Life, the ambivalent gift
Built of moments, incidents, experiences,
Images in colour, lingering
In cameos, memories, scattered
Blending in feelings
Breezes stirring love, need, fear,
Joy sometimes
All made of precious little bits
Vulnerable to annihilation
From what is listed
Thereof sing
Into the dark
Absorbent void
Which is the future
And sweet life lived together
In the grip of Time
Twists into sadness;
Contemplates forever
What used to be.
Wishing wells don’t provide.
They just flush out anything.
Buckets of algae that we call good luck.
I’ve never enjoyed a thing a day in my life.
Cracked ribs that might as well be mine.
I have anxiety that’s so severe, it’s like sunken ships.
Moaning ships, getting shipwrecked.
Wishing wells don’t provide.
Wishes are burdens as much as my nervous system.
I want to tear my nerves out.
Feels like…
Butterflies that can’t land right.
I enjoy this life like algae.
It’s colorful but still slimy.
Holding pillow tight
So I fall asleep tonight.
Though never feels right
When your body is not near.
I wish you were here, my dear.
Memory, morning sun is streaming through the leaves of a gnarly old gum tree
seated by the creek it's for a big one I am wishing
Line and hook dangled in the water the dragon flies flitting there's more than three
another magic day , meditation whilst I am fishing
Sharing secrets of the night moon whispers to the stars can you grant me with just one wish?
A kiss for luck sent your way
AP: Honorable Mention 2026
sun and rain unite
where blue and green connect
pot of gold we find
A child wishing upon the nightly stars.
What a bright star way over there,
another one twinkling just like a diamond.
I want all of them to hold,
one by one I make my bracelet.
What a bracelet of stars to behold.
First sight of you was all it took
just one look and I was hooked
lost my head and then my heart
that is when the wishing starts
do you even know I exist
or did you see through me was I missed
lost my heart and then my mind
I'm in love hoping you're not blind
they may say I'm crazy
don't look down don't look down
I want to live in the here and now
don't look down don't look down
not the land of maybe someday
with no what if or come what may
I'm walking on the highwire
on a tightrope to the moon
ever higher and higher
wishing and hoping my dream will comes true
don't look down don't look down
falling for you
Stuck inside at work
warmth flows into open doors
lucky day shifters
pen ran out of black ink
I scratched the paper until I had a hole
ink never returned
reached into my satchel for another writing instrument
found a black magic marker
it had dulled down; nothing happened
third try brought out a red crayon
by this time, I was in a mood
I broke it in half
finally went to the computer to type
wishing I had started there in the first place
if you give me anything, please let it be a spider web swing.
all kinds of joy and happiness to me this sticky play thing would bring.
if it is full of lady bugs, ants and smaller helpless spiders too
it would make me extremely thrilled, said my gothic cousin, Sue.
Do you ever wonder if lighting wishes to be heard?
While thunder silently cries to be seen?
Or the cat to bark and the dog to meow?
The dead to live and the living to die
Why are we always longing for the things we never lost?
Wish for things we may never get?
Always searching for the unobtainable
A wishing-full sap
Threw pennies
Into a fountain.
“I wish to be rich”
He cried
Flip and flop
Again.
Every night
A rich man
Vacuumed the fountain
Clean.
Moonlit raindrops out my window.
Swaying to melodic sounds of pitter patter.
Wishing you were here tonight.
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2026
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