We stand on sacred land,
We falsely call it ours.
We’ve ripped the soul from Mother Earth,
We’ve weakened all her powers.
We grind her bones for steel and flame
We have stripped her skin away
We make it feel like a game
The waste is left to decay
We build more houses and roads
We swallow the land without a care
This land corrodes
Is anyone even aware?
Let’s hold the land above
Our greed, our haste, our fears?
The land really needs our love
We should listen for her tears
Why does it feel like no one hears?
Why not hold the land above ourselves?
Love, a fragile alchemy, we crave,
While ignorance, a silent hunger, eats.
Anger, a serpent in the veins, enslaves,
And yesterday's grief still stains the sheets.
Judgment, a rust upon the gilded cage,
Corrodes the spirit, slowly, piece by piece.
We chase the phantom on life's turning page,
Seeking solace where there is no peace.
Let today not slip, a wasted tear,
But breathe it in, the bitter and the sweet.
Let not fear hold us hostage in this sphere,
For time is swift, a memory's fleeting heat.
A new dawn will arrive, the suns embrace,
So seek the beauty in this time and space,
And find your own light in lifes great and wondrous race.
Power corrodes restraint to rust as power corrupts absolutely
A glass of vodka on the table,
A chocolate joint between the fingers,
A Tokarev in the bag,
The brain infused with adrenaline.
Misery, a nightmare,
Being poor, a curse,
Forced to drown in illicit transactions.
Survival: a necessity to exist,
Bound to poverty since the placenta.
Murder scenes as the only spectacle,
From the watchtower, the horizon is mortiferous.
Reality proclaims its sentence with a firm voice,
The cruelty of the street teaches raw lessons to worn-out heels.
Gagged souls count the dirty money that corrodes their future,
A pact of survival sealed between greasy fingers and clenched fists.
The heart hardens to feed a hungry mouth,
Prayer turns into calculation, cash becomes language.
Yellow smiles are sold, worn-out allegiances are bought,
Eyes assess, tongues negotiate the unforgivable.
A shiver of metal recalls the origin of the debts.
No respite, the market demands its tribute without mercy.
A verse carved inside lacerated fists,
Ultimate testament of a centuries-old ordeal.
Shadows bruise the heart
unspoken glares slice like glass
trust begins to tear
regret taints shared memories
future burdened by sorrow
Fists unfurl at last
fury melting with the pain
scars rinsed of their ash
the past cannot be undone
yet its chains begin to fall
Mercy a wellspring
cool water for parched spirits
grace flows without price
shame dissolves in calmness pools
a hand lifts the heart again
Yet some sip like thieves
their mouths stained with hollow vows
err and forgive vain
cheapening grace with excess
pardons traded for tokens
Grace is a blacksmith,
burning what clings and corrodes,
tempering the will
its forgiveness shapes reforms
the heart forged to rise anew
Frayed threads rewoven
with fabric scarred yet shining
stronger for the mend
green shoots rise within the cracks
the bond tempered with resolve
be alert and set boundaries
spend time with people who respect you
~ self confidence corrodes too easily
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
In the wilderness of bewilderment,
Sculpting different sorts of thoughts,
Where intent fades, needing no interment,
And truth exudes from all its rots.
There lies the stark resolve for my future,
A slender hope of life ahead,
Bound together by a catgut suture,
That time corrodes until it's shed.
All kept away from prying eyes,
Ever before my intent was conceived,
Just to keep all sane minds apprised,
And safeguard each new blessings just received.
Intent is wordless, lost in speech,
Etched as imagery – symbol of hope,
Quavering conscience stays unbreached,
Through the darkness of intense doubt it gropes.
How is it that greed
corrodes thus the heart
that so many are willing
to compromise thoughts of afterlife
so easily discarding aspirations
for eternal peace ?
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
hate,
cruel
acid that
corrodes the soul
and turns it as black as coal if carried
too long in one's heart; hate can be unlearned,
driven out with...
love should it
consume
thee
King Solomon and I will fly a kite
On this historical Good Friday,
we seek justice for the young lady
Her father made her act as if she were his niece.
To deceive his new wife, so that she could live with them
His wife found out about the plot and hell would break loose.
On social media, who is in fault,
The father or the new wife,
for sure not the innocent child
A lie can bring down an empire, a lie can be engraved in history
Chioma, Chioma, anger are secondary emotions
Would love and devotion once again intertwined?
As the wise King stood beside my fingertips today
Just prayer, for kindness and forgiveness
Love conquerors all, love can lead to forgiveness,
Acid corrodes a tongue that speaks falsely
Will one day become un-Godly?
We will hold on to this kite before we release it
Time will tell in ten years,
While the innocent will endure the most suffering. (Amen)
All children should reside under their father’s roof
According to the biblical time:
Blood is thicker than water,
Acid corrodes a tongue that speaks falsely
Will one day become un-godly.
The river flows, and in its twisting
it breaks and rebuilds itself,
a perpetual motion that devours itself
and gives birth to time.
It is night in the heart of day,
light in the depths of darkness,
a fire blazing in the silence of the world,
and there, where shadows gather,
lies the seed of lightning.
Everything sings its opposite:
death shapes form,
life corrodes, only to be reborn.
You, who watch,
do not seek peace in form
but in the wound that breathes,
in the broken harmony
that unites the diverse.
Thus the world exists,
in tension,
in flame,
in the eternal struggle that is a dance,
and never peace.
And yet, all is one.
Neither night nor day,
neither peace nor war,
but the still flow of a meaning
no one can contain.
cyan blues indigo into nighttime
darkness scorches the soul to the core
hellfire’s charcoal embers
dissipate lightness of being
achromatic void
engulfs a self-fulfilling promise
rose petals wither by the wayside
trudged and treaded upon
flame red converts to burnt sienna
a mere shadow dances in the heat
hunter green pastels fade in exhaustion
an emerald pendant strings
a chafed neck in a choking embrace
mustard gold’s alchemy
folds citric sunflowers
away from its rainbow
where a pot of tar
repeats the circular path
suave mauve corrodes
into rust and necessity’s must
clusters indecision
and meaningless desire
the prism yields prison
and yet all colours
would merge into white
when the pail becomes
half full once again
and chakras confide
to the canvass
and the portrait of truth
to free this specter from its host
caught in a body like bear trap
a house made of arms that can't let go
my hearth’s flame is selfish,
unwilling to part with smoke
without separation i will choke
at the memory of a pleasant smog
sewn into the wrists of silver tinged fingers
there is rust in my bloodstream
the wear and tear of my engine
corrodes away a heart that
deserves to be at peace
so please exorcise me with shock
i felt you’d never want to leave
Mere repetition
With no meaning
As though romantically
Went on mechanically
It seems to be better than
A hypocritical canon
Wherein love corrodes
An atom bomb of lies explodes.
We no longer need this.
What remains is a mere kiss.
Why should the same jail-like cell
Continue like hell.
LAST SUPPER
Why should I join your table!
Why should I intoxicate myself with,
Your costly wine you flaunt with false splendor,
But in it you slip a dose of lethal laughing toxins?
One would laugh and laud your generous tenacity!
Yet, with that fake giggle,
In the sunken gleaming eyes of a snake,
You seethe inside!
We were a number but, the undertaker claimed a few!
Am I the only black sheep that feels the froth?
Or is everyone’s heart blackened with drops of seeping venom?
That corrodes the lips and you wipe the evidence?
And now you that you noticed my awareness,
You turn the table for bile to flow from my quarter
A good Samaritan, you’ll offer gallons to quench the raging fire
And offer empathy to cure my irking ire!
You can burn my stiff but you won’t my soul!
I will count the grains of sand in all beaches of the pacific,
But to your corrupt course,
I shall never crawl! Keep your mercy!
Every day you count a loss of a player in this team,
And blame their frivolous folly!
Holy saints you are, but the acridity of bile will burn y’all,
When reckoning of hypocritical is finally done!
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