Written: June 10th, 2026, for a contest sponsored by Nette Onclaud
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Do I feel empty?
Or am I becoming a void?
Or am I amassing light to be thick?
Shimmering hourglass embosoms paradoxes—
emptiness and fullness, darkness and light.
A sandy spot with winter asperity cinders,
a vestige of the iterative nature of life,
each grain of time trickling a wave,
ebbing and flowing,
forever shifting, undulating.
Whatever twist, whatever spin,
I sustain you in the din,
anchored on the ledge of chiming.
In all scopes, the sand-clock is versatile,
grain by grain, a vertical choir—counts—
flux, looms as a flash of fearlessness,
from ash, arises a phoenix, pristine slate.
Ripsnorting depravity cavity of sporting gravity
Severity of the brevity cheekily courting levity
Hilarity distorting polarity Tests aren’t a charity
Unpopularity resorting to double downed vulgarity
Clarity for sorting parity then humility not a rarity
Some austerity can feed & lead to prosperity
Precarity due to the complete lack of dexterity
Asperity at temerity & totality of Bazball brutality
Banality of celebrity vanity caused the disparity
Mendacity that red ball is just all about audacity
In reality plans need adaptability or fans profanity
Rapacity of elan talismans fatality simply insanity
I hold three magic rocks, in my hand.
Rolling them over and over and over.
Leaving reality behind, far behind.
once an eagle
with a clipped wing
attempting
without surrender to once again
command the infinite azure sky;
continually nosediving
whenever tossed in the air.
his convalescence
punishingly long;
now complete.
embarking on a mission
to quiet doubting Thomases
that sounded a death knell for him
and laughed him off as
a paper plane
incapable of flying
far beyond the horizon...
look at him today!
look at him soaring above
majestically;
his journey
from the depth of asperity
to the dizzying heights of majesty...
m a g i c a l:
almost miraculous.
he's withered
the slings and arrows of life
intact; he's in flight once again
a testament
to his strength and resilience.
Blackberry briar bounds the river: a curb
o’er the levee’s curve; a thorny imbroglio
under which twitters sing in broody milieu
Naught but the resilient do venture within
daunting vine bent in asperity, weathered
Little flyers fluff the brusque in a love filial
In wee caresses, stringent opens soft eyes
Silken white, touched in palest pink, winks
Sweet, sweet, they tweet, for a juicy bliss…
(8/7/2022)
Our president sat on a wall
Our president had a great fall
All the Towers and all the powers
Couldn't repair as his face sours
Another president sits on the wall
I wonder will he have a great fall?
As our posterity(children's children's grandchildren0
Pay back forever our non-austerity with asperity
This long or short grotesque shadowy path,
this dreadful sorrowing sojourn through the vale,
this burden of ceaseless hope banished at the instance
This thing we called Life, puny bay leaf of time.
marooned by rigours from birth,
sentences of windy chase,
asperity and exertion as attendances.
the quest for known yet unknown.
the rat-race for passing filth,
where dirt conquers dirt for dominance
Pride garbed in many forms
Multitudes Journeying on paths of obscurity
Even Solomon searched in vain,
so did i till i reach the precipice.
When in troubadour i transverse through the dreary path,
I heard of King Jesus.
I looked up the hill Calvary,
the fountain from the Pierced side flowing free,
He bade my anxious soul to His rest.
I fled, still fleeing from aimless and empty toils
to Christ the King of mercy.
with eye set on His Light he leads through Jordan vale,
The Risen king gives me hope.
And this for me is more than gold
Losses not consolidated leave contributor raw
Arrears rip pages of rational compassionate law
Turblent thoughts toss turn to channel retaliation
Embittered brain rubs static into smooth radio station
Nocturnal curtain eternal drawn over forgiving stance
Tortured cortex tar drips coal smudge repugnance
Behind lids of eyes fingertips pressing upon
Lacking exposure conjures warped projection
Attonement can't be granted during darkness
Confessions sparkle once in white starkness
Killing accountability in murky private mind
Proliferating hatred sees old harm magnified
Asperity of sins committed stew in torpid trench
Years of historic plot twist regale harsh revenge
Bulged breeding dim ideas seethe evil scheme
Attack mapped by movie shock putrid scenes
Creeping balaclava covered crow bar at chest
Knavish initiation repaid with blood reaps debt
24th August 2021
Written for Contest : The Colour Black
Sponsor : Chantelle Anne Cooke
Panic attack, Panic attack
What when where why remedy
of a soul’s splitting in two
Panic attack, Panic attack
The demons too deep hymn one’s own threnody
The devil to he who suffers introduction grins fair adieux
Panic attack Panic attack
Medicine for a malady
for the spirits of anguished weeping few
Panic attack Panic attack
A rose for a bud, a corruption for a fallacy
As is true for the moon is the importance of what one has power to do
Deep breathe, Deep breathe
Parched oasis, dying serenity
Acid in the wound to suffuse
Deep Breathe, Deep Breathe
Within a species capable of mental voracity
one finds the norm repudiating to asperity
For which there may be nothing one can do
except stand two by two
(written sometime during a bleak 2015)
A-s-p are three high-functioning letters
And while I imagine that some might do better
Here are some ways to bring them together
At the start of a word we have aspirin and asparagus
Not to mention aspartame, aspects, and aspersions
Then there's aspire, aspirations, and asperity
And maybe even an aspirator, between you and me
Of course, if you have asp in the middle
You get asp in the end
As you'll find in clasp grasp, hasp and rasp
And it works the other way too--
Which I'm sure you can grasp
That brings to an end this discussion of asp
For more, read the Bible or Shakespeare
Or find a teacher to ask
Love is from the heart not the mind
true love is one of a kind
It does not judge
It does not lie
It does not cheat
True love is always therein
Through times of asperity
Sickness and health
True love brings happiness and joy
Its fulfills and completes ones soul
Love is of the heart not the mind
Since I've been with you, I now
Know what true love is, and that's
All because of you.
David W Carter
Whenever you hold me I got shy...
Under the clouds of wishes on the green sky...
We junctured in the land of sea...
The asperity of love attracting me towards you...
The same thing goes with you...
The only thing which we cant deny..!
The way you see I had an espy...
The words you said healed scars of soul...
Words of praise cured your wounds too...
In the epic of love...
Angels have written the name of us...
Being with time love is getting eternal...
My everything is belonging to you...
To the weather of love we are unable to say GOOD BYE!!
A single drop of clarity.
Fear not truth’s asperity.
Following your intuition,
turn, behold, a new direction.
Apostrophe
A derogate demons asperity
Calumniate my integrity
Malicious deceit
Holding no truth
Held on to nothing!
My inglorious ignominy
Your repulsion Satiate!
Nauseated glut unsensual sodomy
Surfeit and salt in nasty infected cut
Given dichotomy
Or burdened with great weight
Tarnished, libel. Stuck in a rut.
Nothing left
Appellation stained – Tainted mendaciously
Verbal hate – Eat the flesh
Minstrel blood mixed with sacred semen
There’s nothing left – except for fire and this acrid demon
It is no doubt no matter for love,
To be bold and face, though frail, fray.
Of adversity, asperity, power and proud,
Love though lone, can never be a prey.
Chains and bounds of so-called norms,
Can easily be broken by love profound.
When love wants, dreams come true,
It has remained always unbound.
No tactics of tyrants, no plights of power,
Has ever subdued love unfettered.
Whoever wrangled to sully it or slay,
Love never is defeated, remained bettered.
No monarchy can mold love, neither tyranny,
Towards their side and find any favour.
Yes, but if one wants to win love with love,
Can subdue and surmount with no endivour.
I live in the land of the brave;
Where the people was once held captive.
Where everyone was nothing but a slave,
To those by nature were deceptive.
Our ancestors were brought to their knees,
In their own country -their very own land.
They were treated much like a disease,
And most were executed just by command.
To achieve freedom one must first die.
They had to lay their lives on the line.
Their enemies had an endless supply.
They are traitorous and evil combine.
Each fought for the freedom they desire,
Yet they did not live to see the day.
To the grounds soaked by blood they retire
And deep within forever they will stay.
They fought for their very own freedom,
They died for their children's future.
From the past we now hold the wisdom
Of the asperity that they had to endure.
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