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I look in the mirror,
It does not look right,
Is it a trick of the light?

I can still see clearly
My eyes are still bright.
But when I am reading,
I need more light.

My crooked teeth,
I used to hide.
Replaced by dentures,
And a smile that's wide.

Grey hair once was gold,
I am thinning now,
Where waves once rolled.

My hearing maybe dulled,
But that’s no surprise.
My ears are sprouting hair,
Like a funny disguise.

My face shows no stress,
Wrinkle free I’ve been blessed.
Just a little double chin,
Cheese and wine my only sins.

In my mind I’m still young,
But the reflection is right.
It's my face in the mirror,
No trick of the light.
We held hands walking home,
The first day that we met.
Placed together we took our vows,
A union of love never would regret.
Gripping tight arrival of our first boy,
You called out with pain and joy.
Weeping when you were very ill,
By your bedside holding on still.
Now time cannot tear us apart,
Hand in hand from the start.
 Nov 2011 Joel Emmanuel
Lucan
What hunger drives us out and back
and walking, walking, free of men,
unquenched enough to taste the lack
that set us going out and back again?

From Riverside you turn on Spring
to stalk a night that will not end,
leaf-hurt, gray grieving thing
in darkness spent -- out and back again.

Alone, a million miles from dawn,
small wonder guiltless ghosts pretend
that hunger guides all exiles gone
out and back -- out and back, my friend.
I am an ocean
fierce and untamed
a powerful beauty
unburdened by shame

I am unbounded
exquisite and free
an unstoppable force
unchained; let be

I am a hurricane
wild and unrestrained
a compelling storm
untainted by pains

Because I am a miracle!
Oh! Mercy and grace!
a taste of freedom...
now undaunted in this place!

                                               *Written June 2010
A penny for your thoughts,
Is what we used to say.
When someone looked
many miles away...
To fall into a reverie,
Be in another place.
With a distant look
painted on your face.
It sometimes happens,
when you least expect.
Almost as if the memory,
Just slipped into neglect.
Vivid images on your mind,
Random thoughts of a kind.
Daydreaming..
Daydreaming or Reality?
Lies deception
Then you fall
Stay true
Honesty
Conquers all
truth will conquer
 Nov 2011 Joel Emmanuel
Melissa S
Can't take back what
Has already been
Detestably spewed out
I remember the day we met,
The stinging sensation of butterflies creeping my bones.
And I remember the satisfaction I held in my hands
While we conversed and collided under the galaxies.
Nothing could brake or take the rush I felt,
as the acid slipped from the paper-- through my entirety and beyond.

The shallow waters we rowed in, ended up thrashing about
splintering and sinking, the very boat we'd created.
The water we tread here caused over-thinking,
and from there our potential had drown.

Nothing here could ever explain,
the way I felt when I heard you say,
"We just don't feel the same"

While the tune was perfectly set,
the timing was not it-- yet
and the things I said to you were real,
And we felt ourselves get higher.

As the music and movement began to blur,
The alcohol caused my words to slur,
Atop the hill, I wanted to reach... grab a hold of and squeeze,
But it was never enough to reach you.
I was never enough reason to change your mind.
Early September and the leaves are falling,
they crunch beneath my feet
as I walk the dogs through the park.
Scattered on the lawn they've become
brown and brittle, fragile as my heart.
Soon they will be trampled and forgotten,
as if their existence in nature never mattered,
as if life never coursed through their veins,
with no thought as to how they played
in the scheme of things.
How easily we forget
little things that once mattered,
hearts,
leaves,
it's all the same thing.
A man, passing a certain point
on a certain sidewalk,
looks back,
reflects upon his being
and is beset by memories.

The sweet fragrance of her perfume;
Her hair, like silken scarves.
The touch of her body with skin so soft.
All taken away but a lifetime too soon.

And a promise to never love again…

He tries to forget what he has remembered
but the floodgates open wide,
pouring out into a paramount vision
of his life without living.

He sees her in the clouds
(They form her silhouette)
He hears her voice in the night
(The wind carries her song)
He feels her in his very soul
(Yearning to break free)

Tears flow, his vision is obscured by hazy clouds.
He sees her in the gloom ahead.
Is it her?  He can’t tell.
She turns around, face full in front
of his tear blurred sight.

No, it isn’t her
but she is there.

It happened so fast, he doesn’t believe.
He wouldn’t let go he steadfast truth
that love cannot live
after pain, suffering and grief
have left signs of passing.

But not now.

Inside his heart a feeling begins to break
the chains of self-pity
imprisoning him for so long.
They are wrenched apart,
torn,
broken,
and bleeding.

The promise breaks free from it’s cold,
dark prison and flies away,
blown on the breeze to fall
unnoticed to the street.

And this man takes her hand in his.
He had found his love again; he would never let it go.
“Do you love?” she whispered,
and whirling around, whisked him into
the still, cold night;
laughing, then falling silent.
*College creative writing class spawned mediocrity. I considered this one the best of the mediocre.*
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