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after party

there's no one here but me, bottles all around, the music's faded it's a melancholy sound

party streamers on the floor, the room drenched in drugs and sadness

it's hazy and in reality, you aren't glad this...

EVER happened

at first, it all seemed fun and you were happy at the time

now they're disappointed, now you want more, now you're back down the mountain you took so long to clim...

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Also by Adalyn Winn:

What it does | fix me | dazed | goodbyes | Drunk | outcast |

addictionafterpartysicknesssad

Scary Spooky Halloween

The calendar on the wall howls October 31st

Darkness is falling and my journey home awaits

In my dingy dreary office a black cat hisses and snarls

The moon is full and I am ready to meet my fate

I stumble with a haunted look into the eerie night

The streets are teaming with ghosts and ghouls

Around every corner lurks a grotesque gruesome sight

Foaming at the mouth a rabid dog ...

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Also by Tom Doolan:

La Passion | Mind + Body + Soul | Astounding Autumn |

Last one tonight- Calm thoughts free verse

Slow down

Calm your thoughts

Slow

Calm

Breathe

Remember to breathe.

Remember:

The faster you go

The more frustrating is is

When you lose momentum

Don't lose focus

Just relax

Don't fight the current

Flow with it

Bend with it

Become it

Breathe.

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Also by Eric Berard:

Okay, here's some anxious thoughts in free verse | Untiedled? (untitled) hahaha | No titles from me, like ever hahaha | Untitled |

Somewhat Lost

I wonder if you can help me?
I have mislaid my train of thought
My mind wandered off without it
Now it’s lost without support

It arrived this morning brightly
At some ungodly hour
Then with some cheek, played hide and seek
‘til I stepped into the shower

I did my best to grasp it then
That was, of course, my hope
Yet my efforts yielded nothing
But fresh air and listless soap

I hu...

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HAPPINESS

Don't let yesterday

swallow today.

 

Don't put off things till later

that are best done now.

 

Circle yourself with those

that bring out the best in you.

 

By Lynn Hahn

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Also by lynn hahn:

FLATULENCE |

LOVE SUPREME

That long-held sax note- divine 

Makes my soul jus drift away

The smoke, the booze, the horse,

The girls. Sum o'them, thin agen.

Man, the flash of the crack o'th drum

The thumpity, thumpity, thump.

He jus stand there in a haze

John's  soprano sax, Miles' trumpet

Blowin the blues. All the way To Missisip

All the way to me cryin in a ditch.

Those weary, weary blues. No ...

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Also by John E Marks:

Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice. | The eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month | BEGGARS | Bait | Another day | The speech of angels | In defence of free speech | HAIKUESQUE ON WOL | Mind the gap: Work-in-progress | Arriving where we started | THE DIMMING OF THE DAY | Late October | Enmeshed | Janissary | Mem û Zîn‎: brothers-in-arms | Fire fly | In the silence of the Kurds | Season of mists | Yezedi - 2014-2019 | What have you done? | Slash and Burn - extinction rebellion | David | Love in a police state | Whining poetry | Fossil sonnet | Tuesday 4th August 1914 | A turbulence of dalliance |

WAITING STILL

She would have waited

though some didn't,

on a street corner

she would have been there

waiting in a rooftop restaurant,

or by a tall oak streaked with light,

 

on a station concourse

I would have found her

I tell myself,

I tell myself she may be waiting still. 

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Also by ray pool:

ROYAL VISIT | JACKO | LOOK I'M ONLY HUMAN | ROUNDELAY | A SOOTHSAYER PREDICTS BALL GAMES | MASOCHIST | FOR A DEAD PET | TOWER RAVEN | IN MARYLAND | THE DEATH OF WORDS | HOMILLY |

Happy Halloween from Amelia the young witch from Sabden

Amelia lived in Sabden and was a witch,

In school she was unpopular and was called a bitch.

This troubled her very much,

Her class mates were cruel and out of touch.

 

But belonging to a witch family was not so bad,

Her mum was a witch and so was her dad.

Her dad would drive safely in the back seat,

Her mum while at work could make her house neat.

 

There was always m...

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Also by hugh:

Cute newt | Be careful what you might meet! | A random act of kindness in Manchester | A call from the dead | The clocks go back on Sunday | A wife's concern | Losing his load | One good turn deserves another | Once upon a time there were three nuns | Honest house sale and maybe hope for a community. | House purchase a risky step | A rubbish job for Boris | We love Manchester | World mental health day,10th October | Blackpool insemination plan | A hair raising question | One! Two! Three! Four ! | Domestic abuse | Skinny dipping | A tree branches out | The Smellyphant |

After Cavafy

Όσο μπορείς

 

Even if your life

is not the one you’d choose

try at least

as best you can

not to demean it

by courting the world

too frantically

with self-serving

moves and chat;

and try not

to cheapen it

by dragging it

here and there

and keeping nothing back

in the daily

exchange

of news and views

with those you think

have made it

unti...

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The Sea

Crushing

Souless

A black ocean falls upon me

I am consumed by the waves

Deeper I drown

The cold sends shocks through my body

A cattle prod for every inch of flesh

The pressure grows

Crushing my bones

The weight of 1000 suns reduces me to ash

I am nothing

 

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Also by David Karban:

Joyous Haustblot | A Poem About Hatred | Scars | Anarcho-Haiku | Cleveland Cold | We Had a Big Argument Because of Continuing Problems Related to My Mental Illness and I Did Not Have Time to Take a Shower, I Love You and I am Sorry | Capricorn |

descriptivewateroceandrowning

In The Jungle

They seem so nice and friendly,

     So funny and chaotic,

But when the red mist takes them

     They quickly turn psychotic,

They rip each others eyes out,

     They claw and catch and bite,

When monkeys go bananas

     It's not a pleasant sight.

 

They pull disgusting faces,

     Displaying all their teeth,

Then jump down from the treetops

     And trample tho...

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Also by branwell kent:

Wanda And Rhonda | If I Were | A Love Poem | Oh Happy Days | Another Daydream | Madam, My Card |

She had a way with her

Recollections:

Alexandra  shifted her weight

in time to the point

that she was making.

She sometime stood erect-

she was always

making a point.

 

Even with a potato peeler

there was an air

of menace-

she would mix it 

in with the mash.

 

Her threats had the promise

of unwanted mail.

Of brown envelopes.

The sort that fall when

any-news-is-not-go...

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Also by Tommy Carroll:

Ki pressed again | Ki |

War is Declared - - -with defeat in mind

Solid defence line

columns fall into place

 

Thrusting forward charge

battle torn enemy scatters

 

Captured brutally discarded

crushed piled up high

 

While removing hundreds

mass reinforcements swiftly arrive.

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Also by Nigel Astell:

The Halloween Party | The Betting Slip | Nothing is what it seems | Halfway There |

brushed aside

Nothing to Lose

...

How will you ever know if you don’t try?

Let the chance slip through your fingers

Nothing to lose everything to gain

Still you hesitate and linger

A journey starts with the very first step

You’re anchored to the ground.

What is it that you fear?

The horizon’s very near

The hurdles you can leap

The hillside’s not so steep

Nothing to lose the toss of a coin

No...

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Falling

I am sitting, you are sitting, we are sitting staring at each other,

Never blinking once, waiting for response, we're eye to eye,

And crying,

Patent leather watchstrap, holds a clock to tell the time,

Though you'd never know it 'cos we'd never show it, neither of us even knows if the sun's gone down,

I look contented, 

You're well presented,

But we are falling,

Falling just...

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Also by Jason Bayliss:

Strong Enough? | A Revelation | Anything Less Wouldn't Do | Bound (long form Haiku) | The Lionsheart | Start With An Apology | Mondays Demon | A Dark Seed | Hallows Harbinger | Broken |

Grace

We adapt our daily lives to habit,

The line of least resistance for minimum stress:

Personal survival.

Sometimes, with a goal and a plan

But often not.

Perhaps one we don't believe in anymore

Or we don't actually remember.

Big goals get fractured into little goals

Day in and day out – gazillions!

Always others to be considered besides ME!

Especially children

And s...

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Also by Cynthia Buell Thomas:

Thought Shot | Conversation in Shades of Blue | Portrait of the Moon | Where Do Birds Go When They Die? | An Irish Prayer (author unknown) |

I never feel anything in this world
Suicidal mused of how over whale I am
So take this meat suit off
Tell me how crumbly I am
Maybe then she would have stayed 
Just cute without the e so just to mention it
Fuck E he told me he was a straight G 
But that was a Lego without the L 

When he couldn't keep his word 
This is a reminder how his best friend 
Wants to fuck every girl he gets wit...

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Also by Mikey V Kinsey:

Alcoholic | Depression | Everything | Miss Castle |

First Love

I still think of you when I yearn for love

Your youthful smile and your glistening, droopy eyes flashes throughout my mind when I crave for love...

I'm not exactly sure why I never gave you a chance, when you made my heart dance like leaves in the wind

You're my ideal love but not ideal man, I guess I'm in love with the thought of you and not with you

 Although, anytime I think of love...

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Lovelate night

The Favor

Thank you for 

the favor

of pushing me away. 

 

For helping me see 

the price of loving you 

is too high to pay. 

 

For saving me 

a life of heartbreak, 

torment, and dismay. 

 

For all the things

you wanted to, 

but didn’t say. 

 

For apathy 

as I go 

my own way. 

 

I hope to repay 

the favor 

someday. 

# # # 

https://youtu.b...

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Also by Vautaw:

Destiny Bound | My Pied Piper | Willpower and Discipline | Abandoned | Betrayed | Moments |

apathybreakuploverelationshipsself-respect

THE £1 TEST

A simple enough concept and one the impenetrable Mrs C uses with my complete support as an aid to purchasing.

So here’s how it works.

The lovely Mrs C (she might read this) stalks the rails of Age Concern or Scope or somesuch and holds up a garment for me to look at as though my thoughts are the slightest bit relevant.

“How much?” I occasionally ask.

“£6” she might reply.

“Will you ...

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Also by John Coopey:

WETHERSPOON'S | MAKING PLANS FOR NIGEL | REMOANERS | POETRY SLAM | I DREAMT YOU WERE LITTLE AGAIN | I LOOKED A TWAT | 4 * 100 metres | GRETA | SQUEEZING THIGHS | GREAT SHITS I HAVE HAD - CHAPTER ONE | MOVING UP THE QUEUE | ADULTS ONLY |

For the Better

For the Better

 

On my study wall hangs a portrait

of a man, his son and a family of refugees

Walking with their meagre possessions

Syrains in a foreign land; a people in despair

They are displaced souls the victims of civil war

this family is one of millions throughout the world

crossing borders, leaving family and friends behind

 

Can any good come from such a trage...

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Also by keith jeffries:

A Collage of Autumn | A Reason | One of Many | You´re Living in the Past | Nan´s Kitchen | Loathing | Bigger and Better Bombs | In Love | No Frontiers | History in Denial |

I meant to delete this too

You say you hate to fall asleep on the phone.

It doesn’t give you “closure”

 

I'm starting to know what you mean when this,

this feels like falling asleep on the phone.

 

Like when I think about you there’s still a poem.

And I want so desperately to not need you but 

sometimes I want to draw you into my notebook.

 

This feels like openness in its worse sense.

Like ...

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PARTNERS IN TIME

Humanity has three partners in "L"

Which it foolishly tries to boss,

When the trick is to treat each wisely and well:

Living - and Loving - and Loss.

..............................................................................

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Also by M.C. Newberry:

WHY? - A BIG QUESTION FROM A SMALL ISLAND | IT CAN BE RIGHT IF YOU'RE LEFT | TRAVEL PLANS - ALSO RANS? | LOVE SLIP-SLIDIN' AWAY = theme for a song lyric | POOR OLD LONDON | IF YOU MUST | MIND THE GENERATION GAP | VISION | NATIONAL POETRY DAY | NO OTHER WAY |

The Controlled Demolition of the Handshake

The Controlled Demolition of the Handshake: A Brief Historical and Esoteric Essay on the Extinction of Trust Through Ancient Psychological Warfare Regarding the Ritual of Peace Commonly Referred to as The Handshake

The dying art of the Handshake has almost lost itself entirely to theatrics and the common person has lost a part of themselves along with it      The significance of the Handshake i...

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Also by Kealan Coady:

Psyop Blues | Little Bambie Snowdon Wants To Come Home But The Porridge Is Still Too Hot | I was Spiritually Molested On POF and It Made Me Think Of Proverbs 6:28 | Gnostic Transcryptions | Unconditional Love Will Kill Us All | Rev0luti0n |

Food and Drink

Sitting here, a nice cool beer

Sound of voices, many choices

Condiments laid out, salt and pepper

mayo, salad cream, taste seems better

Crazy size menu, fish, meat, curries and pies

Vegetarian, vegan and special diets

They’ll boil, braze, poach or fry it

If you want sides, they vary far and wide

Salads, chips, wedges and fries

A fish section, seafood, steaks and pizza’s

...

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Also by Rick Varden:

The Deepest Cut | Ode to a Toad |

...Take The Dive...

Dismantle again at the shore.

All the ruins and misogyny in your bones.

Tantrums come in waves in incomprehensible detailed notions; fragmenting for the selfless beauty.

Your agony embraces these hours.

The antiquity of soul lost in clocks drowns the withered…

 

Your body splashing over cold stones.

Fluorescent fish within depth dancing. Frantic to live...

 

Take the div...

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a Living Sacred Key

a Living Sacred Key

We search for a joyful light
and avoid the dark of night
that enables us to really see

light and dark are both the key
to having balance in this life
with joy, pain, love and strife.

Let us stop looking out there
when the answer lives here
within without and all about

the light and dark is me.
Breathe deep and know
I am a living sacred key.

f

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Also by Fred Nicholson:

Talking out loud. | imagine | Back yard buns | baggage carriers. | Sense | What's in it for me? | Spirit BackPack | the Visitor | "Hey Woman" | Crunches | You hear me? | Some times | Treasure Hunt | Color Matters | make believe love |

The date

Cheeky combination of a master with words
With a witty woman where intellect wonders
To succumb desire of succulent thunders
Yet maintaining hostage of sheltered hoods in herds

Chase away the demons, to find lovely housing
For a heart in warming and hands hardly roaming
But the inner man-child is hiding his foaming
As her beauty stuns him and her smile is rousing

Dare to say, connectio...

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Trickery

The words I love you
It is hard to define when used commonly through habit or expressional politeness
Even politeness sincerity
To me it feels different even purer sincerity
A gentle kiss on my soul
To access my soul
You hold a key..with this
You hold the hammer to break the glass
To take the emergency supply
From I
The trickery of the overused three words
One sentence
Deeply unexplore...

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Also by Sarah Louise mcnee:

Praiseworthy Anthony |

GROW WHOLE

GROW WHOLE

don't wanna hear
the words
only gonna
hurt
doesn't matter
what we say
died
the day
our son
went away
can't face
ouselves
let alone
anyone else
so what
happens now
does it matter
anyhow
only have
the past
can't go
back
living on
memories
too painful
for me
don't know how
we got here
caught up in
this nightmare
unable to
fully wake
like this we
can't st...

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Also by cindylee loucks:

PAPER DOLL | PAPER DOLL | WATERSPOUT | GOODBYE SON |

POEMS2 by cindy lee loucks

The political train is going off track

 

-->In the past

Martin Luther King Jr
Antonio Gramsci
Were waging a fight
For the observance of
Their likes' right,
Also like Frederik Engels
Crossing-floor or
Transcending class
There were some
Who were struggling
On the side of
The oppressed mass.

Making
Proletariat internationalism
Their intent
The likes of Che Guevara
Ho Chi Minh ,Castro
Proved freedom fighters
Beyon...

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Also by Alem Hailu G/Kristos:

Resilient Ethiopia | Poli(trik)ians |

political humorphony politiciansevil

Stars

Who needs stars when we have our own?

Has anyone ever realized we're shining back?

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Also by Masen:

"Love" | Why Men Love Sex | Corrupted |

Leaving

Raking autumn leaves 

the color of sea stars 

mottled on moist ground 

 

I watch them fall 

spinning slowly through blue sky 

as if the breeze was a tide 

ebbing and rising 

 

the rake feels like a paintbrush 

collecting color 

muddied by mixing 

into a fall palette 

 

a still life with fruit 

pears and apples still unblemished 

on branch attached 

...

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Also by Adam Rabinowitz:

Tired | The Sound of Dreams | The Visit | Small Change | Fall |

Sunday morning

Today

A man said to me

You might be

Surprised 

At how I look 

(I wasn’t)

You might think 

I’m

Built

For different 

Things

(I didn’t) 

You might think 

My way 

Is not the way

That it is 

(I wouldn’t)

 

Yet he seemed 

Happy

In his own 

Dressed up 

Way 

With his hair clip 

In place

And his bandana 

Threatening 

To hide

...

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NIGHTS AND DAYS

NIGHTS AND DAYS

Nights no longer spent together,

no more dusk to dawn events which

drew us down, hand in hand, to and

then along the promenades of sleep,

start to end, we alone, outside unseen;

no motor movements (I saw none),

save two hearts each gently experimenting,

pressing, caresssing two firm pulses

slow-waltzing together in perfect time

and pirouetting as their...

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Also by Peter Taylor:

RIVERTRIP |

The Thinker and The Drinker

He was always wishful thinking

Stymied only by his drinking

Oh the thoughts his mind did throttle

To be washed away by that next bottle

If only he could see the truth

Not hide behind one hundred proof

Let those thoughts be free and clear

Instead of drowning them with beer

A mind so brilliant and so pure

Yet serenity for him, obscure

Those wishful thoughts, they cause ...

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Also by Lisa C Bassignani:

He Plays Guitar | Leaves | I Fell Today | TRUTH |

POW ! POW ! POW !

Pow ! Pow ! Pow !

I fought my way out of a paper bag

Pow ! Pow ! Pow !

With the strength of thought I never had

Pow ! Pow ! Pow !

Depression has also took the  hit

Pow ! Pow ! Pow !

Never thought I'd get rid of it

Pow ! Pow ! Pow !

I fight my way through the day 

Pow ! Pow ! Pow !

With a smile and a winning way

Pow ! Pow ! Pow !

Not a single  punch or blow 

...

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Also by Phils Words:

Monday Morning sigh | The domestic critique' | The Jug | Staying in | Shouting ! |

One for Halloween

The night draws near upon me

In the shallowness of my breath

I wade the deepest water

Towards my finale rest

The sun does shine above me, but;

no shadow do I cast, 

for now I am the spectre 

That in death will never rest

Read and leave comments (2)

Also by DESMOND CHILDS:

coffee | litany | barrage | hues | crucible | sun and moon | incessant |

Was i even important

I cant believe this happened again, how did this happen again

You were so good to me but all of a sudden you just freely left

Was it hard for you to leave, to leave me in the dark

Damn, im still in shock that you just put your car in park.

I know your friend committed suicide, but thats not why u left

You just flat out didn't want me and used that as an excuse, excuse or not

It w...

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Also by Stacy Eskin:

Broken promises | Thank You | Let go | Lost |

Our Father

Our Father

whom we greatly trust is in heaven,

respected be thy name,

as we should respect

the names of other gods.

Do not tarry long in coming

as thy will is not being done on earth,

though hopefully in heaven.

Give everyone their daily bread

and forgive us our many sins

only if we sincerely repent

and do not repeat them.

Help us to avoid the evil temptation

...

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Also by Jennifer Malden:

Sea Changes |

Leaves

LeAvEs
How they have fallen,
Laying thick,
Pressing the jostling grass
Under them.
Obliterating it from sight.
Their browns and yellows brighter
Than the grey above.
Achieving a moment of glory,
In death a dominance.
Looking up to freed branches
Framing veiled light,
Had they thought to fly,
Letting go their source of life?
How they have fallen!

><>

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Also by afishamongmany:

Party Time |

autumncoloursfallfreedomgloryleaves

Remembering

Some truths are hard to conceive

Beyond what I’m able to believe

The joy remembered as tears we cried

How is it 35 years since Ian Curtis died?

 

 

A man who once lived in Macclesfield, this poem was written in May 2015

www.deanfrasercentral.com

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Also by Dean Fraser - The Quantum Poet:

The Old Straight Track | Eyes Open Wide |

poetryjoy division

I know all decorated lies,

And fashioned camouflage.

You are an ocean of lies

or an expertise of saleable emotions.

Its an ancient tale.

Every poet can feel.

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by AVISHEK GHOSH:

The Mask | Don't Bargain | Pity |

Shirdi Sai Baba

I found

In the apartment weed garden of Eden

A sun-Bleached Statute Of Shirdi Sai Baba

Weedwacker wounded

Hemorrhaging styrofoam

Abandoned by the immigrant Indian family he guided over the perilous ocean to aMerica.

I bondoed his wounds

And sprayed Fat Bollywood colors over his coat.

His skin tone I left to a true artist to paint.

Then I placed him on a pedestal

So he...

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Also by Michael Triandam:

My Muse | Eulogy for an ex-CIA Agent | Two Desert Poems | Sharpei Skin | Dear Fundamentalist Friend | Song Production | Bottle | The Ballad of Pablos Juan | To The Subject of Every Photo Taken Before 1900 |

Sand, sand castle and me

Oh the mesmerizing sand,
I so tried to be with you.
But you belong to the beach.

I also knew it,
yet I attempted,
and build the sand castle

Imagining it a true castle,
I desired many dreams,
And you stayed for few more moments.

Unless the wave,
that brought me back to reality,
what I was aware yet unaware.

And sand went back,
to the beaches,
where it belong.

I still hoped,
...

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Untitled (misfits)

Other children taunted and teased, the playground at recess a sounding board for their righteous assumptions. I used to care very very very much, but one day, Alice approached me from behind to show me a rabbit hole she’d discovered in the soccer yard, tucked away in a corner beside a fence barring us from the outside world. I could see the Cheshire’s grin from deep within the darkness, also taunt...

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Also by Emilia Callahan:

Untitled (ghostwriter) | gobbledygook | Untitled (cold water) | Olive | Untitled (on the field) |

In Which Orgasms are Compared to Musical Elation

Sometimes when musicians finish
A piece that has gone well, they let out a
Combination sigh and laugh that
Expresses relief and pure joy.

It’s the same laugh you hear from
Women who have had a satisfying
Orgasm, enhanced by a slight tinge
Of guilt for being unduly blessed.

Of course, these laughs are never
Unwarranted. In both cases,
Substantial effort is required
To produce an even...

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Also by Randy Horton:

Dominatrix, Doyenne, Shaman | In Unironic Praise of Older Women |

musicmusiciansjoyelationecstacy

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