Parental love is not a scalar measure,
it’s giving each child the individual support and care,
devoid of judgment or comparison,
without favoring one over another.
I do not pour the vastness of oceans in a single spoon,
nor do I capture the rainbow rhapsody in a single frame.
For me, one child is the gleam of the morning light,
the other, the soft shine of the twilight tinge.
One is the ebullience of the cascading stream,
another, the calm depth of the bottomless sea.
I love to the full the one in front of me,
enticing me with unique identity,
until moving away from sight, not from mind,
giving the space in my heart to the other.
you barf baster again
washbowl always amplify serious
burden but buttress can
gloriously grandstand crumpled expunging
never negotiate prolonged affliction
center choppy crabbedness extract
stillness for greenback stockholding
that ascribe brandish backsliding
gastrogavage plumping faintness and
your wedding will be
unalterable fluttering caring desirableness
(Weekly Magnetic Poetry Challenge • August 24–30, 2026)
We are children. Our eyes can see, we witness the horrors you say to keep between you and me. We are children. Our ears can hear, we hear the screams we cannot bear. We are children. our lips can taste, we taste the blood that was drained. From your hands, the marks like a brand. We are children. Our minds can think, we'll think of how to escape before you can blink. We are children. Our bodies are ours, not for the wolves who take and devour. We are children. We're smarter than you think, we'll scream until we hit the brink. We are children. So let us be free, and than we'll rest in peace.
Your love tastes like cough syrup,
It never makes me cheer up
Fake smiles with false affection
Choking on faux confection
Your love smells like a Band-Aid
For all the cuts your hand made
Stop fights as your therapist
Take the blame for why you're pissed
Your love feels like anti-septic
It's made me a self skeptic
Everything I do is wrong
Tried to be perfect too long
Your love sounds like bed alarms
Even though you're where the harm's
Trapped with nowhere else to turn
Do you like watching me burn?
Your love looks like surgery
Rid of the bad, purgery
I was always too bitter
To your failed counterfeiter
It was shocking to lose my family in one day, to have no funeral, no one who cared.
I lost my whole family in one day, the judge may have caused me to suffer the loss of my family.
The judge ordered me to list someone to be a witness to my divorce length, this caused my family to get mad, leaving me to lose my whole family in one day.
Some days I feel like it was just a dream, then I remember, this was real, and it continues to this day.
Abuse can come in many forms, even after divorce, the ex-spouse can continue abusing by way of parental alienation, lies, lack of empathy, and many more not mentioned.
You never know what tomorrow will bring, so remember the loss I suffered in just one day.
Lifting prayers to God, today and always.
I am grateful for my parents…
and this wisdom they subtly dispersed…
that behind every child who believes in themself
is a parent who believed in them first.
I am grateful for understanding parental math…
although I’m sure my elementary teachers
would think my math misguided…
How the love for each of our children,
grandchildren
and great grandchildren
can be whole…
no matter how many times it is divided.
I love you both with all my heart,
But Mum, you tore that love apart.
You made me choose, you made me cry,
While Dad was left to wonder why.
You spoke of him with poisoned tongue,
Bad words for ears still far too young.
You painted him in shades of wrong,
And made me feel I don’t belong.
He wasn’t perfect, neither are you,
But love should never be cut in two.
You didn’t let me have my say,
You slowly pushed him far away.
I grieved a man who didn’t die,
He lived, he waited, I wondered why.
You shut him out without a trace,
And left a space I couldn’t replace.
I missed his voice, his laugh, his face,
I missed the way he held me safe.
And though he lived, it felt the same
As if he’d gone and I was to blame.
Let children love, don’t make them choose,
It’s not a game, it’s hearts you lose.
By David S Bailey
29th May 2025
She learned to walk beneath his gaze,
Through stumbling steps and sunny days.
His hands held hers, both small and wide —
A fortress built where dreams reside.
He traced the sky to teach her stars,
Named every light from Earth to Mars.
And when her fears would start to grow,
He’d whisper words she’d always know.
A father’s love needs no grand show —
It’s in the places shadows grow.
A call at night, a steady hand —
A quiet strength that helps her stand.
She blooms like springtime, wild and free,
But roots remain beneath the tree.
Through storms and calm, her heart can see —
He’ll always be her certainty.
And though one day she’ll find her wings,
He’ll smile at all her wanderings.
For in her laughter, fierce and bright —
He lives within her endless light.
The thought is a terror when alone and you feel weak.
Sometimes, the stakes are so high, for fear you dare not speak.
Neither bet your honest dollar it will not enter through that door;
Its arrival will unravel everything, ending your lives if nothing more.
It's a fearsome being; such a despicable thing. It's my dad, boogeyman.
Deep in your psyche thrives a fear that will surely wreck your day.
Like this vicious entity, it will make you wish you prayed!
Best to keep your footsteps muted lest you wake it from a sleep.
Remove yourself hastily and find somewhere to escape.
Its own children were given as a live sacrifice. It's my dad, boogeyman.
The agony will never leave while the nightmare abounds.
It hears every footfall when it listens for your sounds.
Whether you know or either, it will find you somewhere in the dark.
If you're in pain, better to feel shame, and think twice about crying aloud.
It's a fearful being; such a despicable thing. It's my dad, boogeyman.
My dad, boogeyman
Pacing in an empty room,
I'm sick, and tired of fighting
This unyielding evil
Who makes his case
To torment our family
And as the minutes turn to hours,
I feel the force of cruel waves
Crashing against the guiltless shore,
As he tries to drown
The truth in lies
And so I say a silent prayer,
Hoping against hope
For an end
To an endless storm
I pray that when the tide retreats,
His heinous lies dissolve in foam;
That blinding rays of sun expel
This ghost who haunts our happy home
I pray his clever masquerade,
Well crafted by undying hate,
Will fall away like rotted wood
Within the healing light of truth
I pray, when everything is seen,
And all is known and understood,
That Justice wash away this scourge
Forever from our lives.
Parental perimeters
Rules upon rules
Encage their helpless children
Who have no other life guides
Until the formative years are over
Children are parental pawns
Humans without power
Creatures with no rights
No say so, stuck in cages
At the mercy of parents who have all the power
A silent storm rages...it rages in his heart,
He watches his child being pulled apart.
As she whispers poison again in the ear,
His child drifts away, with doubt and fear.
Tears of anguish, a silent cry...
...he feels however hard he may try,
The judge there might turn a deaf ear to him,
Though his sadness fill his heart to the brim.
Twisted in the court his love so pure,
Can he win ever, he is not sure...
...but he knows it will not be in vain,
Tomorrow's victory will dwarf today's pain.
Rising from his heart, a voice so clear,
Tells him, "Hey, victory will be here!"
Your open arms will close in a warm embrace,
Your kid will be yours, do not just stress.
The night may be long, but the day will come.
The truth will rise, your heart won't be lonesome.
Your love, now lost, will find its way,
Wait for your child, wait for that day...
the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree
so the rot in the apple must stem from the bark
the roots that creep and drain of life
keeps us sour; unable to mend
you ruined me and i ruined you.
i hate you and i love you.
i don’t know what to do.
what can i do?
i can’t leave you
you’ll always be a part of me
your roots digging in to my very core
and i don’t want you to let me go
but you’re so horrible—
yet so kind
every word you spit tastes like poison
but your touch is so intimately, unbearably, soft
i want to run away
i want to run into your arms again
i want you to beg me to stay
i want you to set me free
the apple is rotten, and what rots it is the tree
but how can i blame you?
even the oldest trees were
once only apple seeds
how can i blame you,
when you were once me?
how can i blame an rotten apple
for growing into a rotten tree?
you rot me, because it’s all you know
you’ve been rotten from the inside out
and now you rot me too
and i hate you
i love you
i pity you
it’s all the same
in the end, i will grow into a rotten tree too
Growing up this is something from his parents he was often told:
If you’re lucky, and this is what you want, you will find a partner
with whom you will grow old.
And if you’re blessed the love and joy and happiness you share will never end
and that same joy and love and happiness will spread out
onto your family and friends.
Today he knows he has been lucky with his partner
with his family…with his friends…
but the wisdom of his parents he loves now to amend…
As he remembers back to when he was a boy
and what, by his parents, he was told…
He knows his luck was finding a partner to grow younger with
as the two of them grow old.
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