Bare minimum?
Yes, I somehow learned to settle for it.
But woe to the debt of sorries I owe to myself.
Woe to the promises I tore up with my own hands.
What a love, so full of sorrow and despair!
Oh, what am I still doing
in a house once filled with love,
now empty?
The love has gone,
but resentment has moved in.
-LilitaWaliWrites??
As rent went unpaid by the tenants,
they had to pay a heavy penance.
One and all, copybook blotters,
their name became simply, 'Squatters'.
But, in this case, possession being nine-tenths of the law,
did not hold up in court, and, homeless once more,
were out in the cold for their derelictions,
as the landlord had the courage of his evictions.
I brought the rent home
after a day of work in the heat.
The homeowner was gone.
His uncle who he took in
was yelling
I went away.
Clothes cluttered
the living room floor.
Sometimes I had to admit
to myself I felt this
was not a home to me.
Last night I searched
my laptop for images
of women once loved
and allowed my mind
to wander.
a wanderer
maybe that was who
I was meant to be
The moon looked in
the window while
the television in the living
room played the same thing.
Another housemate slept on the couch.
A manager asked if I could
come in on a day off.
I told him no to protect
my time and allow myself
to drive around and write.
He called it a hobby—
never read the books I wrote.
My books were kept on a shelf
above the dresser in my bedroom.
In my dreams another was born.
Knock, knock.
I ran to the door and flung it open. Marcus stood there, holding my sister by a heavy chain. I looked at her, blind in one eye, a thumb missing, and felt nothing.
“I’ve come to beg forgiveness,” she rasped.
“Don’t,” I said, my voice cold. “I know about the occult. I know you opened the Golden Door and murdered for what was behind it. Now the door won't close, and you’re looking for someone to pay the bill.”
She lunged at me, looking more like an evil spirit than my kin, but Marcus jerked the chain.
“You bargained for gold,” I continued. “But you never asked where the demon would find it. He showed you my life points in coin and you took them. You had everything, yet you wanted my life too. I won't pay your debt. I have no interest in your soul or your portal.”
Behind them, a black carriage waited in the shadows. After thirty years of running from her, the end had finally arrived. Marcus hauled on the chain, dragging her toward the horses.
“Your time is up,” he growled. The door of the carriage slammed shut.
When your caught up in life of rent
Compromising your soul to survive in the dark
Caught in a cycle of dark, desperate circumstances.
Only way is to pay.
The air hung heavy with the scent of damp earth and forgotten summers. Light fractured through the roots of a tree, casting ghosts of an abundant life. Sharing a breath of dreams cut short by the ambitions of others – comfort in the knowledge of a life lived to the best of one’s ability.
just sitting with someone
in a time of
S T R E S S
words are
superfluous …
They sell us a closet and call it a suite,
With views of the garbage that rots on the street.
The "sun-drenched" appeal is a bulb in the hall,
And "charming" just means that the ceiling might fall.
We barter our heartbeats for four plaster walls,
Ignoring the unknown collector who calls.
The ledger is hungry, the paycheck is thin,
A game where the tenants are unable to win.
So listen to prophets with gloves on their hands,
Who shouted the truth to the deaf, city lands.
It echoes in hallways where dreams go to die:
The rent is, frankly, too damn high.
I rhyme for coins,I rhyme for fame,
But landlords rhyme with none of the same
They want rent,not metaphor
They say'' your poem won't mop the floor.
I wrote a sonnet,soft and brave-
He mailed it back: ''Pay or Pave!''
So now I rhyme to save my head,
My muse sleeps hungry, my landlord's fed.
I observed quite stunned as lambie
Voicfully blundered
T'was indeed.. A great vicseral verbal chunda.! Contradictve.!
As it goes.. Is she addicted.? I guess
God only knows.?
Educational standards.? Of this minister?
All seems so skewed, I think indeed she is
More like a (sin-ister) maybe been speeded up
By the w e f.? I have suspicon shes of the
Left.? Or p'raps past any known reference point? I fully expected to hear an oink.' I guess
I ln Davos they've flattered her hard.'said you
Are the only clever person, a star.!
All other Aussies being only retards.' And i'll bet.?
As they say in America..She swallowed
The whole nine; yards.!
A fiddler missed the que
The que card would bring
Question as fiddling took part
As stage was want
The fixer was consumed
In dread and dreams of fashioned least
A chair and a rarity did conform
Embezzled fright as scolding might?
Appear as we, the people of the news we wasn't
Not a new profit shells well, dear
Innn we've come, honey rooms that don't fly
Leaving me at bedtime
With
Windows as desks part
And Jest in time, you'll return the best part
Knowing I'll beJust as fine
Talking in hills climb
If you are about
Signing my bottom line
Paris?
I've got latin blues and jewish sop
Records that show outs
But I haven't swam on home
In cities we just get by
Arlington's at side by
Frantic paces, friends always me
For rent:
a room with three
rowdy, reckless roommates
who revel in raving it up.
Curtains they've ripped and carpets they've ruined
Worn sofa and rancid kitchen
all greatly reduced with
a garage too
for rent.
ROLLING WITH THE Rs Poetry Contest
Nette Onclaud
8/5/25
Special
Tenant wanted
Suitable applicant
Is responsible and behaves
Check marks to bookworms over butterflies
No drama, visitors, or noise
Nice-sized room is furnished
Landlord's hamlet
Special
For: ROLLING WITH THE Rs Poetry Contest Sponsor: Nette Onclaud August 4, 2025
*****
Room rent
is beyond me,
trees do not grow money
it is said, sadly Leprechaun's
will not share their gold with us common folk
and the pirate's are not talking,
but I found their treasure
map; trade for just
room rent.
Too small,
for two of us.
Wanting to run away,
I was reluctant to stay here.
Our pay checks did not reach far in those days,
I had a place to rest my head.
Needed more rent money,
please rain dollars.
Too small.
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