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 42° 
the dirty poet
Rami Malek is radioactively brilliant
as the most alienated soul on earth
in the mindblowing first season--
nostalgia for Occupy Wall Street
when the evil overlords
were under the radar
not flying AirForce One--
and hackers were omnipotent rock stars
 39° 
Nat Lipstadt
Stumbling into ancient scripts, authored a decades plus ago,
ago being a modifier of time quantities, minute or large, unspecific
without an objective adjective additive, that faucets a stream of an interlocutory elocution of a batter of rooted emotional histories,
but not histrionics

fanciful words for dredged up memories, acute, but tarnished,
powered yet worn by a cousin of ago, a/k/a,
age
and yet
renews as of,

at this very second, as if it were a first, a tumult of visions, swelling of remembrances, embodied scars, and I weep anew but not
for me, as much for the resonating simpatico souls with whom
they even  now vibrate with resonance of the immediacy of
If not now, When?

Aside: The exterior environment is noisy wet pelting of thunderstorms and ****** sheets of bulleting rain, piercing projectiles, but I am safe in the sunroom, sadly happy my dog is no longer here to shiver and tremble, cuddle and be soothed by steady stroking

But I am here, wrestling with this dredging operation, digging up
tons of sand that require dumping, and I ask, inquire, beg:

Who will take this detritus off my hands, once more, now uncovered,
now recovered, the soil is already soaked and can absorb no more,
the soul is already soaked and can absorb no more, the weakened
heart, damaged and occluded, suffer cannot bare twice the

outrageous misfortune

of unbared recollections, twice, or thrice, and I feel myself drowning in revisiting pain, **** **** ****, these old poems, not nuggets, but boulders dropping from night skies, shot from a pitching machine, without letup, piercing of agonies that once ago  
freshly desecrated and decorated my basic training in humanity.

Enough whining:
I wrote those poems to
eject out those pains,
and I write this now, once more,
to realize that so so many still face
uncertain and unrelenting similarities,
doing their own sums,
and I wish them easing,
strength to compose and
thereby dispose of
the ineloquent
and eloquent
words of staining suffering


3:30am
Thur
July 10
2025
 37° 
Lawrence Hall
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

         A Three-Character-Group Code for Advancing Civilization


                                   Learn. To. Dostoyevsky.
 37° 
blue lightning
Close your eyes,
just sleep,
with your hair
tickling
my ears,
hand in mine,
relaxed,
beautifully
at rest,
Asleep
as I dream
in-depth
awoken
to your beauty.
theres a cat next door he comes to visit me
same time every day when its time for tea
i think he smells the food that im about to cook
he sits on my sill takes a little look

i fill  a litte bowl fill it with some meat
then he claws the window asking for his treat
he his very clever a lovely chap his he
my little furry friend that lives next door to me
 35° 
Selma
If paper and pen
understand me to my core,
then it is my voice that betrays me evermore.
I know better, yet opening up
stays my biggest fear.
I am surface-leveled,
neither there, nor here.
And so comfortably, with no fuss,
I stay a projection,
nothing more than dust.
I am your imagination,
no depth,
no width.
I am only but a shell.
An empty figure,
stripped of will and vigor.
 35° 
Julia Celine
Encased in gold resin,
The world we create
Older than you or I could ever say
It knows better than me of sure pain
Demanding your beauty
Still shadow the shame
When I wrote you –
I wrote you a letter today
I was lost in the infinite stretch of your gaze
And I wonder if it ever entered your air
Ever tasted your tongue, ever tousled your hair
Were they were words you would treasure?
Words you would share?
Like a picture, I'm taken
Because I am still there
Encased in your resin,
In the grip of your glare
It is a moment remembered
And I am still there
 34° 
Labhrás
Hot, humid night
Broken air conditioning
Windows open to the
Sounds of southern summer nights
Humid skin, Humid sheets
Too uncomfortable to sleep

But now,
at least,
I can smell the trees
 33° 
Lee Holloway
I will
cultivate the exquisite
portion of my own remarkable
consciousness

I shall
remain untroubled
strew petals and
relish the long,
long solitary days

Decorate my
tortoise with jewels
perhaps

And society, I remain in a
perpetual state of undeclared
war with you
and I owe you nothing
Éramos aturdidos mozalbetes:
blanco listón al codo, ayes agónicos,
rimas atolondradas y juguetes.
Sin la virtud frenética de Orfeo,
fiados en la campánula y el cirio,
fuimos a embelesar las alimañas
cual neófitos que buscan el martirio.
En la misma espesura se extraviaba
la primeriza luz de nuestra frente,
y ante la misma fiera, reacia y sorda,
cesaba nuestro cántico inocente.
De aquella planta que regamos juntos
eran cofrades la senil vihuela,
los pupitres manchados de la escuela,
la bíblica muchacha que adoraste,
los días uniformes, el contraste
de un volumen de Bécquer y Fabiola,
la soprano indeleble que aún nos mima
con el ahínco de su voz pretérita,
y el prístino lucero que te indujo
al apurado trance de la rima.

¿Qué hicimos, camarada, del tanteo
feliz y de los ripios venturosos,
y de aquel entusiasta deletreo?

Hoy la armonía adulta va de viaje
a reclamar a una centuria prófuga
el vellón de su casto aprendizaje.

Mi maquinal dolencia es una caja
de música falible que en lo gris
de un tácito aposento se desgaja.

Y el alma, cera ayer, se petrifica
como los rosetones coloniales
de una iglesia con lama, que complica
su fachada borrosa con el humo
inveterado de los temporales.
 33° 
Rhiannon Clayton
She was still a nomad, searching for a safe and quiet place to dwell.
A gypsy soul with a dreamers heart and an artist's spirit.
Perhaps it was her dreams that kept her whole...

-Rhia Clay
 33° 
C Conner
Twilight blue rebounds behind
A great ridge of color
Calling for man
To stand before the night

From a distance
Quiet but restless
The brazen foliage always falls
Darkness follows every time
 32° 
Arii
The pain
Of being around
You

Burns like a tire fire,
Hurts more than desire,
Tastes like
Brittle charcoal,
Stings
more than
Any promise you broke,

Burns
Li ke
A tire fire,

Hurts
More
Than desire,

Tastes
Like
Brittle charcoal,

Stings
Like
Every
promise I
Broke.

Being around you hurts more

Than being a

Joke.
 30° 
DKN
Shadows beckon me to hurried steps
Take my life or set me free
May my labored breath be a testament
To thy tight leash upon my will
To my spirit—resolute and endless
That I am free and free indeed
 28° 
Nyxa Thorne
I remember the pain—
knowing that you spoke lies,
controlled me with fear,
told others of your sins
while painting me as the villain.

You broke me
over and over and over.
I flinch at hugs.
I cry with loss—
loss of my heart.

You broke me.
I am barely a person,
shaped by the pain you caused.
I nearly took that final step

because you needed control,
needed to lash out, to hurt me.
You told others it was me—
that I caused the pain you inflicted.

You paint yourself as a victim.
I barely survived.
You continue your actions,
wallowing in false sympathy.

I bare my pain
through my poems.
 28° 
Indika Perera
i want to be numb
to all the misery
i want to be numb
to your hypocrisy
i want to be numb
to all the pain
i want to be numb
to the falling rain
i want to be numb
to all your lies
i want to be numb
to the blue skies
i want to be numb
to the whole world
i want to be numb
to the beautiful girl
i want to be numb
to your evil ways
i want to be numb
every moment of today
i want to be numb
to my heart you threw
i want to be numb
especially to you
 27° 
William A Gibson
Play it slow-
not for romance,
but because the strings are blistered,
and every note splits the sky
with fire.

Stroll through the panic,
it’s routine:
duct tape on the windows,
radio on low,
a list of missing birds
tacked to the wall
like fallen saints.

You said you'd carry me,
but the world’s gone grey,
and the olive tree’s
just smoke now.

There’s no audience left.
Just wind
and its thousand-watt warning.

Still, your spine curves to the rhythm
like a fever dream from Babylon,
hips like warning sirens,
ankles sunk in ash.

I want to understand
what we ruined,
but only at a pace I can stand,
only with eyes closed.

There was a time
we dressed like lovers.
Now it’s mylar blankets
and filtered masks.

We knew the promise;
we broke it anyway,
above it,
beneath it,
inside it.

Someone keeps whispering
about children,
as if hope still blooms
in poisoned soil.

Play it slow,
with bare hands if you must.
But don’t pretend this isn’t a requiem.
Don’t dress it up in velvet or vows.
Just let the music float
and burn,
like everything else.
SoCal climate: golden skies, ash in your lungs, beauty on fire.
 26° 
Skyla GM
Your silver voice,
slick as a fish,
I’d gut,
dice,
and toss
it to the sharks.

Velvet and hypnotic,
you sweet-talk your way
through our minds—
slipping past our conscience
and every blaring red flag,
entangling us
in pleasant submission.

I’m desperate
to erase
every trace of you.
 26° 
Sophia
57
Lately my words have felt
like bullets that only
graze the edge of the target.
A feeling of emptiness saturates
my mouth as I speak.

Lately I feel like
the validity of my presence
is tied to some word count.
Like my existence
is an essay that I must write,
I just cannot find the right words.
 24° 
Lynn Stillman
If i could write a song
It would be about you.
It would sing your praises.
I would join in too.
I've never met anyone,
that could touch a part of me,
that lives so deep down inside.
Where no one else could see.
I'll always be grateful
And would move heaven and earth for you
I'd kiss you a million times
With passion so deep and true.
 24° 
Charmour
always the child
who never got appreciated
just an unwanted child
trying her hardest
to be the perfect one—
just once.
trying her hardest
to be appreciated,
dying to hear:
“you did a great job,”
“the dish you cooked was very nice,”
“i’m proud of you,”
“you scored 98% in maths,”
“i’m proud of my daughter.”
she just wanted
to be loved.
to be seen.
to be appreciated.
When love declines
the heart grows cold
It becomes the moonlight
that chills the soul

Polished like marble
with all of its frills
It withers away
Attemptable to ****

What cold singing
from frigid lips
When the heart grows weary
From the vice of life's grips

When prayers become weeds
Scattered by wind
Left with nothing
But the hollow within
 23° 
ymmiJ
the sea, the sea
bring me to the sea
in front of her crashing waves
where I can dream of being free
 22° 
nivek
robotic heart
keeps us going

robotic love
unrelenting
 22° 
AUSTIN FIELDS
your skin
has a seat in
that chair,
in every universe
you belong
Imma live to fulfill our dreams
You just rest in piece
I'll see you in another life
♥️
 20° 
William A Gibson
“perhaps the sun is a teacup, spilled by a girl in a skyhouse who laughs in polka dots–”

You wrote like someone
who had been listening
long before speaking,
each poem a hush,
each repost a gentle offering.

This space once held you,
your words, your calm curation,
a gentle steadiness
in a shifting field of voices.

take this small goodbye
not as an end,
but as a door left open,
just in case
you return with your light.

Until then,
may strength find you
in soft moments,
and peace arrive
never needing to be earned.
 20° 
Kara Palais
I ride the carousel, round in my mind,
Each figure a name I swore I’d forget
A sardonic grin on the face of time,
Spinning through kisses and cold regret.

He whispered in lust making false vows,
Then vanished into the dark of night.
The shame still stains my silence now,
A bruise that blooms beneath the light.

Another wore dreams like a cheap disguise,
Painted in promises, glossed with gold.
But the facade cracks beneath his lies,
And love runs dry when hearts grow cold.

They repeat like haunted tunes,
Ghosts dressed nice, soaked in sin
A dance beneath a distant moon,
Where every ending dares begin.

Still I continue, I never learn,
Addicted to the aching thrill
To love that sours, to bridges burned,
To wounds that beg to open still.
 19° 
TOD HOWARD HAWKS
Jesus wore only a robe.
He did not tell those who gathered
around him how to get rich. He
told them to love one another.

Today, the religions of the world
are of untold wealth. I suggest all sell
their manifold possessions and give all
the proceeds to the poorest of the poor.

Jesus wore only a robe.

Copyright 2019 Tod Howard Hawks
A graduate of Andover and Columbia College, Columbia University, Tod Howard Hawks has been a poet and human-rights advocate his entire adult life. He just finished his first novel, A CHILD FOR AMARANTH.
 19° 
Stefano Benni
Metà segreteria
soviet o comitato
ai cani sciolti, al volontariato
ai centri sociali, agli operai
a chi non molla mai
a chi fa opposizione
anche se non è inquadrato
dalle direttive prese,
dalle telecamere accese.
 19° 
Blue Sapphire
When time was hard

you pulled me through.

Now that death has taken you away

who do I look to?

Gone too far

Gone too soon

You are always missed.
On the white screen dance the stringed dots
Mind spilled codes of hieroglyphic thoughts
Slowly they emerge handholding lines
Not always yielding intended designs.
Something was brewing inside the head
Coaxing to weave and take it ahead
The drunken horses so wildly gallop
There is no leash to make them stop.
Nerves are taut and they won't relax
Till all is vented they reach the ******
It was thus fated the moment it was sown
What's to be grown could never be known.
As the fever wanes arrives the new child
It may be adored or it may be defiled
The canvas is washed clean as in the rain
Something is brewing to be vented again.
 18° 
Kurt Philip Behm
The joker
in the deck
The jester
holding court
The witness
at my trial
The voice
— of time itself

(Dreamsleep: July, 2025)
 17° 
Odalys
You can chase the sun, sail every sea,
Climb every peak you dream to see.
But peace won’t come from outer skies—
It lives within, not where it lies.

Until you calm your inner tide,
No place on Earth will feel like pride.
 15° 
Liana
She said she felt bad for my father
Because I wasn't speaking to him anymore

Then she read my poems
People you gotta know what you're talking about before you say ****
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