Night carried him to me;
longing to stay near
a little while more,
to walk with him,
to feel him within reach.
But the dream ended.
Morning came
and I woke alone.
He has his own life.
People who need him,
laughter and love around him.
I walk alone,
rooms empty, nights quiet,
my heart missing him.
I keep that dream with me…
his hand close to mine,
our hearts threading together
for the smallest of moments.
If the dream must end,
let it end with him close,
two shadows side by side,
a love that lived
though only for a whisper of hours.
O my shadow, sail away.
Be thou far from me.
Morning deadly, thou art grey.
Poison, hear my plea.
Torn apart, O tones of time?
Nerves inside us, roil.
Countenance of bitter crime!
Belladonna, boil!
River, in thy deepest cave.
Giant, see thy grave.
Sidewalk cracked and needing pave.
Savior, time to save.
Armies of forgotten gone!
Tend thy fiercest rage!
Blackout, blossom! O my swan!
Broken, O my cage!
Automaton, mad machine!
Envy turned them green!
Roundabout run red! I deen?
Just what have I seen?
Moon above, thy fullest.
Lunatic, thy fringe.
Fill the brazen bull? Best!
Murder, on the binge!
Great queens, from thy black abyss!
Give the end a kiss!
Such a night! What lurked in this?
Serpent, time to hiss!
Hope, accrue? What do we do?
Magnetize the flue!
Stick together just like glue!
Make the whole world new...
Light and Shadow
Sunshine and night are both a part of life. Life of the soul or mind
Reflections, projections, hmm, and contrasts. All blade. Sharp
All are blades. All of them. Fear and happiness in life
Both of them are life. Lives. But feeling, the emotions, and worldviews
Where is a better life? I don’t know. Dancing in the dark? Or cry?
Funeral mass in the light? Or a happy wedding in the dark?
Light and shadow. Hmm. Need both. Or we have no drama. No more
Yes. This is the reality. We are enjoying the love and suffering. Together
Tragedy, drama, horror. These are human lives. This is the human life
Why can’t people always live in the light?
“Because they love my light”, said Satan.
Why can’t people always live in the dark?
“Because they love my light”, said Satan.
Hmm. I understand now. Dark gives the pepper and salt to life. For living.
“Yes. But the dark is light.” Said Satan. “There is no taste without my light
in your life.” Continued Satan.
Enjoy your life
This is my message to you
Yours sincerely,
Shadow of light
Dark
Light
Light
Dark?
warm summer winds
rise toward the sun-
trailing,
cooling.
In the shadow of His wings He will hide me
In the shadow of His wings he will hide
deep inside
when the morning sun arrives
it is time
when the sun has filled the sky
its a sign
In the shadow of his wings he will hide me
In the shadow of His wings he will hide
deep inside
when the evening curtain falls
it is time
when our words have failed to say
its a sign
In the shadow of your wings I dare to hide
in teh shadow of your wings, deep inside....
mmmmmm mmmmmmm
I comb your shadow hanging on the dream wall
swinging on the dim ceiling
sometimes you grin up there
sometimes you laugh so sweetly in the silence
my fingers are always thirsty, touching your dark jaw
your waving mane
so fragrant in the night air
I will pull a piece of the blanket
letting your shadow crawl to my side
and fall asleep together until dawn erases your shadow
Shadow Waters
The water-bearer leans his urn silently,
pours starlight over forsaken streets
where neon lights flash their final confessions
and shattered promises accumulate like rain.
Here in the reverse trickle of time,
where advancement is lost in its own reflection,
the era turns in, searching for explanations
in dregs of what we believed we'd gained.
Electric prophets air hollow gospels
while the crowds scroll through ghost lives,
each contact another strand that entwines us
to this tapestry of lovely despair.
The constellation turns above, unchanging
those very stars that once held out liberty
now witness us tumble into the labyrinth
we built from our own radiant ideals.
In tower suites and lower-level clubs,
the children of the future sell their souls
to algorithms who recognize their secret names
and dole them out in morsels, afterwards.
Yet, still, the water flows, unceasing,
carrying seeds of something not yet born
perhaps redemption sleeps in darkness
of this shattered, brilliant age.
The carrier's face away from us,
sloshing the future drop by drop
while we stand dry in the flood,
suffocating in our own lighted shadows.
Tree top dwellers
Electric line leapers
Garage roof tenants
They seem to live solely
To gather nuts
Be chased by eager canines,
And flaunt their furry tails.
It’s whispers.
Can you hear them?
I don’t want to,
but they force me to.
Sitting in an empty room,
with no one—
just a cigarette in my hand.
Every time it touches my lips,
it kills me
and makes me want to avoid it—
I know that cigarette is not good for me,
but I like doing something
I know is going to kill me.
But he likes that I do that—
killing myself, he whispered to me,
saying, “Can we switch places?”
I said, “How can I get into the wall?
You are a shadow.”
But how…
I was talking to a shadow
in a room
completely empty and dark.
The whispers say to me:
“Look at me.
Look at the darkness,
and feel both sides of it
that you don’t think exist.”
I thought something was wrong.
I kept hearing him
until he said:
“Come closer…
to someone else in the room,
because my name isn’t dead.”
When I turned on the light,
I saw nothing
but my shadow dancing in front of me,
my body frozen, watching.
And when I looked back,
something was coming out of the wall
with a cigarette,
saying to me:
“I like doing something
I know is going to kill me."
Red Blood would Fight for this Land
All Native Rights would Disband
Pale White Treaties in the Sand
By a Godless Greedy Hand
No Longer will Rights Disband
The Hour of Judgement's at Hand
True Americans will Stand
Sentence the Godless to Sand
Shining blanket drapes the early morning sky,
Under its glow, vibrant shadows made to flow,
New golden rise awakens a renewed hope.
Written: August 29, 2025, for contest by Brian Strand
******
velvet dusk holds still
ecstasy seeps from wet lips~
alabaster wounds
I stood at the lip of silence,
where fear wore my own shadow.
The wind kept calling
not sweet,
more like a street hawker shouting my name,
dragging me into tomorrows
I wasn’t ready to buy.
I had dreamed of flight once,
but the ground held me tight,
and my wings felt sewn with stone.
The sky, a wide cathedral I prayed at,
but never entered.
Still, something burned in me,
a restless dragon in my chest.
Not anger.
Not rage.
A reminder, that I was made for more
than waiting at closed doors.
So I let the ashes fall,
spoke my name out loud,
and loosened my grip on yesterday.
And though the night was stubborn,
I rose...
each tear a spark,
each scar a feather.
Until the darkness
became my sky.
Out of the Shadows...
Into the Light
Out of the Shadows...
Into the Night
Light hides the Shadows...
With all it's Might!
Night rides the Shadows...
With pure Delight!
Fire and Shadow of the Eternal Flame
(c) 2025 by the Entangled Pair
You make longing feel like poems
all soaked in sweat and truth
they flow out unashamedly
sometimes unkempt, uncouth
and as they flow somehow they show
the yearnings of our youth
I come to you as fire and shadow
filling you with pleasured pain
pulsing you to overflowing
striving to relieve the strain
dissolving all that is not us
'til only we remain
we peer behind us, blissfully
into that other worldly place
we feel the beat of our contentment
see the thing that knows our face
our questions answered by reply
'this flame may dim but never die'
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