Applying to Harvard, Delphi Sa'id
To this question, didn't know how to plead
What's a 'panty raid,' they asked
Delphi, an answer he lacked
He stumbled, bumbled, said ~ "Sure. I smoke weed"
My pink, almost velvet pajamas that I haven’t washed in two weeks.
My different-shaded blue comb that I’ve used to scratch my wrists.
My dirty clothes from the past two weeks.
My trash can that hasn’t been taken out in two weeks.
My lotions sitting in the sink that hasn’t been used in two weeks.
My own tears falling down my cheeks.
My soon-to-be invisible scars on my wrists.
My wound on my right leg from scratching it.
My heart breaking out from my rib cage.
My cries and hyperventilating coming from my eyes and mouth.
My blue comb scratching my inner wrists.
My nails digging into my left leg.
My washed hair from doing a slick-back for four days so no one would see the empty patches.
My toothpaste sitting on the sink.
The salty taste from my tears falling down onto the floor.
There to seize the day, ten thousand strong
Thru ramparts ravaged, by savage throngs
So they raised their flag, and sang their songs
Ten thousand soldiers, would march along
In cadence count, on account of wrong
The Colonel shouts, Boys! we'll march till dawn
With heartened hearts, meshed with steel sarongs
Ten thousand soldiers, that march like Kong
Their shadows shortened, like the day is long
Soon nearer death, but now the Colonel's gone
They were not so clear, where they belonged
Bewildered soldiers, lost voice for song
Swore to fight the fight, but thought it wrong
As a fearsome force, awaited dawn
Still, they breached the fray, ten thousand strong
Only one tin soldier...marches on!
He wore a smile as smooth
as Glass
While promises slipped
through like Class
His words were honey,
sweet and Bright
But hid the shadows in the
Night
He kept two names inside
his Heart
And gave his vows to
someone Apart
The house was warm, the
air was Still
Yet every corner felt so
Chill
I traced the lies along the
Wall
And watched the vows
begin to Fall
Now silence answers when I
Call
And I am learning to stand
Tall
Do you wake each morning with
‘Oh Yay…..another day’
OR
Mumble and complain
Thinking ‘ Here we go again’!
Poets are liars
Hiding what we mean to say
Between lines you were never meant to read.
Poets are cowards
Twisting painful truths
Behind beautiful words and sly contradiction.
Poets are fools
Who yearn to scream their secrets
And still have them go unseen.
I am a liar, a coward, a fool
I'd write a million and one poems
Before I'd tell you the truth.
I am the moon chasing the sun,
I am the stars hiding in your light.
I am the crack in concrete walls,
I am the love a poet hides from sight.
I am the moon caught in orbit,
I am the night that chases sunset,
I am the bow that Cupid strung,
I am the bell never to be rung.
I am the moon ever secret,
I am the blush spreading unbidden.
I am the question, the regret,
I am the only thing kept hidden.
I am the moon,
and I am sorry.
Why it’s called ‘socialism’ I am not quite sure
Once lionized, it's fertilized ~ pure manure
You're my dearest friend,
Always there in the end.
You're a thousand universes,
I couldn't capture in a million verses.
You're the thing I can't erase,
The feelings I'm too scared to face.
You're the strength I never had,
Standing strong when things go bad.
You're the love inside my chest,
The secret I've kept the best.
You are my reason
To face each bitter season.
You're my closest of friends,
That's how the story ends.
You are so much more to me,
But that's all I'll ever be.
He's a blinding light in vanta black
He's a decision you can't take back
He's the universe and an ocean
He is stillness and he is motion.
He is strong and he is broken
He's every word left unspoken
He's the smell of sage and fire
He is honest, I'm a liar
Down I fall, to my knees.
The pain is to much to bear.
If you can hear me, please help me.
My love for him will never cease.
It’s strong beyond compare.
Down I fall, to my knees.
Time can’t be bought—nothing is free.
I wish we had more time to share.
If you can hear me, please help me.
I whisper softly through the trees.
Why is life so unfair?
Down I fall, to my knees.
If time can heal, then tell me please—
Lord, do you hear my prayers?
If you can hear me, please help me.
It’s only him, I long to see.
Our love will always be there.
Down I fall, to my knees.
If you can hear me, please help me.
You have been the
One for us father
Also father
You keep us alive
Every single day
Here on earth
Also father
You have made us
With your holy hands
A long time ago
And you also father
Had placed us on
Earth to live
Father we love
To live on earth
Also, we have
Lots of friends
That you also made
With your holy hands
A long time ago
And also they are
Living here on earth
And I also must
Tell you that
They are very happy
To be living on earth
Father, I must tell you
That I pray also
Every single night for you
Before I go to bed
When I lay on my deathbed,
counting my last heartbeats,
I want you to be the last person,
whom I meet.
We'll share our laugh and our sorrow ,
where I quietly hope to live till tomorrow.
Thousands of flashback flooding in front of my eyes,
yet I only want to relive the moment I have spent with you twice.
In the end I hope ,
you'll cherish me forever the way I do,
and love me until the next time we meet,
cause I am laying on my deathbed counting my few heartbeats.
When heaven's stroll unfolds,
And the final stories are told;
When we open our ears to listen
To the truths that have been written;
And to everything else, our ears are closed,
May I not be one of those.
During Hitler's rule of terror, there was a
Lutheran pastor name Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
There were those who questioned his
Christianity and dismissed him as heretic
For his bold attempt to assasinate a vicious
And ruthless killer of millions of Jews.
May I not be one of those.
Even though, deep within my soul,
I don't suppose that I would have been
As bold as Dietric Bonhoeffer, I do not
Believe I would have been as one of those.
May history smile at the path that he chose.
I'd much rather be as courageous as he,
And never like one of those.
Oh, how I’m longing to float to my death
Not e’er again heave sweet CO2 breaths
Each of us whirl with a dance all our own
Loosed by a mistral and heavenly-blown
All of our lives we’ve provisioned The One
Synthesized O2 with bright from the sun
Tasting the rainfall whene'er a cloud burst
Wetting our folds for the deep-rooted thirst
And now in the autumn endeavor the spring
Let loose our branches to dance and to sing
Trading our green for the shades of the sun
Zanzibar waits when our last waltz ... is done.
Copyright © 2017 / 2026 Gregory Richard Barden
~ POETRY AGAINST POVERTY ~
( photographic art created copyright-free by the author with Gemini AI / Meta AI software )
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