Written: July 30th, 2026, for a contest sponsored by Seth Pina
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Your very skeleton
is not spun from cotton and polyester.
No, it is not carved from wood,
nor forged from metal or steel.
Its substance is—nerve endings,
tissue, and blood—
circulatory systems,
bound,
but not from woven fabric.
A lethal lotus languishes,
lamenting in its limbo,
crouched on bended knee.
A curved carcass, prostrate
beneath time’s passing wheel.
Its chalk-white bones
measure the slow decay,
where darkness lingers
in the hollow space within.
Cyborg of a cyber-skeleton.
Coiled with a steel-stitch
sprocket of subjugation.
Its spinal cord, bound in circuitry,
hums with sorrow.
A crestfallen cranium,
a heavy, hollowed
moon-orb weighed down
by the gravity of grief
in synthesized solitude.
Amidst this woeful wheel,
supplications of skinless steel
fuse forgotten fragility and fortitude
into a fatalistic future.
For you were neither tool nor tree,
but a tight-furled tapestry of flesh—
a weeping engine, bound in bone,
where the wild pulse fights the gear,
and slowly fades to rust.
The scent of lavender lingers within a nightly mist,
whilst illumination from a single candle bounces amongst the walls,
playfully dancing within rays of moonlight streaking through glass panes.
A single violet grape envelope rests upon a mahogany table,
delicately unfurled by a silver letter opener,
its contents splayed—
tracing fingertips on raised ink impressions engraved on the ivory paper.
Love seeps from curling words into a floundering bloodstream;
warmth courses through a resuscitated circulatory system.
A heart of stone pumps again, voices silenced in a swirling head.
Seconds tick down unwavering.
Memories once intangible form into realities.
When the sun rises, your kiss will be upon my lips once more,
your silken voice soothing my worries,
as your arms wrap around not just my body, but my soul—
forever entangled as one, forevermore.
Hopelessness encloses, engulfing me,
As another dismal night drifts in—
Where the only light is the afterglow of the midnight sun.
I stand upon crackling ice, breathing in fractals of gelid crystals.
Soon, the frigid liquid seeps into my bronchi,
Leaching into an unrepentant bloodstream,
Chilling a circulatory system already collapsing.
A single crystallized teardrop spills from a weary eye,
While blindness claims the other,
A thick, opaque film covering what was once an ocean-blue iris.
Unable to speak, my silenced tongue weighs heavy in my mouth.
Bending on shattering knees, I submerge my hands in drifts of snow.
A burning intensity shoots up both arms,
Shocking like lightning through my nervous system—
Rewinding memories, yet they snap like an old VHS tape,
Crumbling to dust in this deadening dystopia.
Sinister snowflakes swirl faster,
Till I can no longer find a way out.
Heavy is the plight of a bitter martyr,
Lost among the frozen lambs I brought to the slaughter.
There is a moon stuck inside the stoplight
A still unblinking gaze controlling blood tides
Circulatory system like New York City in the seventies
The thrashing of my tire fire heart led
To the tribute of an overzealous blood tithe
With the buzzing of the latch relay circuit
Night and day, the cosmic light switch clicks
Itself into place, there is no dusk or dawn
We are burdened to tread in the interchange
We are a gathering of werewolves, in need
Of a blood moon, craving catharsis and hope
There is no time to pencil in a reverie
A daily scene, like a living nightmare
Turning us into cybernetic lycanthropes
Anatomy of human structure
Poetry of nerves and impulses enrapture
Temple of parietal bone that beats
Carpal bone pleats
Integumentary system perspires
Nervous system inspires
Circulatory system pumps
Digestive system lumps
All other systems function
When poetry is not in sanction
I wonder how my minding heart contains
The flow of sick love caused by thoughts of you
When space fist length it is shaped to remain
With rooms designed to cherish only few.
How did you managed for center you reached
Breaking divisions, hindering new claims-
To enter my control freedom you ditched
Then replaced the blood running thru my veins.
By love's right, a mechanic you become,
The pulse rate signaling I'm still alive,
A warmth melting liquids for priceless sum
Sending me nerves of unexpected vibes.
With circulatory system combined
My source of life- you own your heart and mine.
Bleeping like neon
screens off and on
melancholy of the viewer
glory of IT
Electronic health record
now online
like the Terminator series
humanity heading
towards point of no return
Logged on
all the organs and vital functions
in full view
to peruse
functional status
Let's not forget
metabolic indices
circulatory parameters
and those reminders
and warnings
uggh
The house doctor
with the paternal smile
and bag of tricks
thing of the past
That was only
when men
walked on the moon
Now we walk in cyberspace
where all is revealed
yet all is concealed
Intently watch, as its heart beats-
instinct seeps-
my heart perceives;
I act upon this alone-
no matter of what intellect believes.
Its destiny left up to me-
to care for it-
or set it free;
circulatory warmth takes over me.
But then a moment so magical-
simple beauty- not meant to be made practical.
Another animal, one so affable-
lengths of compassion I wish were graspable;
relief; a warmth I wish were palpable.
A bird takes upon this little one as its own,
spotting from a distance-
this baby not yet grown;
in much need of a new found home.
Sun beams-streaking west-
pressure lifted off my chest;
as I find this little one,
a bird feeder, I now create a nest-
mama bird watches over,
the little one may now lay its head to rest.
See its strange that you seem to forget
Its strange that you can't remember.
First day of Uni was amazing wasn't it?
Mum and Dad worked hard to make it happen.
My blood seems to disagree
my blood seems to forget
the paths they follow were paved by them
My blood seems to be flowing in reverse
Maybe its the wrong type?
Maybe its my fault?
I might be taking breaths the wrong way
See blood provides nutrients to the body
Keeps my heart beating
my mind sane
Blood is my life, keeps the my mind on point
There is always a cancer though
Cancer messing with my circulatory system
You make me feel like cancer
You are busy serving truck loads of lemons
I won't let the sour taste ruin my pallet though
See ambition is mixing liquor with life's lemons
No matter how many I get I will be busy making cocktails
No matter how many set back
No matter how many Lemons
No matter how many cancers
No matter how many selfish relatives
I will forever have ambition
Life's lemons or cancers will never get me down
Marauding through the suburban
Merry-go-rounding through the city landscapes,
Marauding through the city ghettos;
Merry-go-rounding through the Metropolitan,
Marauding through the city gates,
Spluttering armoured tank roaring and rolling on
reconnoitered,
Mobilizing blazing mobile container lopped out of control,
Revving monster enthroned as the villain of the road,
Wailing ramshackle, the knackered one hell of a horse-power
plodded on,
All knee-jerk wounded out in roughly cut steel;
More the crawling millipede, speeding on roughly curl ruin
city,
A tangy flaming yellow lorry burnt into bleeding hearse
lorry;
Virulent virus attacking circulatory fortresses,
A living daylight nightmare dream haunting folks,
As the devouring beast fumed and purred proudly,
Off debris fragrance suspended in lasting pall
Gassing leering leaded blanket of Carbon,
Attacking painful and searing sore-blindness as a bat
And daunting shedding deadly poisonous mournful flowing
tears;
Originating in the ‘Iron-Age’, they stand
as living history; a testament
to the craftsmanship of men of yore
built by hand, each stone
strategically placed one upon another
no mortar holds them, and yet
as our lands circulatory system
of boundaries
they’ve stood for centuries
arteries and veins of dry stone wall
flowing across the fields and hills
of the countryside
that is synonymous of rural England.
Last night I was bitten on the neck
I don’t know by who
I was seduced by darkness
She came out of the mist and promised me things if I submit
Her words were not true
To her I was just a hapless victim
A sinister smile
her foul disease flowed through my circulatory system
The very next day I awoke in a box covered with dirt
I clawed my way out
A brand new world
Felt so cold and alive
But the sunlight hurt
I soon realized my blood no longer flows
Deep down inside a hideous appetite grows
Only one way to escape
The answer is death
So please drive this wooden stake through my chest
I promise I will not defend myself
Just please do it fast
Or should I just wait for the sun
Step out in the daylight and turn into ash
Watch me blow away in the wind
Gone in a flash
I look at the bare walls and contrast my life
The cracks tell a story of disruption and strife
The smoothened plaster belies the coldness of cement
The rich hues I see all try to placate ruined descent
I see whitened parts that stop the dampness entering
The gaps I see all make for circulatory venting
Alas I fear the torrents come tumbling
Yield I say for my self worth is leaving
Cold and aloof I pray for my time
Promises made all tumble in lies
Distrust, hypocrisy all cloud my altruistic vision
I knew not then what I know now this instant
I feel I am dying inside in this gyre handmade
So untrue is this world so unfortunate and fake
circular entitlements / circulatory retirement i'm not
kidding (yet) my sweetpreciousdarling pet,
now sit & shut up. wince & shudder / shutters closed
yet peepholed like a __sponge [drip.drip]
snip said the scissors said the pissers & the moaners
rage against the mourning of the sun which dawns
it's cancer inciting rays ; it sighs & she alone
under the drooping tree cries.
it's the last chance to press your luck against the idea
of luck / counteracting fate that bites your neck &
makes you two. miraculous meticulous (come without
a fuss) we can discuss the weatherorsomethingelse
just as mundane. --like the fact that atoms crawl move
solids over their structures make the sane : drip drop :
little. ::: swarms of ..rain.: (lady could you
move aside, this man needs a seat.) god came to me in
a dream,, saying something,, sounded urgent,, told em
_____ no worries man ; [leave your message at the tone]
Bewitched...
The bone-colored orbit,
hexing, circulatory, delicate,
beset by black velvet pierced thru
by diamond fireflies nailed in place.
A painful cloud of breath, I look up,
run through by cold, teary eyes,
hot blood, frozen time, I wonder,
glazed, hypnotized, transfixed
by the mirror of the sun
...Albedo
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