Posts for 2025 (page 124)

*** in Bulgarian (n) : apprehension, anxiety
**  in Russian (n) : fear

1.

I am not worried none

                                            looking forward.

2.

Suspense is my brainchild.
You are addicted to every form of me.
You prefer surfeit knowledge

                                          wet in every empty scratchrawled       inkstroke 
                                                                              about your future                                                                                          

3.    

Sometimes, yes. I feel like you’re talking to me.
When I worked with you, every phrase
prophetic, every character 
personal and in another word 
placed and intentional.

I’m sure I know you better.
But I have my doubts.

                                                It is lack.  It is today.
                                                I am satisfied with nothing.

                                                Privation.
                                                How hungry the wolf.

It’s when you
are alone
that you brace
your soft dukes
stiffen your
spine as your
“friends” depart
The bully
follows you
punches your
jaw ’til it
cracks and breaks
You know it’s
up to you
to see one
more morning
mesmerized
by a sun-
flower field
dancing in
the soft breeze
Your brain works
overtime
to craft some
surprises
notice served
that never
again will
you be pinned
to the ground
with people
watching as
the bully
pummels you
At last you
have a new
way to fight

                                for Ukraine                               

Although scored scars whitewash & hollow her, she still boards the train with him.

Looking for the ring has been
a strategy that has failed me
far more times than other efforts.
Yet even when I try
far more probing questions,
the revelation of a single word
is enough to…

There are foolish fools 
Who play on my kindness 
I have been pouring 
Into the overfilled cups 
That their grimy hands 
Have held out for me 
Waiting….and waiting
Like the succubus, swine
That they all are 
For far too long 
What they don’t know 
Is while they think 
Their other hand is sly 
It’s already been cut off 
With the butcher knife 
They bountifully offered me
Royalty knows you always
Feed the hungry 
Spare the Poor 

they say 
there’s so many more fish 

in the sea 

but we shouldn’t
treat hearts 

like catch and release

Sometimes the words
Rush with the urgency 
Of floodwaters down a mountain
So fast I can barely 
Scribble them on the page
Before they’re forgotten 

Sometimes the words
Come in bits and pieces
I turn them over and over
In my head
Like Lego blocks
Trying to piece them together

Sometimes the words
Don’t come at all
They remain hidden
Behind a wall
Of mundane thoughts
I can’t chase away

Under a swirl of swifts swimming 

I.
Toxic fumes spew from
fault lines of democracy.
Country in peril.

II.
Warning clouds ignored
stokes chaos and corruption,
citizens descry.

III.
He thinks he’s been crowned,
doesn’t see himself as pawn
in schemes of others.

IV.
Boots pound city streets
habeas corpus denied
immigrants iced out.

V.
Take heed! The people
damn partisan politics.
Congress, do you job!

this house of seven
I just wanted a hair tie
none are to be found