PEOPLE
LIKE US
By Fernando
Esteban Flores
We
return to the past
In shadows of the present
Between the seconds
Entire lives played out
A panorama of broken
Tragedies & regrets
Even our dreams
Are heavy with heartache
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HE
RETURNS
By Mary
Gilman
First he is outside
a
small figure approaching the walls
behind
which she waits
He
moves inside and is lost
each
wall a turning
toward
strangeness
toward
flat and unknown textures
that
she has held up
in
his absence
Walls
and floor and fire
have
been hers to tend
Now
he is back
Now
his feelings
peel
away her ownership
He
blames madness, delusion
She
wonders if he claims those for sympathy
He
wakes the child
drinks
the sake
brings
the outside in
His
history and yearnings
claim
her space
her
present
She
rebuilds the box
the
walls
to
fit her dimensions
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RETURN
By Giselle
Horrell
Welcome me my brothers
My path has led me astray
To the deeper places of the dark
where those lost have wailed for mothers and fathers
Pray, you welcome me home today
I have wandered far
and farther still I had to go
For on me sin made its mark
Hiding from my sight every hopeful star
While I saw my misery steadily grow
Cast me out not now
It would cause us all such pain
I beg you all, hark!
My sins and intentions I thus avow
For here I shall remain
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A
MOMENT'S PEACE
By Laura
Nejako
The leaves of a past flutter by and fall
As they do every season
But this summer's night
In my hurry, I play the universe
The undulating tin of a place I bore my children
in
Has left with the ephemeral wind
The greedy moon blankets everything
In the dispersal of its children the shadows
Phantom faces greet me
Hinting at a past blown and gone with the roof
I do not play the universe
The universe has played me
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UTGETSU
LEARNING
By R.
Gilbert Parnell
Sometimes we go through
. some times
Where we have to travel so very far just to get
.. this close!
Where we traverse an unscripted convoluted journey
.
Just to arrive at the destination that we cherish
the most!
Sometimes
. we leave the things and ones we
love behind
And are lured and venture so far away only to eventually
return home
For it's not the arrival at a preconceived but unknown
destination
But rather, it's from the journey undertaken that
we discover this,
and consequently we learn
We learn what is truly of value to us
We discover it through the absence of things that
were truly missed
And the question then becomes
..
"Why'd I have to travel so long, hard and far?
In order to understand
. realize
. and
appreciated all this!
"A return to a peaceful place and situation
previously perceived as mundane
A place and circumstance whose real worth and true
value I never knew
I've gone astray for far too long, and I did some
wrong
Just to discover the worth of and to learn how to
be this close to you
Took a journey which possessed no peaceful days
A journey filled with dangerous and restless nights
A journey that was hastily undertaken
That on its conclusion empowered me
. to realize
"that" ... which is right
For I've found forgiveness dwelling in your understanding
heart
And finally, an acceptance hereto denied to mine
I've traveled so far in order to get this close
To a paradise that was always here
and always was all mine!
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GHOSTLY
ARMS
By Carol
Ann Bond
Her arms are soft like white calla lilies,
And her eyes are rimmed with red the color of blood,
She caresses me with amorous yearning,
Yet, she denies me her body as if I were not a man.
She smells of earth and wet leaves, and I see skeletons
dancing in her eyes,
White bleached out bones with arms and legs akimbo,
to a faint melody,
Which I can scarcely hear, like sand blowing in
a wind.
So full and sensuous is she, yet she reeks of death,
And of lost dreams like wisps of smoke from an ancient
fire.
I must return to my wife, yet I cannot leave this
woman,
Who holds me fast in this palace of lust unfulfilled.
Shall I ever possess her?
She holds me fast with promises of love, lulling
my senses with an ethereal chant.
A lullaby for a fool, soft ancient yearning fills
my heart, and I cannot go.
No, I cannot go, cannot go, cannot go.
Ghostly arms to imprison me forever more.
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