Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
 
the light flutters like ribbons,
the light gold leaf and flickering

amber, the light tenuous in her
gentleness, slumbering with her whims

and her sleep of blue earth, and air,
breath of joy, breath of dust.

night holds us and her daydreams are
a forgotten song, and night is like

the streams of water that awaken with
summer and her cool rivers of air, night with

her paradise far from the gathering
of limb and ledge, far from the leaves

of the dusk where the shadows tremble and the
water turns itself into tears, and we hear the

ghosts cry to the pretty sky,
sometimes we hear the ghosts cry.
 2d matt r
hannah
formless joy radiating off in
waves
amplified by

smile lines
and
crows feet

it emanates
and embraces
those with

sunken eyes
and
hollow cheeks
 2d matt r
hannah
something forgotten
is blooming on the trees
little wishes hanging
from the ends of
spindling digits
kisses of color
adorning
brooding skies
praying not
for eternity
but
an absolute
existence
 2d matt r
hannah
doe eyes that predatorily
stalk its interest
sweet murmurs of
ill-natured intention
soft caresses carved into skin
that anchor the obsessed
to the obsession
Always Here

for you my love.  I said
that last humid afternoon.  The
melt of love dripped,

refused to release
into rivers, steamy and
loud. The birðs

squacked
inside the black
cage,

as if they were prepared.

Love never lasts
in my yellow
world.

It is always  in Shakespeare

that tomorrow
accompanies
the winding down of
a love affair.

True north
is

Rarely ever

True


Caroline Shank
April 30, 2025
Dear Ethel Cain

My belly drew circles around me. A scarecrow with cancer made peace with paradise in a cornfield of melancholy. My parents fell asleep but neither one before the other. Some bad kids formed a church then left it so they could pour glue down a rabbit hole. A short period of drunkenness found a mistake in a star. I didn't know how many rabbits to pray for, so I just prayed for one.
Dear Ethel Cain

I feel my death has passed away. That the golden comprehension of my shirtless youth has become touched out of its mind and into a code for unfinished nakedness. My god a scarecrow stuffed with snakeskin and my scarecrow a fetus trying to curl itself to life. I don’t think any of us are here. The pain of being is the pain of not having been. What a ******* thought. There are children who know the sky is a color made to scream at blue. And they die not because they are little.
they say, and close the stores.

it is complicated, to do with floor space and employees rights.

we had chocolate eggs, worked hard, let our arms loose.

warmer now, the sun shone, people came, visited,

smiled, fondled the wool, spoke of age and weaving.

he said there were many looms in his day.

he is eighty eight, he told me many times.
 Apr 24 matt r
nivek
songs heard between heartbeats
words unlocking doors
a venture into the distance
one sunrise, one sunset
a date chiseled in stone
wilted flowers crumbling
a destiny called 'home'.
 Apr 24 matt r
nivek
seamless blue, sky meets sea
humble grass between, green
I am full of red, out of sight
very pale skin, makes contact
an invisible soul, rides the air.
Next page