while i was passing by
in aisle five
i overheard
“get help”
she happened to glance at me
and by 6:03
i happened to think
what if she said
“get well”
and i don’t know who
and i wasn’t there
but i know
when i’ve heard it before
if it wasn’t condescendingly
had one pound of empathy
i would’ve been
more likely
we all have days
that get swept in the haze
of just trying to stay alive
2 steps forward, 1 step back
but it feels like rewinding 5
after drawing a circle or two
you wish you didn’t need to be doing footwork your whole life
it’s like a birthday balloon
in a crowded room
it’s all up in the air
the balloon falls down
you look around
and wonder if you all have circles there
in the clouds
but with the crowd
sometimes you hear in the way they speak
the toughened clay
they molded that day
to prevent from appearing weak
you feel the way it sounded
they’re trying to keep it grounded
you see the smoothness of their rock
because they’re silently wearing the erosion
it took for them
to become that soft
I am the soul survivor
A vagrant lost amid the vagaries of life
And its endless assaults
I am the protector
Of the hunted aspects of my being
Denied
Unable to be wholly who I am
And yet I persevere
Walk boldly amid my tormentors
Challenging cowards
With each laugh, each smile
Each hidden truth
Unveiled
For I shielded the many aspects
Of my soul, of my being
Treasured them
Toughened and strengthened them
Protected them from those
That feared them
Nurtured and fed them
With humor
Edged them with sarcasm
Armed them with anger
Freed them from the fear
Of speaking, of thinking, of being
The instrument
Of an awakening spirit
I've come from hurt
and the future seems uncertain
and that really scares me
Cause I'm afraid I'll be walking right into hurt
I've come from betrayal
and I'm still getting over that
and what really scares me
Is I can't stop it from ever happening again
I've come from a place of pain
that I've toughened so much
It scares me that I might never get to feel
Cause I've had to make myself numb to get by
I've come from a point of emptiness
that it's so easy for me to push away people
Cause they weren't there when I was going through it all
So what's the point of having them in my high season
I've come from darkness
The vast world of lost souls
And I think I lost my soul there
Cause ever since, no one stays long in my life
The PO£T
Through charcoal outer
Light breaks through
The after-fire
All flesh renew
Still tender as
Not toughened yet
But fresh to view
With no regret
Complex review
As furnace white
Has tempered hopes
Of burnished bright
But love remains
No smoke or stains
A rich encounter
Not sorrow chains.
3rd September 2023
Contest: NO 1241 NEW POEM ONLY
Sponsored by: Brian Strand
Born into a world that's hard to bear,
Trapped by the tree of life, with branches bare.
But even in the darkest days,
There's hope for a brighter tomorrow, in so many ways.
We fought to be born, against all odds,
Against gravity, disease, and other sperm that nods.
Millions of others we outdid,
Toughened by instinct, like a pachyderm, we did.
But once we leave the safety of the womb,
Our skin is soft, and love is what we consume.
The real challenge comes, as we try to stay alive,
But with milk and sustenance, our mothers give.
So let us hold on to hope, and never lose our way,
For even in the darkest days, a brighter future lies ahead, we pray.
Hero
I know who you are
Your secret is busted
My spider sense tingles
It can always be trusted
The bad guys are nervous
They can't see through your glasses
All evil's on hold
While you're kicking their asses
And though your invincible status is real
The people who know
See the pain that you feel
For the toughened exterior shell you may show
Hides a weakness,
A softness,
That no-one can know
But slow down there Tonto
Put the Bat-cave on hold..
Can I download a theory?
If I can be so bold..
Let's re-wind the story
To that time at the start
With the hero-gene planted
Somewhere.. deep in your heart(s)
Some words may be kryptonite
And the world makes you frown.
Strength is far beyond physical
They just can't take you down
For buried way deep inside you
A flickering light
If you throw down the saber
Find it quietly you might..
For the wonder of being a woman
It seems
Or a man with a cape
Or a child filled with dreams
Is that promise of Peace
And that Hope of renew
For the phone rings;
A message..
That hero is you.
Jinjagoliath
24th December 2020
Supine craggy canopy basking beneath the blue sky,
rests on bent boughs flushed with opulence of foliage.
The mighty oak has seen many misty winters pass by,
but its procreative ebullience hasn’t yet turned senile.
In the nestling cradle of the forfending folds of leaves,
we the furtive acorns flourish like the kernels of love,
the toughened tree has fostered in the trove of time,
deeming us as the touch of feathers birds feel on flight.
The lively clusters filled with latent luxuriance of life,
face the fury of storms, the strike of squirrels and jays.
As I see my flocks fall on fallow land leaving me alone,
I cling to the clasp of the frail stem of future obscure.
Someday soaring gale of promise will gently glide by me,
dislodged, I’ll drift to a distant landscape of sun and rain.
I’ll sprout in sanguine sequence for infinite forest to form,
where on verdant wings will fly the dream of the last acorn.
April 27, 2020
Contest : The Last Acorn
Sponsor : John Lawless
The Forge
by Michael R. Burch
To at last be indestructible, a poem
must first glow, almost flammable, upon
a thing inert, as gray, as dull as stone,
then bend this way and that, and slowly cool
at arms-length, something irreducible
drawn out with caution, toughened in a pool
of water so contrary just a hiss
escapes it—water instantly a mist.
It writhes, a thing of senseless shapelessness ...
And then the driven hammer falls and falls.
The horses prick their ears in nearby stalls.
A soldier on his cot leans back and smiles.
A sound of ancient import, with the ring
of honest labor, sings of fashioning.
Originally published by The Chariton Review
human pin cushion
survival mode apparent
toughened narcotics
Once a thriving house.
Tall jade grass flowing in the worlds breathing,
Our passion and love shining through a diamond toughened, crystal clear window.
Through the storms and ravaging disasters it stood.
Unnoticed went each piece that tore off,
Each hidden at night and dispersed in day.
Our footprints embedded in the path,
Never a step outside the tattered gate.
Darkness loomed,
Time sped by.
Our thoughts driving the rain and thunder,
Lightning striked.
The grass now burnt to ash,
Hard and disgusted dirt lay around us.
Our time a yanked thread.
The window now shattered and pieces lay beyond our peripherals.
We lay separated, our bed now torn and slashed.
Slowly 2 falls to 1.
I sit alone in a fallen hope.
Depression and desperation my only companion.
With cut hands I place each brick back into place,
Each glass shard glued.
Another storm you bring along,
Demolishing everything.
Only thing left is a grave and grim remembrance.
My life was my death,
And now I lay deeper and farther from you,
An empty casket and a hollowed heart full of regret and despair.
We'd leave just after breakfast
play hard all day
there were no cell phones or play dates
we simply gathered up the mates
took off down the monkey trail
ran wild in the thistle fields
chased flyballs on the diamond
collected pop bottles for a nickel a piece
lunch was gulps of warm hose water
a palm filled with stolen plumbs
off again to the train trestle
slinging rocks at muddy beer bottles
flattening pennies on the rails
there were no clocks to tug at our tails.
Sunset was the cue for us to move along
5 speed banana bikes cracking the trail in the half light
mad little monkeys and scratching at our minds
armed with leather mits and Louisville slugger bats
but the ogres and perverts never dare touch us
we were trail toughened little bucks
the warm hose water didn't kill
we were dirty little dust devils
on a streak of good luck
The sapphire blue on a deep marble white,
Bodysuit milky latex,
Makes everyone there admire your grace,
Your curious anime sex,
Where your lips are a red enticing us all,
Your hair is a hypnotic white,
And your wings and your ears and toughened round shield,
Make you look like you just won the fight,
But your smile shows the secret hidden from view,
Your smile spreads your love all around,
Showing all who are there you belong in this group,
You’re unique with this cosplaying crowd.
I've spent my whole damn life isolated on my own,
born to walk alone, it's the only way I've known.
It's like you couldn't do it because it would be to scary,
but I've always done it, toughened up no fairy.
So if people want to think that I have lost the plot,
then I'll play up to it while they smoke the pot,
let it not be forgot that out of the whole lot,
only I stopped the weed and booze, clear head I've got.
But not knowing where I stand is a certain uncertainty,
and now it overcomes as I act unnervingly,
the unknown causes anxiety, I lose composure,
not with everyone just those I was closer.
If it's the madman when I was on the Ritalin that stays in your mind,
whom I wouldn't want to know either, he'd lost his mind,
and it's embarrassing for me to know I lived that story,
then I need to find new people and live the life before me.
It’s raining again;
It seemingly never ends;
Tomorrow is wet,
As sky overflows upon
The planet Earth’s toughened skin.
A tall gothic black, steampunk top hat,
Hung from a hook by her bed,
Hung in the gloom, of her velvet black room,
After spending the day on her head,
And it was covered in gears from a motorised clock,
Goggles, a strap, and a feather,
Made with a fantastic Victorian design,
Made out of a toughened black leather,
This beautiful hat, matched her lifestyle of free,
She knew her hat was admired,
She knew her black hat held a powerful seat,
She knew her black hat had inspired,
Many folks bored with modern designs,
Her hat had a certain appeal,
It appealed against indifferent cyber filled space,
It appealed to asymmetrical real.
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