Daydreams of summers’ past
are vivid in my mind’s eye…
…sandcastles with moats to build
beachballs to chase and throw
loud voices echoing along the beach.
Salt water, lifeguards and whistles…
…my toes curl through hot summer sand
large, loud waves glisten and crash
in an endless rhythm and flow.
We ran headlong into the waves
cheap styrofoam boards in hand
recklessly splashing, wet hair dripping
taking whatever waves we could
laughing, radiant with joy…
…I miss my sister.
billowing skirt whirls on air
wild and chase, that’s gypsy flair
belly moves like ocean wave
in the rhythm of each octave
swirls and sways with bouncing feet
synchronizes with every season’s hit
night and day never quits
flowing recklessly in her own beat
Friendly little cottage
perched upon a cliff,
watching as the waves
crash recklessly below
against the sandy shore.
If I were a recklessly raucous raccoon
I’d stealthily move as thrushes fly by
I’d try my best to reach for the moon
I’d continue my quest as wood pigeons croon
Determined to access the clear evening sky
If I were a recklessly raucous raccoon
Might I access the stars on a hot air balloon?
Or climb up a pole long enough to get by?
I’d try my best to reach for the moon
I dare not reveal my cause too soon
Lest the wise owls challenge, asking me why
If I were a recklessly raucous raccoon
“Fifteen minutes of fame” you’ll likely assume
Why not root for me instead of decry?
I’d try my best to reach for the moon
Then all will strike up a victory tune
‘Trash Panda’ no longer as in days gone by
If I were a recklessly raucous raccoon
I’d try my best to reach for the moon
Having the chocolates I bought,
Listening to my guff with a smile.
Accepting the things I taught,
Seeing you try, makes me go on a high.
Chewing the gums you had,
Teasing me for our comedy,
Laughing aloud , I’m glad.
Seeing you try, makes me go on a high.
Sipping the drink we like,
Talking recklessly without minding.
Making me do things you like,
Seeing you try, makes me go on a high.
Amid the conflict of competing voices,
Which one should we listen to
In a world without a compass
Steering us recklessly
With no anchor to hold us steady?
Siren voices are stealing our souls
To leave us stranded
No longer knowing right from wrong
No longer knowing
The distinction between good and bad.
We are in danger of losing our way
As Hell beckons us all
To find freedom
Where no boundaries exist
To limit our pleasures
Instead of standing on the terra firma
Of a sound system of morality.
Christ came to show us the way
Through his truth and his light.
His should be the voice we cling to
In the shipwreck of our lives.
He was obsessed with news
From all sources still couldn’t get enough
Morning noon afternoon and night
Spiralled him into a fake foreign world
Came very close to ruining his life
Blind unaware clueless, didn’t see it coming
Recklessly driving off the cliff of sanity
Sadly t’was the beginning of the end
He had it all, let it slip
Took it for granted till t’was gone
Learned his lesson? We’ll see.
AP: Honorable Mention 2026
Written: November 02, 2025, for contest by: Robert James Liguor
**********
The frozen core of human activeness
where the temperament recklessly smiles,
sludge cascades from the blade's edge
A joyous opsimath emerges,
reminiscent of rebellion and aged books,
sturdy and infused with a grin.
His unique calling sign is the "lard of law."
He wears robes adorned with nimbus designs
and stands before a wall of questions.
He gathers information from insightful individuals
Every conundrum is a breach in the law,
And every victim wants to be obvious,
He repeats sharp retorts to the sentient
To the obstreperous, the zymotic throbbing of history.
He says that justice is not banausic.
She is a lissome Nereid,
dancing with eurythmic elegance through garbage.
Though weariness grasps the morning,
and moribund minds look for troughs, not summits.
He persists on—
a sherpa of the spirit,
bestow the noisome into view
where enlightenment flowers akin to vernal fire.
Justice is not a flaw,
It's beginning
It is Nemesis
the tiny thread that links,
the strained heart to the flimsy earth.
They, beseech love as a token of joy, love is nowhere to be called in
only to bid farewell to joy, left behind, a hymn
such is the glossy glaze of a subtle worldly longing , a fading heartsong to lull
oblivion and them, an array of whim, newly reborn, blossoming recklessly, vagabond a feel,
And so is the love, sleep deprived a croon, a yearning eddy , a sandstorm kill
a chill hideout in zeal
And the let down show
And the no brainer love, a sow
a love losing all and all
in grievance and then the majestic fall
my love let us overcome, since the night is done, the dream was drawn
to an end
why the churn, even though a show, to steel the unsayable lexical
sleepy and bizarre adventures of an ensuing moonlight sonata
after a prodigal setting in mist and fog
my love, let us be mourners in good faith, humbling.
a saga of love, unspoken, is ending within, whence a kismet wills on.
now many are still a sense in smiling and a feeling In many more
to be born for a tossed and turned, a smile and a longing heartache
with brimming eyes, salty tears
trickling down with an usher, downpour
I am a ruined house
With a rusty fence,
So many phantoms reside resting recklessly,
A clock on the mantelpiece that won't work. It's stuck staring at me,
Tick………,
The wallpaper is crumbling and fading away like my miserable memories.
It doesn't seem real even though it is.
Dreamy, dreary , dread , dead.
But the fire is still working
Though everything is cold
And almost dead.
Somehow it is never always cold,
Flames auburn and assured.
I fall in love,
When the wind
Clatters and chatters the weary windows.
When you knocked on the tedious door,
I fell in love with you,
You seemed full of halo light,
Full of sparks
Like the 4th of July,
Your words full of life,
You could make thousands of people alive.
But I can't untarnish the fence,
Can't paint the walls crimson.
But your eyes think,
I'm beautiful,
Life is fleeting and transient,
So, I started painting the panelled wooden house crimson.
You can't paint oak crimson.
It's ruining me,
I can't fall in love.
There's this fine girl
In my street
She said I'm very sweet
She licks me like ice cream
When the play starts
She gives me high screams.
Her body shape
Just like the coca cola bottle
She said she likes my muscles
She likes the way I grab her
She got the best styles and wine
When we start to ride
Then I ride her recklessly, she says faster.
This fine girl in my street
Don't play with anyone else
She always runs to me
Whenever she's bored
She said she likes my play and the vibes I give.
There's this fine girl
In my street
She said I'm very sweet
She licks me like ice cream
When the play starts
She gives me high screams.
Her body shape
Just like the coca cola bottle
She said she likes my muscles
She likes the way I grab her
She got the best styles and wine
When we start to ride
Then I ride her recklessly, she says faster.
This fine girl in my street
Don't play with anyone else
She always runs to me
Whenever she's bored
She said she likes my play and the vibes I give.
You will fall but you can choose to stand back up again
Often missing His Call even more now than then
Even right in front of His Face like you have not a care
In so knowing of such disgrace yet acting as if unaware
You know of His Name yet you take it so light
So often taking your shame and placing it out of sight
Continuing to set aside everything you know to be true
And all of it for your own pride, as if nobody knew
But as I said you will fall, but you need to learn to stand
Why would you risk it all for anything else in this land
Be it drugs, sex, or rock ‘n’ roll
Or any other vice out there
When it comes to your soul, you better be aware
The Lord always forgives, but you have to change your path
For when one recklessly lives soon we will feel God‘s wrath
It doesn’t need to be this way He gave us all a way out
So I’ll just simply pray that He ends this present bout
Ephesians 6:13-14
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand
Dirty and cheap at the same time.
Like mountains you can die climbing.
Got dirty (didn’t pay much) and still died.
So the mountain outnumbers us.
Someone like me who is cheap.
And likes to cheap out.
Does not possess much.
Except the weird map.
If I get up there.
Like a podium, but it’s too cold.
I would fly into the air.
As the avalanche chases me.
Recklessly eating all the rations.
As if I’m hiding them from my partners.
But no one ever follows me.
And my stingy path.
I got blood from a cut and dirt all over the snow.
Everything like that gets covered up by the Agents.
I could have bought a satellite phone.
Phone, phone, phone…
You can live really cheaply.
Or die just as cheaply.
Get discovered one day.
But it always snows again.
Fireflies in my bourbon
(PART 4 OF 10)
The bar looks haunted today,
Jukebox playing requiems as long songs,
Cigarette smoke suffocating air in between inhalations,A man knows he needs air to fill his lungs.Yet here i am bending knee so you don't leave my lungs ,however I'm gasping for air as if I'm drowning in words such as you are my world.
Your name keep slipping out of my mouth as that last prayer of a man who lived recklessly without care, your eyes are Fireflies I vowed to follow in my darkest hour, however what do I do when the Firefly fell into a glass of bourbon .
Now I'm hankering a place for my staggering feet, for darkness is a firefly now
Every step a scotching flame to remind my soul what happens when a moth flies closer to the light.
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