Love, at first sighting
You know love the second you see it.
Love at first sight has been pitifully romanticized. Shrouded.
Torn from the misty minded cloak of nonsense it remains. Nevertheless.
Love at first sight is a thing, acknowledged, simple and clear. Like a ghost.
Every time you spot it, you know it for what it is: "Oh, a phantom".
09.26.2023
Is love at first sight possible? challenge @Raynstar
To Whom It May Concern,
Dear Reader, I wish I could tell you that you're going to survive this. But then I would have failed or succeeded in the Impossible. It would mean that you would walk away from this letter unchanged. Oh the letter would stay, the words the same, dull and lifeless. But you my friend, if I may, will have lost or gained. What it is that will have crossed you in profit or deficit, will depend entirely on your Mental Bank.
Accounts vary like that. Some take in a little something and walk away with a lot. Others find that something, and treat it all the same, like a sack of garbage to toss. Having already picked this up, and entered this far, the meter at the teller is ringing you up...
"Credit or Debit?"
Funny how those terms used to mean exactly that; now they're both in the negative:
...
"Credit or Debit??"
...
"Would you like a bag with that?"
...
I trust you have a healthy Mental Bank Account.
Gold standard.
Sincerely yours,
On Paper
09.25.2023
Survival Letter challenge @Flotzam
. . . . .
beads of sweat hover
in blood, drop; crests of circles
shape, the rosary..........
whispers of small feet...!
shuffling forest pantries,
white puffs, cloudy, sweet
walking the ground shakes
carrying on, Tomorrow's
.....young understanding
the blanket stretches,
Life is always hungry:
crossing uniformity...
the canyon widens. . .
echoes an agonal cry,
the jaws reckoning
09.22.2023
Lifetimes, Five Haiku challenge @Prose
hope
. . . i s
p o o r
m a n' s
d o p e .
09.21.2023
What's Hope? @Pagesfragensage
!
aha there's dark, light,
in the cave of existence
another ism
09.19.2023
Haiku for Troubles/Rebirth @akitoyu
Still Going...
We woke one day to
a rolling blackout.
First went the Satellite TVs.
Then the cellular phones.
Now there's Something
inside that just won't turn.
On or off I'm not sure...
But I see us still walking
eating and talking...
And it sounds grave and
rotten... Corrosive,
as we near to morning.
Every roaming body is
groaning, for a new carton...
of Gewwwsssssssszzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
09.18.2023
ZOMBIES! challenge @Buck_Ripper
Tabled
It's where the fist is pounding
silently, invisibly
against the place setting
of plates, gone missing
jumping into space, juggling
empty like a stomach grumbling
There are four seats, uncushioned
and each is mentally taken, rigid
yet for all twenty something feet
only two can still walk away
from the puddle spreading
and the shade of home
and work never charted,
that draft felt con-
versation turned
away with cutlery
and hidden, under
like a rooftop, clothed
for prayers, muttered
before the Supper, which
we were all called to offer
09.17.2023
Tables challenge @Igbaum
Run!
(In tackling this challenge, I looked up which word in the English language has the most meanings attributed. It turns out the modest three letters above carries 645 definitions... apparently not yet all "available" because the latest version of Websters is pending. )
I'm intrigued at the run. I run on two feet, use run on sentences, sometimes, while watching the runs in women's stockings, so seldom nowadays seen. I settle for the long run, the short run, the run of favorite re-runs that run on my select entertainment medium. I run the little empire of my studio apartment; I run my auto on idle, and my stereo full blast. I run errands, and run circles in my mind for things I know I forgot and cannot think of as they run off... I run back and forth. I run laps in the morning to maintain my health pledge. I run for school board, they say, when I run my mouth off in occupational criticism. I run clubs for kids during the summer months. I run myself into the ground with obligations I've taken on. I run into a block, because I'm reaching the end of the run of definitions I can summon in run right now...
09.16.2023
Sound or Shape? word challenge @kNoTeS
Shackled in Arms
why did you take a captive
and confine us,
to self-imposed
boundary...
did you choose me for me
...or was it total
surprise attack to a
Self-unfounded...
have you seen something
of esteem reflected
back as worthy,
of reprimanding...
and whatever it was,
Is there empathy
enough caught-up
to let us both go...?
09.15.2023
Lima syndrome challenge @DanPhantom123
Once
It's dull and pretends to be sanitary. The shape that pervades is the rectangle and its insider, the square. The walls, the corners of the halls, and the rooms; above the ceiling tiles, and below the mopped linoleum, all conform to the official order, disinfected by the florescent panels that confuse day and night, to the weary and worried bloodshot eye.
After the obligatory grope by tan uniforms with badges and holsters and walk-talkie, and digital scanner, there is a denial of personal items, and a jangling of keys. One hears what one expects. The keys are replaced by swipe cards. The labeled ziplock bag is filed. Shuffling muffles. Dull voices. The cell also loses those remnants of personality, the lines of separate tiles, and becomes a concrete slab, drab and hardened, like designed to make one on the brink, become criminal in thought. It is the wait that is most palpable. Sitting.
One doesn't think of eating. Pissing, shitting in public.
The phone call pervades the thoughts.
Words that in moments will be exchanged and hover incoherently afterwards.
This I only know because I went to pick up Mother from an overnight.
We weren't able to bring the bond soon enough that time.
It was early morning. Dark, and when she got out it was like Daylight for us.
Even with the shadows behind, and her nervous laughter that she thought she heard rats.
09.14.2023
1rst Prison Day challenge @GentlmanBastard