Coming off a holiday weekend,
I experienced a sudden grief episode
I was fine, drinking tea, and looking forward
to a lunch with friends
Then I suddenly experienced an all encompasing
moment of grief so severe that I forgot to breathe,
I felt physical pain of a part of myself missing,
my heart was racing and my whole body froze
until I collapsed in tears
Grief can be brutal
the days are brutal
it's hard to be an angel
and watch folk suffer
A)P: Honorable Mention 2026
binary self-will
I could never quite do it
leaving escape clause
in analogue equation
go with 1, just once, all-in
Brutal trench battle
I am only 18, a young yearning lad
In battle I killed a man today, bashful does that make me lawfully bad
Now living day to day, guilt-ridden and far from being gay
Over the trench, not one hurried soul will less haphazardly reach a finish line
I wish it were me to just jadedly enjoy my time
You’ll forget me if I go, so for remembrance you’ll put on a show
We lived in fear and pitiful pain, where for a general it is all to gain
The fields did turn blood-red, but a new chapter so enough sorely said
Trying to catch a catfish
Can't catch a single one
Something to grab a stone
And poke it in the head
At last, I catch one.
That time when Jesus walked among men
has long passed, only faint images remain;
and the curious crowds followed Him everywhere:
they heard a wisdom from the mouth of dare!
Herod was a savage: the king of Jerusalem;
too jealous he was of the humble Messiah
who taught miserable men the beautiful truth:
the holiest man that ever lived was Abraham!
Christ paved the smooth way of righteousness,
He embraced all leaving not a soul to wonder;
they listened and felt divine love in plain words...
the Pharasies gnashed their teeth showing fear!
Walking barefoot on spikey stones made Christ bleed accasionlly,
they weren't kind to the Savior who dragged the heavy cross;
the red blood dripping from His crown was mixed with tears....
He fell three tim, then Simon carried His cross to brutal Calvary!
My mirror tells the brutal truth,
a woeful tale of vanished youth
Where one eye squints and one eye shines
and broken dreams are long dark lines.
Emotionless and coldly callous
Honesty without spite or malice
Shamelessly silent yet telling all
Reflecting the writing on the wall.
An image appearing all too clear
Becomes too telling, too austere
Once colorful hues seen on display
Have now faded into a dismal gray
To know and see what is real and true
But then to sadly regret the view.
Telling myself it doesn't matter
Yet knowing, one is bound to shatter.
Sandra Weiss
Daniel Turner
What a brutal sun that assaults the cliffs
Where cacti and mescals dare to abide!
Here and there, dozens of petroglyphs
Decorating the canyon may be espied.
In large nesting circles neatly drawn
In evaporating wisps and bold squares
In a sun to give thanks for every dawn
In little starbursts and stick figures
In a deer, in an eagle looking strong
In a war scene kept by the ancients -
It remains unsaid - time is not long
But to a murky end, everything drifts.
How many Friends Have You Now?
How many friends have you now?
How many write you everyday
Say they are sorry and their nation will pay?
How many have apologised?
How many have realised?
How their relatives have taken part?
Shot your countryman in the heart?
Raped your women and tortured your men?
How many are distressed?
How many digress and never mention
The killing brought by their country’s intervention?
Called you a bandelaro to your face
Said that they want to extinguish your race?
How many have visited with flowers?
Cried with you for hours?
How many begged your forgiveness?
Showed their true friendship, through their stress?
How many have knocked your door?
None, as I can see
None smatree (Russian for see)
None held your hand
Begged they didn’t understand
Many apologised and relished victory in their eyes
Saw an easy win,
gloated through the Crimea sin.
Friends have borders too
These are no friends of you.
David Cox 11/06/23
I’m stumbling through a clouded forest ….
While lying silently in my bed
Fighting for every ounce of courage -
trying to clear my head
There are many questions I ask myself -
Before walking out the door
In order to be assured -
I’ll make it home once more
Should I continue to pretend -
That everything’s ok.
Put a smile across this face -
and head out for my day
Or should I in my pain admit:
“It’s all too much for me”
“I’ve grown tired of wandering through a world -
Filled with such brutality ”
New poem..
Rage On...
Go ahead set me up to be your fall guy
Go ahead groom that person and make it right
There is no strategy no secret keeping that doesnt give off the truth
Nothing will set you free until you find yourself
Find yourself,yourself
The target of your paper genius
The strand of hope that life wont leave you watching
We got it
The anthropy of a human lie
A strategy conspire
We got it all
In shadows of minutes gone by
In moments of true nature and then gone
Artificial joy
Touch any human who has no feelings
You find out why
Turned into where normal once belonged
Is this the end of all hope?
I feel the ruin of man draw near,
I must raise my sword,
my family lifts it with me,
my wife is there beside me,
my children watch in silence.
I must live through this day,
for their sakes and mine,
Fell deeds await.
My humanity slips away,
the soldiers fall around me,
I hear naught but silence,
an empty stillness surrounds.
Even as my sword swings I hear nothing,
even as I slay I hear nothing.
Then I feel it come,
the rushing wings of black fate,
the end that awaits us all,
The loss of one more man.
The river of death sweeping through the battlefields marks me as a target,
diverting it's course,
the banks are to steep,
I cannot climb out.
The riverbed swells,
the water surrounds.
My thoughts turn to all I left behind,
over the hills and far away a home awaits for me,
and will wait forevermore.
August sizzled our eyebrows off this year
However, our barbeque places were in full gear
We ate our ribs, and yelled Kansas City Chiefs!
From the outside, however, there was no relief.
The weather has been brutal, the heat stifling and mean.
It's the worst August this hotspot has ever seen!
I-nvisible
R-isk
E-mploys
N-asty
E-pidemic's
B-rutal
O-utbreak
L-etting
I-ts
V-irus
A-pply
R-abidity
Topic: Birthday of Irene Bolivar (May 18)
Form: Vertical Monocrostic
R-isk
O-f
B-rutal
E-pidemic
R-abidly
T-hreatens
M-ankind
A-s
R-ampage
T-erribly
I-mplements
N-astiness'
E-eriness
Z-one
Topic: Birthday of Robert Martinez (May 15)
Form: Vertical Monocrostic
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