heedfully aware
I watch every move she makes
for she is a thief
a close relative
but none of us can trust her
hectic visiting
I safeguard my things
if someone warns me ahead
but they often dont
called Black Betty
she’s graceful
a rare beauty
still, quite a handful
she’s had her share
of adventure
and misadventure
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
"Normal, a term we all know well,
Yet, its meaning begins to unravel and tell.
A spider's intricate web, a marvel to see,
Is normal to the spider, but a hazard to the butterfly.
Is normal an illusion we create?
A relative truth that varies with each state?
A concept that shift like sand of the ground,
Leaving us questioning what's truly profound?
~Byeol
Albert Einstein
did like to brashly on physics opine
but when told he could be so insensitive
he said, who cares, everything is relative
Did you know Albert Einstein married his cousin?
It's a topic that makes for interesting discussion.
And while it may engender some negativity,
it gives new meaning to the theory of relativity!
To my Cousine
I never forget you, you were a real friend
In my life a diamond, a hard man, and so kind
A soul of life, relative of the life, part of life
Your life and your heart were your kind; style
Your kind is your honesty, caring; and life
Yes, this is your mind in my mind; respected
… your life.
I love you, I am asking God; you are good
I am sorry, I didn’t visit you; I respect you
You are a teacher of my life; a driver soul
Forgive me for not visiting you.
I'm proud of you.
I respect you.
Love you.
Vilmos
our inner spirit captain
views the medium...
a personal body-ship in
a space-time existence...
a ship in which a captain relaxes
with their outer relative-at-tea...
stan sand
before life begins
we accrue fictional sins
so guilt always wins
lest any deem themselves free
to alter reality
dollars and distance
do not measure existence
despite persistence
constant debt all but assured
within this credit card world
is living better
starting off as a debtor
shame's main abettor
always in the negative
when all else is relative
to death all succumb
becoming what we become
in part and in sum
being soon enough degrades
until last remembrance fades
like the dinosaur
the future won't fear our roar
care what we abhor
leaving only the remains
produced by once human brains
("Exploded View", 2011, original oil)
Complicit in the Lie
Everyone you meet
Is complicit in the lie
That this is what’s real
(12/29/23)
One day when I was sitting by a bubbling brook a nostalgic scene of my childhood time flashed in the visage of my mind. I saw the sparkling stream that bedecked our house with an ornate garland, glided with glistening liquid pearls of elegance, flowed with the flamboyant facade of silvery splendor. On its rippling water passing me by, I sailed paper boats tinged with the rainbow colors. These glided on the current’s tortuous trail, and on these, my mariner mind sailed slow, unbound in stalled time, to a distant dreamland.
The boats soon disappeared in the ebb of time, and I kept gazing at the brook, flowing with timeless zeal, beyond which the dusk was silently descending with the sun setting fast for me in the twilight hour. That was when I saw the night fall with sadness in the shortest time.
Regret, how it hurts.
Doesn’t matter how many times I wish you were back, you’ll never come back.
You’re gone, and went in the worst way there was in my opinion.
I cried and I sobbed when I heard the news, we all did.
We had a chance to know, a chance to save you.
But we were too oblivious to the letter before it’s too late.
They were awful, vile creatures from the woodworks,
And all I can do is pray that they get their karma.
I said horrible things, In a moment of apprehension,
From what my mother went through as a child.
But I should’ve never blamed you,
You were just a child yourself.
I had so many things to say,
So many times to say “I love you”
But I’m too late.
Now all I can is sit and talk to your headstone,
Wishing I said everything before I was too late.
I am the major general Hare said with a sniff
An ugly rumor had sauntered by with a whiff
He felt rage, consternation and a bit of miff
this gossip-y story came from his weird cousin Biff
It’s true, tomorrow never comes;
In the last seconds of the day,
When darkness reigns
And moonbeams play,
When tomorrow’s late approach
So inevitably nears,
It’s today, not tomorrow,
That so freshly reappears.
My loved ones gone
visit dreams of
cyan fields and
pixie cloud skies.
Is it a cruel trick
of the mind?
Or moments, out
of space and time;
caught in the weft
of our corduroy lives;
a small gift granted
to our past or
future selves?
She walked into the family reunion with pink and purple hair.
And enough green eye liner to challenge the fur on a boar.
Who is that with fake eyelashes? Someone asked me.
I turned and recognized her under the spider façade.
She is my granddaughter, I told them. Wondering who they were.
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