Posts for June 3, 2025 (page 19)

 The American Red Cross hall stands
                          condemned
black and yellow signs taped to its doors
as if the iron ball lurked around the corner
This place has lost its race with time
This place
                         darkened
shadowed by rising shining hospitals
awaits its fate in the cold below
                          Nearby
bundled men sleep in doorways
equally dark
equally lost
equally cold
or standing at highway exits
their box flap signs
scrawled with pleas
as drivers stare straight
evading their secondhand faces
They are the new republic
forgotten as the Red Cross hall
their amnesic America laid bare
Their notices have been given 

As we move higher up on my face,

the sensations becomes more intense,

each weekly hour feels longer.

I do not subscribe to the motto

that beauty is pain.

So much beauty simply exists

naturally and without effort.

The wings of a butterfly,

the sweetness in my dog’s eyes,

the personalities of my loved ones.

I want to add that my own inner beauty

does not hurt.

Or does it?

The burden of being beautiful

in ways the world can’t see

and won’t accept.

Maybe it is only the hiding of my actual self

that is truly painful.

And so this is part of being born

and stepping into the light.

Neither is ever comfortable.

I am sacrificing

and preparing for my future self.

She won’t remember

every single torturous session,

the precise sting of the needle,

the exact sharpness of its bite.

By then,

the day she walks freely in the sunshine,

this will all be faded memories,

hours I was happy to

let the locusts feast on,

something difficult

she had to endure

to get where she wanted to be.

The now feels endless.

A hundred pricks and jabs.

The future is beautiful but distant

and hopefully as eternal.

May her joy then

feel as expansive

as my hurt does now

and echo even longer,

a contagious ripple

like her giggle.

May the seeds I plant

yield her beautiful flowers.

I try to give this suffering meaning

and thereby endure it.

Plane contrails layer
Like sheets in my bed

Cumulus culminates

Gray clouds cover the world in rain
Gray comforter covers my head

Does hatred need the hated

I’m smothered by the lackluster expressions of everyone who isn’t you – 
I adore you, it is true.

You wink; a hint, and thoughts of you I can’t restrain
Your subtle gestures imprint on my mind and remain.

You lift my spirits with a playful grin; 
You drift away, as I hope you’ll come back again.

hopeful feelings spring up among the fresh grass
it’s yours to pick 
fill your pockets, fill your arms
there’s a world full of possibilities out there
it’s yours for the taking 
fill your pockets, fill your arms 
let your worries go 
like a balloon released
watch it ascend until you can no longer see it 
feel the euphoric emptiness 
fill your pockets, fill your arms 
it won’t last long– 
fear always has a way of creeping back up 
so fill your pockets now 
fill up your arms 
with this warmth the sun provides
carry it with you 
into the colder months ahead