Beneath the willow you will find

Peels of flesh and grapefruit rind

A pang of sour hits the tongue

Bitter pith of iron rung

And soon in verses worth your while

‘pon the pillars we defile

Mounted steeds doth hurry home

Riderless as spirits rome

The mind is clear as shaking hands

For thus in desert unplanned

A rare tree, nay mirage wept

As life itself remains unkempt

Arise the maiden voyage dea...

Hands;

Great Aunt sits knitting

Itty bitty scarf in hand

Tag stitched with care and my name

Therefore must it be.

Mankind;

I, scarf-clad, was made by hands

Clasping lips to lips

And tugged from the womb.

Therefore must all people?

Manmade;

The building I stand upon

Was made by hands

Stacking bricks and plywood.

Therefore must all structures?

**Manufactu...

Elder folk lament upon my luck

Oh, to be young and spry

Not like these ol’ joints and bones

My joints that won’t leave me peace

I can feel my body giving up on me

And when your body’s your instrument

Your transportation, art, and joy

The world’s walls cave in at a loss

Mom says they’re just growing pains

But chronic pain isn’t normal

And I’m getting older

I’ve got nowhere left to grow

When m...

Black not the color of fawnish mourning

Naught but flag for surrendering

Great throes of peace are wasted on me

White

Wiped clean

With innocence

I carry a distaste

For the taste of olives

And am no more dignified

Than a common pigeon

Wings flap clumsily

Shot down easily

So fetching to

Fletching

Holes in wings where feathers should be

Dipped in crimson ink bloody

Feathers for quills to sign trea...

To avoid a rose

Is to never glimpse

Soft petals

Stifling, sweet aroma

Unable to hurt

Beyond reach of claws

Rooted deep in earth

Each lonely, singular

Love is pointy

Painful to the indelicate

Reach too far

Get hurt

To fall upon love

Is to be pierced

By Cupid

His arrow barbed

Finger outstretched

Ruby bead gurgling

Lava squeezed from

Blue canals

Why covet the rose

Out of every bud

Pretty and p...

The thing about rush hour is that it proves itself to be anything but a rush.

Carriage after carriage pumps bright scarlet flags high in impatience. Hand-held honkers, like that of a band, are decked out in exquisite, dented brass. Each rage-filled squeeze of the dusty rubber bulb on the end contributes to quite the symphonic score of dissonant squeals. The sheer amount of air being thrust throug...

Poetry is simply words

Strung into imperfect lines

Some, meticulous meter’d

Others fondly embrace rhymes

Poets’

Poems

Resonate

Meaning fills

Voids in hearts

Poetry is word art

Pleasing to the eye

Notice the arc of this

The mountain I provide

Perhaps you dislike sentences

Have paragraphal feuds

You long to break free

Miss the freedom of no rules

Or are you cookie cutter

Yet forming your own shap...

It wasn’t a message. Not picture nor word. Just a sound. Nothing more. It was high pitched, grating… eerie. It didn’t vary much, but you could tell it was a human scream. Or at least it once was. Its tones had clearly been twisted into dissonant antiharmonies, autotuning out any imperfections in pitch. Each change was intentional, puppeteered. Impossible. You could make no sense of it. It wouldn’t...

Jenla and Barth were shivering in the brisk windy breeze, teeth chattering like dancing skeletons. Jenla pulled her balaclava up further over her face, obscuring her numbing nose and rosy cheeks. Barth opted for frosted snow glasses and a thick winter scarf. They pulled their puffer jackets tighter, concealing their cold-pale hands and their weapons. Barth risked a worn gloved thumb in hopes that ...

Her soul is chartreuse

Fresh avacados

Lemon lime juice

Highlighter green

All covered in yellow

A violent moonbeam

A spritz of Febreeze

A Clorox wipe

Sickly snot sneeze

Vibrant radium

Clock on the wall

An underripe plum

A grassy hillside

Rita Skeeter

A cool new ride

Growths of algae

Bioluminescence

Foxfire fungi

A hint of saffron

Chlorophyll

Some fire engines

Tennis balls

Shrek and the Grinch

Gr...