Maybe it is not fair,
that I have been
clinging to an idea of you—
because maybe
the real you—tempered between
my fits of desires and invention—
carries less music,
walks a busier street,
is too mundane—too prosaic
to haunt me the way
my dreams cruelly
reimagine you.
8.10.25
Everyone slept after spilling their pain
into arms that held them without asking,
while I sat wide awake,
longing for someone who never came
to ask me how I was holding myself together.
If only someone had been mine,
maybe sleep would’ve held me too.
But every time I get close—
they remind me gently, cruelly,
that solitude stings less
than love that leaves mid-sentence.
I never pushed anyone away,
never closed the door.
It’s just that hearts grow full,
and when they do,
they walk out—
without looking back,
without checking
if I had more to say.
And still, I stay.
Still hoping the next one might stay too.
Out of my mind and lost in time
Holding on to a love unkind
Unwind the twine that cruelly binds
Me to my severed valentine
Her voice still calls through echoing halls
As madness clings to crumbling walls
All consumed in lingering perfume
Her presence like a ghost haunting this room.
Left behind—a love consigned
A fantasy born within my mind
She gave a heart that was never mine
Loving lines that failed to rhyme
With deep regret, our fate was set
Your piercing dagger I’ll not forget
I curse your name in stabbing pain
All that remains—this haunting refrain
In sepia tones, the echoes twist and sway,
When shadows stalk the moments lost to time,
A spectral dance where ghosts of youth hold sway,
Their laughter mingles softly with my rhyme.
Each birthday brings the weight of fleeting light,
As innocence drifts gently into night;
The storms of change laugh cruelly from afar,
While memory rides the mist—a faded star.
Oh, how I miss the cradle songs once sung,
Now haunting whispers cling to heart and bone,
In dreams I walk through halls where laughter sprung,
Yet find a stranger gazing back—alone.
In chasing shadows, I must reckon fate:
Can love transcend? Or must we carry weight?
"Echoes of Her"
I miss her luscious lips, the way they’d part,
Whispering love, then silencing my heart.
Tantalizing kisses, like fire and wine,
Left a burn on my soul — sweet and divine.
The fragrance of her perfume haunts the air,
Like ghosted memories tangled in despair.
Each breath I take, it aches like a crime —
A scent that holds me captive in time.
Her shampoo’s scent still lives on my skin,
Soft floral echoes of where we’ve been.
It clings like hope I cannot shed,
A trace of heaven where angels once tread.
Her hugs — oh, those powerfully warm tides,
A storm of passion where safety hides.
Wrapped in her arms, I could forget the world,
As love in spirals and sparks unfurled.
But what I miss most, what tears me apart,
Is the beat of her heart against my heart.
A rhythm now silent, cruelly displaced,
By an emptiness only her love can replace.
"Echoes of Her"
I miss her luscious lips, the way they’d part,
Whispering love, then silencing my heart.
Tantalizing kisses, like fire and wine,
Left a burn on my soul — sweet and divine.
The fragrance of her perfume haunts the air,
Like ghosted memories tangled in despair.
Each breath I take, it aches like a crime —
A scent that holds me captive in time.
Her shampoo’s scent still lives on my skin,
Soft floral echoes of where we’ve been.
It clings like hope I cannot shed,
A trace of heaven where angels once tread.
Her hugs — oh, those powerfully warm tides,
A storm of passion where safety hides.
Wrapped in her arms, I could forget the world,
As love in spirals and sparks unfurled.
But what I miss most, what tears me apart,
Is the beat of her heart against my heart.
A rhythm now silent, cruelly displaced,
By an emptiness only her love can replace.
The colours of the world have faded
My life, I would of traded
She was taken to soon
Her time on Earth a fleeting tune
Only three brief years she knew
Now, she’s gone from our view
The world feels black and white
Without her shining light
Too young, too precious, too sweet
In her absence, life feels incomplete
She should be here, by my side
But fate has cruelly denied
Yet I believe she’s in a better place
Beyond this Earthly space
Though I cannot see her face,
I trust I’ll meet her again someday
In Heavens warm embrace.
"How sad when it comes to face the world as an orphan! Chasing shadows, he/she searches for the love and protection lost. Having no trail to follow, the search goes on endless"~ By Poet
I am a street urchin, cruelly abandoned,
and hurled into the bin like a piece of trash,
now roaming to find the one who gave me birth.
It's months since I began this endless search,
from the days I started to think and feel.
wonder if I could ever curl into her warmth!
In the roaring crowd that moves along,
and on all the faces I chance to glance,
I search for a ‘Mother’, who cast me out,
into the dark hide out of a vacant street,
still smelling of newborn blood,
and still fresh with severed chord,
to be eaten away by ants and rats,
be trampled over or crushed beneath.
Now I wander all day long,
across the dingy streets I lay forlorn,
with hopes so bright and fancies wild,
to see my mother emerge from the crowd,
with hands outstretched to hug me once,
and own me ever, this forsaken child!
i miss the way she looked at me
i miss the way she held my hand
i miss the softness of her cheek
i miss the games and girlish laughter
i miss the passion in her day
i miss the time she'd spend with me
i miss the years cruelly stripped away
i miss most the things she had to teach me
but since she's been gone i recognize
she's been the angel watching over me
AP: 3rd place 2025
No walls beat; it is the heart within my own chest.
Turn the key; open wide; you look a bit distressed.
The pulse inside my own chest, a throbbing mess.
Pick it up; won’t you massage it with finesse?
Your lips are red and trembling dear; say something.
Something seems to be amiss from your wan coloring.
Surely you recall when you broke it; I saved it,
Just so we might stroll heart to heart into the pit.
Dear, don’t look so dully afraid; turn the music key;
It’s our song. You don’t recall our breakup melody?
I know the heart looks cruelly bruised and irregular;
for a regular guy who’s tender, isn’t it spectacular?
I know you’d curse, if your lips weren’t burning blue.
Poor baby, it gets worse, you’re invited to a barbeque.
They knock the little buildings down,
Replacing them with towers,
For giant corporations hold
Those taking-over powers.
The neighborhood has much less sun
And character and charm,
Plus traffic and more people cause
A reason for alarm.
The restaurants and shops we knew
And had for years embraced
Are empty or with unfamiliar
Stores have been replaced.
We grow to love the place we live
But when it’s cruelly changed,
It’s natural to start to feel
A little bit estranged.
Twenty years since you left.
Sometimes I wonder--
what was your purpose
in my life?
Did the universe send you
to help me navigate
the depression that gripped me
so cruelly?
Or, were you meant to teach me
about pain?
About self-forgiveness?
About healing?
All these things
I learned of when you left.
Yet sometimes
I see your face in my dreams,
and I know
it was something more.
Maybe
you were sent
so that in this life
I would know
what
love
is.
The man who was meant to love me the most,
Hurt me the deepest—how cruelly ironic, isn’t it?
Was it because I mirrored your face,
Or because I echoed the innocence stolen from you?
Perhaps it was the bitterness that brewed,
From lies you swallowed, justifying the bottle,
But why did you steal from me the chance,
To believe that love could be more than pain?
Was it too much to envision,
A world where I felt the affection you never knew?
Whatever the reason, I release you,
Because I refuse to carry this anchor any longer,
I tried to be your lifeline, but learned,
Some souls aren’t meant to be saved,
That’s when I realized, the fault wasn’t mine;
It was always yours,
But still, I don’t carry the blame,
Not for myself, not for you,
I choose to embrace you, shattered pieces and all,
Hoping someday, we can mend what’s broken,
And perhaps, in that healing,
We’ll finally find peace.
Words have power
Some can bring joy and excitement
While others rip open heart
That never healed cruelly.
Some people's words are just acting
Not worth taking seriously
Some fake it done with purpose
Some act truly in their heart.
Words differs in weight and meaning
Customary words down handedly in generation
It guides morality in tune and makes ones godly
It is everyday's life-saver and destiny's road signs.
Some people's words have wisdom
Take it as education by experience
Demoralizing words kill ambition
Some words are laws of life.
Are these the woods I walked in once?
How the trees have been cruelly aged!
Are these the fields where our bodies engaged,
When love's burning flame bound us as one?
The crops of golden summers have gone,
I look now upon their scattered remains,
Our love indeed is now just the same,
All once strong has been lost, is gone!
And only now in the shelter of my dreams,
Can I recall the ethereal beauty of your face,
In a never aging state of grace,
Untouched by time's malicious schemes
Are you still that Goddess, like none I've seen?
Or are you too time's bitter slave?
Crawling slowly towards decay,
And lamenting for what there once had been?
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