Embrace sweet night the air
Divine the scent of sweet jasmine
Gardens line the streets of Pompeii
Eve's delight wafts on a westward breeze
Only the stars dare compete with the distant rumble
Flashing their pedigree when all seems calm
Naive we be thinking we are safe
Intoxicated with our sleepy dreams
Gargoyles and ghosts meanwhile dance amid a cauldron
Hades from below will soon let out his roar
Tremble Pompeii the night envelops this sudden moment cast in time
AP: 3rd place 2026
POTD August 19, 2026
Salty silver silence sips soul
Communicating amethyst anger
The heat fuming like red volcano
Words like white vinegar oozing
Careful what you say during erosion
Can cause damage explosion corrosion
Passion painted with tar and heavy heart
Lighted ignited with precision you spark
When upset you are a ball of liquid fire
Splashing thrashing flailing failing desire
I’ve learned to navigate stay out of way
to ride the tide of your temper one more day
I want to stand on the black scalp of Pico do Fogo,
Where the earth smokes cigarettes with the sky.
Not for the view,
but for the vibration;
To feel the heat that cooked my grandfather’s name.
They say the vines there drink ash instead of water,
Birthing a wine that tastes like sulfur and secrets.
I need to peel off my clothes, my degrees, my Spanish,
And lay naked on that dark, magnetic grit,
Until the iron in the soil speaks to the iron in my blood.
Cape Verde is not just islands;
it is punctuation In the middle of the Atlantic sentence.
I must go where the ground is still being born,
To remind my skin that we are both volcanic,
Both waiting to erupt, both beautiful in the burn.
built a volcano of pudding cake
orange pudding oozes out in its quake
delicious dessert, hard to beat
every bite incredibly sweet
I want this cake for my wedding says Sue
But I want you to make the pudding blue
In the volcano of time, my mind melts in profound silences,
Our game of weeping, a melody on hidden strings,
Watching mimics that birth tears in downpour, inverting reality,
Eyes closed, like gates to another world, another life.
Conceptual death interweaves with the strange thread of existence,
Eyelids are sewn with invisible threads, keeping essences hidden,
Beyond them, the people within us are fanatic heroes, mad,
Hearts locked in cages of ribs, as in a trap of destiny.
Our beings stretch lazily through the green fields of dreams,
Love wears ornaments of mist, perfumed with shadows of longings,
My words are sculptures of thoughts, in graveyards of minds,
Emptying themselves in advance, they rise, as in a waltz of untouched worlds.
In this secret dance, we lose ourselves among echoes of stars,
On the wings of time, we seek meanings in fragments of chimeras,
We are prisoners of our own endless eternity,
Wandering among metaphors, searching for the hidden truth.
My mind simmers—
a volcano,
waiting.
Maybe it erupts,
maybe it just holds,
a silent threat behind every blink.
It takes everything—
to stay still,
to not burst
when no one else feels the fire
licking the edge of my thoughts.
Decisions burn before they’re made—
Is it right?
Am I right?
Will this moment
become another
mess to clean
alone?
Life spills like paint
no one asked for—
a blur of colors no one sees
the same way I do.
And in the haze,
I wish—
not for answers,
just for someone
who sees the smoke
and stays.
Someone who doesn’t ask
why it’s so loud in my chest.
Someone who doesn’t try to fix it
but sits beside the lava
like it’s sunlight.
Just once,
I want to erupt
and not be left
in ash.
Held it in, so strong.
For too damn long!
Bit my tongue,
it bled blood-red.
Cracks ran rampant,
as the eruption spread,
the pressure built.
The head-cap exploded -
Volcano Maricano!
Flash to Ash
Dread is Bled
Scene is Black
Flak is Sacked
Volcano Maricano!
Ashes flew,
molten lava spew,
red burning streams
dribbling down,
defacing, everything in
its path! Smiling!
Flash to Ash
Dread is Bled
Scene is Black
Flak is Sacked
Volcano Maricano!
Volcano Maricano!
^
~ ~ ~ ^ y ~
~ ~ y ~ ~
~
^ gigantic cone plays
/ \ hide-and-seek with summer clouds ~
/ \ teasing kites adrift
/ \
* ~ ~ ~ *
I look at my work. I look down on the valley.
I'm proud of its richness, of its green fertile fields,
And each time I do, I can count up the tally.
My sacrificial top's loss produces great yield.
There's beauty in the valley, in its farms and trees.
Morning fog gives it a mythical seduction.
Yet though I remember how the people did flee.
I take no fault for my fiery eruption.
I, a Volcano. What can one really expect?
My purpose is to scatter Earth's food from my cone.
Terror of fiery flow calls for quick respect.
Some townsfolk of Pompeii have been turned into stone.
red-hot intense heat
flowing lava starts sizzling -
fiery void of hell
Extending arms
Its perfect cone
Valley to sea.
He stood at the crown of the volcano
daring hot death-making lava to rumble out
it was warm today, and there was rumbling
we took some pictures of him up there
making uncomfortable shaky jokes
secretly afraid it was Pompeii all over again
and these would be his final moments
You don't know what you can accomplish
until you just try
If you don't try
it will not happen
it will stay dormant
in a deep sleep like a volcano explosion
it may come back negatively
like a rocket blasting into
out of space
wasted, wasted it will be
no use to anyone
practice, practice your skills
like the will God has given to you
truly it will become apart of you
truth it is like the skills
of experience
successful it shall be
He have given you the key
with practice it's free
you and me will see
Mau Lau
An erupting volcano
throwing out volcanic bombs
boulders larger than elephants
Mau Lau
the reason we do not build
schools, churches, homes or stores
at the base of a volcano
Dallol volcano
highly dynamic active
colors change with time
Note: Dallol is a colorful volcano in Ethiopia.
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