Alone in resting grounds,
the young man rises from his slumber.
No thoughts that linger nor pain left to endure,
her touch remains in memories.
Retinas scorched with a permanent image,
a blindfold made from halos and stardust.
Eyes that refuse to open
never wishing to meet their reflection.
Guided by her hands once more,
the cold light from the moon burns.
Through her, a path forms to the pale oak forest.
Step by step, hearing the sound of her heartbeat.
At the end of the forest, a cliff towers over all.
The wind blows calmly, and the ocean is quiet.
In thunderous skies, the Black Moon shines down
hand in hand with the black light.
Raising his head, he removes the artifact;
his eyes gaze upon the dark throne once more.
Immune to fear and hope, the man waits for a verdict.
The cold light begins to fade, no longer burning.
As the lights turn off, the storm begins
the heavy downpour overtakes the skies.
with the moon out of sight, lightning strikes the cliff
and all shall fall before the dark throne.
Sisters seated by glows
Of white glistens of light
A spirit floated down
Painting the sky golden
They knew she'd never desert them
Gentle hands of ribbon
And once the ring was over
It burned through their retinas
Sober from countless memories
They let candle wax melt their epidermis
Only a picture nestled in draws
Yet flooded with reminders
The fingerprints and dusty cries
Spelt out the name of a mystery woman
Birthing two daughters, then fading
Into plains of trees which bear olives
Mists of the Adriatic Sea
Embracing her shuddering coffin
For she is but a young mother
Selling what she could for glory
To feast with lords of lustfulness
On fish from Portuguese waters
But even she was never saved
From wraths of bacterium
Tuberculosis stole her vitality
And reunited her with her offspring~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I grip the safety bar and breathe in,
my knuckles bleach white.
The gondola creaks,
swaying with the weight of wonder
The seat lurches forward~
I count each click of the gears rising,
each notch bringing me closer
to the apex where the sky hesitates.
Up and up! Below me~
the park shrinks into a toy set
abandoned by careless hands.
At the top, the world shifts.
Cars blend into the streets like melted crayons.
Lights blur into liquid amber,
streaking across my retinas.
My stomach lifts, not from height
but from the sudden understanding
that the world is round after all.
I can see the curve of it now,
the way the horizon bends
to meet my dangling shoes.
At the top, I stop breathing,
just long enough to let the moment
stretch like taffy between my fingers.
Years ago I wrote a memoir vignette ("Ticket to Ride") based on this experience; you may read it at Poetry Soup as follows: www.poetrysoup.com/short_stories/ticket_to_ride_13584
Old death makes everybody dry and sad
Death even makes kings who are grumpy and mad
Absolutely powerless, helpless and useless
Death makes us mute, motionless, lifeless and deaf
In the darkest, hottest part of the crater
And deep within the brightest cell or cache of the chamber
Where too much light
Blinds the retinas and this is never right
Death makes everybody lifeless, powerless and useless
Death, death! Nobody can get used to you
Death, death! You are a fool too
For stealing life which is vitally precious
Death, death! You are backward and too ambitious
Nobody can get used to your ways
Because you make us part ways
Old death! You never show compassion and pity
You are wicked, greedy, sick and crazy
Old death, will you leave us alone?
Please use a different style and tone
Death, death, Oh! Old Death
Old death, you make everybody weak and mad
Old death, you make us worthless, lifeless and sad
Death, death, old death, please go away
Go, go away, please go, go find your way.
Copyright © April 25, 2025 Hébert Logerie, All rights reserved
Hébert Logerie is the author of several books of poetry.
NOVEMBER 2022
Rightly so, the poppies flood
Early in the winter sky
Merrily stood in field, and this
Existence of mine has passed by
Maybe they'd watch us contend
But are authorities ever sober?
Early now, in Winter's sky
Realise how they owed her
Unwillingly ignorant to the loss, they'll be
Scorching their retinas, a veil of red
BOOM.
a puff of purple powder stains the pewter sky.
i sit, listening
to the whirring and fizzling
of the firey starlit, glistening
when the midnight clock strikes nigh.
a red light joins in the heavens high,
shimmering
and with a crisp, cool whistling
a tune as musical, magical as fiddling
that steals away breaths by and by.
when all is said and done,
and the burns in my retinas fade
when these make-believe stars no longer masquerade
little embers are here and there laid
riddled around, each like a tiny, broken sun.
when the conjunction has ceased to be fun
and each person begins to wade
through darkness thick and blood stained,
the embers are left to rot in misery made,
and the sky is left wondering in silence we spun.
Rosie Registered Retinas
Evidence Erased Easily
Dogma Driven Division
Death, death, Oh! Old Death
Old death makes everybody dry and sad
Death even makes kings who are grumpy and mad
Absolutely powerless, helpless and useless
Death makes us mute, motionless, lifeless and deaf
In the darkest, hottest part of the crater
And deep within the brightest cell or cache of the chamber
Where too much light
Blinds the retinas and this is never right
Death makes everybody lifeless, powerless and useless
Death, death! Nobody can get used to you
Death, death! You are a fool too
For stealing life which is vitally precious
Death, death! You are backward and too ambitious
Nobody can get used to your ways
Because you make us part ways
Old death! You never show compassion and pity
You are wicked, greedy, sick and crazy
Old death, will you leave us alone?
Please use a different style and tone
Death, death, Oh! Old Death
Old death, you make everybody weak and mad
Old death, you make us worthless, lifeless and sad
Death, death, old death, please go away
Go, go away, please go, go find your way.
Copyright © April 25, 2025 Hébert Logerie, All rights reserved
Hébert Logerie is the author of several books of poetry.
To live bound by “integrity”, where rectitude derides you? It’s starkly accustomed. I enrooted, enclosed by academics--the desolate nature of my sentience consuming my interior. Nether perfection defenestrates my subsequent--and I’m so damn tired. Extort my studies till blood seeps via my retinas, weave my pencil till the anathematic led ruptures; a mere standard in our education. Sacrifice my youth as to my future, conglomerate extracurriculars till my collapse, lay none betwixt within life and school; label it as a system. Shut up, shut up all of you! My exertion incapable of being compensated for—silence, silence, all of you! Toil seldom for me, subsequently bequeathing my labor… Discard my passion, coerce me to fill the perforated gaps in tuition—quiet, quiet, all of you! Refrain from protesting till your own encounter, and perpetually weep!
Shut up, all of you
My future prioritized
Discard my own youth
what is a hope
if not the most desperately fervent
wish of a man— a dream so deeply
staining the edges of reality
a hope lies dormant in my belly
sleeping like a dragon curled
on the hoard of my desire
breath like smoke wafting
past my eyes and up my spine
tinting my retinas; seeping into my brain
it fires my neutrons and my body says,
why not try again
the days spent in despair— the people
who jeer— the coffee stains and
splashed puddles and fumbled papers—
i hope to hate them a little less tomorrow
in this suffocating swirling world
my hope-stained eyes see
a new dawn a new day
a light at the end of my tunnel
even cold wind warms my face;
around me bustles with life,
sun seeping through the cracks
waking up my slumbering hope
today will be different. today will be good
today, a day i’m living for the first time
i have a hope, wide awake in my core
it tells me, it will all be okay
Eyes teleporting in zig zags
Spamming like daggers
Humanoid skull
Veins expanding out
Skeleton hand orbiting
Soul screaming
Love burning
Shrouded in darkness
It's hard to frame it in a picture
It's hard to add it in a mixture
Abstract emotions are swelling behind the light of my
retinas
Demonic angels i guess
A challenge to a game of chess
I'll chant a curse and I'll bless it
Abstractually speaking
When my eyes fold,
they go not to rest,
they fall into rivers that flow behind the retinas
this is a painting of unfulfilled dreams dancing in lonely grave
Suffocation is the metaphor for staying awake at 2am,
to demonstrate image of pain
as i await the monster folded in my bones to break fast
depression becomes the invisible bug that flies on the skin of nights.
Screens stretched across the Modern World,
rivalling our natural vision.
Eyes, lenses, and optic nerves strained
Retinas, pupils, irises, tears.
Most affected?
A Feast of Fatigued Eyes
that rivalled ancient scribes' affliction
Eyes as interfaces
Eyes as digital portals
Eyes, the sacrifice given to Progress' children
Tartaric acid rain of the lost calligraphy
Peels to melt the running emotions
Drains clog beneath dynasties
Commerce to no one in seas
Pourtant je vois ceasefire
See a spark of defiance
Harlequin of belle dame misery
Catatonic brutality ends within me
Phantom of these nigh-mares
Shriek away stares orbs no retinas
Telltale sen em bras lambent
Am I dying nevermore
Mourning my own demises gavotte masquerade
Is that a shimmer of light on my finale
Hydraulic system, heart made of pistons
Every co-ordinated mechanical manoeuvre
My heart served to you on a platter, your hors d'oeuvre
I look into your eyes, a deplorable disguise
Retinas of glass, I see right through your lies
Figments of my imagination
Don't come and cause me more vexation
Circling my mind
Tormenting, suffering, sempiternal gyration
My nerve endings started with you
Now unaware to whom
Now that you're gone
I can finally take off this costume
Now isn't the time for salvation
I re-evaluate our amalgamation
Not even an antisocial personality disorder
Could sum up a source of order
Wander your favourite forest
Walk past me and get hit with my poignant odour
Uncover my carcass, I don't need a hearse
Just dump me in the Oder
Dismember me piece by piece
Put me back together however you'd like
The puzzle wont be beautiful
Something incomparable to Vandyke
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