Ike writes

It Hurts

I thought I had a problem with my brain
it was causing me all kinds of problems
but I've lived with it for 74 years with no problem
it was really causing me to dwell on it
on Monday my wife and I went to the doctor
for her to have a bone marrow test
on Tuesday we went back to the doctor
boy, what he told us we were not expecting
it hit us like a ten ton truck
he told my wife you have leukemia and it is not curable
right there I forgot all about my brain problem
I am crying now
I can't write any more about it
It hurts too much
It hurts
It hurts
It hurts too much
Wanda, I love you so much

Devastated --  Ceino Rey Quimintan

Benny Billet writes

A filosophical foam by Fenny Filet

The Swirling of the Worlds
around a Sing(u)lar Star
Signifies a random patterning
Beyond our Universe and Mind

Yet

How Haphazard chance is
How Wise is God is
How baffling Unbaffable is
How wonderful the chance is
That we can see Our Selves

That we is what we IS

God Help Us AlL

 Cosmic Swirl -- Patrycja Whipp

Pramila Khadun writes

The remnants of a lost love

My thoughts linger on the remnants of a lost love

Gone with the wind.

With precision profound and passion unflinching,

A beautiful allegory showcasing the truth of love

Reigned in my heart for years many.

‘Loving is always cathartic,’

He whispered with feelings exuberant

In my ears soft and attentive.

The message spread around,

Hale and hearty, bright and light

Like kaleidoscopic rangoli

In all the cells of my body,

Making me shine with

The seven colors of love.

I was in the prime of my youth,

Always talking gleefully, gently and peacefully.

I touched his silvery grey hair

Which was like fur of a velvety cap.

Leaning on his shoulder, I replied,

‘Love knows neither decay nor decline.’

We looked at the crystal moon,

Our fingers entwined,

Admiring the sights and the sounds

Offered by the waves.

We slept together on the sands soft.

In the morning, while the first sun rays

Warmed our hearts laden with love

And bodies drowned in passions pure,

We said ‘Adieu’ and parted.

Love had her reasons to bring us together

And life had his reasons to separate us for ever

 Colors of Love -- Iryna Shostak-Orlova

Duane Vorhees writes

My Fingers

Visit me in my mushroom tower and I will come to you

down this deep dark ditch amid tinder black flowers

down to the buttercups and dew.

My fingers have ridden through the forests of your hair

and slept on belly-gold prairies.

They’ve explored your hidden valleys, climbed snowcapped breasts,

and on your beach hips have rested.

Tanned and naked there you stand, strata in the earth in layers of

dark

light

dark

light

dark;

while (miners in anticipation) my fingers tremble….

And then it is we who are the layers in the dark, quaking among bedrock,

hardness melting into darkness, joining in new formations,

stalactite buried and unearthed buried unearthed buried unearthed

through the long geologeons of night

till finally separated by a fault

…and our sky becomes snow on coal.

Wayne F. Burke draws

Bradley Mason Hamlin writes

California Jungle

Listening

to punk rock

on the backyard

patio

she

soaks up the shine

in a polka dot bikini

while drinking

a beer from Chico

45 Grave

soundtracks the sun

as I read

Tarzan and the Golden Lion

(our Bengal kitten

stalks the veldt

of our lawn …)

just

as Burroughs

cries forth with epic

cruel world passion:

“… he placed one foot

upon the carcass of his kill

and raised his voice in

the terrifying victory cry

of the apes of Kerchak.”

the kill

in this case,

a lion

as

the jungle cat’s claws

chased

a crazy sexy hot

jungle princess

an

evil wicked beast

deserving of

the spear of destiny

if only

every

kill

could be so

clean

never destroy

that which doesn’t

need destruction

simple, right?

like,

totally, deep

thoughts …

from

the brown bottle

bottom

and

on this warm California

summer day,

north of Tarzana

you’re welcome.

-- Don Marquez

 -- Joe Jusko

Inam Hussain Mullick writes

Haiku

the lithesome leaf’s pulse—

our amorphous curlicue,

blithe earth, no ado

Chinese Maple Leaf  -- LeashR