The last time I saw him was just moments before his death.

I could see it in his distant eyes, in the shallow rise of his breath.

He tried to pretend — to put on a brave face — but it was no use. I knew him too well to be deceived.

It was his tongue that gave it away: the slow rubbing on his top right teeth while he told me it would be okay.

Ever since my father’s passing, I haven’t been able to ...

In a world full of roses,

Be a thorn —

For I scorn

The ways of men.

Born

From dirt,

I grew in poverty —

A lottery

I lost

In heaven.

Gone

are my parents,

Left no inheritance.

I flowered,

Then soured

With age.

No one is safe.

No one is safe.

Death’s hollow eyes

Will find you.

No one is safe

No one is saf...

Exhausted but can't sleep

Creep

Creep

Depression begins to seep

Into my covers

Where I lay and weep

Creep

Creep

Watch how it seeps

A black hole of nothingness

Consuming my heap

Why am I so tired

But can't seem to escape

The nightmare is real life

I don't want to stay awake...

I remember the days

The haze

Of life in a maze

Of rights being wrong

The unbroken song

While the broken danced along

Oh how those times

were never mine

Never fine

Oh how I cried

And cried

When she died

Life with a wife

When I was human

Bound by strife

Oh how the knife

Should have taken my life

But grief

let me fly

Gave me wings

when I cried

Now I am a bird

Without the burden

Of this worl...

Death stands before me. Flames dance within his black eyes. The room is cold. Air escapes my lungs as the machine bellows another beep. I can't move. I am stuck in this bed, tied down by my body's own failures. Cancer they call it. But Death is all I see. His talons caress my pale cheeks as he waits patiently. It is only a matter of time.

I should have been dead long ago. Back when Death took my ...

I perished—

but sadly, failed to die.

Inside,

I crumbled—

wet sand cast across the beachfront,

unnoticed, unseen.

On the surface,

the surf is

washing away the blemishes,

pulling my crumpled pieces

back into the ocean.

But it never truly escapes.

Interwoven inside,

I cried—

for no one saw the pain,

just the picturesque beach,

the white pearls

curled

around the ocean’s outstretched hand.

If onl...

It’s all fun and games till someone gets hurt—

Kurt.

This time it was me.

I fell

from a tree.

I was covered in leaves,

a coffin

just for me—

a coffin of green.

Until I was removed from the green.

See,

I was no longer free

to be.

I became a was—

no longer does.

Placed

in brown,

planted in the ground.

I often think of that day—

parents and siblings

in complete dismay.

Water—

a lot of water—

pou...

Nothing is the same

As kids leave the home

Sam

Then Maria

Until they're all gone

The house is polluted

Silence strung about

empty of their voices

Their cries

Their shouts

Oh how they left me

An old man on his own

My white hair thinning

shedding on the floor

My fragile fingers

hold on to my wife

but she slips through my grasp

falling back in her pot

Why is everything leaving

Missing from my li...

I am empty. After decades I am charred and abandoned. I no longer have a family. They are gone, yet still here — folded into my wooden framing, mounds of ash still warm from the fire. They no longer bustle through my halls or dance in my rooms. My walls wail; the floorboards ache to creak under the pressure of life. They, too, have suffered — raked by the fire’s talons, devoured by its lashing tee...

Soap?

Oh, I know—

is it

a rope?

Nope.

I hope

you see it.

Low, the cloud flows—

a rowboat

in the wind,

blown

to and fro,

not sure

if it will stay

or go.

A nose.

His nose!

It grows and grows—

Pinocchio!

No?

Snow.

That’s it.

Snow!

How it glows.

Like a cone,

or fluffy dough,

or foam.

Foam.

That’s both—

snow and foam.

Joe?

I’m right—

I know....