If a leopard can’t shed its spots
  why should I?

born in the wild — no tame, just claws.
if i wanted to feel something
 maybe i should do it;
that way the wind’s gusts this time
  will wrap itself around me instead.

constant foreboding —
 the lust i have for pity is insatiable.
stroke me there,
 my ego can take it;
i am not just the fiction
  in your fable.

worked to nil,
 rou...

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No silver thread, no voice to name the way— Just walls and warnings passed from tongue to tongue. His first breath rose from two-thirds drawn from hell, A fire dimmed by lessons never asked. They caged him in with rules and screaming brats, While puppets smiled through teeth of plastic gloss. The parents barked like kings who'd lost their crowns; He bore their bile and learned to taste ...

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Beware, ye lords who preach of holy shame, Who cage the heart with doctrines carved in stone. Love answers not to dogma, law, or name— Its realm is soul, not scripture, nor your throne. No rite can ban what pulses in the skin, No creed can curse the heat that makes us whole. What blasphemy is love, if love is sin? What god would strike the mercy from a soul? Two hearts ignite beyond ...

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Today, three years ago, Russia launched its brutal invasion of Ukraine, shattering peace and unleashing a wave of destruction. Towns were levelled, lives torn apart, and a nation thrust into an endless struggle for survival. Despite the relentless violence, Ukraine remains unyielding, its people refusing to surrender. The world has watched as the cost in blood and suffering continues to rise, and ...

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In Wang's Dīngzihù*, the poem explores the unyielding defiance of a man who refuses to let go of his home in the face of relentless urban development. Wang’s small "nail"house becomes a symbol of resistance, standing firm against powerful tycoons and the machinery of progress. As legal battles and societal pressures mount, Wang’s fight is not just for his land, but for his identity and legacy. It ...

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Shallow waters seldom hide the blackened sand below

Rocks and land, erodes in tides, defiled by ebb and flow

The calmest waters, clouded up, by a river built on lies

The purest shores, shrouded over, engulfs an isle that cries

 

The years weep past, the time goes by, the waters seldom turn

Every second bleeds, through wasted lives, the oceans start to burn

As memories close an...

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"... any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee...

— John Donne, Meditation XVII.

 

Saint Christopher Bell

 

We seem to be collectors

of memories and junk,

piles of the stuff;

both kinds lean against damp walls

in self-support, waiting

for purpose,

finding little but ...

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This is my return to the submissions list after seven months of travel, during which I was often either incommunicado, or almost so. Technical wizardry does not always work as advertised. I do not seem to be able to suppress my historical bent.

 

Lincoln Triptych

 

Part One: Defiance

 

A land made soft

by Heaven's tears, cried

thru' blankets hung aloft.

 

Some ask wit...

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We take so much for granted

from this world on which we play,

the breath inside our lungs

drawn in from a cold and windy day.

 

Draining the life from a world already

so drawn and stretched to it's limits,

desperately trying to imbibe

the scarcities still deep within it.




To live; to breathe; to follow time

as down the wind it sails

against all odds and obstacl...

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Please keep on the grass

Smoking allowed

Nine people in this lift

Play your music loud

Please play ball games

By the entry sign

No speed limit

No closing time

22 units every week

Leave open the gate

Don’t sign in on entry

Stay out until late

Please unfasten your seatbelt

This will be an unpleasant ride

Don’t say I didn’t warn you

Chris...

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