To numb the feeling,
I had to halt the healing.
For a moment I longed to confess,
The next moment, doubt made me suppress.
So I pulled myself back from telling —
I hope it's not your heart that's shelling.
Even if my silence hurts you,
Stay happy, stay free and true —
You deserve a love unbound.
Don't look back — don't turn around.
Any Cost
I believe that this world will always be desolate, no matter what
There is no amount of starting anew that will change this fact
And the society we have painstakingly built? It’s just as merciless
Our society is based on convenience and nothing else
As we value that above everything else, sadly, in this world
And we are making everyone think alike because it’s more
convenient
I thought that I could bring them into the light willingly
They fooled me into believing it had worked
But that was their sinister plan: they were plotting revenge
So they took my precious treasure before their time: her
While I sat there with my heart shattered
They reverted back to their original ways with laughter
As I cried my eyes out, a dark thought appeared in my head
It whispered to get vengeance on this world
And not to give a damn about being kind about it
So that is my plan to drag this world forward
At any cost. I have nothing to lose
In the mists of your eyes, I find myself lost,
Oh! To love thee, I have to pay a huge cost,
To be with you, with my family, break ties,
I find myself lost in the mists of your eyes,
To never see them again, is that fair chance?
Because lifelong I wish to, with you, romance
Does loving you have to be with so much pain?
Is that fair chance to never see them again?
Still, I'll follow you to the end of the earth,
In my eyes, our love is more than that much worth,
Promise me, my dear, that you'll always stay true,
To the end of the earth, still, I'll follow you,
You are my breathtakingly beautiful light,
My day starts with you and ends with you at night,
Together, we can touch the brightest, farthest star,
My breathtakingly beautiful light, you are,
Today, I bid goodbye to my family,
Let's make our own ever after happily,
I can face anything as long as you're nigh,
To my family, today, I bid goodbye.
I wish medication wasn’t eating everything else in the cabinet.
Money.
Meds cost money because money exists.
I like the trickle.
Mixed up as much as my hands in a jar of sprinkles.
Being normal is like having windshield wipers-
When the blood is raining out there.
Out there.
I have pills, I hold them like they are sweetness.
Every swallow.
Being normal pays for itself.
So my wallet opens up every week.
The whole world
is being sacrificed
by Israel and America
in the war of choice on Iran.
Why should Israel
decide the future
of the world?
Israel has become
a burden
on the conscience
of the world.
Israel has become
the narcissist
of the world.
Today,
the world is in pain
because of Israel.
To Israel,
genocide is called
self-defense.
Land theft
is called going home.
And those
who speak against genocide
are called antisemitic.
The world is moving
into recession
because of war
and instability.
Fuel prices
are skyrocketing.
Food prices
grow higher every day.
And the poor
suffer the most.
Israel has become
a calamity
to humanity.
Its appetite
for evil
has become greater
than its desire
to do good.
But Israel,
tell me this—
After the war,
who will you become
when much of the world
looks upon you
with hatred?
For power alone
cannot protect
the soul
of a nation.
i done stacked up cinder blocks to build a wall,
and hid my primary colors in the dark.
i grew so tall I forgot how it felt to fall;
instead, I permit my inner child to cry.
the ticking clock gnaws away precious minutes,
meanwhile I trace the scars upon a wooden floor,
I've run out of interesting, adult things to say;
instead, I permit my inner child to cry.
wax crayons smudge against my calloused skin,
mixing with the ink of bills and unread mail.
i've grown tired of the mask and the hollow grin,
instead, I permit my inner child to cry.
i press my palms against the bathroom glass,
remembering the kid with the grass-stained knees.
I'll stay right here and just let the world pass.
instead, I permit my inner child to cry.
Abandoned musket
Burned down forgotten storefronts
Self-inflicted scars
The lamb the dove The lion and the crow
Am I going to cry
When the domino's fall
In the name of God who is stronger
In the face of truth
Who is liquid who is steel
The presence of a war surrounding your shores
We saw faith in fairness and power in unity
We saw trouble and we'd help
When a country is on the cusp of survival
Things were changed forever by those who remained silent
The seas of eternity rage from.seeking old lands who sought out independence and learned economic independence
They invented themselves
They attracted attention of those who don't believe in friends
Now big powers seek to take over
Their society and wealth
Theirs minds and their lands
How will all this end
If the cry of freedom
Lost its fame to desire
Am I going to cry
For a people that needed our help
To occupy reason
Am I going to cry
When you tell me I have nothing.left to stand for
When my heart breaks and you threaten all what we believe in
Is there a god
For every season
If prayers can be heard, so ought my thoughts;
Some parts of me wish to establish a permanence
while omitting any whisk of a thought;
Persistence relishing in the absence of any consideration of a cost.
More parts of me wish to be of service
to a world with a growing desire of distance;
With a recipe for creating treasures that can never rust nor find the fingers of thieving hands;
leading corrosion away from trust.
A batter for the desire to live within expanding opportunity, sacrificing a self for the growth of an "us."
A foundational stone to a community.
A structure to bear difference
Like the strongest pallbearer's palm.
Yet before anything may ever become.
Please refresh my sights upon the world where my own visions have unwittingly grown tyrannical in efforts to enable of what I hope to be an Eden;
Let it be
And let it be greatly inimitable
for all
Travel gift, at no cost
Valued the most
When as far expecting, was not
Sought aft ever.
People and their stories.
Juicy cherries!
Track, road to be laughingly eat.
Hangs each over.
Gilded cage feeding the illusion.
Crowned princess story but at what cost.
Happiness not in the equation.
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
Living a life most people wouldn't want...
Unlike a flashy one desired to flaunt;
Luxuries for all it contain-
Like one never been through pain.
How been safe till time others can't dare haunt!
WAR
Woven into the night, I saw
A sky adorned with gray stars.
Like meteors, they touched the earth
But it was too late; it wasn’t a wish.
With momentum, the voices arose,
Screams of terror flashed through firelit rubble,
An endless wailing echoing farther.
Greed was what brought us down,
And longing wrote our fate in red.
Kings who sat on sky-high thrones
Shall not notice the cries below.
Only our own lives left to burn out
In an endless void of peace.
Our hands can tie themselves
From soul to soul so that we may remain.
Like honeybees we were,
Following the queen blindly for life.
Yet we must remember:
Unity brought us peace,
Whilst war ruined it all
Our dreams crushed
And hearts left solitary.
By Jahnavi raj
"On the coasts of compromise,
consider the cost."
Poet
Squalls were forecast
at last evening's meeting;
sudden gusts of duplicity directed decisions.
My wild frenzy wanes, passes now
as I pray.
Today, back at work
Jesus' spirit within my soul
restages me with truth to defeat divisions
as I work to lower temperatures.
Pardon’s plea
You, a Goddess; I, a mortal King.
Your beauty divine, your charm spellbound —
Yet it cost me years in silence profound.
Your legacy — a force that captivates, eternal and fated.
Mine — a force of resilience, your love created.
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