step back from the cliff
your twenties' brain on the edge
change is not decline
age redraws the roads we know
changing the way your brain thinks
stress rattles the frame
old minds need to avoid storms
rumination rusts
stronger pathways bear the load
as the brain's framework evolves
inside ageing brains
new supporting pathways grow
forming a framework
where nerves trace what years reshape
building a resilient mind
ongoing support
is needed to sustain growth
keep damage away
the stronger the inner frame
the further collapse retreats
movement wakes the brain
trodden pathways branch and bind
feed the frame, not flame
less abuse and fewer harms
give the scaffold room to grow
let the mind wander
explore unfamiliar ground
build fresh connections
try some things you cannot do
strange pathways form as you go
a time traveler
looks back, looks here, dreams forward
builds mental contexts
adds layers to the framework
as time bridges connections
there may be no cliff
if the pathways are well used
framework stays alive
by building mental bridges
transforming decline to change
Joints and tendons ache
Water works partly block
Teeth; gums you forsake
In the mix, the odd rock
Nobody prepares you
Suddenly, the decline
Friends not foes, few
You want to only recline
Like yesterday's news
You are now quite stale
Worth very few views
Repeating a woeful tale
Your pals drop dead
On goes the count
Next obit to be read?
As health events mount
Infancy leads to decline
Teeth twixt extremes
Independence grows
Ends in dependence
Hair sparse and grey
Nails curved and ridged
Skin wrinkled, loose
Muscles wasted
Bathing, a project
Diet, soft, pureed
Normal sight, hardly
Wits about, barely
Taste no more
Hear less
Tiring easily
Wanting less
after "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down today.
Nothing gold can stay.
after poem: A Pulse Is Bound To Wane
A pulse is bound to wane,
red rhythm vibes in vein.
A stream-bed’s liquid power
still stirs when mood turns dour.
But beats do follow beats,
like cleats on city streets,
‘til red sun siphons west
throb beneath my breast.
I decline as Winter cold increases
My mind throbs on a heavily beaten path
As my heart grows faint
My body knows not its former strength
Winter with its penetrating cold
Pours itself down through leafless trees
And freezes the moonlight in the branches
Cancelling also the glow in the furnace of my soul
A pale purple steaming vapour
Hovers over my head
While the snow of the storm swirls
Round me, into an unearthly abyss
Calling me to follow it
While I consider the invitation
Made with cheering and malignant laughter
I fall back into familiar dreams
And into other dark cold and naked streams
foreboding omen
bumblebees on the decline
the worse yet to come
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
See the world around yourself,
See the people around you—
The scary face of people,
The crying face of children.
They are scared, lonely, and sad.
They fear the world.
See the fearless around the world.
The mothers are crying with children in their hands,
Praying for their children’s life,
While others are praying for their children’s future
To be bright.
People say, “This is the way of living.”
If you don’t understand,
Then you will lose your life.
The world is watching around in silence—
Can’t we stand against this violence?
Their hands are coloured with blood.
Some of our hearts are filled with guiltWe are living—
They are bleeding.
We are eating—
They are starving.
Some say this is revenge...
But we are taking lives.
On Growing Older
Sometimes my steps are steady,
Sometimes my hands shake.
Sometimes my memory falters,
And I make some sad mistake.
Sometimes I hear you talking
But I do not understand.
Just remember that I love you
And I do the best I can.
My skin is sagged and wrinkled.
I look a little like an Elf.
My eyesight's getting hazy,
Sometimes I repeat myself.
But I still love the beauty,
Of the big old open sky
And Precious little children,
Sometimes at night I cry,
I look back on my efforts
Did I do the things I should
But I find a gentle comfort,
That I did the best I could.
I am weary but the knowledge
That strikes the sweetest cord.
I can lay aside my worries
And leave them with the Lord.
In Nigeria's land, where yuletide cheer does fade
A yearly refrain echoes, "Last year was better made"
A curse, it seems, that haunts the present's door
As if the past's sweet memories, forever leave us poor
The cost of food, a constant woe, does rise
A negative trend, that brings tears to sorrowful eyes
Past leaders, revered, as if their wisdom, we can't replace
Does this mean Nigeria's well, of good people, has run dry, and lost its pace?
Should we forever pine, for bygone days of old?
Prefer the past's faded glory, to the present's tale, yet untold?
Fuel and transport costs, a burden, we can't define
Monopoly's grip, so tight, it chokes the poor, and makes them decline
The price of meat, a luxury, few can afford to buy
Yet salaries stagnate, as if frozen, in a bygone sky
Oh, Nigeria, land of promise, when will thy people thrive?
When will the yuletide season, bring joy, and not just a survival to stay alive?
VI.
It used to be that a child
was called a precious gift,
so many of them used to die
we were joyful if they lived.
To kill such a defenseless soul
was barbaric and cruel,
but oh, how Satan did return,
and play us all for fools.
Now sixty million have been killed
before breaching the womb,
we murdered for the convenience,
sent innocents to doom.
Unique, one-of-a-kind people,
snuffed out like they were trash,
we hide behind euphemism…
we will answer for that.
How many siblings won’t you know,
and friends will you not have,
how many spouses won’t you meet,
or children young and glad?
How many books won’t be written,
and movies won’t be shot,
how much culture would we cherish
that now we have not got?
How many inventions were lost
within that murdered mind?
How many great things have vanished
due to this blooding crime?
For every five that you see now,
one more soul should exist,
you want to talk about heinous,
Hitler didn’t kill like this!
For our own selfish convenience
we butcher our own youth,
see the evil and don’t forest
who was taken from you.
V.
It used to be understood that
people were pretty safe,
that our streets and our neighborhoods
weren’t a dangerous place,
that you could let your kids go out
and they’d come back alive,
that we had good law enforcement,
security to thrive.
But now they coddle criminals,
help them get out early,
our cities have become failed states
of crime, drugs, and feces.
Worse yet is they’re importing them,
illegals in cruel gangs,
handing out money to the thugs
who probably should hang.
It seems a week doesn’t go by
we don’t see migrant crime,
people murdered and women raped,
it happens all the time.
Whole apartments taken over,
the tenants extorted,
by people your leaders let in
so they could get ahead,
all of it just to rig the vote
so they alone can win,
no problem with condemning you
to a future quite grim.
Your life has no meaning to them,
they’ll gladly leave you screwed,
see the evil and don’t forget
what was taken from you.
IV.
It used to be expected that
you not care about race,
just treat all people like people,
things were better that way.
But that posed a problem for some,
most of them on the left,
without these victim narratives
people would not elect
them into positions of power,
and that they could not stand,
to lose power when addicted
destroys a venal man.
So they go to all their cronies,
media, academics,
have them gin up some sophistry,
cover for their bullsh-t,
start screaming your identity
is all tied to your skin,
call it ‘critical race theory,’
while I just call it sin.
Teach kids that this is what makes them,
get them to parrot the rage,
what we should expect from a party
that fought a war to keep slaves?
That’s how much they want their office,
built segregation anew,
see the evil and don’t forget
What was taken from you.
III.
It used to be that a school girl
in a bathroom was safe,
away from predators while in
a vulnerable state.
But now weaponized ‘compassion’
for the mentally ill
puts confused men in there with them,
some will rape, yes, they will.
We’ve already seen it happen
in our damn public schools,
they’re been caught hushing it all up,
these evil, programmed fools!
When you stop and think about it,
the sheer audacity,
that rape is less of a big deal
then false ‘identify?!’
I think it is moral to say,
and on this I wont’ move,
girls shouldn't have to see male parts
when in the changing room.
We all know what the predators
are going to do next,
say, “I’m a woman,” go on in,
and force girls into sex.
All to pander to some sick man’s
entitled point of view,
see the evil and don’t forget
what was taken from you.
II.
It used to be that a woman
could choose to stay at home,
do the job of molding children,
at least until they’re grown,
shielded from this quite brutal world,
quite the great privilege,
and base on what we see these days
it was better they did.
But then the feminists came ’round,
called raising kids a curse,
shamed the women who would do it,
an action quite perverse.
Shamed the women who would do it,
an action quite perverse,
said women should be just like men,
called that equality,
pushed it so hard the most people
no longer have babies.
Ignoring that most men hate work,
and wish they could escape,
but now women are just as sad,
and damned to lonely fates.
Politicians all went along,
driven mostly by greed,
more workers means more tax money,
which those scum always ‘need.’
Now our kids are raised by strangers,
and grow up wrong, it’s true,
see the evil and don’t forget
what was taken from you.
I.
It used to be a normal man
could work a factory
and make enough to buy a house,
see that his family eats.
But now the jobs are all off-shored,
there’s nothing much left here,
one man did try to bring them back,
they shot him in the ear.
The elites make too much cash off
cheap labor far away,
are in bed with politicos
(If not one and the same?)
No tariffs and high inflation
makes everything too hard,
young folks are renting, cannot own,
it’s all been pushed too far.
The globalists have made their choice,
they’ve sided with the few,
see their evil and don’t forget
what was taken from you.
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