...
Perhaps, sad to say,
you're better off departed.
Now you don't have to suffer
the criticism of fools ad nauseum.
Now you have peace...*
For Joe Lowik, photographer, political, philosophical mentor
R.I.P.
Perhaps if I had known yellow yesterday
A breeze would blow and you’d fly away
Needles of red regret wouldn’t sew my face
Growing swelling grief as I read your page
I must blue believe you’re in a better place
Everyone misses you Pangie for you we pray
Bingo, my most loyal pup,
she popped up whenever my mood was down,
to mop up the grief in my silence
with a gulp of my tears seasoned with brine.
Wherever my feet led, she trotted,
night and day, she trailed my shadow.
Her lids never closed till she heard my snore
and up in a flash at my first morning yawn.
One day she followed me to school—
we both planned it without my Mum's consent,
I walked ahead, she darted in front and back of me—
and everywhere around me with joy.
First time crossing the expressway,
she roamed the yard till the watchman chased her out,
we waved goodbye—her final one—
before a car crushed her on the way back home.
tears fall like blue rain
chin down brown frown paints pale face
pet dog died today
Contest: Pentastitch It
Sponsor: Nette Onclaud
Date: 29.10.2025
Farewell, friend!
Like sizzling embers,
two tearglobes shimmer,
screening photo memories!
Life's too short!
Heavens weep
along with my soul,
Optic orbs burn bright
like a bursting volcano,
Life's undone!
Witches' words come to pass with two senses:
One brings you light, dark can't dare its fences,
While the other can't resist-
Its seeker off light's assist,
Chasing endless feats to bar's pretenses.
(Critter's of Chaos)
Upon a realm where artificial lights flicker and fade,
Unbeknownst to denizens, an eldritch evil's laid.
Upon a realm where artificial lights flicker and fade,
Alien eggs nest in shadows cast by tower high,
Harboring secrets that soon will multiply.
With shells that splinter and release their putrid freight,
Nightmarish entities emerge, ready for the fray.
Critters of chaos, fueled by hunger's relentless fire,
Seek to consume all in their path, as if possessed by choir.
Our hapless heroes, cornered, faces pale with dread,
Confront a horde of beasties, their intentions clear ahead.
Yet ere the slaughter commence without reprieve,
An figure cloaked emerges, from doorway hidden.
"Away, ye vile spawn," quoth stranger, voice imbued
With ancient power, as device in hand glowed, infused.
And with a blast of energy pure and bright,
The mysterious savior engaged the Critters in flight!
Beasts recoiled and screamed as holy beams struck true,
Shriveling back to eggs, their evil undone knew.
Critter's abandoned few!
My Wildfire
You touched me
and the forests inside me flared not gently,
not like a kiss,
but like the match that forgets it was ever small.
I burned not for ruin, but for release.
Even the stars watched from a distance
But you
you vanished in the blaze you lit inside me.
Chose the sharpest edge of silence
and called it peace.
Left your body like broken bark, your name
like smoke in my lungs.
And I
I sift through ash, finding pieces of myself
you never meant to leave behind.
The fire is out.
But the ruins remember.
And damn you for dying like that
and leaving me to live in what’s left,
T.Winther
We are like rose bushes pruned by various things
Some, cause and effect, like the death of a dream
Defining moments in how or if we move on
Do we live despite defeat and become art
Something beautifully flawed yet uniquely inspiring
Like a rainbow after a dark violent storm
Will we choose to reflect the light or the onyx cloud
Both have a purpose and a violet value
For what is light without darkness to compare
Even in failure one can be victorious
A hero who sacrifices self that others may live
Can reflect light despite the darkness of death
The womb to his body is as a thorn from life’s rose
The demise of his dream gives rise to others
Light enters you and your soul is transformed
You become part of the fertile grounds
For a larger dream to become reality
From a seed to a bud and perhaps a tree of life
Light which will enter you, facilitating your victory
For in tribulations your soul lives on cheating death
I stood before your grave, Biko,
and the wind whispered your voice —
“It is better to die for an idea that will live,
than to live for an idea that will die.”
You said, “Black is Beautiful,”
but beauty has been forgotten
by the children you once freed.
Their minds, once chained by apartheid,
are now imprisoned by ignorance.
They wear freedom like a mask,
yet fear the faces of their own brothers.
Today, a white man walks safer in Soweto
than an African from Congo or Malawi.
The same hands that once sheltered them
are now called foreign.
You gave them consciousness,
they returned with xenophobia.
You taught pride and dignity,
they chose envy and violence.
The mind of the oppressed, you warned,
is the greatest weapon of the oppressor —
and South Africa still bleeds from that wound.
If your spirit could rise again,
you would ask:
“Did liberation set you free,
or just change the colour of your master?”
Your bones rest in silence, Biko,
but your dream still cries in the dust.
South Africa has democracy —
but not yet dignity.
Cold Core
?A quiet dread begins to settle near,
A sudden, cold assurance of the fright;
It is a heavy shadow, sharp and clear,
A fear that only waits until the night.
The door is locked, yet safety feels untrue,
The smallest sound will always pierce me through.
Verse 1
You came as frost on sleep
deprived vein,
Rendered flight,delivered chains,
Flattered big time in voice of lies,
Stole the dawn from my very eyes
Chorus (of the victims of drugs)
Here lies your defeat,(cold) and still,
Drugs break the body,not the will
Your drug dens end where Truth takes seat-
Cocaine-here lies your defeat
Verse 2
You breathed lust in a saint's disguise,
Fed on the girl's Tears,the boy's Demise.
And the timid you tortured to weep,
Now they awake from your deceitful sleep
Chorus (of the victims of drugs)
Here lies your defeat (cold) and still,
Drugs break the body,not the will
Your drug dens end where Truth takes seat-
Cocaine-here lies your defeat
Bridge
Rise from ash,from bone,from blight,
I drink the stars,I own the night.
Your voice dissolves beneath my feet,
Your reign of hollow ends complete.
Final Chorus (The Outro)
Here lies your defeat (grim ) and still
Drugs brake the body, not the will
Your drugs dens end where Truth takes seat-
Cocaine-here lies your defeat
i tried to see you again
for the first time in almost five years
it was my fault for leaving
but when i said goodbye
i didn't know it'd be forever
i wonder what i would've done differently
if i had known
and now it's going on three years
since you passed
and i miss you more than you know
i just wanted to see you
so i tried to join you
but as i sat in the bathroom
with my head over the toilet
color draining from my face
vision going in and out
my brain imagines you're there
waiting for me
arms held open
but i know now i won't make it to you
yet another time i failed you
my brain puts you next to me
almost as if taunting me
just sitting there
watching me at my lowest
and we both know
this is my punishment
this is what i deserve
I see a red, red rose covered with dew.
It's perfect; I pick it for my friend dear.
My lonely heart is strained and I feel blue.
There on his grave, I stand where wild shrubs grew,
how can I ever stop even one tear?
I see a red, red rose covered with dew.
How the man had died I’d wish to pursue.
Thinking of it my heart is full of fear
My lonely heart is strained and I feel blue.
God knew how much he played with his canoe.
Why did he have to paddle to the pier?
I see a red, red rose covered with dew.
Was it a freak wave that made him fall through?
Indeed the whole affair was rather dreer
My lonely heart is strained and I feel blue.
I kneel in prayer as if in a pew,
for now, all are left without any cheer.
I see a red, red rose covered with dew.
My lonely heart is strained and I feel blue.
Not famous
No celebrity
Name unknown
Unexpected
Word pause
Sudden heart attack cause
No spotlight
Funeral plain and simple
Code of Silence
Inspiration thought
Poet final curtain
Words needing to say
Love for Poetry
Poet lies in coffin
Lived the life of emotion and composing
Beyond the rainbow and aspirations
Words soared where only they can reach
Shed no tears
Poet spirit near
One Candle burns
Soulful finale
Heavens awaken
Tomorrow’s new day
Words depart rise
Intrigued in unseen
Word gesture
True heart
Strength from within
Poet remembered
Living reality
End of a writing session
Encouragement to all in “WRITE ON”
Heaven’s reward
Destined in royalty by a sword of excellence
Living the dream
Pure and secrete like a moving reflecting stream
Identification of assurance
Rise on
Dove fly
Into the horizon
Frontier
Legacy
Remembrance
Soar
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