o melanin
'tis of thee
sweet land.

what's your modus operandi?
i am ageing.
my muscles ossify
and i become stiff.

the bullet grazes the hair on my bicep
and my heart fires a lightning bolt.
i made it this time.
undo.
unison.
undo.
and leave me be.

Wide countertops speckled with vanilla sugar
plant vines ink-sketched along blank walls
flour clouds hover, ossify edges of brittle Betty Crocker’s
printed sunflowers, herbs peer between stacked spices,

plant vines ink-sketched on blank walls
leaves tremble where window breeze battles oven heat
printed sunflowers, herbs peer from between stacked spices
look down on three generations, Best 2 Egg cake

leaves tremble where window breeze battles oven heat
flour clouds hover, ossify pages of brittle Betty Crocker’s
look down on three generations, Best 2 Egg cake
and wide countertops speckled with vanilla sugar

Sweat brow perculates,
unmastered tongue erased all evidence,
moist palms dripping anxious thoughts.
pursed lips crackled and dry
flow words like rapids,
blink open eyes crusted by innocence
each scar buried in rock,
fracture and fault.
heart uplifted bent in regrets,
memories unconformities,
missing from sight.
flash to love, metamorphosed in time
growing, blending to crystals born.
layered finely touched in pain,
like grains lithify
ossify,
remain untouched, preserved
in stone jointed connections made.
meandering tears entrenched down-cutting
cheeks, bone exposed to roots.
once deposited feeling, now eroded to nothing,
blown by winds unforgiving
these days pass like eons.

in the fog of a cold summer,
you shivered like a seismograph
tremors assaulting your faultlines
and i took you in my arms,
zipped you into my ribcage to keep you warm -  
you shivered to the rhythm of my pulse,
hot blood exiling
the summer chill.
from the fog of a cold summer,
i took you into my bed,
plucked your feathers
to keep you with me;
made dreamcatchers from your feathers
to keep the nightmares from your mind.
shivering seismograph,
can't fly with bare wings.
through the fog of a cold summer,
i walked with you,
held your hand
anchoring you to my side,
shackles between  us
keeping you safe
[you can't fly in this fog
little seismograph:
the clouds will eat you up
the fog will wrap around you
and dash you against the rocks.
oh, you are beautiful,
but you won't be when you're
bleeding broken on the talus,
your bones escaping your skin.
blood breeds art
but what use is art when you're gone,
when you've found your feathers and flown]
in the fog of a cold summer,
you asked to leave.
i need to fly, you said,
i need to become lost
in arms of mist
and fog.
your ****** arms aren't enough,
your ****** arms are staining me
corporeal.
just keep your arms around me,
just remain in my ribs,
just close your eyes
and let me be your
air currents,
lifting you above the talus.
i can fill all your fault lines,
i can ossify
all your fissures.
i'll fill your hollow bones with my
hot
blood
and exile the summer chill.
in the fog of a cold summer,
in the wake of a muscle spasm,
you fell from the sky
and i caught you,
plucked your feathers
so you could never fall again.
little seismograph,
shivering to the rhythm of my pulse,
i will keep you
so warm.
i'll keep you safe
in my cage.

I’ve missed this language,
this tongue in my ear of birdsong,
branch creak and rattle,
this chattered water flowing with thought
and question
immobile months have seen my soul ossify
so I’ll embrace this caked mud and heavy boot
and whistle-tread awake

Love tries to ossify people.
Into that rush of chemicals.
And keeping them just like that time.
You looked a little bit too long.
And, it was more than relaxed on your face.
Cause you couldn't control what you were doing.
Or the words coming out.
Of your mouth.

My mind encompasses a cumulonimbus cloud that strikes my spine of agony and hope.
My nerve impulse consists of abuse that traumatizes my heart yet it beats on hope as a way to cope.
The pain sleeps underneath the bags under my eyes and feeds on the despair which hides behind my smile,
My soul is trapped behind the body that’s been burdened wearing heavy armor for awhile.
I’m a shadow to a reflection that’s unrecognized that became my escapism.
I remember telling myself that love is a blessing but I’m a curse.
That love will never devour me until it strips every heartbreak from my bones that ruptured into me like a bullet.
My skeleton shows missing fragments that my bulletproof skin was unable to fit though it survived the full impact of distress that ever hit.
This body is an armor of tinted smiles and radiant persona to pleasure the pain in my heart for encouragement that it too one day can be jovial.
But my armor isn’t strong enough to stitch wounds of my past to allow a peace of mind to last.
Beneath this skin are bones made up of affliction and anguish that doesn’t ossify after it’s pierced
I’ve carried this weight that was always too much on my plate for years that even the screams in my head wasn’t enough to lay my sorrows on the bed.
Days may have been black and white but the sun keeps me buoyant with everything I do,
It reminds me that I am the crayolor in a colorless distraught though I may feel blue.

-dpk

I feel nothing these days.
As empty as these wind swept dismal grey prairie days.
I find myself in.

It's really just an absence.
Of life.
A catatonic cowboy stuck in yesterday.
Longing for release from the boredom.
Of right now.

Tomorrow seems like an incomprehensible impossibility in this liminal infinite time.
Trying frantically to ossify in right here.
This thought.
This pure.
Unadulterated.
Moment.
Out of time.

Mainly blue, but colours shift
as the nape of your neck smell might appeal
or the mole on your cheek
that will stubbornly never be Marilyn

This love, like bright sunlight in shallows
will dapple and confuse greens and golds
as our souls ossify in cool weeds

Today was the day I died
Left for dead, at dead of night
Truck stop ride, then dropped roadside
Four lanes wide, now walking as I cry
Asked god why, just give me wings I'll fly
Bashful, and I'm shy, no one would pick up a guy.
Still was gonna try, so I  held my thumb up high
Cars flew right by, as they laughed waving goodbye
Long winded sigh, before deciding to retry
One second bone dry, next a monsoon from the sky
Wonder what did it signify, as the rain intensified
Couldn't believe my eyes, when a car stopped with a slide
A Rabi and a man sporting a spotted neck tie
Said that I could hop inside, then shifted into drive.
Little did I know how quickly things would go awry
They didn't care to specify, they didn't clarify
Behind me peoccupied, was a man wielding a knife.
Grabbed me by the neck and told me to comply
Completely horrified when I saw the bloodlust in their eyes.
It was three against I, in no position to defy
Bound my hands with zip ties as they talked of alibis
Made a turn nearby, road I couldnt identify
They then pry me out the car said it was time to purify
Told me to abide in exchange I'd keep my life
In an attempt to pacify, all my urges nullified
Entered a modified house, it was heavily fortified
Completely terrified when my suspicions were verified
Number of people had multiplied, all so satisfied
All here to glorify, the ritual sacrifice
Hoping they would be deified, not knowing they would be denied.
My plan was then solidified, "I'll run before crucified
Get far away then hide, notify the FBI and then I'll testify"
Then i let out battle cry, turned to run, stabbed in the thigh
Fell to the ground petrified,  25 times siliced till no longer alive
I wondered why while my soul arises and watched my body ossify
This indeed is how I died, by means of homicide

-Ajm

I'm safe in this room.
As I ossify my dysfunction.
With more excuses.