He fled beyond eternities, boundless, aching voids.
The walls of time tallied his sins, nameless.
Yet he chose the Sun, a prison ignited.
Fanatic heat, blistered skin carved to stone.
Far above, her glance burned velvet through storms.
Her gravity called softly, furnace-muted,
where light bent to frame her shadowed figure,
a silhouette of celestial grief. She wept.
Pierced by her sorrow, he circled endless days.
Golden chains cinched his wrists like whispers.
He watched, consumed by her form's fierce quiet.
Eyes hollow with wonder; soul quaked, undone.
Then fire cooled, surrender wore as peace.
Her light softened: molten balm, tender pain.
His tears joined hers, falling like volcanic rain.
Time cracked. Eternity shattered. Still, they burned.
Grief rewritten, etched into ash-drawn orbits.
"Witness me," he thought, sun-borne martyr.
Escape became weight. Freedom became her gaze.
You just have a song
As in the night darkened
When a pen light that
Oh oh oh wooh a oh oh
I stand in peace
Embraced
by the enhancement
Of color tallied
Pageantry mountains
Surrounded by valleys;
My God loves me unconditionally
I stand in peace--
1/22/26
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr 2026
Pageantry mountains surrounded by valleys;
In the darkest dark in night lights speck of light;
Embraced by the enhancement of color tallied:
In silence I hear the faint Whisper Of The Wind;
Rivers weave and bind like a snake on land;
I see the ocean calm from the heavens;
Upwardly outwardly I form my arms and hands;
And within all the wrongs even in my right;
My etymology my language fourth I tally;
Floating amist the lower heavens;
Embraced by the enhancement of color tallied
Pageantry mountains surrounded by valleys;
1/10/26
Written by James Edward Lee Sr 2026
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The man in the elevator swirled in, a spectral glee,
the ghost of Christmas past, a ghoul from my history.
His chains? Not iron, but my Visa receipts tallied high—
Do you recall last December? he hissed with ghoulish eyes.
‘Twas a most expensive shopping spree.
Remember the velvet reindeer? The LED tree?
We passed Accounting, he moaned APR and interest fees~
those shall be the financial death of thee.
When doors opened at the lobby, he vanished... almost
Left one crumpled statement stuck to my coat~
Merry Debtmas, loser! the fiendish Dickens ghost wrote.
Unkind thoughts and deeds tallied
Demerit points implicitly accrued throughout a lifetime
Belated guilt at heaven’s gate
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
Orders descend like sharpened hail
each shard cutting language to ribbons.
We learn to swallow pain quietly,
to bow our eyes before the flag of silence.
Walls do not need ears...
fear builds its own cathedral,
where every heartbeat kneels
to the god of obedience.
Children are taught to trace straight lines,
never to bend them back into loops.
Curves are forbidden
too dangerous a hint
that what dies might begin again.
Even breathing is tallied,
counted like coins in the dark.
Still, a single breath slips past.
Unmeasured, unowned
a secret chord that rattles
the cage of silence.
From that small ignition,
the world remembers how to grow.
The moon, luscious drop,
soothing the chaff of day.
The stars, flocks of grazing
glitters -- heavenly sheep
tallied till the dawn of
a new and hopeful morn --
Earth, making fond concentric
circles; beloved sun,
her prime and central spark --
All is right, with God’s light and dark.
They align in position
Ready to move the ball
Doesn't matter how long they're gone
The know to whom the play will fall
Oh they will shout about
Foul play on the field
Fully aware of masks being worn
And the inability to face the guild
No TRUTH can hold them
No free flow in the ranks
They are the middle blocks
Separating rulers from the skanks
When the roll is called up yonder
And the scores all tallied up
You'll find ornate trophies
Are still just empty cups
Written by Trudy Schrader on 05-18-2025
Besotted, ensnared and diverged thy pupil
Dilate the ache 'pon holy gate
Sewn son to sun of love'n marred and married gait
Palpate the touch o'titular chance
Kiss'd and carresed thy senile smile
Tipped'n tallied bashful sway, to fall
Away, and away, eyes to 'ssemble
And resemble the semblance of valour and holy hour
Mine to my own, to pitiful ponder
Shone Sun to shine 'pon th'drought of moon wept wonder
Sullied sultry shout yonder, and o'er the wind swept chimes
Of chortl'd laugh, and Sun sung sonnets
T'lay a kiss t'stain, and eclipse within th'sky.
Dearest, and dire to die for, Sun of mine.
Lock me in a room for days
Suffocating in purple haze
Tried so hard to change my ways
Catch me from this second chance floor
I used the window, but you slammed the door
No, holding me close like you did before
No use hiding anymore
I've been holding it so long
I forgot how to breathe
I've been waiting so long
I forgot how to leave
Drag my troubles away
Until I forget how to grieve
Lost in a maze, you can't help but inveigh
Draw your money, I tallied the day
Count your blessings, and I'll count your flaws
That pinned me down between your claws
Now pick my bones out from your jaws
And fold our paper life away
Tell me now; it's not okay
I dragged my troubles away
'Cause I forgot how to grieve
The tortoise ran his race
far, far off the pace
While the speedy hare
zoomed from here to there
Yet when they tallied up the score
the tortoise had paused to help more
folks than the hare, who went too fast
missed his chance, and came in last
They arrived in rusted cars and ancient trucks.
Slugged blue-collar champagne from coffee mugs.
Playing one-eyed poker with calloused hands.
Laughing like jackals -cussing like burning crabs.
They solved all of the world's many problems.
Through unfiltered thoughts and whisky logic.
Smoking Swisher Sweets while nodding heads.
Agreeing between puffs and silver nods,
That a godless world is better off dead.
The next morning, the sky was hungover.
They tallied tackle and fired up grandad's Evinrude motor.
That night, they gazed upon God's waning embers.
Enshrining lost lunkers and the ghosts of old friends.
Sunday morning, they slowly packed up paradise.
Hand-me-down tackle and one-eyed smiles.
An angel in the shallows waved them goodbye.
Down a dirt road they drifted away like misty skies.
The following year there'd be one less from the caste
In a sacred place they laid an old fisherman's hat.
I rarely pay for things in cash,
Although some stores prefer it.
They charge more for a credit card,
So customers deter it.
But at the local bagel shop,
I placed my morning order
And realized that, when tallied,
I’d be somehow short a quarter.
I asked the counterman to please
Remove one single bagel,
To prove I wasn’t out to,
By some method, well, finagle.
He smiled and said, ‘You’ll bring to me
The quarter when you’re able,”
Not wanting to deprive me of
A bagel at my table.
I walked back home and quickly grabbed
A quarter from the pile
And at the shop, I plunked it down,
Which earned a startled smile.
The whole exchange reminded me
Of childhood; before supper,
To hit the grocer’s for some bread,
I was the picker-upper.
I carried change and worried that
I might be short some money.
The fact it happened now, not then,
Is really kind of funny.
After the flood
We tallied the living,
Scurried under the Earth,
And invented new prayers.
There was a hungry need
For sentiments under the sediment.
We pushed like rainbows against the dirt.
Our new songs would take
10, 20, 30 years to bloom
Upward and outward.
Long ere breaths a chalice dawn, eternal
trials beleaguered gone, test the wayward course
yon distant clinks, bespoken image seized
his past governed weights in tallied journals
that time possess and nonesuch empty force
where quills and parchment favor bags clang-freed.
Light gusts midst a low mountain scroll past fish
and bread, the first author writes his new creed,
"God is Emmanuel" with us, endorse,
"Jesus is God's Messiah" ... crowds, Jewish
profit taxes, Prophet souls ... source.
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