Relax your mind and let your muscles unwind.
You mustn't feel inclined to sexually grind,
for despite the unkind gestures from most of mankind,
my hands shall be resigned until the heart knows.
Only then shall my wrists be unconfined to hold you close.

The waves that crash amongst cliffs is music to my ears,
as if this is the personification of your beautiful mind.
where your years of tears meet the innermost fears.
Still, I shall adhere to sailing in this severe frontier
regardless of how unclear the storm may be.

We don't have to suffer from materialism or extravagance.
Add a spoonful of simplicity, a dash of altruism, and finally,
mix in two-thirds cup of realism: bake to happiness.
Now, serve to one another in the most private of occasions
to avoid any tampering from any alien perversive invasions.

The Night we met overlooking a city of technicolour beats
all past experiences; everything prior now undone.
I found that I'm not another hero lost to martyrdom,
and that this is what it feels like to step into the light of the sun,
for I see how the force is strong with this one

Refreshing the senses, I know why your are after, sexuality is all around me, and you absorbed into your own measures but yo know better, it's deafetest language and yet you ofollow along, it's numb and it's nice and it's meant for every human to experience, take it up with your nearest farmer, he'll cultivate your next ufeas, blossoming into ale thing that you don't understand but is growing at a rapid rate, you have control and then you have none, you just watch to build up the bride to blow it all up, going on a grind bewat that suggests I am in a skin that is separate from my own, I want to take some sort of way away from mused, but it seems like I am forced to I this responsibility? Do you read enough to make a judgement, just Jen your thoughts your theory would hold up? They fall between the cracks, you don't care much about anthro by about conveying this to as many as possible, they want to keep you in the right directions l, however the efforts are scarce, you are left in a huge surround led by turrets, and they fire and raipdi rates and you choose to duck for cover

Feel the rhythm
Feel the rhyme
Feel the rumble up your spine

The music plays
The guitar whines
The crowd goes wild and starts to grind

There’s bass and there’s drums
And pounding in your soul
Your arms go up; you’re losing control

You start to move to the toxic beat
Dancing all night
Losing feeling in your feet

By the end of it all you’re feeling good
You relaxed and let loose
Better than you thought you could

Lost lines, resisted in the night,
conscious resistance in the night,

not sleeping, so
not dreaming,
certain this
is real.

Now it is day, and I call the thieves,
again, all ye, all ye outs, inscape
the outer darkness, pitch me your plot,
show me what you got,

series of forties. Days and Nights,
rain and fasting, days and years,

forty steps and forty miles
forty winks and forty minutes,

ten fingers clapping four hands.

all nonsense compared
to the work of forty thieves.
We had something adding up,
before surrendering to sleep.

The universe was taking shape,
it made all the sense in the world,

for a while.

Time set, 9:17 and the first direct
sunlight pierces the oak and dapples my room,

as I have no complaints,
I have no room to boast
of tuffing my way past losing

anything, from where I sit this morning,
life on this pilgrimage, if we agree,
pilgrimage is
not religion, not new age of water
and fire working in tandem to make us

serve the dams and serve the fires,
drive the engines and prune the trees,
shear the sheep and **** the calves,
and milk the cows,
grind the grains and knead the dough,

think in tiny sticky sensory arrays pointing
soft from sharp and hard, feeling fit
loose or tight,
these bonds,

this time, … my frosty morning,
not cold enough for a fire,
I’ll use that consumption knack,
thus loosing
another half-dozen Keurig cups,
for the seals and whales who are

building an unsinkable plastic refuge
for the polar bears to use,
after the Northwest Passage is open year round.

9:31…

Beyond the palisade,
out yonder,
over yonder, where the line is drawn
on the wall of our valley,
where each high water winter left a line,

bearing witness, to the saying,
" surely we live on the wreck of a world"

and surely it was no work of our own,
especially,
now, pinch a little thought, any point
that feels
just right, a child laughing - random that.
Stretch it out.
If this happens to be forty lines long,
abstracted, pulled into your time from mine,
that’s fine at 9:42, I have two minutes to make it so.
Or let it go. And go see what is so funny
at the breakfast table.

Translated by Przemyslaw Musialowski 11/9/2019

Since you have flashed in my silent sky
with a flaming star flying into the abyss,
I know what life is and I know what is dying,
- because of you I live, because of you I die.

You are a poisonous flower from which I collect nectar,
You are a thunder and a storm from which I draw silence,
You are grind and discord with which to sleep I rock myself,
I live because of you, because of you I die.

My chest is getting cold, my heart is beating fast,
under your kisses and under your touch,
I die with delight, with passion I rise,
- because of you I live, and because of you I die.

On you, oh wave, I lean my head,
on you I put my wings, oh raging gale,
with you, destruction, I double my strength,
I live because of you, because of you I die.

Your caresses are bells at my funeral,
Your caresses are golden bowls of happiness,
You are the fire that puts out the flames...
you are the water that starts a blaze...
I live because of you, because of you I die! ...

Maria Konopnicka (1842-1910)

You told me you were an abandoned building
Left rotting in the sun
Elements creeping in
On your walls and foundation
Tearing down your roof and structure
I am not so
Come with me
I will show you myself

In the skeleton of my head
Ceramic figures sit
Silent, sentient
On cobweb shelves
Pictures of you hang on the walls
Nailed into a flesh colored wallpaper
*****, coffee stained carpeting
Leading from the attic of my mind
Down the back of my skull
Vertebrae circular staircases
Winding down and around
Through floors and floors
Of keratin wainscoting
Dusty shelves overcrowded with books and trinkets
Plastic dinosaurs and matchbox cars
A room full of doll houses
Plastic mommies and daddies
Driving four seater lithium battery powered doll cars
Cooking over two burner stoves with imitation heat
Playing pretend, I know this game best

Rooms with filing cabinets stacked up to the ceiling
When you pull out the drawers
Files and paperwork going back and back and back
Blue crayon bills of sale
Newspapers and emails color coded for different emotional reactions
Red folders with locks, chains, and warning signs
CAUTION FLAMABLE

Rooms empty of windows
***** of string for dust bunny cats
Baby teeth still tethered to the end
Strung between doorknobs and skeletons
The last flight of stairs
Leads straight down to a flooded basement
Salt water filling up cracks in the concrete
Bulkhead door latched shut
A femur stuck between the handles
You'd have to break a bone to escape

You follow your nose down passages
With markings saying 'connect here'
Finding comfort
In the smell of sage burning in between hip bones
Incense rising through chimney stacked ribs
Puffing out through a nasal passage

A few levels above
Curtains and blinds piled on top of each other
Trying to block out light
Pouring in through two blue tinted windows
Hollowed out, stained glass eyes

Mute little birds fly around in a tiny menagerie
Tiny parchment paper scrolls attached to their ankles
House arrest thoughts
Sometimes little rivers over flow
Down a façade of brick walls into little wells
To dry to hold wishes

In the right wing
Traveling down the arm
Little passage ways with doors
Swinging open and shut
Little electric trains blowing stops and whistles
Running around and around
Five little engines
Puffing out coal and smoke
Until they hole themselves up
In tunnels at night

In the left wing
Plates and dishes smashed on the floor
Ceramic shards rearrange themselves
Into mosaics and pictographs
Sliding around on metal tiles
Until they grind themselves into a fine powder
Slipping though the floor
Little skin cells flaking off the siding

Dry scratching noises echo through the tunnel
Back to the skull
At the very crown of the building
Rope makers work tirelessly every day
Stitching brown threads into the ceiling
Packing insulation tight in perfect rows
Until the rain comes in and washes them out
Trying to weatherproof roofing shingles
That act as if they are no thicker than coffee filters

Sometimes the power surges to quickly
Everything goes dark
Batteries overheat
Unable to remember which switch to flip
Which circuit breaker to fix
Which wires to cut, splice, and fuse the ends
Where to put the band-aids so they will stick
Until they get wet
A four battery chamber transformer
Inducting molecules, protons, electrons
Gassing up to restart
Not knowing which end goes to which side
How to get the cover back on
So I don't electrocute myself
Fry the circuits, start a fire

I end up
Sitting in the dark, alarm blaring
Emergency sprinkler system going off
Making puddles of tears
To drown out my fears
All wired up
Overloading and burning out
Turn the wind turbines on
Let them dry up the mess
Blowing fresh air through stale lung chambers

The ache in my stomach refuses to part with me
Empty shelves in the pantry
Don't cry over spilled milk
Tear up, when there is none to spill
Empty glass jars sitting in boiling water
All jammed up
Refusing to cook
Because one time
The gas was, accidentally
Left running, on the burner
Fear is a smell I would prefer die without tasting
A tasteless life no sweeter

I close the doors.
Oaken ribcage of my halls swing shut.
Hinges creaking under the strain
I remember why
I don't let anyone in
It's to cold in here for me
To quiet for them
Hating how I feel
When left lonely
Without a friend
If the dark is all I now how can I fear it
I am not near it
Becoming what I always knew I was
Not a single cut above, or below
Not a mark uncounted
I am the one who makes flowers grow
On the inside of the earth
Down below
Down I go
To dance after death

Wish I had somebody to kick it with
Said I wanted to be alone, but it already felt like she wasn't there
I guess she was everything just to be fair
Had somebody who loved my writing but wouldn't read my poetry
Liked that she knew where to find it but never looked
But it felt like she didn't care, it left me crooked, --no entry--
Just sitting here in my room weeping like a bent tree
Feel like a ******* baby cause she took my nook
She had it in her hand but she never read my book

Now I'm actually alone, don't know how I like it though
Thought it would give me room to prosper and grow
Now I find myself walking the streets just to clear my mind --to and fro--
Miss your letters, when my phone would light up --new messages--
I'd put it back in my pocket, hiding behind these electronic hedges
Summer's not for lovers, summer's easy, I need that cold to help me struggle
Make me hide in my room, I need saving, get me out of my bubble
I'm too far away, space telescope, hubble trouble

You said you cried everyday since
Not one tear has left my eyes, they're empty
Couldn't tell you why, I'm just waiting cause time's tempting
Told you I loved you, couldn't tell you if it meant a thing
Couldn't tune you like a guitar, the string snaps every time
Tried to care about you, but you only cared about you too
Thought I cared about you, till I distilled the glue
That kept us together, I'm sick of this old ****, try something new

Had to get out, have to numb until I find myself out
I saw her out, and I saw her out, and I saw her out
And I've seen to many her's, in between all the meaningless musical blurs
And all the lies I'm telling her in my bed while I listen to Handsome Furs
Music's quite amazing when it can make you feel something you do not
Thought I was king of my mind, then I find something else to think about and my brain's back to the grind, just trying to figure it out
Now everything that's behind me is something I've fought
I sound like some *** who's like "It's more complicated than that"
It always is, everybody's calloused, like all the tattoos you got
Keep it all in, let your personality rot

Wish the what if's would stop bluffing me too
Need to start counting cards to win
I'm too distracted to let you under my skin
I don't even know how to play the game
But hey I'll play 52 pick up with you

This howling monster will eat
me alive; that is no question.
My bones will grind between
its teeth, white powder in a void
black maw. I can feel its breath
on my neck, wet and hungry
like a teenage boy in the dark.
This howling monster will not be
satisfied with surrender; only sunder
will fill its canyon belly. It can
rest no moment until it is fed.
Those eyes are too full of souls.

This howling, monster will cannot go
quietly,
              growling I EXIST
                                              until its throat burns.

Boy cried wolf!

    He said could you help me sir

The wolf said,
                        I'm a wolf

I would rather eat you instead

Oh goody!

I've just peppered my
Skin with a little salt
It taste just like you want!

The wolf cried boy!
Have you lost your mind

I'm supposed to hunt
For my tooths grind

You offer me skin
Free to dine
This must be a trick
            To trap mine

The boy cried Wolf!

   I'm willing to die
      I would rather be eaten
        Than to stay alive

Oh  please believe me !
       I wouldn't lie

Couldn't you have a bite?

The wolf cried boy!
You're a fox real sly
I dare not eat your
Temptous hide

For I do not trust
in the words you cry
And this time
I must pass you by

The boy cried!

wolf!
         wolf!

But no one heard

The wolf cried boy that was absurd!

oh I stuck my feet in the dirt again
and broke my toes on stone
I know well I'm not meant to be still
as my body bends forward of its own will
but to advance to the next level
I must stay here and grind bones on stones
or walk straight off into the abyss again

She has views of apartments, decked with blue flowers.
She listens so close hearing traffic dash by.
It' a messy apartment, but nobody minds, and nobody matters.

On the far side,the far side of the street.
From her window she she pays homage to the soldier sat square in his chair.
Looking smart,all brushed and polished.
Don't know how the hell he coped.
Sitting there kept hope alive.

Hope was a tiny kitten, a tiny ball of ****** fluff.
Looked rather like a tiger, you know.
She sat on his lap as he mused and amused the by passers of the daily grind.

He tried to busk, but he just couldn't play.
The war had been but, a brief affair, their war.
She had coped with his negative feelings as he sat and cried.
She bore his crown of thorns of war, with dignity as did he.
That which war destroyed neither denied,

He sat every day in that spot over the road, just up from the subway, by the fast food joint.
Watching, listening, and breathing in fumes.
The being he once was becoming exhumed.
And he stroked his cat and tried to sing.
He wanted to buy her a posh diamond ring.
Desired to catch her and take her away.
Maybe another day.

The apartment's a mess, but only because, after the war she lost her true love.
A large black dog, chased out the cat, the one that's over the street where her once lover sat.
The soldier who'd wanted to buy her a ring.
Depression got both of them, just one of them things!
(C) Livvi

From the Back of the Bus©

The journey to school via that yellow tin can
They call it a bus at least where I come from, man

Long and narrow it transports it’s precious cargo
And delivers daily where we must show to grow

My favorite destination of that vehicle not of choice
Was the back of the bus so I could hide inside and rejoice

Many lessons were learned on the way to school
Observing life from that back of that melting *** pool

One learned about friendship between two friends
The shy kid whose ride was a means to an end

The bully that would run amok
Those were the ones that would have me duck

There were smiles and frowns alike
Most days I would rather ride my bike

Some days were up but most days were down
In the midst of the crowd and the class clown

Intersperse that beautiful girl
And the kids that made you want to hurl

Some were kind and some were tough
Seeing some of both was enough

Not realizing at that young age
This was preparing us for a different life stage

The ride was a daily grind
While I was looking for something else to find

From the back of the bus

Andreas Simic©

Life is a series of thousands of tiny miracles.
NOTICE THEM. You  are  the greatest  project  
you  will  ever  work  on.

You  do  NOT  decide  your  FUTURE.  You
decide  your  HABITS  and  your  HABITS
decide your FUTURE.  

LIVE, DON'T JUST SURVIVE.

Strength comes NOT  from  what you  can  do,
but overcoming what you couldn't.  The grind
doesn't stop. You only fail when you stop trying.

Your  future  depends  on  your  FOCUS.  You get
what you work for. not what you wish for. The
storms will make you a  skilled sailor.  You will
either evolve or dissolve.

You were born to be real, not perfect.                                
                                                                                            Jon York  2023

The awokens’ magnet
I await every morning for your sip
A sip of warmth, flushing throughout my body
You are the reason I jitter when things go wrong
An elusive satisfaction - but I relish what you give
But I can’t get enough - you never fail
Not once has your sweet eminence failed me
You are the new beginning every morning
The end to every hard day
Grind the beans, fresh and new
Add water to freshly brew

we're all
not-yet-corpses
hobbling around
gravefooted
with one foot
inside the
inevitable gray beyond

entropy
has your number

never forget that
but wear it like a badge

make room for
dissolution
laugh yell sing
like the day is glass
break through

your tragedy
is not you -
it is yours

at all costs
consume
blueberry noon's
make torrid from bore's

say *******
to giving ****'s
grind a lot
swipe right tenderly
glitch slickly
purr for him
get your exorcism on
*** chill
like Michael J Fox
paint lust hot
rainbow swell watercolor
hold him
breathe
be

BE

you
are seen
water and color
beauty bled
sought for
boys will adore
tor of torpid
star of scar

you are not
your tragedy
they are yours
to have

so

see
your dreams
come
then -go-

gone

watch them leave
with style
lean against threshold
wave goodbye
eyes half-mast
look askance cool
as they ride off
get used to
one million and one sunsets
leaving you for good

till tomorrow

let's take a second to listen
written alphabetically
with a brand-new addition
spliffing delivering
heat, cat on a hot tin roof
sizzling, Messi, dribbling
spit ill sickening
guest visiting,
lend me your ear, listening
shimmering as he shines bright
twinkling, divide, partitioning
locked up, imprisoning
doodle, scribbling
SA drill
spicing  with flavor
seasoning, using my head
thinking of reasons
to justify reasoning
for dazzling,
as we settle in

round 2 smurfed but
not blue, more a colored
hue, repping cape town
awe bru, wake up
disabling snooze
jesters you fools
visionary when I see
first from the back
they all lose
not a masquerade it's all true
deadline my times due
ask mew 2, pokemon
index, it's perplex
get ash too, over
a cuckoos nest birds flew
seeking asylum hes crazy
still frosty so cool
yu gi it's time to
dddd duel


this the part where spazz out
remove doubt, running circles
on tracks, roundabout,
roundhouse kick to chin and mouth
no handout, grind out
red hot
circular rounded
noise drowned out, not shouting for clout
cant recognize skill,
take this pill, it will break
the spell my tracks stackable
not saying this sarcastical
sarcastically or sarcastic
not applicable, resolve soluble
doubt dissolve i'm liquid cyanide
every track i ****, surgeons
precision with a scalpel
so skilful, I sculpture
syllables in rhyme schemes
unseen to the naked ear
class dismissed school bell

so tell all its not all folks
not ****** toons no jokes
not ****** tunes, with lazy tones
I have lampoons, that ******
death squad platoon
you'll be history lying in ruins
surfing these dunes no fear
seeing things as the series turns
with unclear reasons I'm nuclear

Crack my spine grind my bones
My body has never been my own
Set fire to my skin
Watch how it makes me dance
Whisper in my ear, as if I have a chance
Take what little is left
Use it for your own
I'm already your puppet
My body is not my home.

I got ticks
From schitzophrenis
The ticks
Are saying the world is out to get me
When I work
I feel people are whipping me on the feet
Telling me to hurry up
And I feel insects are getting in my skin
And having fun biting me
I know they are just schitzophrenic ticks you see
That makes the world sick of me
I have an itchy ***
I have an itchy ***
It could be just worms
Or diabetes or it could plain schizophrenic ticks just bothering me
You see when I feel a poking
Sensation in my grind
I know it is just a schitzophrenic tick
When poke my leg
Poke my leg
Like a light saver from Star Wars
Striking me good
And it has been controlled by schitzophrenic ticks
And hopefully controlled by pregabalin
A nerve drug to settle my ticks
And my nerves

There's a few too many years
Clinging on these old bones
You can tell by the way
They creak and grind as they groan

And with the condition of the skin
That loosely covers them
More than not a few wonder years
They have had to live

With what little wispy bit
Of thinning hair that's left
There's more gray thatch than that of black
These days at its best

Then there's the ever dimming down
Of the once bright stage lights
That I hate to place the blame
On my old age eyesight

And with the continued way
The mind skips, dips, and wanes
I find it's all a part of life's
Greatest give away

Which makes it harder than ever
To know if I was told
That this is how it really feels
When my friend you have grown old

From dark Iniquities to open pleasantries
What ever floats to the top of your dreams.
A deep velvet crush?
Could it be ?
Or is it an obsession to hear
Your arch nemesis screams'?
A painful memory
creates a loquacious bleed .
Purest intent kept
Protected or proclaimed
Remains in the heart of one
Whose pen flows from their veins
Syntax in  ambivalence
"hieroglyphic script"
Mystic cryptic punny things
Secretly lie in between ......

The lines
Words for keys .....

Hypnotic reads these,
Pains or pleasure awakes the mind
Break the grind
Treasure
lexicons asylum
mercurochrome for you soul
Time to let go some healing words of your own ......
I love you poetry .....
This one's for you ......

| Your body at first a stranger to my foreign kisses
   Learning how to speak another language in French kisses
  Ice cream painted lips of cherry lipstick, for licking kisses
I've inhaled your passion many a times in breath kisses
   And catching all stomach butterflies of butterfly kisses

Turn the lights a little low- you'll have a morning glow,
  from the bathroom, on the sofa, and the carpet floor
Rubber bands in my hand, trying to stretch you out; I had
     a lot to say, but the words got lost in your mouth
Hold my supplies, and grind on my belt—point the places
I never felt. Watching shivers of ice on your back slowly melt

| Your eyes running like bath water
   Want to dive deep in your thoughts like pool water
   Trying to train myself to breathe under water
      Pocket full of love- can't you see like sea water
Trying to quench my thirst like you're a glass of water
      And I hope you drown me in that body water

Singing a chorus of that body's natural tone,
about to overload, over the low areas sending tingles
  to already curling toes. I smelt the readiness of your body
   with the drips of scent stuck on my nose. Open to close
  the deal- peeling slowly your heavy clothes
      Entwining both of our ready and longing souls

|  Velvet skin-smooth and teasing to every bite
      Sensations running under skin in a sensitive bite
     Marking all the places I own with a territorial love bite
      And what's the point of a bark without a harsher bite

     Be at your best, stay at your best, I'd say it with my chest
        at your breast; you obviously guest that we'd lay in
     Our little love nest. Going down your West, and making
         the best effort- leaving nothing less, just to impress

Turn my water into wine,
Blindly, follow, be obsessed,
I pray for beauty to be mine,
I wish for you to be undressed.

Turn my body inside out,
Crawl and beg, but it's your time,
It's your thighs,your wet pink mouth,
It's my altar, it's your shrine.

Turn my water into dust,
I grind my teeth on marble stairs,
That open my way to lust,
Away from dreams that breed despair.