An art that’s pale
and passing frail,
a phantom, lacking form:
the trellis rose
already knows
it won’t withstand the storm.
When afternoon
reveals the moon,
a frisson frets the bower:
the sun shifts round,
the banquet’s drowned
by shadows of the tower.
Though we be dust,
create we must,
albeit for an hour
and all our toil
will surely spoil,
so readily devoured.
One half creates,
one half predates
– the universal norm:
so what remains,
but petal stains?
the imperative to perform!
Faintly the church bell tolls
On the hour, faintly she sighs
She cries out to the Lord
About the how's and whys
She's a women
(Some say she is scorned)
Most don't see the women I see
A lover with love she's adorned
She can smile in the sun
And hide in the moon
But when she has a sad
I feel our hearts rhythm in tune
She's not a ragdoll
Even if it is for a laugh
I know b'cuz of two hearts twain
She is one half
I look at her and think, you
Can take the old and mend'em new
A second hand heart makes do
(With all she's been through)
The sky was draped in night’s black cloak,
With a sprinkle of white specks in bloom.
The yellow moon slipped into a gibbous cocoon,
As sunshine fretted in crescent-shaped kites.
But the streets today were painted in bright colours—
They cloaked the rainbow in a toga of envy.
Many danced and sang in melodious harmony,
Dressed like masquerades with neither masks nor veils.
The clouds were clear and gleamed with a faint glow,
Since the last drop of rain they’d stored was in October.
It was the music, played on hand-held instruments,
That shook off harmattan’s dryness from trees and grasses.
"This carnival is like no other,"
A lady in red and white whispered to her husband.
They, like many others, had traveled from far and wide,
To sway their hips and jiggle their feet to Motherland Africa.
The hordes of strange faces mingled with local ones—
Each year, new loves are sparked, and babies are born.
Many a mulatto grows with one half of their roots in photos,
Yet every year brings memories sweet and strong.
“Handmaid of Patriarchy”
the garden rezoned
Embattled virility
misogyny cloned
As Delilah revolts
a new Samson on scene
One half of the whole
left to drown in the stream
Each genders new quotient
to minus the plus
A He without Her
— the destruction of us
(Saint David’s Pennsylvania: May, 2025)
The words
cease to resonate,
not my voice's fault
nor the walls,
it is the absence of
my yang,
sister self;
emerging,
new world
unsheathing its
unease:
there were two
cries of joy.
Reverberation or
affirmation,
and was there ever
a difference
in the sando shops
where we stole
tuna mayo onigiri,
or in the hospital,
where we were no longer
wide-eyed and
buck-toothed,
and you learned
your husband was infertile;
you hadn’t seen
your reflection
in years,
no matter how much
I tried
to see mine,
so in the bridges
where the futatsu dirty
faced bandits
used to roam;
one on the side
where the stars
could greet her
and the other
facing the earth
and its restraints,
only tremors
from our lips,
identical tones;
I was your shadow,
you, the moon.
Now; in the barren
cadence of one-half
of a voice,
with her half message,
the hitotsu
phantom warrior
cuffed herself
to the hand-made robes
and teary-eyed skies
of her memories.
Proofs!!!
I could never grasp proofs
they were too much for me
How could side-angle-side equal
prove that the hypotenuse squared
plus, the cosine of angle A equal
the square root of Pi?
How could (x+a)^n=?_(k=0)^n¦?(n¦k) x^k a^(n-k) ?
prove to be the same as
f(x)=a_0+?_(n=1)^8¦(a_n cos??npx/L?+b_n sin??npx/L? )
How could a squared plus b squared
equal the sine of angle abc if angle
cba was obtuse?
How could the right leg of an
isosceles triangle be equal
to the sum of two right angles?
If Jimmy had two ducks and I had
four turkeys, how do we get
three and one-half turduckens
between us?
Good thing I can count to ten, otherwise I
would really be lost!
This year’s gonna be lit, with next year even better.
The Bidens get the boot, bureaucrats get their letters.
Economy’s on a roll, Dow’s a record-setter.
The New Green Deal’s on hold, and Sandy’s sporting sweaters.
One half the country thinks that sanity’s returning;
the other’s on the brink of actions much concerning.
The DOE is gone, but kids are somehow learning;
Antifa’s back in town, blue cities are all burning.
----------
Goliardic verses are monorhyme in 13-syllable lines with pauses at 6 or 7 and feminine rhymes
Thoughts pierced the whites of my brains,
Tainted blood flowed out of my veins,
One half of me then paralysed,
My speech now completely disguised.
Why was I stubborn with the drugs?
My right arm now too weak for hugs.
Beat fast, my heart under my cloak,
Just too bad I now have a stroke.
Recovery now cost fortunes,
Drag I must my distortions,
Since death may even be my fate
Like rats in a trap, I await.
27th October, 2024.
Hundreds of frenzied snakes
Slithering from her head
Looking at me
While her gaze wants
To turn me to stone
But I glance away
Knowing the damage
That can be caused
I met her
Dwelling in a cave
Unaware of most slang
But she endures
A painful existence.
This Medusa
A friend or fiend
You tell me
I need to know
But I will love her
Forever and a day
One half orange and one quarter lemon
Exchanging packages
Will be our right
True love
While romancing sunsets
Just remember
To avoid the gaze
When she’s beside herself
And all will be
Just fine
"Half-truth and lie; six of one, half a dozen of the other. How about the whole truth?" - quote by poet.
I live and breathe my truths
as much as I speak them; I believe...
what I believe and I stubbornly stick to my convictions.
I believe Jesus Christ, my savior, died for my sins.
I lack patience for disingenuous folks.
What you give, you get back in the end, two-fold.
I express myself freely without fear of scorn or criticism.
I'm a coconut...tough exterior, soft on inside; gentle giant.
I'm moved by sincerity and thoughtfulness in people.
I applaud courage, selflessness and humility.
Quasi-masochistic, i'm unsatisfied until I've bled to achieve an end.
One of the greatest things I've ever done; serving America.
Fatherhood has turned me into mush.
My most salient characteristic is my inner humanity.
Why’d you dig that hole George,
are there rabbits down there?
Too many Lennie
like me they’re in despair
Don’t be afraid to look now
I’ll stand right behind
Ok I will!
George took out his gun all primed
If I seem distant
it’s not because I’m far
I’ve always been here
your binary star
Two for one was always
our dream spot in space
As George felt plasma
splat across his face
For the first time ever
Lennie’s mind came alight
Brains blew outward
behold what a sight
Symbiosis ends
when one half explodes
Locked in syndrome gone
no need to reload
Down the rabbit hole
lies that smoking gun
It may solve a dilemma
but can never be undone
Ever wonder why
fools stare blank upon skies
They just don’t see them
until they possess no eyes
By David Kavanagh
I’ve just invented something that I think you will applaud
I cannot tell you what it does or even what it’s called
I made it out of bits and pieces found up in my loft
I stuck a switch on one end and some sponge to make it soft
It has no moving parts so there’s no need for messy grease
I’ve hammered in some screws and nails so there’s no missing piece
It doesn't buzz or rumble… if it did you wouldn’t feel it
And as its purpose is unclear nobody’s gonna steal it
I painted one half red because the other half is green
My grandma said that colour combo simply can’t be seen
I didn’t have a plug so I won’t ever plug it in
And so you can be sure that it won’t make an awful din
It won’t wake up at five a.m. and get you out of bed
And if you wear it like a hat it won’t mess with your head
It’s wood and plastic, bits of tin, assorted nuts and bolts
It’s also very safe because it uses zero volts
If I could ever switch it on would it spring into life
Would it be an aide for me or useful to my wife
And could it be the best invention nobody has seen
I’m so proud of my red and green, invisible machine
'Tis off to the races now that homeschooling has ended.
One half earns for their subsistency,
other half learns about delinquency.
Be they friends and their best efforts were suspended.
Tale spring muses as the anticipant's
appraised specifies traditional hopes
load stages standard addictive transplants
secured cognitive lodestar prolonged copes.
Missteps venture the wide-eyed sneeze, and runny nose
a caption reads, "This be the Time.", gone are
the reporting authors, counting those
to acknowledge them, minus their star.
Bloom's wilt and hues fade know not the hour caused,
advents trending acquisitions neglect closure
but fail to end the brotherhood of friends exposure.
halls went silent the schoolyard empty, turned men paused.
Quote: When earth’s one half faces the sun, the other half goes to restful sleep – Anonymous
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
With tilted axis
And elliptical orbit
Earth shimmies like Prima ballerina
With a graceful pirouette
She faces the Sun’s heat
Smooths out glare on her feet
At night she parties
Filling veins of her green
With stimulating goodness sap
Moon, the proud practice partner
Strenthens her seasonal jumps
Allows her to Celebrate
Appreciative Sun shines
More on the partner
To see well the glow on ballerina
Unmindful of Newton’s theories
Lush lives thrives on this duet
In the shadow of sunlight
the river runs afar
splitting
I change houses
its crippling
I'm her here and another over there
its hard to bear
to bear the weight of change
for the reasons range
from different rules
to different hues
I bear the weight of change
is it so hard to be the same?
for the one thing I wish for is to
not bear the weight
the weight of change
so I will live with two personalities
sometimes I just want the world to freeze
but I don't get a pause
I have to be jolly like Santa Claus
so you will only know one half of me
I'm her but I'm also she
but who am I
this half of that
it gnaws me like a gnat
so. I will write you back as soon I can
when I find out who I am
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