Breath grinds stone in the hollow chest,
time loops, cruel clockwork chewing marrow.
Each step refracts an endless cascade,
mirrors eating mirrors, swallowing meaning.
She watches herself dissolve, still walking,
hands trembling over undone buttons.
The walls bend inward, whispering static:
a language faceless, flat, unending.
Memory slits its own throat quietly,
bleeds until the air stinks of void.
Faces blur, cruel smudges framed in frost.
Fingers forget what they’ve once held.
The ceiling fractures, mercury spills night.
Dust coats the tongue, sour scripture of collapse.
Sanity laughs, teeth like shattered porcelain.
She screams and keeps on breathing.
Nothing stops. Nothing starts. Stillness spins.
Somewhere in the debris, she remains
a scream folded inside a name,
a self rusting softly in endless loop.
Breath grinds stone in the hollow chest,
time loops, cruel clockwork chewing marrow.
Each step refracts an endless cascade,
mirrors eating mirrors, swallowing meaning.
She watches herself dissolve, still walking,
hands trembling over undone buttons.
The walls bend inward, whispering static:
a language faceless, flat, unending.
"Echo without collapse"
Memory slits its own throat quietly,
bleeds until the air stinks of void.
Faces blur, cruel smudges framed in frost.
Fingers forget what they’ve once held.
"Echo without collapse"
The ceiling fractures, mercury spills night.
Dust coats the tongue, sour scripture of collapse.
Sanity laughs, teeth like shattered porcelain.
She screams and keeps on breathing.
Nothing stops. Nothing starts. Stillness spins.
Somewhere in the debris, she remains
a scream folded inside a name,
a self rusting softly in endless loop.
"Echo without collapse"
Fractured shards of grief
collide,
Chromatic tears of sorrow
fall.
Vibrant pain refuses to hide,
A kaleidoscopic, mourning
wall.
Splintered hope refracts the
light,
Geometric sadness fills the
night.
CHROMATIC AGONY
An iridescent ache blooms
deep within the heart,
As iridescent sorrow swirls
and offers no rest.
The mind fractures into a
thousand jagged planes,
Each reflecting a different
shade of bitter pains.
Prismatic desolation spins in
a dazzling wheel,
Making the heavy weight of
anguish feel unreal.
THE SPLINTERED SOUL
A kaleidoscope of silent,
weeping hues,
Blending the deepest blacks
with melancholic blues.
Beautiful catastrophe dances
in the dark,
Leaving upon the fragile soul
a burning mark.
Yet in this swirling tempest of
emotional grief,
The brilliant colors offer a
strange, sharp relief.
iris diffuse
colour irrelevant
silver slivers radialize
as dark emotions pass
light cadences
kaleidoscope
eyes remain core's mirrors
refracts every rainbow facet
ascending prisms delight
iris is bridge
___________________
Third Placement: Standard
Sponsor: Sotto Poet
June 26
My window on the world resonates
with the resounding chorus of colors.
The passing light creates a montage
of charismatic chromatic geometry.
At noon, I see the radiance of ruby,
tempering to tinge of topaz at dusk.
The kaleidoscope of transmuted light
refracts the stained rays of my longing.
Emptiness has no goal posts to defend,
in detachment holding hearts in embrace,
yet in darkness unwilling to descend,
nurturing vibrance as God’s gift of grace.
Entwined as one and yet standing apart,
the beauteous rainbow refracts white light,
inking on sky’s canvas a work of art,
for fleeting moments ushering delight.
Union and separation is the game,
tango dancing on life’s stage for a while,
wherein free from fear, no demons to tame,
we dance to music that matches our style.
Together or estranged, in joy we glide ~
At peace in our heart, for God dwells inside
.
i'd rather
'not'
for
mercy
naykid
mine refracts
all uv me
(i mean mine)
yeah
it's
she
'lovez me'
lots
for naykid
(i'll cover mineself)
The windshield wipers automatically slow down when the rain gives way to a fine drizzle. As per habit, I open the car window as I come to a rolling stop at these traffic lights. Cheap perfume assails my senses. Red refracts on the wet road.
long legs
and callipygian
sheathed in red leather
her body was firm
to the touch
exhilarating
uncharted territory
my wife’s tears
the price
I was willing to pay
what quanta of bliss can we hold
of God’s sublime bliss magnetism
within this form that’s made of dust
that refracts light in body prism
bliss rapture is soundless thunder
giving rise to benign cool heat
causing involuntary spasms
that breath by breath within repeat
currents that do not ebb with time
which transmutes us as living light
enabling us to bilocate
teleports soul to heaven’s height
bliss, the pull that takes us to God
manifests in hearts that are pure
who in stillness invoke God’s grace
egoless souls who are demure
I see the horizon is not straight.
It curves down at its ends,
keeping the future pending,
just out of reach,
beyond the cliff's edge.
It bends sharply, like water does.
It refracts the line of expectation
into a sudden change of direction,
tilting destiny to fall its way.
frost refracts m
o
o
n
b
e
a
m
s
prismatic interlacing
lights waltz seamlessly
I sit and stare beyond what's there, besides
"The oval window, a portal to another dimension".
It drags the moon's eclipse off the sun's circle
to show an ellipse with twin foci, in two dimensions not one.
The tension woven into its shape shrouds a duality,
a flip-flop state, steeped in,
and reeking with ambivalence.
An oval coracle holding on,
rocking in choppy seas.
Therein lies a worm hole,
where logic warps to both sides, here and now, together,
where light bends, twists refracts to an oval rainbow,
where time stands still, then back-tracks
to before, to way, way back when,
and on to now and then.
An oval belies uncertainty,
spiraling like sand,
down in an hour-glass
down the plug-hole, down into the sink below,
collected in an oval coracle,
an egg yet to hatch.
Sometimes I feel, as though I stand,
Trapped in the prison of my own hand.
A mirror within a mirror's gaze,
A labyrinth of eternal haze.
I turn left; I turn right—there is no door,
Only endless echoes of before.
Each step I take is shown and shown,
A thousand copies of the me I've known.
The edges blur, the glass refracts,
A kaleidoscope of sinking facts.
Am I the seeker, or am I the sought?
Fragments of dreams, or shadows of thought?
The walls are whispers, silent and cold,
Reflecting truths, I can't quite hold.
Each reflection knows me more than I,
Yet none can answer my whispered 'why?'
I pound the pane, but the sound just dies,
The maze is a web of my own disguise.
Each pathway bends, each corridor curls,
A hall of mirrors, a world of swirls.
But deep within, there's something bright,
A flicker of flame in infinite night.
Perhaps the escape lies not in the fight,
But in daring to shatter and step into light.
So, I pause, I breathe, and I let it be,
The maze transforms inside of me.
A mirror is only as real as its image pretends to be;
But true freedom begins when I no longer care.
Crisp breeze blows summer’s scorched screen away,
the somber sky revives to radiate the alluring aura,
clumps of cloud turning cotton span its canvas,
sail shapeless across the arena of seraphic azure.
Nature’s prism refracts the ambiance of autumn
at the lucent edge of the halcyon horizon,
splits the slant sunbeam in VIBGYOR spectrum,
hypnotic hues trickle down the canopy of foliage.
The sepia trees line the cinnabar garden path,
the gilded leaves bend to leave their boughs.
For them it’s time to grow golden wings and fly,
soar toward the serene sky before they fall.
Getting bare of bronze blanket once verdant,
the wrinkled trunks of tawny trees stand tall.
In the rhythmic rustle of the blushing leaves,
I hear the melody of autumn’s aureate footfall.
To many, you are like rainbows,
In the sky when the sun refracts,
That, once in a blue moon it glows,
Though one, all eyes it still attracts.
Their gazes just see you in part,
'Cos most of your beauty you hid,
Still you glaze their views with your art,
But to me, your love has no lid.
Even when my mouth is whining,
Your love still sit deep in my bone,
My sky has your silver lining,
Noone else can ever be your clone.
In you, I live my world so sweet,
You cleared my eyes of teary mists,
Loving you is my fondest feat,
In my world, nothing else exists.
My love needs not wait for the rain,
My joy daily lives on your face,
My heart has a space for your reign,
My life is happy for this grace.
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