aug 19, 2022
Aug 19, 2022 at 6:07 AM UTC
If you say I love you, you're signing a contract
A document that you acknowledge the sharp pains that keep you from sleeping won't cease.
You're forfeiting the feeling of being loved in order to show someone love.
You're saying: "I know this will happen again and it is worth it."
Sep 3, 2014
Sep 3, 2014 at 7:45 PM UTC
Visions in the breeze
A tree on a broken horizon
Each wave a shout
From the past to the future
A call heard only by
The one's truly listening
Tipping point mathematics
Love has and always will be
Trial and unforgivable error
Hearing the door open as
Echoing empty steps chime
Like the first poets to ever write a rhyme
Or an innocent man put to death
Falsely accused of another one's crime
Each order put into bolts and gears
Wear me thin and rattle me to the bone
I've made a mistake, I'm no longer here
My feet are crooked and I feel queer
Each note I hear is out of tune as the saloon
Has started to bend backward
The light under the fan spins
Chopping my sight clean in two
The blue creole sky enlivens my senses
As youth dances and gyrates restless
And effortless like one's first fall into love
A case for the weak
As the strong get along
No dust in their fingertips
Their stomachs always full
As the poor feel the pull
Into the road to the grave
Put the ear to the snowy hills of Eastern Europe
Make sure your boots are tied
And your pen hand is steady, unwilling to lie
Afraid of consequences is to be human
But to be afraid of a life without them
Is to tie the stitch to tight around the hem
There is choice
And then
There is responsibility
The routine
Of our lives rely
On the choices we made
Due to responsibility
Guilt and learned' reason
Forget reason
Forget thy' guilt
Forfeit the old
For the new
You know truth
More than
I
Dec 12, 2012
Dec 12, 2012 at 6:04 PM UTC
what texture did the skin take on
before it gave up and swallowed you?
did you ever for a second think
that you could be safe when
your fingers never stop twitching
every time you examine your neck in the mirror
there was a time before your hands
were reasons to hold on tight to anything
that could breathe
don’t tell me they’ve always been
this hungry
you must have known a night
before you had to bury them beneath pillows
to keep them from biting at your ribcage
fenced in by notions you put in your own head
they weren’t always this restless
there are ways to think about dying
without burning it into your skin
and there are nights that crackle like pyres
when you slip and let the embers sink in
and you think what is a body
but a vessel for sacrifice
but living on sharpened stakes
never felt so good
stop convincing yourself
it feels good
this depression is overgrown
you’ve never weeded the garden
didn’t water the flowers
and then turned away from your withering
too ashamed to call it your own
don’t you wonder when this self-hate
became the only trait that stayed hidden and safe
take those itching fingers to the shovel
and dig fresh beds to lay in
stop lying in the excuses
and uproot this grave
how does one climb out of a life
when every day is the same
when did you get so forfeiting
that you stopped attempting
to pull your body out of this?
i know it’s hard
to convince yourself this woman is not
the sum of her parts
don’t believe the man who spits at you
when you don’t agree to be the object of his rage
is sane
he will stay the same
but it’s up to you to stop
believing him right
and seeing yourself through his eyes
you are not a statistic
or a receptacle for pain
stop blaming your ribs
for holding on so tightly to your heart
for all the ways that you hate them
your organs are still smarter than you are
because they hold on
like deadbolts and locks
when you manifest the world’s sickness
in your brain
stop blaming yourself
and take the reigns
get a grip
that isn’t cataclysmic
learn to live
instead of picking at scabs
just to feel a pulse
you have gotten in too deep
and you are above this
Jan 22, 2013
Jan 22, 2013 at 9:36 AM UTC
Like human drones,
They trailed the messiah
From Frisco to Guyana,
In search of Eden
Among anacondas, tapirs,
Diminutive Wai Wais,
And Purple-heart giants....
Where torrential rain
Blasted the ****** soil
Like B-24 bombers
Over Normandy...
And piranhas
Shredded human flesh
To naked bone
In black-water creeks
Coursing through the Amazon...
And a fledging nation
Of less than 1 million
Navigated the treacherous canefields
Of independence...
Why....?
The question lingers
Like maggots on
900 rotting corpses...
Why....?
The answers wither
Like 900 minds mesmerized
By Jim the messiah...
Forfeiting lavish luxuries of freedom
For the Temple's tickets
To a worry-free ride...
To Heaven.
~ Pablo
(#JimTheMessiah)
3/1/2014
Mar 1, 2014
Mar 1, 2014 at 9:51 AM UTC
We symbolize the mind as an art of power
the art we include must mystify souls
when our lips transcend out of our passion
time seems harder to live without that fire
the emplacement of what we hold so dear to us
is it as everlasting as the source
or just as fleeting as the energy we are so quick to obtain
only to move mountains.
If one thing is true
it is that lightning will crack it's deadly whip
revealing what we truly have inside.
What we thought was peace becomes another piece of life's jigsaw
pulling out jenga blocks from our mouths.
Tranced in confusion, and desire
the most skillful of men will dedicate work
so much as to not drop a bead of sweat upon their tunic.
Mysteries and artifacts are our true treasure
when we full understand their meaning
does that message mean immortality among mortals
with the skills of a god.
Light beaming on our faces
soaking the sun's energy is bliss in it's purest form.
Destruction could not conquer
for even it's dread knows better
to ****** a paradox of the omniscient.
So we remain patient,
we court ourselves with divine art of tracing auras
back to our infinite soul glazing in eternity
admiring the flares when there is no danger.
forfeiting is no option
there is always plenty to fight for
but none to dance with
when the fresh rain sings songs of sweet
cherubic children flying to the melody
god has truly blessed them with.
Sep 17, 2013
Sep 17, 2013 at 12:14 AM UTC
See little in the breath of life
Despair and strife shadow their hearts
Cruelly and without mercy command their minds
Darkness touch is ever so blindingly sweet
The light of the living never meet
In the murmurings of a quivering night
Those who worship the God of Death
Seek no glimpses into a heart
Long ago they decreed
All love depart
Forfeiting that which made them human
Sacrificed on the altar of their cold demanding god
Those who worship the God of Death
Wander in silence and stealth
Caring not for influence, lineage or social plight
It is inconsequential
In a world where emanates no light
For them darkness touch is ever so blindingly sweet
The light of the living never meet
In the murmurings of a quivering night
When the world becomes silent and emanates no light
Those who worship the God of Death delight.
All Rights Reserved @ Tammy M. Darby Feb. 2, 2018.
Feb 2, 2018
Feb 2, 2018 at 11:30 AM UTC
The dragons of Eden
Are forking their tongues
Along the silver edge of acetone rain,
Foreclosing yesterday’s shop-fronts
In favour of a clean white page.
They smoke in tailored suits,
Blackening their lungs
And toasting freedom with afternoon champagne.
They took man to the moon, they say,
And gave light to the modern age.
They tweak offshore accounts
With battery farms
Of the hardly living, and hardly human.
Forfeiting progress for profit,
They scandalise the streets in debt.
The dragons of Eden
Are flexing their arms,
They’re setting their minds from union, to fusion.
They’re alighting our memories,
But it is our choice to forget.
May 7, 2014
May 7, 2014 at 8:25 PM UTC
A cigarette hangs from her chapped lips
Nails painted **** yellow, now chipping as she clacks them on the table
Her wrist watch is broken so she has to count in her head
One onethousand
Two onethousand
Forget it
It's been about an hour now
She pretends to read a book but instead she stares at one word on the page
Patience
Her lips pucker over the cigarette and she takes a deep drag
With a disgusted sigh she exhales smoke like a dragon forfeiting a battle
One onethousand
Two onethousand
**** patience,"
She gets up, throws the book in the trash, and leaves
Jan 2, 2011
Jan 2, 2011 at 12:56 PM UTC
Every evening sky, an invitation,
To trace the patterned stars,
And early in July, a celebration,
For freedom that is ours,
And I notice You,
In children's games,
In those who watch them from the shade,
Every drop of sun is full of fun and wonder,
You are summer...
And even when the trees have just surrendered,
To the harvest time,
Forfeiting their leaves in late September,
And sending us inside,
Still I notice You when change begins,
And I am braced for colder winds,
I will offer thanks for what has been and was to come,
You are autumn...
And everything in time and under heaven,
Finally falls asleep,
Wrapped in blankets white, all creation,
Shivers underneath,
And still I notice you,
When branches crack,
And in my breath on frosted glass,
Even now in death, You open doors for life to enter,
You are winter...
And everything that's new has bravely surfaced,
Teaching us to breathe,
What was frozen through is newly purposed,
Turning all things green.
So it is with You,
And how You make me new,
With every season's change,
And so it will be,
As You are re-creating me:
Summer, autumn, winter, spring.
Nov 19, 2014
Nov 19, 2014 at 9:23 AM UTC
Being this powerful is a plague
A mask of sorts, shielding us from reality
Whether or not we wish to remember being
Normal
Normal?
A rather self centered term
For those decaying minds
Trying to grab a hold of any
Last inkling of humanity they once had
The futility of it all
Vain attempts to regain lost face
Or a sold soul
But the price is too high
Because the most valuable thing you retain
After forfeiting your innocence
Is your willingness to fight for it back
And if you sold that too...
There are far too many people
Scrambling
Pushing to be perfect
Or rather
To be labeled perfect
We say
You are only as perfect
As those around you perceive you to be
And if you play a good game
Then you eventually end up winning
But winning
Is a small reward
In return for an overpowering
Hubris
Your eventual downfall
So here we stand
Apotheosized because
We are perceived as immortal
No
We are just dead
Dead to all popular culture
And fashions
So we appear
Placid as water on a clear day
Stoic
And so they wonder
Why do we not strive to be at the top?
The reason is
That the top is so small
Finite
And if we tried
We could get there
But the top
Was not
Made
For
Two
Mar 5, 2014
Mar 5, 2014 at 12:04 AM UTC
Listen to me,
My love,
listen to me.
The urgent call of your name rings through the air,
Like a warning bell being sound off.
Loathe the way you wash over my body,
Consuming the dark corners of self indulgence,
As if you know the culling sways my every move.
If you knew the damage,
The turmoil,
The rot in my brain,
That spreads the more I touch you,
The more I breathe you in,
Poison in the warning bells.
I sink lower into these depths,
How I will rise,
I do not know.
But it begins with engaging with my pain
As motive.
I begin here,
Forfeiting my life to the self indulgence I've denied myself.
Sep 29, 2020
Sep 29, 2020 at 10:27 PM UTC
I shun you not,
You shun me twice.
My life for your life,
Is becoming more A sacrifice.
You greet me not.
I greet you twice.
I'm the one who's exiled, beguiled,
Into forfeiting the price.
Become that which you want,
I imagine whats gifts I could bestow,
Yet not even bribery can entice me to your soul.
I've noted you, AR.
In your eyes Ive always seen a star.
Ablaze with anger, shining with beauty,
I can see them shining even from afar.
Little one grown so big,
I pray you are well, and blessed, and loved and happy,
I love you still,
I wonder who and how you are.
Mar 8, 2015
Mar 8, 2015 at 12:51 AM UTC
As she found him
She lost herself
Everything given
Was also taken
All these years
Devoted to nothing
Wasted on promises
Drenched in lies
When he leaves
As he often does
What does she have
Without him
She is connected
By words
And ideas
And ********
Attached
With thoughts
And strings
Leading nowhere
Forfeiting happiness
To feel alive
For one single night
As he feels success
Devoting her life
To someone sick
And twisted
Who doesn’t give a ****
She can only help herself
And find herself
Rid herself
Of this unfair lifestyle
Aug 10, 2016
Aug 10, 2016 at 12:03 AM UTC
As my Dad used to say. The Truth. Thee.
So I made you Lies you cannot be so can
Not long stand. Who is great is not mortal.
Pretense will fall . A brutal crash but is yet
A kindness not least to him who made of his
Self a fraud forfeiting his soul for vanity, A
Child of God no more that could not long be,
Jan 3, 2021
Jan 3, 2021 at 3:43 PM UTC
I spend my hours lonely
Staring at a phone that doesn't ring
Lying to myself
Pretending not to feel the sting
Around my room in laps I pace
Because it is hard to stay standing still
Restless and anxious
I can't concentrate
Distress is too strong to ****
A tiny part of me is relieved
To see you haven't changed at all
It makes it easier to stand nt ground
When back to you I want to crawl
You must be a magician
Putting me under a spell
With one wave of your wand enchanted
Conjuring heaven
We're really in hell
You keep my adoration in your pocket
Instead of in your heart
It's obvious I am the only half affected
When our lives are forced apart
It feels as though I inhabit a cage
Only when you disappear
Your absence holds me captive
Then am freed when you get near
Dancing on a narrow line
Seperating sense and satiety
If I succumb to my shameful desires
That means forfeiting my sanity
Trapped behind bars inside my brain
Cannot escape my expectations
Disappointment is inevitable
Yet I still surrender to sweet temptation
Shades of blue inside and out
Mixed with the occasional grey or black
All other colors vanished with my trust
I'm pretty sure they're not coming back
Cloaked in heavy misery
Weighs down my overwhelmed soul
You don't even have the decency
To return all the time that you stole
You placed stars directly in my eyes
Just so you could watch them burn out
Ignorance was comfortable
Til you showed me what I now live without
Silence chokes with an icy grip
Solitude freezes spirit right through my skin
No matter how many games you play with my emotions
I still participate although it's impossible to win
Apr 6, 2021
Apr 6, 2021 at 2:10 PM UTC