Walking with you,
your hand in mine
I never thought a feeling
so warm
could fade with time.
It started with one day,
then two,
a week,
then a month,
until yesterday
became another door
that became locked
There were days
filled with your hugs,
with love that felt endless,
now buried somewhere
beneath the muffled sound
of my own cries.
There were words
I needed to hear
from your heart,
words I waited for,
words that never came
And left me in pain
Every day I look back
and try to remember
what we were.
The present always finds me
It pulls me away
from the memories
I keep reaching for,
leaving me clinging
to fragments of the past
small pieces
of what once was,
pieces I didn't know were disappearing
until they were gone.
Stolen from me
one by one,
until all I could hold
was the memory
of being held.
Pip the sparrow was very
thirsty on a hot and sunny
summer day.
He spotted a pitcher with a
little bit of water at the very
bottom.
He dropped small pebbles
into it until the water rose so
he could take a drink.
Jesus took my anguish,
When His friends turned away from Him,
So there is no need for me to feel alone.
Jesus took my fears,
In the garden at Gethsemane,
So fear no longer has any hold over me.
Jesus took my shame,
When He was wrongly accused, stripped and beaten,
So there is no need for me to be ashamed.
Jesus took my pain,
As He bore the lash which tore the flesh from His back,
And by His stripes I am healed;
And He took my death,
As He died on the cross for the sins of us all,
So death no longer has any claim on me.
He took it all on Himself so God would not turn away from me.
God can't look at sin because it's so filthy.
Sin can't enter Heaven so neither could I;
But then He was there.
He reached out to me though I was unworthy.
He called me by my name.
He knew me,
And He told me not to be afraid --- anymore.
Like my eyes, the horizon brims with tears,
Pouring down upon the far, scattered hills,
The happy hamlets, the brooks
That feed the water mills.
It occurs to me so gently
Why these scenes proliferate in books;
The hard lines that contain a city, faintly
Fall and converge with the softness of the wood
Till the quiet beauty of nature is again understood
A serenity the mind recalls from long ago—
A younger me peering the vale from a window;
A sight that past fulfilled my wanting eye,
Searching so many years—
I find myself back where I began,
Crying these tears,
A thankful man.
Gary the gargoyle crept out of his crypt and up the side of a wall
From there he could see that the villagers were no kind of tall
He knew even with pitchforks and hoes they would not scare him
What too you so long? Asked him sidekick, a ghoul name of Jim.
So we stood at the spot where
Two roads diverged on a summer day,
Kathy and I, Wendy.
Which way shall we go, Joe?
She asked.
Shall we go the same way,
Or
You take that one,
On the left and
I'll take the other?
What do you think joe?
So, Wendy,
She took the right
Path.
Different paths,
Different lives,
Different...
Everything.
She
Had her children, two,
And her career took her to the top.
And I
A mere sub the day she
Retires as principal.
I took the road less travelled by,
On the left..
Led me to you Wendy.
And us.
And our children.
Never had our troubles to seek,
Wendy,
Did we?
Had I followed her,
What would have become of
Me?
Would I
Be here now?
Would I be grieving so?
I'm so so glad I
Took that one,
The one less travelled by and that
It led me to you.
Cos you, my love,
Are
The best thing that
Ever happened to
Me
He looks pretty pale, abnormal, unnatural even.
I rolled my eyes at my diffident grandson, Steven.
He’s not ethereal; he is as real as me and you.
Take him a coffee, and a cup of your corndog stew.
When he did this, the creature gave him a thank you.
You are a wonderful soul, and your grandmother too.
A Halloween day we will not forget right away.
The ghost disappeared, fading away in the gray.
For just one moment I tasted serenity ~
AP: Honorable Mention 2026
You heal me with Your delight
You led me to the mightiest light
I took my last breath and bite
I took what’s mine and made it alright
I’m sorry you’re moon doesn’t shine bright
Like my sunshine all through the night
Tonight, I took my last bite
I’ll eventually make it to the light
The final countdown of plight
Was such an incredible sight
I took flight like a bird tonight
Not everything is black and white
I often dream of you time and time again
I’ve been a sunbeam in your eyes Your pupils are a flick of a black-inked pen
I have seen the truth behind the lies
as I took my last bite, my last bite
Into your apple of avarice delight
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The river didn’t ask
what I was rinsing off~
it just moved,
warm and carefree,
around my wrists.
I knelt there long enough
for the current to forget
the shape of my hands,
for the silt to swallow
whatever slipped from my fingers.
And when I stood,
dripping and empty,
the sun didn’t hiss sinner~
it just dried me,
quiet as a pardon.
Now I walk lighter,
puzzled by the lack of weight.
Where is my guilt? Where is my shame?
The answer’s simple:
Confessed~
Gone downstream,
turned into stones,
into minnows,
into nothing.
Momma flew to Jesus
is now cradled in His arms
and though I do believe it
I’m sad but not alarmed.
Although momma is not with us
though my tears flow freely down
knowing momma is with Jesus
brings me joy and not a frown.
Skirts
With comforts,
Hollandia Yoghurt flirts...
Before each tongue diverts,
From the usual that alerts,
The change to an impromptu concerts,
In different stages of many a song asserts
Except for the atmospheric dive,
Our faces depict the shared skirts
Without sweet scents, breaths hive
Swaying gallant statues in style alerts
High concentrated inebriant consumed
Took our legs lightly easy leaning back
Subjected to change of hits well costumed
Our voices disown its pitches to its crack
Introduce us to the people we know not
And we mingle like been known for ages
It wasn't true but lively moment grown hot
Speaking truthful lies unlike most sages
Happiness
Staged liveliness
Interrupt able orderliness
And introduce apt funniness
In order to promote calmness
Actively seeking to warm night dizziness
Through the beauty of tease staggering fitness
Of our hearts pouring out raw felicity's queasiness
She had no more tears
Crushed ~ fate tore her heart to pieces
They'd taken everything she had
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: 1st place 2025
I was the offspring of two farm kids who fell in love.
They both were up at four a.m. to do their chores.
Five o’clock would have seemed like a gift in their childhoods.
So, they gave me that gift of “sleeping in” until five.
I did not have eggs to gather, a cow to milk or feed to spread.
But I did have a slew of chores, and this was not a request.
There were three of us kids, we still get up at five.
I text my sister at 5:05 and she asks, “What took you so long?”
Five a.m. is our regular wake up time.
We could get more things finished before school than a teacher.
hoeing, weeding, raking….
in the dark? We had a streetlight, didn’t we?
One time I said to my sister “why do we have to be busy every second?”
She laughed.
We were farm kid’s kids, she reminded me.
I texted her at 5:01 today and she texted back “been up since four”.
I passed spreads of field
the places where farmers
made livings from soil.
The view enticed
but I couldn’t stop.
I couldn’t stop
but I couldn’t forget
times spent on uncle farms
before I went to college.
The morning sun shone
but memories in college
in Ames shone brighter.
There I learned
the language of love
the concepts of life
that I held in my hand.
Each book of psychology
opened worlds that lived
inside me.
I learned to see
they were always a part of me
as were aspirations and dreams.
A Grant Wood mural on a staircase
in the university library
said life began with tillage,
and from that stemmed
our crafts and arts we embraced.
Years later
when on break from work
I walked the steps
to see how the mural
survived the hands of time.
It survived as I
but I never outlived memory.
One less-travelled highway
had lost its name
but I recalled the roads
taken with college friends
as we learned to live our lives.
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