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Westley Barnes Jun 2013
Nine months after I was born, the Twentieth Century began to collapse.
East Berlin,graffiti-mural concrete, a jutted enigma scratched
on ordinance maps, the sort found
landscaping westernized Primary School walls.
Where within, labored in real time, the television told my parents
(and everyone else given to social conservation in 1989) that a wall falling down
would bring an end to the gap between the working and the working poor.
Freedom waited for many on the other side.
But of course, History draws up different plans.

Never content to just go out with a bash, or to
fleetingly drift by leaving
in its absence an underwhelmed lull
The bloodiest century yet
left the new world entrenched
in an odyssey of hatreds
handed down from the past
right about the time human suffering became a bit dull
and the peaceful countries were too busy
tripling their money instead.

What does History really teach us and what are the real benefits
of being free, or freer than you were before?
Human ambition, which burns it way out of any oasis of calm,
which calls children out of sleeping in the night
Always seeks out the exhaustible
An inveterate Black sheep leading astray
the ever susceptible ****** lamb
Delusion’s strange bedfellows are the worthiest adversaries
to run away from, to reserve contrition for.

Unlike the inevitability of uprooted animal migration
during a monsoon swell
Can a people with an invested addiction
to the pursuit of happiness
Ever truly be prepared
for the inevitability of rapid change?
I LOVE him, I love him, ran the patter of her lips
And she formed his name on her tongue and sang
And she sent him word she loved him so much,
So much, and death was nothing; work, art, home,
All was nothing if her love for him was not first
Of all; the patter of her lips ran, I love him,
I love him; and he knew the doors that opened
Into doors and more doors, no end of doors,
And full length mirrors doubling and tripling
The apparitions of doors: circling corridors of
Looking glasses and doors, some with knobs, some
With no knobs, some opening slow to a heavy push,
And some jumping open at a touch and a hello.
And he knew if he so wished he could follow her
Swift running through circles of doors, hearing
Sometimes her whisper, I love him, I love him,
And sometimes only a high chaser of laughter
Somewhere five or ten doors ahead or five or ten
Doors behind, or chittering h-st, h-st, among corners
Of the tall full-length dusty looking glasses.
I love, I love, I love, she sang short and quick in
High thin beaten soprano and he knew the meanings,
The high chaser of laughter, the doors on doors
And the looking glasses, the room to room hunt,
The ends opening into new ends always.
a m a n d a Sep 2013
[my only swerving, by el ten eleven]

guitar slides
that break my heart
sitting inside
my hollow
guitar body
quick three
notes
on air

beats slow
snap
melody light
and quick
dancing
doubling
tripling

now slowing
sliding
bringing
tears

the sad
drumming
and bass
that move
time
forward

it's hard to
breathe my only
swerving
the cello sound
pulls me
down
guitar
strumming

the deep bass note
a vibration
to define
my
loneliness
Kaylee Lemire Feb 2017
Tonight, my bed is uninviting, and the moon too bright.
I get down on my knees; I send you
a prayer:

I hope you still find strands of my hair
clinging to your sheets, collected in the dryer’s lint trap,
strewn at the back of your dresser drawers.
Despite the figures of my absence-- in lunar cycles and miles--
I sometimes linger in that humming interlude before sleep,
picturing you twisting in those wrinkled sheets,
flipping the pillow only to uncover my lingering scent.

The full moon is glaring; You,
like myself, must be restless
at this witching hour, stringing
words together, our thread-count tripling
as the stars blink out. But,
close that tired moleskine eulogy. Tuck
it in some ill-attended corner of your
room along with the remaining,
waning remnants of me,

and sleep.
Dani Nov 2017
I crave the comfort of white noise.
When I fall asleep every night, my box fan carries me as I drift off.
Its blades spin up and its humming fills my room
Like a sweet lullaby leading me off to a silent world.
I used to play albums off of an old CD player:
Anything to block out the whispers inside of my head,
Anything to keep me away from my thoughts.
During the day, when there’s no fan to keep me safe
I turn to the comfort of music:
Pop a headphone in and my feelings melt away.
It keeps me focused, but in a way, it’s my distraction too:
The kind that fills my head with lyrics instead of questions.

Questions.
Endless questions.
They’re the white noise inside my head the rest of time.
They’re the bullies and I’m their victim
But there’s no one else around to save me from their violence:
They beat me till I’m ****** and bruised
Mind sliced raw from their attacks,
What are you doing here?
What’s the point?
Why do you even bother?
Beating into my weakened defenses
They kick me especially when I’m down.
They gang up inside my head, doubling, tripling
Until they’re a chorus of white noise echoing off the walls.
They keep me locked up
In a cell with nothing but a bed made of broken glass
And a small fan in the corner,
Humming me to sleep every night
Because my room can offer me no other comforts.
I feel the questions just outside of my cell,
And I hide from them because there’s nowhere to run:
I’m a prisoner pressed into the furthest wall
As they taunt me from the other side of the bars I’ve built.
Why can’t you be happy?
Or normal?
Why don’t you just go away for a while?
Maybe forever?
I plead with them to stop their screaming
So they laugh at me instead,
A high pitched squeal that makes my hair stand on end,
My body tenses up, my ears start to ring.
And suddenly they’re something else entirely
The faces of my friends appear cackling
Questions spilling from their mouths:
Are we just pretending?
Do we really hate you?
What makes you think we care about you?
How do you know it isn’t just an act?
Their laughter surges in my mind
Like a sickening joke that makes my stomach turn,
And the white noise grows ever louder.
Even when the fan starts to takes their place,
Masking their white noise,
One finds its way in
To plant its seed of doubt
On the edge of my subconscious
As I begin to drift to sleep:
Are you just pretending?

I feel my breathing seize
Because suddenly I wonder if any of this is true,
Or if I’ve created a false reality for attention.
The thought seeps into my mind like poison
Whispering to me that I can’t even trust myself,
Tearing down every defense I’d built
Brick by brick
Until I’m curled up in a pile of tear stained rubble,
Knees bruised purple and yellow,
Lips chewed ****** and raw,
Eyes swollen red and glistening wet.
What’s wrong with me?
Am I hopeless?
Cause it feels like I’m spiraling out of control
Losing my sense of self to the endless tide of worry
And I’m not sure how to stop it.
So I begin to ask myself
What am I doing here?
What’s the point?
Why do I even bother?

Because I can’t tell what the truth is anymore
If my fan keeps the questions out,
Or if I’m so used to them;
I crave the comfort of their
White noise.
Mateuš Conrad May 2017
i wasn't satisfied with the cartesian
                                                       ­          cogito ergo sum...
                it's not that i couldn't stomach it,
it was just:               not enough?
people claim that maxim to be the source
of all subjectivity,
          and there's nothing objective about
it.
      all this modern talk of subject vs. object,
i had to employ a θήσαύρύς.
      i needed a square... a solomon's star,
two squares encompassed against each other,
nothing akin to the star of david...
i mean solomon's star, of two squares
imposed on each other, layered
so you get an oκτάγωνον oktágōnon
oh ****! a macron over an omicron = an omega!
                                  oh k'tah goo non...
      wait wait... i was going to write something
concrete, and yes, it was based on solomon's star...
             6 things -

     cogito                              sum
subjectivity             ­           objectivity            king david (6)  
   reflexive                           reflective

   thinking = subjectivity = the reflective
    thinking = subjectivity = the reflexive
      thinking = objectivity = the reflective
    thinking = objectivity = the reflexive         king solomon (8)
     being = subjectivity = the reflective
       being = subjectivity = the reflexive
      being = objectivity = the reflective
              being = objectivity = the reflexive

     (alt. given the atheistic scissors of definite / indefinite articles
    of the / a                     a reflex,         a reflection)

what this means is, what's generally thought of as
the tetragrammaton, but it's not four letters,
    it's the interpolation of the four main faculties,
that are now seen as tripling up, or call them: cubed;
a lament configuration representation.
    
     thinking is subjective in that it is also reflective
  (the narcissus bias)
     thinking is subjective in that it is also reflexive
     (i need a shave)
     thinking is objective in that it is also reflective
       (i am ageing)
   thinking is objective in that it is also reflexive
          (i'll just stop looking into a mirror)...

dear apologies for the geometry of the arrangement
                              of words, i know you'd love to see a tartan pattern
              of interchange, but this **** seems rigid, in the way
   that i wrote it... i couldn't find a way to write a b a b
                     as stated, it only came out as a a b b,
                            or a b c a b c         rather a a b b c c.

but do you see what is even more fascinating than numbers?
    the arithmetic symbols... arithmetic symbols
are very much akin to diacritical symbols...
              i write an over-simplification of a concept using =,
and then all these conjunctional words pop up!
   and yes, in terms of citing heidegger as opposed to
        descartes      there's a great disparity between
                          being     and i am -
                          self-evident,       being = the sum, a total, Σ,
while      i am? it's a unitary representation of the total (sum / sigma)
    of the possible mode of being -
       it's also called ego interference / pronoun inteference
             in the conceptualisation of the cascade that's ergo
                            into the basin that's dasein.

what philosophy call metaphysics?
                         linguistics call orthography...
                                 what chemists call para- positioning on
                     a benzene ring;
                                         or what non-chemists call the paranormal.
George Maris Apr 2014
A Goliath I created.
Magnified, tripling it's size.
My wounds are already afflicted before I charge.
Grief has caused me not to rise.
My heart is heavy with such despair,
A burden heavy and large.
I lay down my sword because of the weight,
It is the very means of my defeat.
It's time to rise from my knees
Stand strong and straight.
My courage is not in my hands but in my heart.
It's time to play my part,
Face that giant and really see.
He's much smaller than me.
Cast him down
I can pass
Continue on my journey.
At last
Erom elims Oct 2014
Share the world I'm alive
haunting brain archives
Thrives till dust then at dawn hearing your vocals
Vibrate luminosity across the smokers domain stuck
Freezed into the glaze of your mind
Own senses draped
self-spilling emotions on reality tap
Screen vented this day
the unknowing longing
To converse about
the gleaming at gorgeous eyes
Minding me intrinsically cumbersome under my skin
An image engrained into my head
Writing for the quintessential relaxed ears
Mind breathing without ageing thoughts
Breaking my weak twigs knees
Wanting your eclectic self-yearning
Nothing more
Byzantine accomplishments  
Cemented on bricks buried on the floors
Passing artistically
Butterflys invade my consciousness
Then drifting back on wheels swilling untitled
Lonely human actions
Collecting copious mental photographs sloshing Amongst my neurons dreaming
Once more of a singers delighted painted green
Leavings as she bounces the surrounding scene of her european leaves juxtaposed
I remain still unseen with this non-emoted
Feelings ghost bound holdings
Gigantic bugs my ****** host as you fade away
From earth perceptions
Left burning wrapped beatnik-esque sunglasses
Reverberations haunting
My cranium nearly dejected frustrated
Shyness awaking my tripling typing monstrosity admirations
Banele Nov 2019
From dusk to dawn,
Pain to rain
with water showering
the face of the innocent.
I was innocent then
so lovely made
And peacefully protected
From the tripling thundering
thunderstorms, as my heart thundered
Of creeps , creeping my feet.
Oh my mama made me.
When the enemies
put adversity of pain before me
Guess what, she prepared a table
of joy , giddy .
I stepped and rose .
When thorns , they laid , my carpet-
She shamelessly made me a bed of roses.
She said ," Roses are red."-
Mama the sky is blue.
You made me
Mama made me.
Human Jun 2018
You Talk too much
"Check what I found!!"
Move way wayy back
"Don't Make A Sound"

You yell
You scream
"A lie
A scheme"

Get lost
Get away
Life's not white or black
Just grey

It will pass it shall
It is what it is

Calm down pal
It's alright just chill

Body temperature rising
Heat nd fire builds up
It's all synchronizing
Watch out heads up

U saw it coming
U knew it'll happen
Calm urself down
Abit more till u drow

Succumb to their wishes
Obey their demands
Dress up nd role over
Perform their commands
Be quiet and listen
Do u understand?
Act or fake it
Just shake the **** hand

Smile
Wave
Live in a cave
Away from all ppl
Do not be their slave

Ur not in a cage
Just stuck on a stage
Preforming the acts ur told
Ur not completely bold

Deliberately falling
Constantly stalling

Isolated indeed
Elsewhere attached
Somehow freed
Chick just hatched
Ignorant as ever
Pretending to be clever

Precaution advised
Lifetime ahead
Something revised
Yet u are dead

Ask for
Redemption
Receive no exemption

Satisfaction obscured
Resistance assured
Yap I'm *******

Growth all over
Malignant, benign?
Makes no difference
This life isn't mine

Concealing truthfulness
Overwhelmed by dreadfulness

Brightened past
Inspected expectedly
Nothing bright about it
Accepted rhetorically

Complaining all over  
Demanding closure
Contemplating scars
A world of cigars

Brilliant circumstances  
Or so they say
Thoroughly examined
Yet ****** me up day by day

Transparently seeking
Truth, its demanding
Reluctantly speaking
Truth, is outstanding

Strands and threads of hope
No it's just one, and mirrors
It's doubling, tripling nd more
Fake and false, an excuse for war

Confetti in a balloon
Released to the moon
Wishing for light to shine over
To find me that clover

A sack of ribbons
Dropping like a ****
Hitting the pavement
Like an overweight man's ***
Blown over with the wind
Flowing thru the street
There's a cool sound to that happening
What an awesome beat

I might sound trippy
I may seem cold
Do I even listen
To whatever I'm told

Go on
Move on
It's over
Or, almost over
Close enough tho
Ud be satisfied
Or so ud say
Who would know tho?
If it weren't for u
It won't show tho
That u knew


The beginning
A bunch of intertwined thoughts
Mateuš Conrad Aug 2021
it always makes sense: to make your own
blueberry ice-cream...
or raspberry ice-cream...
  come to think of it: having watched a lot
of Australia Master-Chef...
hmm... beetroot ice-cream...
basil ice-cream...
                it makes sense because it's
a quintessential happiness...
altogether something different from...
making your own wine...
but this has to be the most pristine base recipe:
2 cups of double cream
half a cup of sugar: perhaps even less...
one quarter to half a cup of sugar...
5 egg yolks...
obvious beaten and when the cream sugar milk
mixture comes up to 165 Fahrenheit...
the ideal temp. for roast chicken: mind you...
i remember those Sundays when
both my mother and grandmother
turned chicken ******* into chalk...
all the men in the house would be gagging for
the dark meat: near the bones...
since that couldn't be overcooked... over-baked...
obviously if i were to compare:
taking out my little culinary chemistry set
when making a curry...
is one thing...
but there's something: i don't have either
noun or adjective to suit this adventure...
it's: ******* blueberry ice-cream...
you could almost reinvent the thrill of riding
a bicycle heavy-traffic when
making ice-cream...
i'm more of a savoury cook...
when it comes to sweet: baking irritates me...
ice-cream i can stand: under...
but cooking sweet is so less alchemical
than cooking savoury...
whiskey ice-cream: it's doable...
double up: coffee-whiskey-caramel ice-cream...
oh... wait... that's tripling up
    on the effort...
sure... some cheap vanilla extract to boot...
but since blueberries are blueberries...
and not raspberries: there was a sly squeeze
of a lemon...
i'm hoping for a good harvest
of grapes this year...
i'm assuring myself to be able to...
squeeze out a dozen bottles of row-zay...
looks ugly: phonetically... no?
i'm not going to introduce an acute on the E
to morph a rose into a: hue...
7am tomorrow... a romance with the bicycle...
and all that's Loon'don...
running through advertisement in the river
of thought of all that's: subliminal...
after all: journalism no journalism no...
they still get that itch from time to time
to replicate the glory days of Woodward & Bernstein...
for me... it was a one off...
these days journalism comes too late:
or too early...
too pawn-brokered...
   i still read the newspapers: mostly like a solipsist...
not that i'm somehow immune
to the everyday: greyish horrors of...
average people: i guess i'm one of them...
because wouldn't i want to think
somehow more of myself:
i can hardly scold... demean the prostitutes
i visit from time to time...
it would leave me supposing an ownership
of a pair of two left hands...
drinking a bottle of 70cl like it might be
a bottle of milk:
thank god i didn't have the "bright" idea
of mixing it up with a shy... 35cl of beer...
sure... it might work in an ice-cream:
coffee... whiskey... caramel...
    this ugly necessity of being agitated: prompted for
no great purpose other:
perhaps... i'd rather not talk...
fixing some shelves in the wardrobe...
making the ice-cream...
hence my demand of propping the advertisers above
the "journalists"...
it's good that i don't have the sort of money
they're gagging me to spend...
insurmountable joy arrives from
the clarity of: not having the sort of money
needed to be spent given the effort
of advertisers to make you: want to spend it...
you don't need to advertise whiskey...
or beer...
Franziskaner Weissbier:
                           but Carlsberg needs the slogan:
probably... it isn't... probably or otherwise:
****-juice at 3.5% at the keg...
the monk's brew i'll buy:
with or without an advertisement campaign...
it's most probably a niche product:
only niche consumers buy it...
i don't suppose the art: is it still called that?
of poetry: ugh... rhyming cripples...
caged rhymers...
    it would be more fun to play a game of:
slap a ball against a brick wall...
to reiterate: i don't Horace ever had a care
for rhyme...

deus inmortalis haberi dum cupit Empedocles,
ardentem frigidus Aetnam insiluit.
Sit ius liceatque perire poetis:
invitum qui servat, idem facit occidenti.
nec semel hoc fecit nec, si restractus erit,
iam fiet **** et ponet fanisae mortis amorem.
nec satis adparet, cur versus factitet, utrum,
minxerit in patrios cineres an triste bidental
moverit incestus: ceste furit ac velut ursus,
obiectos caveae valuit si frangere clatros,
indoctum doctumque fugat recitator acerbus;
quem vero arripuit tenet occiditque legendo,
non missura cutem nisi plena cruoris hirudo...

Empedocles: wanting to become a god...
chilled by old age: was supposed to jump...
into the burning mouth of Etna.
if they want (it), let the poets
have the law unto their death.
who: whom against their will saves,
the suicide double condones (finishes off).
not for the first time:
not so easily said: i am human.
he wants to glorify himself with death.
i write poems. why?
     maybe i ****** on my father's grave,
maybe the place has been struck
with a thunderbolt: spread and is now impure.
like a bear in a fury, breaking the bars (of the cage)
scares the wise & the fools:
thus a wordsmith interloper...
      whoever he will catch... with recitations
puts down... not even with a leech from
the skin will not fall off:
                                           until satiated with blood.

he who (against their will)
               saves: the suicide double condones...
knuckle-head stunts...
not for the first time.
it's not so easily said: it's not easily said...
i am: human.
he wants to gain fame through his death.
i write, poems.

the book fell from my hands... onto the floor...
the floor breathed...
i spoke: no more...
like some ghostly wind...
if i don't translate it proper...
there was some wording about:
******* on one's father's grave...
turning the pages quickly like:
a pigeon might be flapping its wings...
328.... 329...
pages...330 & 331...
a book fell... like...
a woodland pigeons might flap its wings
while i turns the pages... "haphazardly"...
i'm no poet caged to rhyme...
i'm... Horace's horse: prosaic...
i turned the pages like...
the sound and image...
of a pigeon... flustered... wing-clapping-the-wind...
                                               might... just might...

i wash my eyes with cold water...
ensuring the rest of my face is:
welcoming a tiredness of day...
if i done things proper...
i'd throw my naked body into
a bulge of nettles
for: some... adequate... revision of...
what's to be felt...

why?
    maybe i ****** on my father's grave...
maybe the place: thunderstruck... spread...
and he became: impure.
how a bear in a fury...
breaking out from in between
the cages's barricade of bars:
shuns the wise and the idiots....
such wordsmith: poetry minding: ambition...
agitation... whoever it befalls...
with recitation doubles down on:
second-hammering...
a leech will not fall off the skin:
until it is satiated with blood.

one might start calling it an:
agitated wardrobe?!
                the dead leave us pardons:
so many that the living will ever allow:
i don't want to be among the living:
i want to be among the dead...
i want to juice up as many prunes
as there are grapes
and still... leverage what half harvest i might
have from the ..
i forget at what point i'm to care about
being an investment prospect...

i would never say that translating Latin was...
somehow: fun...
wordsmith interloper?!
Jonathan Moya May 2021
Brother, I await you outside the window
amongst the night traffic zoom and scent of pine,

story sitting on the throat’s knife edge,
the truth unable to roll out from blood fear.

Mother, I feel your harsh breath outside my soul.
Father, your praise is hidden in the hot stones.

Brother, the moon slices you,
tripling fear across the unforgettable,

a memory haunting a thousand of my nights.
How can I love the ghosts of those beings I hate

or hate the shadows of things I truly love in light?
Brother, I know what I can only imagine.

In the night, I know your hand is there, all in mine.
I imagine the cold breath of stones.
Kenechukwu Apr 2020
Hearing is not listening
we fear, so start missing things.
Far off and dissonant
souls always stiffening.

Try social distancing
from the incessant whispering,
a product of your conditioning
so very limiting.
That voice in your head?
So very crippling.

Look within, start witnessing,
the ego needs a visiting,
a minor repositioning.
then you may find
your compassion
doubling, tripling
nevermore dwindling.

Exit yourself
listen in
ensure that you're listening.
Not always to the words,
but to loud eyes glistening
Not always to the conformist,
sometimes to the dissident
Not always to the waves
sometimes to the rippling.
Your eyes were blinded by their sensitivity to my summer-sun love

I moan to you my "poetetical" moaners...  The dirt    & disappointment ME ME ME  A leaf fell in the pond I almost cried    Why?  Me Me Me...

Sometimes

Sometimes when I'm nursing birds covered in oil
I scream
because their beaks scratch my *******

I wear a bra
as I flower into
womanhood and
I talk more openly
to bra salesmen


I can't stop crying...

We play like kids
in the dirt

I saw you ***
the other day

You peed a lot

The Pony
You were riding a pony
when we met
Now, you prefer to walk


You ground my face into the dirt

You said WE were forever
just before you
ground my face into the dirt

Never
Our love was like a winter breeze
breezing through the trees of Scotland
You bumped your head on a big tree
and then you forgot how to love
Mommy come home

Our children cry
because you are gone
I forgot your warm touch
When will it end?
Oh God, WHEN??!!

As I was instigating, lactating, procreating & confisgating I saw you

Doubling my chances at love
Your twin sister is ****!

Tripling my chances at love
Your twin triplet sisters are ****!

As I was instigating, lactating, procreating & congregating I saw you  

I'll not doubt you again

I thought that your sister

was much prettier than you

until you pointed a gun at

me to prove that she isn't

When will the pain end?

You stole my heart

like a Chinese surgeon

Mommy
Mommy
Daddy
Daddy
why???

Nobody Cares (I love you too much)

Remember when I said “I love you”?
Remember the terrible pain?
Well? Do you?

You taught me how to love

~ Dear Chelsea: Hey, Chelsea Clinton has the same first name as you have!

I can hear your heart beat

and I don't like it! Make it stop!

I waited
f o r
love
and
you said
that you were
  not ready

It's painfully introspective, very ME, ME, ME!

Relax & lactate my maiden fair.  
°°°°°°
Believe me
A dog
A woman
A *****
A love that knows no end

How can I go on?
You made me laugh
& when I needed a kidney,
you changed your name and
moved to Holland.


I want to share my terrible pain with you
I have no gender
I checked
I'm smoother than a waffle
Seth Edwards Jul 2018
Once there was a kid
A kid who had the blues and broke the Rules
Shallowed in his own hues, obsessed with The brand-new’s
to the stage he’s queued, without any Boo’s the crowd goes wild and precedes To stay true.

He dreams of the louvre
A simple groove that can’t be smoothed
In his mind these simple rules That can’t Be moved
Tripling down his every fluve
Is a dream

A dream of a cove
With every hope and every boat
It burns like a stove
And curves like a *****
He copes and he hopes that these dreams Will leave
Like a magic envelope the letter is sealed
Forever more to not be healed
A little poem I wrote, Hope you enjoy. -SethE
Your twin sister is ****!

Tripling my chances at love
Your twin triplet sisters are ****!

— The End —