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Molly May 2015
Straight on a plain, miles with the blowing wind.
Miles on a plane, nowhere near the mountain ranges,
nowhere near the Atlantic shore, no lapping sounds -
Just your gentle breathing
I’m just happy you’re alive.

This bulldozed land is barren,
dry like my eyes like a dirt road.
I’m stung on the arm by an imaginary bee,
flung out the open window.
This reminds me of the pleasantries we exchanged.

How polite we used to be.
And now your tired arm is slung over the wheel
angry with me. “Can you just
shut the **** up.” I’m not saying anything.
Let’s pull over at the next petrol station
get some Red Bull and make out like we’re American.

Lick the sting. Does it taste like Pepsi?
Can I be your blonde baby or your Barbie?
These dust clouds are haloing the sun,
as we sing out loud and off tune harmony.
It’s just you and me and nowhere baby.
So use me up until I’m gone. Drag on me
like a cigarette and extinguish me on the lawn.

---------------------------------------------------------
­
Nowhereland.
Head ready to burst
like elastic bands around a watermelon.
I’ve been getting angry.
Snappy again.
The long drive has left me whacked,
our conversation gone putrid,
the air swimming with expletives.
Hay bales.
Green fields.
Lost track of how many.
Wasn’t counting anyway.
Into sixth gear then.
South Dakotan sun
stretches into the car,
over your body;
I knew it well. I know it well.
The milometer slides
to fifty-seven thousand
and the silence stings my skin
like a small fresh burn
so I raise my voice - your mouth is closed.
I toss an empty Coke can out the window,
hear it scuttle over hot grey road.
Then you begin to sing, so I sing. Why?
Awful. Wrong key. Don’t care.
You look across,
destroy me so well,
the tumbling heart in a tower of cards.
I know. Stop the car.
Find a bar.
Let’s numb ourselves together
so we feel something,
gorge on US TV
till our eyes go red white and blue.
Look what we’ve become.
Just your gentle breathing.
This is what alive feels like.
Now give me a drag
of whatever it is you’re having.
Written: May 2015.
Explanation: This is a collaboration piece with Reece AJ Chambers, whose work can be found on here. The whole first chunk of this poem is my piece from the female perspective, while the second half is Reece's own writing from the male viewpoint. This whole poem is also on Reece's page.
Morristown is a small town on the border of North and South Dakota, with a population of about 70. U.S. Highway 12 passes by the area, and the poem is set on this particular stretch of road.
Not based on real events.
Feedback is, of course, very welcome and appreciated.

This is my first time doing any kind of collaboration work and I'm very excited by this piece.
Straight on a plain, miles with the blowing wind.
Miles on a plane, nowhere near the mountain ranges,
nowhere near the Atlantic shore, no lapping sounds -
Just your gentle breathing
I’m just happy you’re alive.

This bulldozed land is barren,
dry like my eyes like a dirt road.
I’m stung on the arm by an imaginary bee,
flung out the open window.
This reminds me of the pleasantries we exchanged.

How polite we used to be.
And now your tired arm is slung over the wheel
angry with me. “Can you just
shut the **** up.” I’m not saying anything.
Let’s pull over at the next petrol station
get some Red Bull and make out like we’re American.

Lick the sting. Does it taste like Pepsi?
Can I be your blonde baby or your Barbie?
These dust clouds are haloing the sun,
as we sing out loud and off tune harmony.
It’s just you and me and nowhere baby.
So use me up until I’m gone. Drag on me
like a cigarette and extinguish me on the lawn.

---------------------------------------------------------
­
Nowhereland.
Head ready to burst
like elastic bands around a watermelon.
I’ve been getting angry.
Snappy again.
The long drive has left me whacked,
our conversation gone putrid,
the air swimming with expletives.
Hay bales.
Green fields.
Lost track of how many.
Wasn’t counting anyway.
Into sixth gear then.
South Dakotan sun
stretches into the car,
over your body;
I knew it well. I know it well.
The milometer slides
to fifty-seven thousand
and the silence stings my skin
like a small fresh burn
so I raise my voice - your mouth is closed.
I toss an empty Coke can out the window,
hear it scuttle over hot grey road.
Then you begin to sing, so I sing. Why?
Awful. Wrong key. Don’t care.
You look across,
destroy me so well,
the tumbling heart in a tower of cards.
I know. Stop the car.
Find a bar.
Let’s numb ourselves together
so we feel something,
gorge on US TV
till our eyes go red white and blue.
Look what we’ve become.
Just your gentle breathing.
This is what alive feels like.
Now give me a drag
of whatever it is you’re having.
Written: May 2015.
Explanation: This is a collaboration piece with Molly O'Flaherty, whose work can be found on here (under 'Molly'). The whole first chunk of this poem is HER piece from the female perspective, while the second half is MY own writing from the male viewpoint. This whole poem is also on Molly's page.
Morristown is a small town on the border of North and South Dakota, with a population of about 70. U.S. Highway 12 passes by the area, and the poem is set on this particular stretch of road.
Not based on real events.
Feedback is, of course, very welcome and appreciated.
Bill True Feb 2014
Errant thoughts glisten like
thick frost that appears long
before the clear indigo sky pales.
Icy air seeps through miniscule
gaps between window and sill,
cascading down the wall, slowly
splashing on and across the floor.
From the churning confluence,
images drift like mist above a
waterfall . He deflects. Reading,
searching, as if scripture
could shield him, could divert
the flood. He needs more than
an echo of his thoughts. More
than a crude, soulless golem,
or a shadowy doppelganger. He
needs essence: common, tangled,
roots that nourish and inspire, to
ground him in time and place.

Long sleepless nights like
this freeze time. Imagination
grips his heart, squeezing
until his chest pounds.
Singers accompany
his drumming heart.
If he looked out the window
he would see steam rising
from the vent as his clothes
tumble dry, as the dryer exhales
moist, hot air. Instead he sees
the breath of singers rising,
matching the rhythm spiraling
from the drum, accompanied by the
thunderous dances of buffalo and
holy chants of Yei-Be-Chai.
Rhythm fills the night.
It rises from his heart.

Night wraps him like
a second skin, a twisting
and pulling wave
charging a sandy beach.
Above thunderous surf
a voice wafts, riding the soft
mist haloing turbulent water
stampeding all around.
His spirit rises. In the powerful
grip of an undertow, his body cannot.
Near the sparkling surface
memory breaks free, breaches,
arching high in the air.
His first death. Murdered
by loving parents. Water
boarded before the CIA
had a name for it. Then a
second. Abandoned, he felt
the suffocation of banishment.
And a third, a forth.
No beacon to the other side.
He lingers.
He follows
the calming voice.

Opaque water undulate as
swells pass beneath the rippled
surface, reflecting the faint light
of stars, scattering the argent  
glow spilled by a full moon.
Polaris faintly glimmers and
winks, showing a way,
guiding.
Slowly,
unexpectedly,
he breaks the tension
separating ocean from air.
He sees man-shaped kelp
kissing the salty surface,
returning the indifferent
ocean’s kiss of life.

The rise and fall
has no rhythm.
His drum beats.
His blood dances.
The rhythm rises
from his heart.

btrue
19feb2014
ciannie Oct 2015
-and the dark seems profound
in the corners of crooks of building's elbows
they cradle that which they have found
stray cats
flown litter
happy ivy

sentient, but quietly, built to stand and shine
the streetlights are the only soldiers
but they glow indiscriminate, haloing crime
tonight, none
they see
me go

red carpet, grey glistening black, bone slabs
cigarette buds lie, my roses
and chills scuttle in the underbrush, hard biting *****
the night
doesn't seem
so frightful

whisper this, over and over, louder than the sea
which crashes, as is its business
but no one is awake to hear it, none but me
constellations glow;
their cities
are alive

away in the custard ink of our unknown space
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus...Pluto
dance, smoother than an apparatus reflection, emotion in face
wishing my
eyes could
be telescopes

metals, dirt, bone and fur, gas and water and soul
cocktail elements, curved, twisted, moulded
our perfect globe, full, awake, but- within the solar pole
we are
so tiny
and lonesome

our companions of the sky, past our eyes, kept curtained
by the dark which so cradles in crooks as the sun slips
explored mechanically, unknown personally, unburdened
but the
stars are
our proof

of family.
from them.
listen to Sleeping At Last's song 'Mercury'- (in fact, listen to ALL their songs omfg they're poetry to music)
Mateuš Conrad Nov 2016
and who would have thought that there would be such
certainty governing ι (iota), as to effectively stress it
               all the ****** time? guise it in whatever pronouns
you want, either modern or ancient and if ancient
then bound to psychiatric theory - but who would have
thought that so much pinpointing was to be allowed
over ι? and yet there are hordes of people without
a clue as to who they are and what identity to rattle
the world with... pinpoint above the iota...
if it was absolutely precise, and if it was truly identifiable
with a great accuracy, i'd find people in shackles of
certainty, hardly deviating from that's already apparent
to them... but it's not the case... so presumptuous
to ascribe iota (ι) that sort of certainty  when ascribing
it a holy pronoun status... there's hardly a pinpoint
about the iota, hardly any certainty, always the spontaneous
venture, and that's still bound to what  aesthetician you
speak to...
                           ᾠ (oi)! wriggly serpent of
arabic in greek, wriggled in, subscripted, prefix: al-,
then the l'ah the l'ah, la la la... la la... mmmbop! handsome,
   innit? kamoze... na na na na na na na na na na nah...
  'ere *** d' 'otstepper... chilli chilli in sprechen dingo...
                 roughing up the woof downunder.
and wrote a surah about the byzantine defeat...
true up to the point of mongol  and the mamluke...
for if not the serpent to teach man handwriting,
what animal? is not the serpent the jurassic spine
and our pause for thought? or what does predate
the discovery of dinosaur bones if not bonsai
   morphed into welsh and chinese dragons?
exaggerations of sleeper's intuition collectively?
to bow, or say: prior: all things worthy of a palette -
then the revisionist meteor, then all things condemnable
and bound to excess - gluttonous eyes  staring poignant as if
gnats stuck to venomous arrows with a thirst for st. sebastian...
    for what audacity asserted that it was always to be so:
a pinpoint above ι? there was no universal agreement -
as is to say: a god of the omni realm will never consider
a peace treaty  unless the people abide by the mantra om
and subsequently flourish... and what animal taught us this
wriggling? should we rewrite our stance basing all
metamorphosis from shouting to a hush and then compound
with statement: genteel reader away from the serpent
and haloing the worm, that too wriggles? it all depends which
aesthetician you speak to... if you speak to me,
i'll tell you this version of human history's worth of
soap opera.
Irate Watcher Mar 2018
I've walked many late night walks.
I've talked many late night talks.
I've watched the sun drop,
and the people fall.
Their struggle like mine.
Their monotony refreshingly tired.
Their chaos a sign --
entropy is alive and well.

Their pain is salve to blisters,
cracking and dry.
Their frustration, a relief.
Their stumbling words --
a little too deep.

Their patience enfolds.
Their perspiration consoles.
Their broken pieces pump a heart.
Their meandering is a straight shot.
Their ***** cleans shoes
Their malice graces you
Their cringe softens faces.
Their flooding tears wash it.
Their pride, a humility.
Their turbulence, a gliding
Their purposelessness, a divine right.
Their flounder, a vibe.
Their past, a present.
Their fans, a famous.
Their selfish, a gracious.
Their falling, a falling up.
Their pretend, a realization
Their sadness, a joy.
Their stumble, a freeform.
Their tired energy.
Their weakness, a strength.
Their plain, an eclectic.
Their dull, an electric.
Their screen, a seeing.
Their absorption, a being.
Their terror, a bravery.
Their whining, a safety.
Their fear, a fearlessness.
Their rock bottom, a peak.
Their peasant, a princess.
Their settle, a refusal.
Their stiff, a flexability.
Their tough, an ingenuity.
Their pale, an ivory.
Their hail, a haloing.
Their *****, a clean.
Their fortune, a fiend.
Their silver, a gold.
Their waste, a sold.
Their clutter, a space.
Their trouble keeping pace.
Kìùra Kabiri Feb 2017
She held my hand and wished
She could stop time from its eternal ticking
She held my feet and cried
Only if she could change some decisions
She looked into my will and wept
Only if she could alter certain moments
She beheld my heart and bemoaned
She could influence some set situations
She held me, my spirit-my willpower
Hoping she could change and charge my soul
But time was gone and wills were made……

I looked into her heart
And I mourned time
I looked into her eyes, tears
And I inwardly tore of situations
I beheld her pitiful gaze
And understood her pains
I dug deeper into her soul, her spirits
And I solely saw her determinations
And I lamented love, I wailed wishes
For nothing at all me mere mortal could alter of instances
For time was far gone and wills were made……

We hugged and held hopelessly-
We both hated feelings
We kissed and cuddled clueless-
We both loathed love
We canoodled and cradled carelessly-
We both reviled desires
We caught and clutched to hope, defenseless-
We both wished of time, there is anything we could change
There are in it some moments we could solely crush
For nothing we could do, could alter time!
For time was never ours and will never be, ours!

I went, she remained
Sorrows surrounding her soul
She wept, I watched
Pity haloing my heart’s spirit
She lived while I died
Pains and havoc wracking our love
I extinguished and she cried
Anger and anguish ruining our lives!

But we still held to hope-
Of again meeting and marching:
Of again loving and living;
Of again merging and matching!
For love outlives time and
Time marches to hope!

© Kìùra Kabiri. All rights reserved.
grumpy thumb Jun 2017
Gone the tenderness
from april eyes
that gave home to mine
decorated with playful dancing light
haloing soft depths
portholes of night.
Gone the tenderness
to graceful flight
lost in slumber
they're closed tight.
She sleeps...
Brae Mar 2023
What would the crunch be like?
My grooves in the grooves
of your deciduous molars,
shards of enamel erupting vampiric
into my gums, sinking
into dentin like calcite
spongecake, pulp splattered, cementum
like a magic riddle hidden
amongst stale white ******* Jacks.
The rest strung on a red thread
candy necklace
haloing vertebra C7
like the shark teeth adorned by surfers
or like how sometimes we wear
spoils of the hunt on our bodies
to remind our prey that they,
too, will one day wear our teeth
around their necks.
Look up, that’s where you’ll find yourself,
holding hands with the stars and breathing with eternity,
the moon haloing your head and comets in your hair.
You are the dust of this earth, the fire of suns,
a gift of a universe unique, starlight your reflection.
Here is where you were born, a song on your breath
and words to your voice, fire in your heart
and whimsy in your head, dreams of a good life
and the reality of one, the best prophesy fulfilled.
Look up, that’s where you’ll find yourself,
holding hands with the stars and dancing in the darkness.

— The End —