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ghostsonpaper Aug 2023
There are monsters in the deep
That eat our secrets while we sleep
If they make it to the light
Will they betray us

Will people run away in fear
As the beast slowly appears
Or will they see the true face beneath the atrocity

All the pain so long held hidden
From relief that's been forbidden
Burdened by the weight of all its shame

Shielded from their frowns
By wearing someone else's crown
Answering only to the name that you've been gifted

He comes for her at night
His face an awful fright
Close your eyes and release him from his prison

As he ravages the town
For new secrets to be found
She wonders if her own can be forgiven
Ikimi Festus Aug 2023
She pleaded, "Love me,"
Clasped in my arms, in the void of my desolation
I implored her, "Let not your fragrance linger on my sheets, should you forsake me"
I'm a shadow, not the soul you see
In the depths of my heart, a love like no other blooms,
Yet, no hands have ever offered solace
But yours, Amaka, they've graced me
No others have brushed my soul
The gods and the princes swept away my kin
The ancient spirits and council stripped my autonomy
The divine forces and masses shattered my tranquility
The gods and my oppressors pilfered my joy.

Amaka, I beg you to listen to my tale, as I bared my truth to you
In bliss, my brother and I once thrived, a happiness profound
My sisters and I once reveled, a laughter shared
How I wish you glimpsed my parents, their faith profound, they rejoiced in the divine
Then, one fateful day, our people were swallowed by the land, the gods' decree
The great king sleeps eternal, lives sacrificed for fate's designs
One somber day, our clan fell, as the elders ordained
The great king sleeps eternal, his passage eased by the companions he brings
One mournful day, our tribe crumbled, a sacrifice to appease the multitude's desire
The great king sleeps eternal, a new reign awakens, adorned with offerings.

Buried alive were our brethren, at the gods' command, their lives entwined
And for chattel to journey alongside the great ruler, destinies yielded to abyssal Depths.

Amaka, daughter of the great king, whispered,
"Love me,"
Enveloped in my arms, in the absence of all
I implored her, "Let not your fragrance linger on my sheets, should you forsake me"
I'm a shade, not the figure you perceive
From the slave caste, I emerged
A love as boundless as the heavens blossoms within me,
No hands have journeyed through my existence, except yours, Amaka
None have touched my being as you do,
Thus,
I vow to defy the deities, the new ruler, the princes, the council, and the multitude
So we might flourish, unshackled, in our affection's embrace.

Yet, if fate compels your departure,
Then entomb me under the earth, as the gods did my kin,
For you are all I possess, all I fight for, all I cherish in this world of woe.
xjf Aug 2023
A promiscuous note
floats across the table
I would conjure the answer, if I were able

Time strenuously stretched past comfortability
Yet I
know your fingers hold the agility
to reply in quickened fashion

Your hands lack the desired passion, they lack the action
A pen stroke holds the balance of hope
But all I got back from you was

"Nope"
leeaaun Jul 2023
our eyes will keep on hiding
the secrets
deep inside our cores

till someone will reach us
with genuine intentions
of providing us with help

that we couldn't provide ourselves with

they will be the one
who believe in their powers unlike us
who can read what we have to say
because they understand thrmselves

making us understand the same logic
soon there will be a day
where we will learn to accept ourselves
Robin Carretti Jun 2023
To ignite- - like love-fire
Words crossover express
Rollover under the cover
       New- Lover
Eyes- express Lighthouse tower
Caress good news to digest

     Nevertheless
     Unless


Express to dress
Don't impress

Lost time to address
Mindful - Express- train  
Possess-God-Bless-Invest
Open* expression* request*  
 Bucket list Jekyll and Hyde
Secrets dark you decide
  *       *        *       *       *
Yoga stretch two lovers coffee
Picture selfie - express what's mine  
All we need more time
Success *  to express
We don't always need to impress I guess life has its ups and downs do things simple and plain think your thought out before you do them
Nigdaw May 2023
they take my blood for their machines
to analyse
the very heart of me
laid bare to scrutiny

a diagnosis
of an ill I never realised
I needed a prescription for
just to survive
so nice of them
to save my life
but I feel fine
wes parham Apr 2023
If I told you I had seen it already,
You’d have told me I was full of ****.
The joy, the future for each of you,
And the secret that there was more to it.

In a vision, you held an infant child,
A happy but confusing sight.
Confusing in stillness , nothing said,
And happy because it was obviously right.

Another vision, and you were at risk,
I slept on your floor to keep you from harm.
Just a glance on waking, still nothing said,
A smile before leaving, as you touched my arm.

In one surreal vision, you actually killed me.
(I never really understood that one…)
I even loved you for what you had done,
Maybe it was some kind of metaphor,
Some kind of mercy?

I honestly couldn’t say and, trust me,
I love a good metaphor.

You know what was really frightening, though?
How clear the next vision was.
It was light and joy, it was love itself, fulfilled.
And it horrified me to see it,
Right in the palm of my hand.

An old familiar face looked down and laughed.
She told me, “they are all in trouble now…”
“Precarious balance, and one is in real danger…”
“Best not **** it up…!”
And she laughed so hard I thought she’d **** herself.
If those kind of creatures even do that…

I honestly couldn’t say and, trust me,
I’m not afraid to ask her.

But one vision shook me when it proved true.
So many visions from the smallest of clues.
I didn’t mean to get close, or look for connections,
I just wanted to learn and seek the reflection.
To know, and to laugh,
With someone like you.
Share a table, a cup,
and a secret or two.

But the seer would see how our lines became crossed,
She spoke much of love, of a life and it’s loss.
She spoke of how my role,
Would be monumental,
Expendable, Trivial, but still…
       Instrumental.

I grew angry at how she manipulates me,
One alien and his hard-won humanity.
But the seer was right, I would have to go,
Leave the scene and assure that
    No one could know.

I created the door that it may be sealed,
And retreated to the opposite side,
Where I would be hated or feared, maybe both,
And none could ever know,
How, quietly, I cried.
In deep cover, the operative blends in at considerable risk.  Their superiors know this, though, and choose carefully those with the resilience to not lose themselves in the task at hand.
  When the seer herself asked me to mediate a nearly lost blood line, I felt a multitude of feelings.  I would feign affection, gain trust, and work with only crackpot visions to instruct me.  she believed in me, though.  Despite the guilt and deception, I trusted the program and, above all, the seer’s choice of operatives.
Anais Vionet Apr 2023
You hope that university will answer all of life’s questions, but nope.

I don’t know, I.

There was a guy who’d been hanging around outside our residence lately. Too consistently. At first, I thought he was someone’s friend but he’s always alone. He wasn’t doing anything or bothering my roommates, but that asymmetry set off my alarms.

He looked at me once (which I suppose isn’t a crime), I think, it was quick - a blink of sharp curiosity. I mentioned it to Charles who took his picture. The next morning he said the guy’s a legit student who has no criminal record, so maybe I’m all wrong.

Every girl’s encountered a creep or two before. They’re seemingly everywhere, as if mandated by law, like auto insurance. Most girls develop a sixth sense, a creep-dar. Nowadays, creeps have a new name, “incel” ("involuntary celibate") and they’re a recognized, online subculture. Next, they’ll have a coat of arms proclaiming, “We Would if We Could.” It’s as if awkwardness, a normal human foible, has been distilled into something dangerous.

Although the campus looks like a garden or a perfectly manicured ‘stepford’ park, we joke that it’s really a locked-down, patrolled, surveilled compound, with guards, cameras and card-key access to everything. Which, I suppose, is all to the good.

Our creeper wasn’t there Friday, and he wasn’t there today, so maybe he was nothing.

I don’t know, 2.

I was in Sunny’s room. We were going shopping in a few. There was a little pink book on her bed - a diary!! I’d never seen it before and it was open, about three-quarters of the way. She too-casually moved to scoop it up, like the neglected book of a sorcerer.

My GOSSIP-dar Alerted like a class bell. “Hmm” I hummed, head-tilted, then I laughingly lunged for the book.
Sunny’s eyes went wide for 3-billionths of a second and she snapped it up with the speed of a striking cobra, “That’s MINE” she said, rigid with seriousness.
“What’s going ON?!” I asked, but she shoved it into her night table.
Another mystery!
‘Sleeping dogs,’ I thought to myself.
BLT Marriam Webster word of the day challenge: Foibles: a minor shortcoming in character or behavior.

When I say our “residence” I mean Pauli Murray, one Yale’s residential colleges where there are 800 students.
Carlo C Gomez Apr 2023
her hesitating beauty
over a hundred days
each a silk thread
each a dark pearl

kissing specifics
in the empty space of a matinée
hologram of the new sun
burning like prime meridian, the hunter's star

ripples of inhibition, making waves
and confessions in
the deep end of a pool

always submissive with a smile
like holding her breath underwater
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