Oh how bittersweet,
The way you hold me-
Only long after i cried, in defeat,
Cold vanilla coffee
-
Oh how you toy with your prey
A roof over my head? How generous.
Hold it over my head, and tell me that I must defray
Now tell me how I'm treacherous
-
Always hated how you never finished your coffee
Now i drink mine like I'm grown
Does it, too, remind you we're all faulty,
When you look me down upon your throne?
-
Funny how you guide my independence
Yet threaten to cage me when i spread my wings
''How rebellious, you lack common sense''
You're right, I'm sorry mommy, I'll stick to rusted swings
-
And like 2 peas in a pod,
Oh how easy your words twist the knife
Each one frozen in my heart, unthawed
And oh how quick i am to 'ruin' your life
-
I will admit, i still hate this bittersweet brew.
It quickly turns cold, and it reminds me of you,
But i know ill continue to drink it, even if i splutter
For in the end, blood will always be thicker than water.
When the world gets too heavy and dark,
The weight of the whole world on my back,
I suit up with my gears and then,
Fly away on my wings of pretend.
On those magical wings I can travel far,
Over treetops and mountains to a distant star,
I fly past Jupiter to where I’ve dreamt,
On my magical wings of pretend.
No gravity holds me, no borders can bind,
I leave every worry and shadow behind,
To the edge of the cosmos where galaxies blend,
I soar on my breathtaking wings of pretend.
The stars are my guides through the deep cosmic sea,
Where I am as free as I've wanted to be,
With broken-down rules that I never will mend,
I coast on my fearless wings of pretend.
But when I return to the earth down below,
I keep a small spark of that heavenly glow,
For I know I can always escape and ascend, the moment I spread my wings of pretend.
daisy summer and innocence
as the sweat glistens on the skin
when i'm cycling down the street
running with the pace of wind
spread my wings like a parachute
on a summer afternoon
music in my ears as i passes by the sea shore
as the flowers dances near the coast
I called me a worm.
A caterpillar.
I told me to molt.
Become someone different,
And unfamiliar.
Wrapped in a cocoon,
And turned into goo.
In a stage of growth,
And that can hurt the most,
But I’ll pry myself out.
Im something strange,
Something changed,
Less deranged,
But similar.
Still I just feel like goo.
A froglet to frog,
Larva to pupa,
Tadpole to toad.
Even termites show growth.
One day,
I’ll be fully grown.
So I’ll spread my wings,
Not,
Because I told me to.
Not,
Because I said I should.
Not,
Because I said I would.
But,
Because I’m ready to be shown.
For now though,
For now,
I have no issue,
Being goo.
Ba baba ba ba Abhhh
Woooh OH
I rise, I will rise so high
Problems.get beneath me
devil you your thoughts and your legion
Get behind me i will rise, i will rise, i will rise, high I ASCEND
I stand on your head.
Negativity, doubts, and pains
Sufferings be away from me
For i soar high beyond the rise
I fly so high
You saw an attack, but I will rise
Ever high. I rise. While you're on my back,
I spread my wings like an Eagle,
Still on my back, evil pain, sickness rides,
I rise higher than high,
You fall off my back, I rise.
Ridden of you, evil, I rise
Higher, I rise, I rise ever so high,
I ascend unto the skies.
4/10/26
written words by James Edward Lee Sr 2026
As butterfly
I spread my wings
Float in blue sky
Like bird heart sings
Crisis fleeing
Bathing in sun
Never needing
Liquor or gun
As feral cat
Hunting for dinner
Found a fat rat
Supper winner
Am not wasteful
Bones sharpen teeth
I’m so graceful
Watch how I leap
Into the tree
That bends in wind
Creates shade leaves
Rustle amen
Weeping willow
Responds to life
All animals
Seek shelter nights
Like brown rabbit
Along with family
Hopping habit
From dog he flees
Who is a pet
With furry name
Gonna get wet
In light spring rain
Rain that feeds all
Flowers sway feast
They grow green tall
Feeding the bees
Who I disturb
Wearing perfume
My spoken word
Making them zoom
I flee from bees
Into the house
Not escaping
Sting and I shout
Nursing my stings
Was it my fault
Was only a dream
To take a walk
In the garden
Bird watch sun bathe
Bees don’t pardon
Maybe one day
I’ll be reborn
Creature with wings
With ego shorn
Happy living
As butterfly
I spread my wings
Float in blue sky
Living a dream
I’m buzzing inside, yeah I’m on my way
Gonna find a brighter, better day
Rising up, you’ve seen me sore
No stopping me now, hear me roar
Shedding my skin, a new life begins
From a chrysalis cocoon into butterfly wings
My form takes flight, I rise in the light
Watch me transcend, gaining height
Everything I want is coming my way
I feel the dawn of a brand new day
My dreams are reality
My words are spells casting me free
I feel the light breaking through me
Can’t stop me now, I’m coming alive
I spread my wings and I touch the sky
My light burns strong, my truth shows how
I was always meant to rise- my time is now
I was walking through shadows of who I’d been
Now I’m standing in power, letting it in
Every thought processed, the magic now cast
I’m stepping through-future and past
I finally see the light is me. The living creation is where I'll be
I’m stepping through time, leaving the past
I’m living the magic that I cast.
Come join me....
you gave me love
and set me free
i spread my wings and flew
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
I heard the pious people say, angels live in heaven,
and with the pristine celestial beauty they glow
as the sparkling stars in the far away milky way,
but I know they often descend on earth to be with us.
If you ask me how I’ve come to know, I would say,
I’ve seen the radiance of my mother’s heart glow
as bright as the cosmic shine of the gleaming star,
its luster of love swathed me like stardust-soaked flower.
In times of turmoil when the family was adrift aimless,
she toiled hard to grow our roots in an alien pasture.
To my uprooted uncertain life she gave a gift, a nest,
from where I spread my wings on the sky of future.
I flew high under the cover of her protective wings,
the wild winds couldn’t blow away the soaring aspirations.
In her shadow I live with her lingering love, memory molds,
for it’s her hands that sculpted me as what I am today.
She has left me for her new home a long time ago.
When in the sequined night I see the stellar sky glisten,
lighting the dark path to my final destination, I then know,
she is in stars above, shining in heaven with the angels.
To fly away to the celestial,
To spread my wings in the untroubled skies,
To find a home in a serene place,
Away from the turbulence gnawing at my mind.
To fly to a place where the night doesn't beckon,
To spread my wings in a realm bathed in light,
A place where I don’t wade through murky waters,
A place where I am embraced by the glory of each new day.
To fly to Eden,
A place where the incorruptible are like sprouting seeds.
A place where the fruits of the trees bestow youthfulness and vitality,
A place where the soft murmurs of the rivers unveil mysteries—
An Eden where darkness is kept at bay for the souls of its inhabitants.
To fly to a place where I can sit at the feet of the sages,
A place where I can drink from the rivers of wisdom,
A place where a hand is always there to hold and guide me.
Flying to a realm of perpetual peace and tranquillity is my earnest desire.
May 6, 2025.
How I hate the attitude of ordinary people towards life,
How I detest this banality that spreads like a heavy mist,
Over the fields of my soul, how from the depths of my being,
I despise their simplicity, those nice and simple people,
With their eternal price lists. How my blood boils,
Under the burden of this monotony, like a volcano hidden beneath time,
How every moment with them becomes an endless market,
Of lost dreams, how every smile is a coin tossed,
Into the fountain of boredom. And I, a traveler on waves of thoughts,
Try to escape the chains of normality, to rise above,
The clouds of dust and routine, to seek a place where the wind carries,
Thoughts to untouched horizons, where there are no masks,
Of conformity, but only an open sky and the promise of infinity,
Where the soul can stretch and dream without limits,
A place where life is not a mere transaction, but a whispered poem,
By the waves of a forgotten ocean, a place to spread my wings,
And fly, fly far from everything that means ordinary,
To a realm where every breath is a rebirth,
And every thought a new universe, a place where magic lives,
And time loses its power in a dance of the eternal.
summer of my youth
colourful as i remember
it was when i did
my growing up
i'd spread my wings
and sow my freedom
while i could because
september would always
come around too fast
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
When I was a terrorized, tortured, petrified child,
I would look up-
into the vast, clear blue, empty space,
and wish I were a bird.
To spread my wings, rise beyond reach,
dip through clouds like whispers,
ride the blustery winds,
and after the rain-
chase the ribbons of color
that arc across the sky,
just out of curiosity.
By night, I would perch
on treetops unknown,
watching the silver moon grin
as stars winked their silent promises.
Now, as an adult,
I wish I were a fish.
Not to witness the wicked antics of madmen.
Not to hear the echoes of cruelty.
I would swim deep,
where the sea cradles its secrets,
among coral cathedrals,
through forests of drifting light.
I would not need gills,
I would not need breath—
I would hold it,
until men learn to be kind.
And at night, I would rest
on the ocean bed,
where even the waves whisper softly,
where silence is sacred,
where the world above
cannot follow.
You see, you help me spread my wings!
You’ll always be more to me
More than just a name
More than just a number, you see . . .
You’ll always mean more to me
Then anyone in the whole Universe
It’s the way you look at me
It’s like you really see me
It’s the way you touch me
It’s like you really feel me
It’s the way you reach inside me
You get me, pull me out
and set me free . . .
Inspired by Glenn Hughes song "The truth will set me free"
Gone are the ruins of the palace I've built
with sands of my dormant dreams,
at the bleak bottom of the breaking waves,
rolling in the squally sea of gripping sorrow.
I emerge dazed out of the depression debris,
tread the plateau of pensive life turned fallow.
I weave aspirations with threads of imagination,
transform me to grow wings of freedom,
soar with silver-lined cloud in the seamless sky.
A golden nest within far thicket you've made,
with a sense of pride I enter enthralled.
It turns into a cage, I can't spread my wings,
confined with stifled hopes, I forget how to sing.
The air whispering spring sonata doesn't reach me,
but mastering courage I break open the cage,
guided by wisdom I escape the captivity,
fly to the freedom of rhapsody in the sapphire sky.
After the rainstorm makes a stream in my eyes,
the hues of rainbow feelings embrace me,
allure the songbird in me to fly again free,
reach with noble faith the halcyon horizon of bliss.
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