My name is Loneliness, a mask I wear,
Faces surround me, but none see my care.
I surround myself with fleeting ties,
Acquaintances who hear my words, not my sighs.
My name is Fatigue, a weight I bear,
Work my only solace, a reason to rise, a purpose to share.
Without it, I'm lost in a haze,
Dragging hours like chains, in endless days.
My name is Disappointment, a shadow cast,
Each effort a fresh wound, each try a forecast.
What's the point of striving when the end is known?
Regret, a familiar ache, a sorrow grown.
My name is Misery, a shadow I carried,
etched into my bones by all the pains I have married.
I drown in fleeting comforts, in amber tides,
where sorrow ebbs and numbs what grief provides.
Each wound has shaped me, carved me, made me whole,
yet still the ache lingers, so I sip for solace.
My name could be Sadness, a constant guest,
Tears fall like autumn rain, chilling my rest.
Yet in this sorrow, I find a strange reprieve,
A fragile pulse that persists, a heartbeat I retrieve.
Another recital has come and gone
and I didn't see you there
I studied every face walking through the door
and I search through every chair
Where were you when I needed you
to hug me and wipe the tears away
to remind me how strong I was
when I was having a weak day
It was hard to understand what I did wrong
cause I was your baby girl at the start
But things started to change and you didn't have time
that's what really broke my heart
But holding this pain only hurts me
I'm still angry but I gotta let go
cause I'll stay stuck as that same little girl
and she'll never get the chance to grow
It might take some time to get through this
and even though I'll have moments when I cry
I forgive you today and forever
and I'll love you til the day that I die
Heart shaped glasses
Bottled sadness
The perfume of melancholia
Sold as aphrodisiac
Somewhere between
Smoke and rum
Between the sheets
All is fair
In love and
Other indoor sports
A point of time alone I mark,
And shine it best I may,
And plant brave flowers upon the way,
Before I must embark.
You said you wanted out
Of this marriage we are in
You were packing your things
And I’d never see you again
I grabbed a beer and watched
As I sat in my reclining chair
It did bother me you were leaving
The truth is I no longer care
With all your arms could carry
You loaded what belong to you
You gave me your key then ring
Saying we’re over and through
As I drank the last of my beer
I watched you walk out the door
There was no sadness or tears
Because I didn’t love you anymore
Placed First in Standard Contest
Specular Fugue
Sponsor : Suzette Richards
_____________
watching passivity in activity
sad, sombrely sad
memories from womb rise and fall
little miracles of remembrance
holding the hands of Fate we wait
Wheels of Fortune revolves, race stagnates
we do not cry, hankerchiefs dry
timeless we watch, clock ticking
clock glancing, mindful of time
unseen cry, tissues wet lie around
loss centres, race proceeds
there is no Fate, only Self-determination
every forgetting is a miracle
uterine amnesia ~ stumbling and ascending
sombre joy replicates in silence
active we look away, passive and still
For sparks of joy to which our hearts have hold,
Like fireflies which the flows of time ignore,
And soon forgot, the moment we are cold,
The artist said, "Of this, I shall know more."
For vast unkindness which shall often come,
For not of justice is life's vessel full,
Which those afflicted would of it be numb,
The artist said, "I'll wear this on my soul."
For all the dreams of what the world might be,
The flowers of hope and industry we sow,
And little know what sun or snow they'll see,
The artist said, "This garden shall I grow."
The beauty, and the burden, artists bear,
Is that, for all of life, their hearts must care.
The Good was Taken out of the Summer
The good was taken out of the summer,
With her garden patch left abandoned,
Lettuce heads and scallions gone wild,
Her sweet summer plans all spoiled.
The good was taken out of the summer,
With green fly festering her roses,
Overwatered orchids on the sill
As her plastic bread bowl lay still.
The good was taken out of the summer,
With Hunter, her dog left in waiting
For her voice, her footsteps, her care
And the fridge in the kitchen left bare.
The good was taken out of the summer,
Put on pause til her homecoming came,
While in convalescence she lay
In a nursing home, day after day.
The good was put back into summer,
When she returned to where she belonged,
To her garden patch, Hunter and flowers,
To sit,
To be still,
To be ours.
As if seeping through the paper. Words;
Just seem to disappear.
Yet absent are the memories,
From only minutes, so near..
Thinking that you thought,
as you think about the memory;
A trip to the store or
something you bought.
Quickly forgotten as you stumble mid- sentence;
A place you now reside, comes to light
In bright eyes.
A place soon forgotten, to you and you alone;
While those around you deal with each forgotten
Like another painful death has falling upon.
Yet each one now marked
Unknown....
As memories fade like the scent of cologne;
Thinking that you thought
as you think about the memories
All alone...
Sometimes
there is a certain sadness
that wells up from depths
too deep to name and briefly
settles in the souls of children.
Shall we once more, in mountains of our thought,
Gaze down upon the vastness of our ground,
And know that for the meadows newly sought,
The flowering fields shall not by us be found?
Shall we recall that bronze took place of stone,
And then in turn to iron did yield its way;
That ships of sail no more the oceans own,
And brilliant sunlight lasts for but a day?
Shall we, in embers of the distant past,
Remember living forms that brought our dawn,
But, by that gift of birth, their fate was cast,
And we the reason that their time has gone?
O, things shall pass, and it were ever thus:
'Tis more bitter, though, now that it is us.
The rhythmic waves roll,
Barely foaming as they gently sweep up the shore
And lightly brush my toes
Before retreating as another wave approaches.
Distant swallows chatter like a choir out of tune,
Tossing a scattered melody — yet strangely harmonious.
The coconut leaves above me whisper
As the soft breeze drifts past.
The cold of the damp sand where I sit, legs outstretched,
Has crept up into my chest.
I scoop the damp sand at my side
And press it slowly between my fingers.
My chest tightens as a chorus of voices shriek in my skull.
Kristina Lim
August 17, 2025
Daanbantayan, Cebu, Philippines
The sadness turns into a haunting grief,
When suddenly my loving spouse leaves,
Tears start flowing with choked emotions,
End of world seems in sight, till tears run dry.
The saga continues for days, months, and years,
The laughter and joy disappears, no hopes in sight,
The love and support of family and friends,
Soothes the pain and sustains the life.
Though absence shapes the world I now behold,
Your voice persists in every quiet breath,
A whispered comfort in the softest moment:
Love endures beyond the final parting.
And sometimes, late in the hush before dawn,
I feel you in the sigh of the wind, in a lingering scent.
Is that your hand on mine or my heart calling to yours?
Do souls return—not in form, but in tenderness shared—
To soothe the ache with silent compassion,
To whisper: love endures, tethered beyond space and grief?
My love garden remains unweeded,
Each planted flower slowly wilting.
A shadow spreads across my sunlight,
And a storm lingers without rainfall.
Sad teardrops fall from my broken heart,
No blood shed, yet my worlds fall apart.
Agony, sorrow, deep dejection—
Reflections in my shattered mirror.
My tear burns hot enough to bake bread,
Depression drapes a cloak on my head.
Love tortures like a lonely scarecrow,
Left to frighten birds in a rice field.
The bridge between our hearts lies broken,
Our love drifted with the tidal wave,
To an abyss filled with just sorrow,
Leaving my heart without tomorrow.
Related Poems