Face in the breeze,
latticed hair lined
on forehead crease.
Dove eyes are closed,
encased vision
shapes dreams reposed.
Lips of pink mist
emit lust warmth,
long to be kissed.
Faint smile on face,
candle in wind,
flicker of grace.
Flicker
When skies are dark with clouds and rain,
When loved ones are far away again,
When there seems to be no way out,
And all you want to do is scream or shout,
Look for a small glimmer or flicker,
Those things that make our hearts race quicker.
Hope comes in all different shapes and colour's,
So remember when the world seems a little duller,
Look for the sun in the sky or the birds in the air,
and know that there is always someone who cares.
Flicker… As light sounds
Go to sleep with the branches snap
The fire sizzles in fury of the night
The wind howls as they clap
Flicker…For the joyous creak
A happiness none of you speak
The greek fire shall be your future
Yet we ignore the flickers weak
Flicker….Like the napalm
The one we used for war
The one who shall set the bomb
Be calm they say
Then they're the first one at of the door
Flicker…As they wake up
In fear, horror, a feeling we can't tell
We must help those in need
Those children in need
And yet we wish them farewell
Flicker…Call them the greek fire
Say they light the spark
Those children, our future
Keep it all in the dark
Flicker…We shall speak for them
We shall stand
We shall do anything but die
And talk, and move
But we’ll float in their destiny
All in their bright sky
Flicker….The fire burns out
The bomb goes out
The spark is gone
And so is our doubt
There was that absolute obsidian in the air,
Not the holy kind -
But the kind you burn,
The dangerous fatal!
I wanted to kneel,
Not to worship -
But to plead with the grace you bled into,
Not to abandon me.
You walked like undone hymns,
A prayer with no mercy,
A pulse with no damnation,
The undoes sanity, dressed in reverence.
A moth that denies its hunger for the blaze,
A dagger veiled in silk,
For I drowned in a gaze -
I was never meant to hold.
Light of the inferno?
It shined full bright in me.
O for those who had to go!
Spark, ignite quickly!
Drench, O mighty downpour!
The storm will wash away.
Shroud of dead man, what you wore!
Grind thy teeth a-gay!
O halcyon environment!
Never shall ye change!
Poison, how you raise the rent!
River, how you range!
Wind and mountain, forces, fact.
Pull and come what will.
Politician, trace thy tract!
Blood of foe heart, spill!
Failure to communicate?
That is never wise.
Henchmen treated ill, hide hate!
Master to despise!
Sound from deep abandoned space?
Stories: thus to tell.
Flickering filament, thy face!
Ocean, time to swell!
Explanation? Dole and doom?
Fear the wrath to come?
Immemorial thought, thy tomb!
Style, come back in gum...
Fireflies flicker and light the night
on my walk home through the wood
after a day's fun in the sun
thinking summer should always feel this good
and they look like nymphs to me
dancing quietly on the breeze
flitting hither thither and yon
between the softly-moonlit trees
sending signals to one another
before the dawn and it's too late
like tiny bioluminescent Aldis lamps
flashing to find the perfect mate
The purple girl and blue boy too,
Both hide their joy, yet let it through,
Their laughter paints the grayest hue.
Love and fear—
They smile to hide a tear.
Beyond their gaze, the pain they hide,
Runs deep, a storm they cannot ride,
Yet through the dark, the light’s their guide.
For every night,
Will birth its dawn of light.
The girl of purple dances free,
Her grin a sun for all to see,
She chases ghosts of memory.
But now, somehow,
She’s found her peace for now.
The boy of blue, composed, withdrawn,
Appears intact, but hope is gone,
His thoughts still rage from dusk to dawn.
Yet calm does form—
His family’s heart is warm.
They seem so bright, just you and me,
Their smiles are masks of what can’t be,
But under layers, truth we see—
The spark grows stark,
A flicker in the dark.
Tonight the dark feels darker
As if the light is trying to hide
Even the sounds of the night
Have been silenced or died
There's no moon softly glowing
Or any stars illuminating the sky
There's only this vast emptiness
I'm able to grasp with my eye
The darkness consumes my being
An eerie feeling begins to arise
I observe my surroundings in fright
Only desolation fills up my eyes
Lost in this darkness that is life
Im looking and hoping for a light
That little flicker of distant hope
That will assure me I'll be all right
O parachute, thy rider.
How to keep one aloft?
Spread thy edges to defer!
He who squatted coughed!
Unity, sing in unison.
Each louder than the last?
Vittle, side with venison?
Legs in traction plast!
Thus refuted, O my rock?
Lines around in chalk.
Broken is the bowl, O block.
Corn, thy tattered stalk.
So you've been feeling stifled?
Just flicker as you fall.
Soldiers, how you rifled!
O banshee, how you call!
Ghoulish was the repast grim?
Crater, nurse thy rim.
Light of harpsichord, draw dim.
How about her or him?
Rain on us, O lightning!
O thunder, now to roll!
Fain would it be frightening?
Soak in gin, my soul!
The cone or the caldera?
What kind of choice is this?
Ergo, O my era...
O death gods, blow a kiss...
Written: July 25, 2025, for contest by Brian Strand
****************
t *
/ /|\
w~a~v~e~s a up the l*
\ i*
e g*
h*
t***\|/
*
h
e r
a t made it i
n
t
o a s
t o
n e—
slight p
e a
r l still s ` a ` i ` g `
h ~ k ~ n
prioritise what we seek
plug every energy leak
negate senses, look within
make heart pure and free from sin
focus fixed on God alone
resolve firm, consciousness hone
then in childlike trust just rest
ascending in playful jest
T-ill
I-nspiration
N-aturally
L-asts
A-mid
U-nspoken
R-esignation
I-t
O-vercomes
©bfa061825
Monocrostic (Birthday of Tin Laurio)
I loved like a flame with no wind to fight,
still I flickered—just to feel alive.
He never stayed, but always lingered.
The echo outlasts the word.
I reach for what was never mine.
Even ghosts are warmer than silence.
O boulder, with pitch resin shine!
Flicker fine at night!
Fate and Fortune, thus we dine!
Sign, O line of sight!
Ichor in immortal veins?
Crenellate to hold.
No use waiting for the rains!
Sane and centrefold!
Explain, O my spark-lit brain?
Bone of throne and bane!
Blossom inward! Core and chain!
Melee, meet the main!
Gone and unreturned? We learned.
Oh, what we discerned.
Night of nail and ne'er-do-churned!
How the bodies burned...
Yellow streaks in starry sky?
Panels on the fade.
Foxfire, foment on the fly!
Beckon as ye bade!
Climate of the covenant?
Back the boneyard bright?
Feet of clay, about me plant!
Cant cerebral, kite!
Mortal life, upon the knife?
Who to target, strife?
Circumstances, rhyme or rife?
O Rhine River, fife!
I read the language of your flame
in whispers the world never taught me--
where every breath leaves ash on the soul
and love glows
just before it burns.
You speak in storms,
in echoes of rose and ruin,
where every pulse is both prayer and dare,
and I find myself--
not lost, but undone.
The beauty is brutal,
but oh, how it sings--
this art of bleeding bright
beneath a twilight of truths
too tender for silence.
I don’t fear the flicker,
I answer it.
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