Late one star-crossed summer's night
when I'd had more than enough
and only just in case
I was packing all my hard-won stuff
accumulated over more than several years
up to my ears there was indeed a lot of it
squashing jamming squeezing cramming
all in all a quite tight fit
as my entire worldly goods left in a taxi with me
something I now would like to know
who came up with the cliché and said,
'You can't take it with you when you go.'
Blackbirds have slowly gathered in your eyes.
Feeding on canyon shadows throughout time.
Growing plump on imperfection and self-doubt.
You must fight long and hard with great resolve
For those black flyers are persistent and loud.
Grab hold of their songs, one by one.
Squeeze down on them
until your palms fill with silence and blood.
Toss the macabre off to the side.
Now that most of the blackbirds are gone
there's only room for silvery petals
and hazel gems to fill your eyes.
There once was a golfer named Joe Jessop
Who liked to eat his hotdogs with ketchup
His girl opened a bottle
Began squeezing full throttle
Whoa! That made Joe's little putter stand up!
Crude
Fate hurts sight
In grim light
As proud flight
Rude
Blush
In view plain
Prompts disdain
In raw pain
Rush
Soft
Raw flesh feels
A harsh will
That now bills
Loft
Pain
In plain rush
Seeds deep blush
In full gush
Stain
Come
To know well
That fond dwell
On harsh tell
Sums
Space
For lewd talk
To thus stalk
A last walk
Face
Mind
Out of sync
Outlives think
On verge brink
Blind
Place
Ripples fear
In lost cheer
As wet tears
Trace
Leon Enriquez
27 October 2018
Singapore
The falcom rises again.
With pointed wings.
For a name unknown,
that deemed an incendiary.
Falconer sits faraway.
Cliché. The offence goes
unnoticed. Your shirt
was bloodied. Your
lips sealed. The barbs
stuck on kisses. Death smiles.
Water overwhelms, you
are drowned in the lake.
Eyes blink. Cannot
heed to light. The skin
burns. You will watch a medusa !
Satish Verma
dad waited 8 years
to tell him that
cancer had infiltrated his body---
dad waited 8 years to tell him that
he had done anything about it---
dad had to stop working &
when he put money in the market
under close supervision of someone
whom he thought would help him out,
the whole ****ing thing
collapsed,
like the house of playing cards that it was,
leaving only the kings & queens as always
to walk off scot-free
at a brisk pace
holding bags of money &
plane tickets---
dad’s money gone &
inability to work as he once did,
he began to watch all that he owned
leave his grasp
after working so hard for so many years
to do without credit &
to stay afloat the best that he could,
raising kids in the meantime &
saving that money for when times got tough,
for when he got old---
and so with less than 20 grand in the bank
he can’t shell out the money for the shots anymore,
not to mention the radiation---
the stone can’t be squeezed for blood to help
there’s just nothing left &
another great man will die because
america has no universal health care for its
citizens.
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