Equitable reward for time spent on earth.
Time on earth has expired.
Embrace for there’s no escape.
Recipe is found in the Ten Commandments.
No sin will enter Heaven.
Influence others with your testimony.
Treasures should be laid up in Heaven.
Your witness is either a Bridge or Barricade.
I have lived in your Life — once before —
A whisper — through your Door —
A Shadow bent upon the Chair —
That was — and is — not There.
I knew your Breath — before your Mouth —
I touched the Sun — by going South —
And in your Gaze — a Window shone —
To prove — what I had always known.
The Years — cannot divide the Thread —
Nor Silence — hide the Words — unsaid —
The Pulse remembers — though the Vein —
Denies the Music — once again.
I have Lived — in your Life — before —
I will — when Time admits — once more —
Beyond the Grave — or Clouded Door —
Eternity — repeats the Score.
Chrysalis convenes with Night
Larva soon lost from Sight
Golden Goddess Delight
Emoting Eternal Light
as i write this
i have two bottles on the bed next to me
filled with tiny hard capsules
they're staring at me
calling me
i've tried to resist their voices
but with each day they grow louder
i already tried two months ago
i've been trying to silence them ever since
it's hard to silence them
when it's the only comfort you get
the comfort of knowing that option is there
there is a way for the pain to stop
the suffering
i have letters written from months ago
i feel like i should've written more
but it's not like i can get backlash
if they actually read them, there's no way to contact me
not anymore
i fear it won't work
just like it hasn't the last time
or the time before
and the time before that
and then it's just another thing to keep to myself
sometimes i wish somebody knew
but then they'd treat me different
or maybe they wouldn't
i don't know which one is worse
i'm stalling now
hoping maybe someone would text
i want to be gone but
i'd stay if you wanted me to
but you don't
so i've taken them now
it feels freeing in a way
to know the end is so near
i'm not even crying, just numb
i may do a few things
one last time
hopefully
awake usual thoughts
failures made imposed
turn others sleep
those like may also awake
guilt not helping light
rest night fears conflicts
wars doubts known not
all prepositioned
keep hope peace joy love
isolated chambered atomized
quarked vanquished
Lord Jesus maybe will
many claim dead still
resurrection appendage
little importance since
not fit soteriology
identity not body
only survives death
timeless eternity reincarnated heaven
space sans time spent looking edge
those not yet arrived
waiting again undiscovering
one another simultaneously
except frozen eternity
Lord be raised embodied ongoing
time continued timely together
see those sleep those cannot
night pray
now three two hours
now one before dawn
Death's Shadow creeps across the wall
Where memories of triumph Stand tall
Each scar tells stories of battles won
Each breath echoes choice made, undone.
The ledger of our days is closed
Accounted for in every pose
No whispered no apologies sought
No trembling knees, no faltering thought.
Before the throne of judgment high
We stand as mountains touch the sky
Our hearts ablaze with righteous pride
Our soul unbroken, side by side.
The divine inquirer raises sight
Upon our shoulders, straight and bright
No shame deliberate, no guilt resides
Only the peace that honor provides.
Through trials fierce and tests of fire
We walked the path our conscience dire
Each step deliberate, each choice clear
Our character forged, year by year.
Beloved flame, my faithful, fearless, fiery flame,
No fleeting face can steal the light I claim.
Your light and shadow guide my night and day,
Though distance tugs my heart to drift away.
If ever faith should falter, love would break,
Yet though you turn another path to take,
If silence falls, the bond dissolves to dust,
My arms remain a harbor you can trust.
And when at last our parted souls unite,
Like rivers drawn into the waiting sea,
I'll meet you in the tender, fading light,
And greet the dawn that sets your spirit free.
Though kingdoms crumble, stars themselves may flee,
Love's golden key unlocks eternity.
when we allow time to stop, a glimpse of eternity will appear.
She came tonight, a whisper soft,
As I lay reading, lost in thought.
Her warmth curled close, a phantom grace,
And time dissolved in her embrace.
The book fell silent in my hand,
Her breath was there, I swear I felt.
A tear broke free, then came the flood—
A river born of love and guilt.
Three decades gone, yet still she stays,
A shadow dancing through my days.
She left because they locked me in,
For sins I never did commit.
She couldn’t bear the bars between,
The silence stretched too far, too wide.
She chose the stars, the final flight—
And left me here to ache and write.
I never let her fade from view,
Her name still trembles on my lips.
I love her still, I always will,
Through every crack my heart equips.
Why, Baby, why? We’d still be whole,
If fate had not betrayed our soul.
But maybe love defies the grave—
And finds a way to still be brave.
So let the spectral glow remain,
A light that cuts through loss and pain.
She’s still with me, in dreams, in breath—
Love outlives even death.
Destiny, oh destiny, why hide thyself from me.
Come out, come out, for all to see.
A life filled with struggle, then at last a surprise.
Why not reveal now how I self-actualize?
Have I no choice of my destination,
How I’ll proceed in my maturation?
How many ways could there be?
Or outcomes to this mystery?
More than one, surely a few,
Leave some things to chance, it’s the least you should do.
I want to have challenges and growth each day,
A purposeful life as I travel my way.
Life’s surely not over, with just destiny
My soul longs to live for eternity.
I remember you and the promises
the feel of the embrace of love
the tenderness of feeling whole
I remember loving you
and everything it so entailed
the magic of our togetherness
and the mightiness of our bond
Basically I remember you loving me
and me loving you ~
we’re caught in a cosmic dance
I’ve let the grieving take its course
it fills me now with less of a longing
and the healing is more of a blessing
that overcomes me with gentle warmth
Strange how the pain has slowly vanished
to make way for waves of love
that feel dauntless and eternal
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
...
Some
infinities
are bigger
than other
infinities
and
some
infinities
hardly
last
at
all.
... ...
her hands
did not turn on light bulbs.
they were light bulbs,
they were clay vessels through which flowed
a light tired from too much godliness.
when she entered the room,
it wasn’t her who entered,
it was a silence that had lost its voice
in a burned temple,
and had come searching for it inside me.
the angel beneath the bed
came out like a healed shadow
and whispered to me:
“Now you can sleep,
your mother’s hands are keeping watch.”
and I,
a child uttering
his first prayer,
looked into my mother’s palms
as if into a holy book,
unknown,
but true.
once,
an old woman from the village told me:
“Women like your mother
do not come into the world, they pour forth,
like light from icons
or like God from a child.”
since then,
when I think of light,
I do not see the sun,
but my mom’s hands
wiping the dust
from the face of the world.
Dripping dripping, the sound resounding
Like echoes abounding
Stronger stronger, louder sounding
My head is pounding
Throbbing throbbing the pain is increasing
Like a jack hammer never unceasing
Longing longing for the pains decreasing
Too much pain, I need the releasing
Like soft white clouds, floating in the wind
I feel the medication like a comforting friend
Thanks for the help, no hope I could mend
Show thy mercy let my life now transcend
I’ll patiently wait in a place without time
We’ll love for eternity in this place so sublime
alone i walk the lengths of this world
you’ve been gone forever and a day
you didn’t say you’d be gone an eternity
when you last said your goodbyes
i wander here alone in my wilderness
while you’re out there on the other side
i walk around chasing the light
in a sky that clocks the time
meanwhile i shed my tears of dew
wondering when again i’ll be with you
AP: 2nd place 2025, Honorable Mention 2025, Honorable Mention 2025
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