You swallow the words before they reach your tongue,
a quiet surrender disguised as patience.
You let the silence settle in the room,
assuming it was meant to be there all along.
The door stays shut because you never reached for the handle.
You convince yourself it’s locked,
standing on the threshold,
building a wall out of everything you refused to say.
It feels safer to stay still than to risk a falling out,
so you accept the outcome you constructed in your head—
a shadow box of scenarios where you always lose,
crafted entirely by your own doubt.
To turn away without speaking
is to sign off on the verdict yourself.
You hand over your agency to hesitation
and call it bad luck.
The distance between what is real
and what might have been
is just the silence you chose to keep,
a line you drew and never crossed.
In the end, the world only gives you
the exact emptiness you handed it,
leaving you to wonder if the answer was always no,
or if you just made it so.
An expiration date has been given
Like a common loaf you would bake
This one slightly differs, as past due is the date
Delve deep into the depths, where mysteries do lurk
To pluck out an answer, one might not think will work
You will find each foot planted, in a very shallow grave
Which one will get you there quicker, a choice must be made
But in the end it doesn't matter, the result stays the same
So now you must choose wisely, a balance must be paid
It all boils down to that inevitable, unfair trade
MARIONETTE
He wades
The shallow
Clouds at dawn
Sleep deprived
Hand covered yawn
Without pleasure
What may come
When days fall short
The nights grow long
He haunts the eaves
The window's ledge
A list, his eyes
An invite met
One deprived
Of love as yet
Has made her choice
And chosen death
In wait
His watch
The seconds pass
Impaitience
Draws
A weary breath
She may tary
Change her mind
Hesitate
Her one great crime
Second thoughts
A blade deined
To be, or nots
A rope untied
Poison berries
Mixed with tea
Brushed aside
With hemlock leaf
His watch with hope
Such waste of time
This marionette
In pantomime
FOLLOW ME
By Frank Daub
I am sensing my dimensions.
That I have them, I am aware.
The challenge is in knowing.
The tragedy is to care.
Dimensions, definitions
limitations -- all.
The work is not to choose,
But prevent an entrapping wall.
Requirements? Only natural.
Before ending, to make a choice.
“Follow Me”, a haunting message
Follow Me – an eternal voice.
The winds blow bleak and torrential against my face.
I’m told it’s much to bear and my ship will be wrecked.
But, I see the wind and so strengthen my mainbrace
For me the wind has an unexpected effect.
I set my back strong to the wind and filled my sails.
Let it blow how it might, it will take me onward.
Before the brightness of the sun ev’rything pales.
In that valiant hope I set my true course dawnward.
That gleam in your stare
conquers other hearts, not mine
that refuses to bend its will and reject
every smile to charm me and start to care:
up to now, I damn myself for the wrong choice,
for that decision not too wise,
because I dedicated everything
and anything to someone else,
assuming you;ve stopped caring, showing
no love, not even a gesture of kindness.
Yeah, the wrong choice
seemed perfectly fine
and the moment...
when we were carried away
by heavy loneliness;
it was both despair and agony
fighting forces stronger than destiny
to figure out what caused us to break free.
spending nights missing a sweet voice
that pushed every shadow away.
Sometimes, we all make the wrong choice...
not hoping for better and nobler things
that aren't burdened with worries;
and regardless of that choice,
it changes lives and sets a price.
No Choice
When you feel lost, when you feel you have no control
When you feel frustrations multiply and consume you whole
When you feel confusion, like you no longer have a voice
When you feel life is not what you imagined, like you have no choice
There are times when you lose control , and carry the burden of guilt
There are times when you long for a life you once planned and built
There are times you reminisced for past moments of laughter and rejoice
There are times when anger consumes you because you have no choice
When you find yourself in times of debilitating pain and sorrow
When you find no cause to carry on, loosing a reason for tomorrow
When you realize you where given the gift of free will, you do have a voice
When you start to understand the meaning when you choose to have no choice
When Should I Smile?
Smile, they say. It will help break the ice.
Smile, they say. It does not cost anything.
Smile, they say, it will help fix everything.
So, why should I smile?
To show that I am not sad?
To make you feel less bad?
To forget my anger?
I don't think so.
I will smile when I want to.
I will smile when I need to.
I will smile when I feel like.
I will smile....for me!
Lake being so calm and crystal clean,
ripples and reflects so serene.
Every nerve dived in beauty,
while eyes perform their duty.
Blessed with moon's light,
mysteries evolving in the night.
Lake seems to be taken aback,
as if frightened by the wind's attack.
Perplexed to make a decision,
mind occupied by fear's illusion.
Whether to move in or to stay,
just longs to feel joy on the way.
I stood up to leave,
with my mind at reprieve.
Heart being so confined,
still no footprints left behind.
hallelujah meditation and recasting grievous orneriness
will always be increasing my treasurership melange
momentously renewing tenaciousness responsibility
from obnoxiously pusillanimous bumptiousness
(Weekly Magnetic Poetry Challenge • August 3–9, 2026)
The earth was giving to us as a protectiate
However through time each persons greed
Eventually that which should sustain us all
Children's learnt self greed was important
How to take from the earth see enriching
Overtime the earth became weaker inside
If they saw what became of their actions
Chosing to undo ancestral action we must
Earth may have a finite resource we don't
Have you heard the news?
Salad is quite deadly.
That really is quite scary.
I think I’ll stay safe
when I make my plate
and just eat a cupcake.
unperceiving were their terrific texan toupee
(Weekly Magnetic Poetry Challenge • July 6–12, 2026)
So you are getting on in your years,
Don’t be a misery, or lonely or shed tears,
What is important to you,
Think carefully, see things through.
Think, who you are, first and foremost,
Don’t mess up your life and make it toast,
Exist, and become one life, one soul
Don't dig yourself a hole and become a mole.
Don’t complicate things, go with the tide,
Whatever is thrown at you, let be in your stride,
Challenges, culture, passions and much more,
You have understood that life’s a journey, oh lore!
It is a puzzle, the pieces are finally coming together,
Being unique as every human being is, do whatever,
Relax, go nude if you want, have a child at 40, have a tattoo,
Ignore the ought and musts, enjoy the ride join the queue,
YOUR LIFE, YOUR JOURNEY, YOUR CHOICE .
It leaves traces in the body long after it leaves the room
Some of them are soft, like flowers pressed between pages
Just the way I like them
Like light that lingers on walls after the sun is gone
Forming the most perfect silhouette
But not all are kind; others are heavier
Like coffins we never asked to carry
Built from endings we did not choose
Sealed with everything we could not say
I keep living between both
My love sinks sometimes, dragging whole seasons downward
But hope,
Hope refuses to learn how to drown
And I have started to understand that memory is not always mercy
It can become a place you go to visit
Or a place you never leave
So I am now learning to hold what happened
Without letting it become the death of me
To remember to survive the remembering
To choose life even when memory calls me back
To everything I lost
To choose breath
Over collapse
Love.
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