Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
Umi Apr 2018
Down like an anchor,
Vision is shrinking as your eardrums burst through the grusome pressure, increasing the deeper you go in the deep, blue, merciless sea
A match unwinnable, a fight to the finish, to ones very last breath,
Tackled something so much greater, it has pulled back, after capsizing we made the decision when it came to swim or sink, that we drown,
Swallowed by the ocean,  these great unfathomable depths, taken away our last breath of fresh, salty, stinging, yet very pleasant flavour
Our blanket is a billow, a stormy night which caused this tragedy,
Darkness under darkness, where light upon light once ruled supreme
Until our bodies have been taken apart, by this greedy sea and its desire to take us in, make us a part of it's glorious wide spread self,
Never to see the glassy surface once more, or will we be ship ghosts?
All lies and all sin, all dreams and all majesty, are swept away by swelling waves of the expanse someone may call the pacific ocean,
All ego and all deception, all freedom and all light is lost in its dephts
But we quietly, gently rest with pride in our hearts.


~ Umi
Martina Ngose Nov 2015
A lovestruck boy went in for an adventure -
To win the heart of the most beautiful girl
in his neighbourhood.
She would smile at him and stroke his hair
with her fingers.
Just when he thought he got her heart
She walked away like smoke from flames
leaving him to burn to ashes
lovestruck, love story, fiction, memories, writing, fingerprints,  ashes2ashes,
James Anderson Mar 2010
I am not a hero
I am no white knight
I try my best
But sometimes it isn’t enough
Good always triumphs over evil
Or so the saying goes
Since I lose, does that make me evil
I don’t cause pain purposefully
I try to help others
But I am no hero
I don’t fight an unwinnable fight
I do feel pain
And I listen to my fear
A hero has a destiny
Something greater than them
I simply do not
I’m freer than the hero
I can believe what I want
The opinions of what is good or evil
Doesn’t affect me
I know the world isn’t black and white
I don’t do theimpossible
I live in this world
Just like everyone else
I know who I am
And I accept it
I am not a hero
I am something greater
I am me
Joseph Mar 2019
I am in this prison, no escape can I find.
I have been convicted – punished, for another man’s crime

There are many things which I am guilty of – in denying, I would be remiss
For those I should be charged – another man’s crime, absolutely not— not this!

I didn’t break your heart – why should I do the time?
I didn’t  make you cry – why should I pay the fine?
I didn’t cause you misery – why should I go to jail?
I didn’t leave you lonely – why should I be in this cell?

For the many wrongs I’ve done, I would gladly pay for them all.
But for another man’s crime – I walk this justice hall

I stand; -- boldly proclaim –not guilty! – My innocence plea!
I was not at the scene of the crime – mistaken identity.
What heinous thing has he done – what unforgivable act?
What was the crime – I am charged with accessory after the fact.

Tell me what I have done and I will gladly make amends
Don’t make me pay, forever pay, for another man’s sins

I was not there when he did you wrong – wasted words that I say
I was not there when he rejected your affection – your trust he did betray
I was not there when he turned your world misty blue- it was him and him alone
I was not there when he left you broken– that deed is his to own

Why am I impaled for an unknown deed – ignorance is no defense
I throw myself on the mercy of the court – may I approach the bench
He committed the prefect crime – walks away scot-free
Enjoys all the benefit of his wrongdoing –I get the third degree.

Debtor Prison, is my sentence – yet it should not be.
I am an innocent man – yet, you grant him clemency
He forsook your love, took what he wanted, and walked away
But I am the one sentenced-- his debt I’m forced to pay.

When I am holding you -does it remind you of his embrace?
When I am kissing you- do you still see his face?
When I am loving you- is it him you that you miss?
When I am caressing you- for him do you reminisce?

You were a victim – now you victimize.
Creating more damage than you realize.
Because of one man’s wrong, you create wounded of your own.
Perpetually they pay for a crime, for which they can never atone.

It is easy to hurt other when you can’t feel any pain
Yet I pay the price, the one led away in chains.

How can I fix – what you refuse to say?
You want let me close, I’m always keep at bay.
The time may have come for me to throw in the towel.
The jury has been fixed – it’s an unwinnable trial.

Before my leg irons are put on and I am forced to go…
Let me speak now, let my record show,
I gave you my all –it wasn’t good enough
I gave you my best –never gained your trust

I only wanted to hold you and never make you cry
I only wanted to make you smile, girl that’s no lie
I only wanted to please you, but it was not to be
I only wanted to make your happy, the laugh’s on me.

Time is running out, there’s not much left to say
You shut me out, you push me away.
I hope you come around before too long.
Or you’ll wake up-- old – lonely- -all alone.

What I’ve been through- just not right.
I surrender - wave the white flag– no strength left to fight.

Hurt—pain – broken trust – you’re not the only one
Don't end your faith in love because of what he's done

He still controls – your heart – your soul – your mind!
My heart grows heavy –lost hope of your being mine.

Yesterday –gone – present - wasted – future - there’s time
Don’t make every man pay for another man’s crime!
Powers Jan 2014
I am Ink
sweet blood of the
pen.
I **** the flesh of parchment with savvy strokes of timeless musings.
The poet is nothing without my inspiration to spur him forward forcing thought from mind into
visual conceptions of reality.
The written word is law and
I am law
We are one.
The ink ,not the pen, is mightier than the sword.
What is the pen without me?
The ink.
A wasted corpse
space used on a desk
worthless
to be without ink.
I alone am the soul of literature.
I alone raise words from the dead  minds of deceased philosophers.
My word has capsized continents
waged unwinnable wars
I do not discriminate
I have killed men women children.
I have breathed life into centuries.
I am eternity
I am ink.
Stagger Lee Nov 2023
My soul lies at the bottom of a cold glass bottle,
I live my life full throttle conscious and wild,
With unfathomable sorrow in the bottom of my scorned black heart,
I play fast and loose with love and idle madness,
Its the fruit of my life that gets me through.

Everyday is like Russian roulette in my mind,
Everyday I take a sip but the truth gets harder to find,
It doesn’t exist at the bottom of a bottle,
Yet everyday I desperately search for the answers,
Everyday I fall just a little behind,
It’s an unwinnable game that I constantly lose
everyday I slip closer to the end with no light in sight,
Yet it’s the little fruit of my life that helps get me through.

Sometimes I feel like a god, sometimes I feel like a roach in a pool,
Sometimes I feel like a king, sometimes I feel like a fool,
Sometimes I feel like the very essence of life,
sometimes I feel like the darkest cold death,
But it’s the spark in my lungs, it’s the fire in my stomach,
The Uniqueness! of my essence, and the freedom of my will,
but I’m still just a slave with a bullet in my head,
I have to drench my soul and drown my burdens,
For now it’s the fruit of my life that gets me through.
Joe Stabile Jun 2012
And here we go again like two children
You’re mad at me, I’m mad at you
Over and over, it just never ends
Seems like everyday it’s something new

In an ocean of words
You want me to find the ones
That will make everything better
Believe me if I could, I would
And i’d drown us in every last letter

But as the questions fall unanswered down your face
I know the truth is, it’d still be too late

Maybe we’re both wrong, maybe we’re both right
Maybe this is simply an unwinnable fight
Maybe we’ve been trying to move mountains all this time
So maybe we should just call it a night

And if tomorrow we wake up to find
That both of our hearts have died
Well at least we can say that we tried

Frustration has made us believe we don’t care
Till it feels like there’s no point in trying
And every second spent getting nowhere
Is just another second spent lying

We lie to ourselves because
Nowadays it’s easier to pretend
Instead of finding our way out
Of all the broken pieces,
The building tensions,
And all our growing doubts

But as the questions fall unanswered down your face
I know the truth is, things will never be the same

Maybe we’re both wrong, maybe we’re both right
Maybe this is simply an unwinnable fight
Maybe we’ve been trying to move mountains all this time
So maybe we should just call it a night

And if tomorrow we wake up to find
That both of our hearts have died
Well at least we can say that we tried
At least we can say we tried…

And we just keep falling
Falling between the cracks
With nothing
Nothing to lead us back

And as the questions fall unanswered down your face
I know we'll never be too lost to find a way…

And if tomorrow we wake up to find
That both of our hearts have died
Well at least we can say that we tried
At least we can say that we once loved…
Nat Lipstadt Aug 14
40
,000 drafts of poems proposed,
some but a bit, a title, a bob,
some wondering why are they kept
in suspended animation, the fire of exiting
from placenta to screaming baby, most,
patient waiting, over the undivided divide,
the Cumbersome Attention Gap to cross,
to the state of hallelujah completion

this race should be an Olympic one,
it is unwinnable, but only open to poets
who willing to go the unlimited distance,
every finished oeuvre, spawns bornes two
more, so you, fool, even a fifth grader,
intuits the higher math of you’ll never
catchup, but rise invigorated to meet,
greet the wonderous sunrise challenge…

and the promised ones, “next one for you,”
the unconditional incompleyedy poems
so overdue, the muses send an armored truck
to collect just the largesse of fine fines…
as my old West Village friend sang, you poet,
“might as well try and catch the wind”

this leads me to observe a new day’s first
birthday, even as Leonard sings Yom Kippur
hymns of mortality, and all the ways humans
can pass thru the gap in the morn clouds that
is the passageway to the Higher North…

you see, this is this poems day of naissance,
one day, one candle, now extant, but sooner
to be a not, one more poem sent heavenward
after a  brilliant brief coexistence with the
innards of my mind…
Phoenix Oct 2015
thump, thump, thump
Marching in place
Never advancing
The war never ending
thump, thump, thump
Bullets wiz by
gasp
A soldier goes down
Screams echo across the line
Soldier after soldier collapse
In our unmoving lines
thump, thump, thump*
We continue to march
In one place
Soldiers in a straight line
Side by side
Fighting an unwinnable war
Each shot from us
Is a shot in the dark
The occasional screech from the other side
Today's the day
We will win this war
Today's the day
We need to stop keeping score
Yet
We still march on
In our worn down spots
We yearn for our bodies to halt
We long for a day of rest
Yet
We march on
We march on
With our blazing bullets
Our pained screams
We march on
Shooting into the darkness
Hoping to hit someone
Something
Anything
We are the soldiers of 2015
We are the unmoving army
Marching in one place
We are soldiers
Tomas Denson May 2014
Why do we struggle against life
fight in opposition to time
we all know we cannot win
Time, no matter how we perceive
always passes
and life
well,
is only our idea.
We still struggle
our combative minds focused
on trying to win
an unwinnable battle.

Although....
is it a battle?
a fight
a struggle
perhaps we are not
in combat.

Why do we journey through life
striding along times route
we know we will never reach
journeys end
times path arrows forever
into the horizon
and life
well,
it is the road we walk on
yet still we move forward
our hopeful minds fixed
on the end of the road
trying to walk
a never-ending path.

Although...
is life a journey?
an adventure
a path
perhaps we are
not moving.

Why do we dance in life
tapping along to times tune
we know we will never move
that final step
times harmony echoes through
our minds
and life
well,
it is the song we move to
yet still we flow
our bodies sway toward
the end of the beat
Trying to complete the patterns
of an unending dance.

Although...
are we dancing?
moving
swaying
perhaps we are not
Dancers.


Although...
maybe we are.
An owl hoots,
a warning?

I head East into the thieves market,
lucky horseshoes for sale and without fail they are in good supply.

Make no mistake 
as they take no prisoners here.

Passing through the untied shoelace of cobblestoned lanes
I spy the woman through a postage stamp window, barred as if franked by the mailman, she plays patience and always with two cards missing, an unwinnable task, but she's old and if old becomes a memory then she becomes one too. 

An ocean, if red is the ocean, of slanted tiles stretch beyond my imagination into an expanding horizon, I 
smell coffee and sit local to the river watching the elegance of Portuguese pigeons, it's dreamlike in its quality.

This morning,
the earthquake shook me awake even though that was centuries ago and still the owl hoots. 

Earlier outside the church of Santo Estaveo
I am bound to its steps by my own chains,
this will change as the sun which works by its own memory rises above the fishing boats.

So easy to be here and to fall into the trap
So easy to tap dance my way through the one eyed shadows that wink over the bay, in the distance, a tram, a man and his day stay longer than this moment in time.

To close the eyes
clues and sighs 
It's a splendid life
and though full of lies at incredibly cheap prices the thieves market is the place to be wary.

Each shadow now stronger as the day becomes longer and the hours get shorter.

Caught,
I have sought solace in this place and found peace from within,
sin 
is yet to find me.
Lisbon life
SoupHands Mar 2016
Casting stone through my eyes towards empathy
Its a thing as abundant air hydrogen or water
Emanating from the heart of a cynic, feeling what others feel, is a waste

That which makes others
Yearn and ache for sympathy
Makes the grey greyer

Turn your back and the person in earshot is long since dead
A racing mind hurries them into the oblivion
That they fought against just enough to smile

A winter evening
Is like a siege, famed and vexed
Fairy tales of doom

Wake up with a colossus standing sentient over your hope
The weight breaks your jaw
So you cant talk yourself out of these lies

Unwinnable wars
All destroying comets
Swathes of doom and dirge

All carved into your mind
Acid rain corrodes the gold foundation
On which your joy lies

Suffer silently
With words too big for speech
Lamenting and unspoken

The joker god lives in you
Speaking only lies
In the form of sad sounds a dark colors

Melancholy fades
Only to hang in the air
Maddening, distant

The faceless, the vengeful
Mouth of hatred
Takes an ever changing spectral form

Unblinking, staring
Estrangement, your visage
Becomes familiar

Strong duality
Makes a war grounds
In a space of zen
2015
Introspection. Thats all this is
Charlie Jul 2020
That little ****** in my head
That little itch at the back of my mind
I thought I could ignore it at first but the longer I go on the louder and more prominent in my psyche he is.

It started with whispers
Quiet
Ignorable
But the more I ignored him the louder and angrier he got.

He wouldn't let me ignore him
He couldn't handle not being the center of my attention
So he started screaming.

Those screams
Those dreadful screams
I cannot sleep
I cannot escape him
I can only see
One
Way
Out
Alex May 2023
here, another night
writhing
I should be asleep, comfortable
I should be… normal
instead I writhe
or I lie so ******* still trying to pretend
trying to will it away
inside I am clawing to get out of this body
inside I picture myself flailing, jerking,
thrashing, punching, kicking
I visualize breaking my own bones with how hard I fight the pain
I see it in my mind, I let loose and walk away bloodied, bruised, all cut up… but I won.
in my mind.
in reality I have no energy to thrash.
i lack the spoons to fight,
and this,
is an unwinnable war anyway.

so I lie still.
or I writhe, sigh, and cry.
Love is a merely a fable of fairy tales
A simple mistruth that propels our wishful sails
We invest ourselves in this lie
To convince us that we won't be alone when we die
We think of love as some heavily bliss
Something to be cherished and missed
But it is just a tale to keep us warm at night
It's better to give up now than loose an unwinnable fight.
The dream of your face
I chase
oh I chase
an unwinnable race
in a hypocritical place

I hate you
Do I hate me?
I hate knowing
the things we could be
I hate knowing the fact
that you can't see
I hate seeing
the person you've made me

The dream of your face
The time that I waste
I'll soon make my case
time takes the time
time takes.
In a different land my dreams bring me to explore..
Lands Anew..
Where Clean Green Grasses, Mystic Songs, the Scrolls, and the Maps of The Orient's  Past.....are for me to discover and enjoy more..
The true meanings of the elders..I relate to them... I live within these lands....
Closing my eyes to sleep. Flying to this beautiful and untainted  country
On dreams leading to astral plains of plenty.

I run freely and strongly, there
Like a flame on the kindle to which  it  fuels......
I stand stronger, here
Like  a tree well rooted..Standing tall from the ground....

I become A monument to those powerful and magical spirits which speak into me as I escape waking bonds.

Flowing like a clean artisan stream.....
Brightening my world like a huge lighthouse torch.....
Free as a monkey playfully sounding his voice in the mystic tropical lands...

My Heart is called to motion
As hope is a reoccurring dream.

I hold a deed to a  space in this land
A newer place seen as "lost in another time and place."
This is where I belong.

As hope lights my way, it will not take long...
To Follow the wise messages in those "Astral Travels"
Where I've left  behind despair,broken homesteads and the dark people behind..

As I awaken from the belief of the small and unwinnable battles called "self made limits"

I shall be awakened by hope's light.
For the land in my dreams
Such Safe  traveling shall replace  the "old" pathways that lead me astray
Then,delightfully,I shall be  traveling newer  roads...
To arrive at my destination to "Lands Made For Me To Reside."
Kore Jan 2019
there we stay
twisting, snapping, following
each other
round and round and round
locked
in battle unwinnable

teeth sunk into
my thigh
hands at your furred neck
grasping, growling struggle
neverending
soaringllama Aug 2017
I wasn't born this competitive
I was forged
Because they strongest metals
Are forged
In the hottest flames
I still feel
The heat of the forge on my skin
Pushing me
To be better then everyone
Pushing me
To fight unwinnable battles
And sometimes
I make it out alive and stronger
And sometimes
I barely crawl away with my life
So the forge
Fires up again pushing me to hate
And the forge
Makes me resent those who are better
Til I can't stand
Being around them or knowing them
Til I can't stand
Doing something I can't win
So the forge
Turns off and makes quit
So the forge
Crumbles onto me and I'm crushed

I wasn't born this competitive
And this lust for victory
Is what's holding me back
From being the strongest I can be
prosaic poetess Dec 2018
She sat by the window, wondering about the odds of life
As the torrential rain lingered by her window
The relentless battle between the mind and heart seemed unwinnable.
Brighter prospects appeared more like an unrequited dream.
She drew the curtains to let the storm into her
Instead she saw a silver lining behind the iridescent clouds
And rainbow smiled across the horizon
Gabriel Herrera Aug 2020
Maybe I ate too much that night
Maybe I acted immature
Maybe I didn't consider you feelings
Maybe I loved you
Maybe I hate myself

That May be

Maybe I wanted that phone call to last one more minute
Maybe I didn't want you to be a lesson learned
Maybe I could lose a couple pounds
Maybe I could dress different
Maybe I should grow my hair out

That may be

Maybe I could've opened that car door
Maybe I fought the unwinnable
Maybe I cried too loud
Maybe I texted too fast
Maybe I believed in us

That may be

Maybe I am insane
Maybe I needed more time
Maybe I listened to the wrong people
Maybe I can make it to you
Maybe I can have one more chance

That may be

May I
Jason Myr Jun 2019
Sitting silent, devils lair
Quick quiet movement, deceptive pair
A passive shift to violent, deranged glare
Her fiery entropic trident, deceivers snare
I was caught within his garden  
Stumbled upon his shed
Where he can see anywhere
Even inside your head
An as you lay for slumber
Looming around your bed
Wait till you hear his number
Ding, to wake you. Heart of dread

We are all equal
Words already said
Frequency and vibration
Concepts to be bled
Anger and pain
Now they flee with the rain
So Listen, and heed the words behold Rethink all you have been told
Let the universe know, you are set
Forget the ways an break the mold
To Find we are fishing without a net
But double down with me my friend
For now we place our unwinnable bets
They always say
“Never give up on your dreams”
But what does one do
When you dream of being loved
By someone who doesn’t notice you?
Do you stalk and plead and chase
Continue forever the unwinnable race?
Sleep alone in an imaginary embrace?
Does a dream turn into a nightmare
Holding out for something that will never be there?
When it causes more questions than answers
Maybe it’s time to let go
Or so my ego tells me so
Is it failure to accept
You’re dreaming of something
You’ll never get?
Jane Aug 2020
reflections unmask
a morose acceptance of bone-deep sadness - pain that both is born and obliterates at a cellular existence
there's a gory irony in that, grossly mantled as a token of loss and a cautionary tale.

be wary of the unseen, unheard spectre
with far reaching influence
and a seductive promise of something more.

enshrined. shrouded. cloaked.
euphemistic hinting of evasion and avoidance, as though detection both
forces acknowledgement of existence and persistence - an inevitable reckoning.
untouchable. unwinnable. unbearable.
wars we like

Do we like wars as long as it is at our doorstep
the Russians fought in Afghanistan and lost hands down
the USA took over this unwinnable war so far it has lasted
Twelve years with no end in sight.
The USA lost the Vietnam war, but Hollywood came
to the rescue made movies of brave soldiers whose every
bullets hit a target, yet they fled from the rooftop in Hanoi
it was a sickening sight.
In the meantime, the French are fighting a war against the rebellious
in central Africa to defend and give the presidency
to those who are most corrupt in the name of oil and precious
stones and metal.
The French keep their war entirely; it is not headline news.
Now, the battle is coming home its fought in our streets
there are no heroes here and no movie to make for now.
wars we like

Do we like wars as long as it is at our doorstep
the Russians fought in Afghanistan and lost hands down
the USA took over this unwinnable war so far it has lasted
Twelve years with no end in sight.
The USA lost the Vietnam war, but Hollywood came
to the rescue made movies of brave soldiers whose every
bullets hit a target, yet they fled from the rooftop in Hanoi
it was a sickening sight.
In the meantime, the French are fighting a war against the rebellious
in central Africa to defend and give the presidency
to those who are most corrupt in the name of oil and precious
stones and metal.
The French keep their war entirely; it is not headline news.
Now, the battle is coming home its fought in our streets
there are no heroes here and no movie to make for now.

— The End —