Illegible inscription,
dilapidated tombstones
- bleeding black roses
Gray granite,
characterized by melancholy
Marge’s son Henry was struggling with his math.
She insisted that he be allowed to bring it home.
He improved in leaps and bounds.
His answers were created in the best handwriting too.
Handwriting he did not have at school.
The teacher said “I don’t want to say anything but….
I think his mother is doing his homework.”
Marge came to school and got his language art packet.
Because he was sick at home.
Thirty-three assignments were finished in a week.
In the best handwriting ever.
Curious since Henry’s handwriting was illegible.
Henry returned to school the next week.
He still only knew ten letters, could not spell,
and we could not read his handwriting.
Curious huh?
I can't live in mystery
I'm waiting with bated breath
Where and when I'll stand or fall --
The hour of my death --
The facts of life are meaningless
There is no moral code
There may or may not be another side
Til then, get outta the road
Go ahead
Explain it away
I can't take the riddles
Quit knocking on my door
Stop advertising free advice
It isn't what I came here for
S'posed to write an indispensable memoir
An illegible tome of shame
People keep on interrupting
Tomorrow, it'll be the same
The same old scrutinizing
The same old sphere of doubt
Some miracles are worth baptising
But they're the kind we tend to throw out
Explain it all away --
Tear the cathedral down
We're pining for something long since gone
You can sense it just by
Sense it just by
Sense it just by looking around
Go 'head,
Explain it away.
ZACK
So instantly attracted to Zack
Author of Gorilla and the Bird
That when I met him
I couldn't say a word
He wrote in my book
When I approached for signing
You smell great
So I wrote in illegible writing.
I felt tingling in places
When he read that aloud
Turned red and snuck away
Ducking through the crowd
Not sure what it was about him
I couldn’t stop staring
His presence took my breath away
Taking pictures without caring
His flirtatious smile
Felt familiar like coming home
Dark brooding eyes
I wanted to talk with him alone
Olive-green pants with a black T-shirt
Dark black hair a bit messy
Light brown boots and dark beard
Holy hell this man was sexy
I was a physical wreck
Drawn to his guile
Attracted to his aura
Mesmerized by his smile
After his two-hour lecture
I struggled to maintain composure
Watching him walk around
Wanting him to stand closer
In front of the venue in his honor
I watched him pace
Wishing I had an excuse to chat
I felt my heart race
Driving away I waved
Losing my chance
Knowing that was that
I took one last glance
I startled awake, early Sunday morning,
fraught - my mind, darting like a panicked animal
because my assignment calendar
is wet, smeared and illegible!
Total darkness - I fish for my phone by it’s cord - it reads 3:08am.
I flop back onto a cloud of thick, memory foam.
Ahhh, jeeez, it was just a DREAM.
Of course, my assignment calendar
is safe, digital, redundant, cloud backed up.
“THAT was a little morbid.” I think,
as I drift back out of consciousness.
Finding the marks indented on a rock
Exciting curious thoughts and insight
To peep into the facts of concern erudite ,
Construe something that might pleasantly shock
Or add to the inept thrills , though fallible ,
The scholar persuaded, and deduced at last ,
That it alluded to a remote ,and glorious past
Despite the inscribed symbols being illegible
Much time, labour and resource was spent
To excavate and pick any stray object, hoary
Or in tattered form and in scattered state ;
Great surmise , concoction and undue fancy lent ,
Brought forth a fain , puffy, padded out story :
Yet nothing worth remains to claim it great .....!
Manipulated with digital cigarettes
Withdrawals and a pair of shaking hands,
destroyed lungs and it’s hard to breathe;
Addiction could turn to extinction;
You’ve been warned;
Finessed;
Depressed and constantly binging;
Passing the time
counting down to the next feeding;
You’ve been warned;
Polarized social interactions,
not even asking for change;
Artificial social transactions,
nobody left has a pulse;
You’ve been warned ;
The Labels have become illegible;
I’m going to say what you’re afraid to,
do what you just talk about;
Start a trend and shut down ‘trending’,
before I’m forced to say
‘You were warned.’
Images of incineration interrupt
Infernal imagery imposes in intricate intervals, illegible to those ill with ignorance
Inadequate ideologies imply impoverish ways, never to be incriminated no matter how idiotic
Inattentive to our imaginary inflation issues
Improvident to the waste of industrial indispensables
Keep ignoring the impending invasion and downward inclination or intercept the intrusion on your intellect and intervene
Invent instinctively into your own invincibility
An influx of idiots with no positive incline, our inability to feel insults our intelligence
Intolerant insecurities about income and the "it" influences impair our inner insight
This IS an impeachment against the institutions for informing the incredulous and inciting the irrelevant
I will stand intrepidly, inheriting the impending inferno
All my letters
are deformed,
beyond a cure.
Contest judges
trample over my
clumsy curvy lines.
Voice of my bruised
verse is not heard.
Sentences zigzag
with slow-moving
fingers. Unanswered
questions become
coffin-bearers.
Ambition is lost
in the cloudy
chirography.
Black box sounds
my broken dreams.
First appeared in The Literary Hatchet
There is no place in the universe
Without doors.
Even the earth needs doors.
A door opens to mornings.
A door lets us out under high-noon sun.
A door welcomes us back to sunset.
And then all doors close,
Swallowing darkness,
Only to open for dreams.
But we without dreams,
Lost in slavery,
Without self and belongingness, where
Once, we dwelt among gods and goddesses;
Where our ancient wisdom,
With its tail in its mouth,
Blessed us with language of honeybees
In our songs, like eyelashes of seasons
Opening to prosperous dawns,
When gold, silver and laughters,
Were conceived in our rice fields.
Now we are poisoned with
Illicit obscurity, and bared to nothingness,
Neither do we have what we had,
Nor we understand who we were.
All doors are closed,
Except the whining windows
Of counterfeit patriots,
A noise I am truly wearied of.
We pretend to be ourselves
In someone else's shoes,
Worshiping strange gods
With illegible prayers.
I grope along the walls
To find an opening to the world
Of soil and patient roots,
And emerge to show myself
As a shadow of what we belonged to,
Across a threshold
I can call my remnant door.
It started off amiable
The exchange always amicable
They had a first date t’was unavoidable
Opted for a light lunch truly delectable
Somehow the conversation got questionable
His stories grew somewhat unbelievable
Tall tales quickly became inconceivable
She started finding him reprehensible
Highly doubted they were compatible
Pictured herself as becoming rather unavailable
But the twinkle in his eye was ultra lovable
She began wondering why his intentions seemed illegible
Suspected it was a front impregnable
Yet his heart deep down might be really valuable
After all it might not be so inaccessible
That gem inside might be attainable
So a little patience might be desirable
Because he wasn’t that detestable
There was a little something so adorable
Eventually things changed and became quite bearable
And then even pretty enjoyable
So much so she decided to make this bachelor ineligible
A ring soon made their commitment palpable
Now their love has become infallible
And married life is incomparable
AP: 2nd place 2025, Honorable Mention 2020
You're so pathetic
you just don't get it
It's fun at the time,
but trust me you'll regret it.
Don't forget its not just cause I said yes,
it happened cause you let it.
At first I didnt understand
now im starting to get it.
I'm like a puppy you can lock away
only take me out when you wanna play
I'm like a trophy you place upon your shelf
getting dusted by everyone else.
I'm the only thing you feel you can control
I am the translation to your otherwise illegible scroll
DISAPPEAR
Tremors are the worst,
the full-body shakes
its like my skin is too tight,
my body doesn’t fit,
my life doesn’t fit
the anxiety no one understands
its invisible,
I’m invisible.
“Snap out of it, Shaky”, they say
“You’re just faking it.”
And I want to crawl into a ball and disappear.
Where did my confidence go?
My libido?
So many accomplishments…
I wake up to a new day
but I see the old ways
and no way out.
Can’t write in longhand anymore,
scrawling script is illegible
words fall like a sideways rain
splash all over me
the fears…not good enough
just let me lie here in the dark
and disappear.
my love im a drunk
it's two a.m.
here i am writing
you my last love
letter again
just can't get you
off my mind i been
writing endlessly
forget it ill make it
illegible for you
this time ill show a side
you never see before
more i write i write
to express my anger
to you
show you the comet
that crash the earth
made the Tsunamis flood my world
how mess up can you
be girl
na dont play the subjugate
game
usurp my ways make me
feel the blame
arduous my way figured it
anyway
sit on the yellow hill watch
the fiery flame take my
will
having fun figuring out girl
im having a thrill fifth bottle
of remy
man you just became
my emy laugh the chill
written: 3/26/2015
Am I the book keeper of my vast mind?
A library holding all my dearest dreams,
Hopes, desires...my sweetest memories
I hold so tender, my beloved shrine.
They run through my mind, a second's pace
Through the endless corridors of a maze.
Books fly everywhere. Pages turning,
Corners folding, pieces tearing - shelves raised.
My precious library, my beloved shrine -
Burning into cinders till only
Ashes remain. I stand there alone with
The mind fractured, broken...cracked.
Am I the book keeper of my vast mind?
The books are illegible, the shelves toppled,
The corridors emptied, no more sweet
Memories left to keep.
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