we used to be inseparable,
childhood best friends who did everything together
going to each others houses, sleepovers and midnight snacks
crying together, laughing together, telling each other everything
they told us these bonds are special, never to be broken and to last a lifetime
they told us to treasure these moments because they wouldn’t come again
not us we said, we would never watch the distance grow
our friendship could never fade! right?
i get it you want other friends
so do i, we’re only human
it’s okay, we need some time apart
no worries, we don’t have to meet each other that often
i understand, we don’t have to tell each other everything
was i really that replaceable?
forgettable, disposable, expendable?
was i just the one before her?
a way to pass the time until she came along?
just a phase you outgrew or a means to an end?
12 years of friendship and somehow it’s all reduced to this,
when did i become just another memory?
when did i become so easy to leave behind?
i was a small chapter in your story,
but you were my entire book
am district formulate jabber shakeout shuck snore southeastward strangle sunk was
tactfulness warfare
with inhuman
constrict your
expendable headmistress
noncritical nonradioactive
bombsight puff
leveling hippie
activism and
boundlessness beatniks
were receptor
to inducement
leech anestrum
always ballerina
trusting jazz
wallop the
alchemic turret
through spunky
foothold will
(Weekly Magnetic Poetry Challenge • August 10–16, 2026)
alchemic activism agonised again but bowling ballerina beatniks always bob
and could consignment curb & constrict cursor by distended elongation from
expendable hippie imagism an inducement interdict leveling our noncritical picnic priming shaggymane shakeout southeastward with tactfulness that unwarily unsealed your trusting troused wayside warfare
To think.
To see, to understand.
To speak, to say what you think!
Be careful.
Be mindful of the thoughts.
Be mindful of the words.
Be careful with the voice.
It’s real to think.
It’s real to understand.
It’s real to speak.
It’s real but…
The system will stay the system.
The rich will stay the rich.
The poor will stay the poor.
Expendable. Expected.
Excommunicated.
Extreme. Excoriate.
Exemplify. Expose.
Extinguish. Expel.
Exclude. Exterminate…
A language rich in words for silencing, yet poor in words for loving.
I wish to drown in your ocean,
Do you find that odd?
Do you find me odd?
I am the man whose heart you have sold
Tell me, did you get enough coin?
Three pieces of gold?
Take two and buy ye self a coat,
Since your heart is so cold.
I am expendable, that much I know
Hold my head down Dear, it's okay we're all alone
The water's cold this time of the year but enough stalling, it's time to go
One more thing, Dear, please, take your time, make it slow
I will not feel a thing, remember, my heart's been sold.
Power never disappears.
It only changes hands.
A new world is born.
Not with applause,
but with consequence.
The West ruled by division.
By naming itself first.
And others expendable.
Empires are not destroyed by enemies.
They collapse
from excess.
You governed by fear.
By debt.
By controlled hunger.
And called it order.
You mistook dominance
for permanence.
But power respects
only balance.
Those you weakened
learned your methods.
Those you humiliated
studied your system.
What was taught in cruelty
returns as strategy.
An unjust world
cannot remain stable.
It must fracture.
A single throne
invites rebellion.
Shared power
creates restraint.
The wise ruler knows:
It is safer to be balanced
than to be absolute.
This age demands equilibrium.
Not saviors.
Not masters.
For when power ignores justice,
justice eventually
replaces power.
The future will not kneel.
It will negotiate.
Its ob-scene yet not ob-scure.' Quite clear
The people must exerscise de'jure.' there
Were buisness officers sent armed to the
Teeth..Entailed unto your deadly grief.'
Just before the court action, Dezi was looking for truth and action.' Dingo dan though planned to thwart being beside it TWOT leader he'd have had to decide it would be great if an offence could be pinned on Freeman, the case would never
Be tried..Now goons are expendable.' And
If one perhaps were killed, he could say good riddance 'to that free-man' and old
danny boy could ridel.! That would only leave that car crash.? Yet he was good by
Thunder..The slipperiest snake that ever had slithered around
This land (Down under)
Get too close and i tend to push away
Come real close and ill be prayin that you stay
ion fk with these hos
from them i breakaway
my phone look like a funeral
all these dead bod-ays
contact name the tombstone
revisit text like a grave
walk thru the cemetery alone
wish some of them stayed
where they are is unknown
some of them betrayed
while i was on mars no bruno
drift away with space
Me,Myself and uno
you wasn't the one for may
switch and change like seasons go
like the moon just a phase
romance filled with chemicals
in my heart you were laced
at a point intangible
now its toxic waste
view em all as expendable
few i loved their taste
some like a cannibal
its you that i crave...
in a world of make believe
of people hooked on games
and scenarios seen on screens
people have become expendable
everyone is now jaded
content in their isolation
closing in onto themselves
with a growing distaste for socializing
we've become cynical and antisocial
friendship no longer a commodity
we smile and nod without oversharing
not letting anyone into our bubble
time is a factor we refuse to squander
we ration it in order to survive
to manage our stressful life
valuing our down time
we prefer to chill out and be alone
than to spend time with others
we're frugal with our energy
we don't invest in our relationships
sadly we’ve forgotten how valuable
rare true friends can really be
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
carved from ivory
placed in peril at your whim~
expendable
p
a
w n
In broad day light
In plain sight
The rain has fallen
And evaporated free
Speech over night
Riotous murder
Blame the simpletons
Protect the perpetrators
Who’ve political value
Kill the prisoner
Who shouted a view
Don’t write a thought
Or they’ll come for you
Two
Shrinking in fear
Of the new two tear
Five years to endure
But hopefully, not one
Minute more
Meanwhile thousands
Might die, but no will
To keep the score
We’re expendable
No longer dependable
They’ll lie until the election
Change their truth
Change their direction
Five more years to bear
The psychopaths will share
The spoils and the loot
Put us under the jack boot.
For now, they’ve banned fun
But our time will come.
David Cox 09/11/24
Democrats like Damocles Sword's imminent jeopardized positions of power hail her rise,
Decades of teamsters support, NO, Harris-Demos few endorsed her in the public's eyes,
Democrats today are like the Dixiecrats of Dewey's days are playing old-school, sex-race cards,
Repubs set in their ways, and Demos are bendable like what's his face got her on second base, charades.
He needed to win, expendable, same cards played, sex-(win over for the women voters) it is a given for the race.
D for Demos who are Distancing from Drunkards--her hidden card takes centerstage--loses face.
First line expounded of my original Pie-in-the-sky, and
the rest was a shot in the dark, played with dance cards.
*She can seek help if she don't slur her words on camera that she is,
being tailed., f0x learned from Di' lawsuit--pass the buck.
Repubs are no angels in this with Trumy-Dumpy on a ticket and not a wall, the third possible gallops in time with withdrawals TBA.
Rain falls like the tears of some unseen god.
Tapping against my window like the persistent fingers of a pianist.
The music is out of tune, and the wind provides the groaning song.
I'm so used to it but I'm tired of starting over.
This emptiness eclipses the memories of feeling whole.
My life is a book full of pages falling out.
My tears race down my cheeks eager to escape my ugly face.
Sifting through discordant thoughts not sure which are real.
Mind trapped in a haze forever damned by fear.
This buzz in my ear is all too familiar.
Ringing out like church bells but also like an alarm.
If bliss cannot be found I'll drink until I find the abyss.
We're born to die, to be expendable.
The life of man is unceasing agony.
A wall once full of friends and loved ones is devoid of life now.
And all I have to show for my experiences is hate and crippling anxiety.
Every shadow becomes sinister.
Every noise is a nuke dropping on my mind.
I have been forsaken by reason.
And as the rain washes over my face I close my eyes.
With these tears I regurgitate the lies.
I'm a loser and sooner or later you know I'll be dead.
Sooner or later...I'll be dead.
I'm sure you've heard the expression
In love with love
Well that's me through and through
Nothing in life is more important
It can take over one's whole being
But there's a bunch of lunatics in the world
Who give us peace loving *****sapiens a bad name
The lunatic fringe is what they're called
Whose brains haven't developed beyond kindergarten
In their mind, they're still fighting their schoolyard battles
But on a much, much larger scale
With much more tragic results
Human life is expendable
Not a consideration in the scope and scale of their conquests
The end justifies whatever means necessary
A side of us so called humans to be least proud of
Will it ever change?
Unfortunately I must answer no
It seems to have been ingrained in our psyche eons ago
No one is perfect
But these lunatics are at the other end of the scale
I walk up to the microphone,
it’s one of those old-time microphones
that almost hides the face.
As yet my unspoken words
are pauses between mute lips.
I am a work in progress,
layers have to peel away
until I can see my true self
in any mirror.
Like all mystics I am expendable,
a surplus voice in a menagerie
of other sounds.
When you get right down to it
our survival is for love of self
an idea that comes with
multiple flawed contradictions.
What we believe in, is someone else
for it is hard to have faith in a self
that keeps changing into
former versions of its being.
I tap the huge microphone,
to test for audio fidelity,
then with a sigh
walk slowly off the stage,
as If
I had never entered.
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