unlucky in love
they call her the black widow
she buried five men
my cousin dates her
he’s her biggest advocate
we are astounded
they were suicides
all five of them we ask him
of course, they marry
match made in heaven
madly in love for a year
them he hangs himself
Again slowly walked home alone.
With a heart heavy of fond reminiscings.
Longing to hold his hand.
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2026
She lost her husband suddenly.
Her heart simply stopped and dried up.
She'd never be the same.
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: 2nd place 2026
When you’ve crossed the threshold and become a widow
You notice that you see things through a different window
At some point the construct of reality and memories blur
one no longer stronger or more desirable than the other
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
Suddenly I've become a widow
Time warps around a surreal new reality
Everything is veiled in darkness
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
The widow does not hate.
The wolf does not judge.
The virus does not mourn.
Balance is not peace.
Balance is pressure,
then release.
A necessary violence
wearing the mask of randomness.
WEBBING BLACK WIDOW
She loved him dearly:
In webbed satisfied love,
She loved him to death:-
His wedding band: a lifespan archived
AP: 1st place 2025
I’ve sold winter coldness to those who’re huge in their chests oncorners of these abandoned streets, where bars aren’t happy with myfootprints in front of every door. Where I hit myself at close range. Where I pay a price to win no game. However, she’s worked all her lifeto bring up all her children within this magical world of theatre & music.She’s convinced that these children won’t fail to understand & accept opera& early rehearsals. I'm bedridden waiting. Welcome to a pigheaded house. Welcometo your fate that befalls many emigrants you plant like beets beside the beetleto see new growth. Welcome to where you don’t fancy a beer before bier afterthe funeral. Something is bedraggled from the hedgerow & that’s your ex’sspecial brand. However, the twigs are dry & brittle, & cracked beneaththeir feet from the beginning. Her children are looking for more spaciouspremises after that premeditated murder in a blighted area where I prescribe hera daily diet chart.
Life changes come in little increments
along a fated journey fraught with twists and turns.
But once in a while
changes come on sudden and dramatic
like the day you passed away.
A fatal blow ~
the instant when I became unwhole
a widow
a casualty of love.
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
Flour and oil are running out
So are bread and butter
It’s been one pestilence of drought
Which causes wizened grass to flutter.
There's a widow that sits beside the seaside
The sun shines on her face
There’s a morning light that cries
and sits beside her place
And there is an eye
That melts at the touch
It’s hidden not much
For a fake
Did you know the greatest treasure lost
Was found at the bottom of a lake
The widow sits beside
its hand she shall take
So why won’t you take my hand
Take me away
I’m tired of sitting,
Dying by my lake
There's a heart that melts at the touch of ray
So why do you think that there's so much to say
It rats on the ribs
Like its awake
But it's just trying to find a lovely place to stay
So won’t you bottle up my treasure
It needs a place to hide
It doesn’t really like this place
But I take you know
This water is made inside
And it loves and floods this place
Like it was born to flow outside
I need to see it just one last time
Before I find a way to leave it behind
There's nothing here that I’ll miss
But the feeling of the lovely sun’s kiss
There's a shadow that sits beside the seaside
The sun shines on her face
There’s a morning light that cries
and sits beside her place.
If the world could weep
if rain could wash away tears
would the flood be forty days
or forty years
what time it shall take
happily my life I would forsake
if only
children laughed
children played
children loved
teaching elders not to hate
never having to live in fear
I would drown peacefully
a happy woman
Am I crazy
if it’s been five years
and I still expect you to walk through the door?
If I can’t give away your clothes
because you might need them?
Am I over the line
if I fantasize that your treatment worked
and you never died at all?
And I laugh with you over breakfast
while we sip coffee
as we always did?
I’m afraid to tell people
that I saw a perfect birthday gift for you
and thought I should buy it.
And that I can’t stop thinking about
the trip to the Bahamas we always wanted to go on
and that this winter would be the perfect time.
Letting go is harder than I ever imagined
and I don’t want to.
If this is crazy
then please let me be mad.
Take good care of your precious pain.
Wrap your strong arms around it.
Hold it against your warm chest.
Rock it gently,
telling it softly that it is loved.
It is needed.
It is important.
It makes perfect sense.
And love it, just as it is,
in all of its agonizing beauty.
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