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I have no feeling.
I sit numb, where you left me.
My heart left to thaw.
My loves not for sale.
It is mine to keep and hold.
Won't be bought and sold
 Jul 27 Kalliope
Ghost
It was another dark stormy day. I walked into my favorite bar started playing pool. I’m joined by a friend that reminds me of a certain song. I’m sitting here bottle after bottle as my mind races back to a certain memory. Of her sitting there with her camera. Eyes focused on the front of the room. Ears tuned into the teachers words. I snap to as I get to the bottom of the bottle
The raven calling.
Warning of impending doom,
from an open tomb.
I’ve always loved
every day & every way
you ripped through the safeguards
of my heart & soul

do it again
again & again

you will never grow old
you will never be repulsed
my love will always draw you
inside

ageless,
this weakness for you

return
 Jul 27 Kalliope
RJ
My dreams are not soft things
They do not whisper or drift
They crash into me
Like memory
Like loss I never earned but still carry

I see faces I’ve never touched
Eyes that look through me like they’ve known me for lifetimes
Hands that reach
Just as I begin to fall

I wake with stories still unfolding
Mouth half-formed around names that vanish
Chest aching with love
for people I’ve never met outside my sleep

Sometimes I lie still
Eyes open
But not here
Not ready to belong to this body
this room
this gravity

Reality waits
with its empty inboxes and worn-out clocks
It doesn’t ask if I’m okay
It just goes on
as if I didn’t just leave a world that almost felt like home

But I keep waking
Even when it hurts
Even when the dream begs me to stay
Because somewhere in the quiet ache of morning
There’s a sliver of light
A whisper that maybe
what I dream
is a map
not a mistake

And maybe one day
I’ll follow it back
not to sleep
but to something real
that finally feels
like dreaming with my eyes open
 Jul 27 Kalliope
RJ
Some mornings,
I wake up and look at my reflection
and wonder who’s wearing my face,
the one with my eyes but not my soul.

I move through the hours
like a man who’s lost his shadow,
my own voice sounding like
someone else’s story.
The words come out
but they feel hollow,
empty shells
of things I never meant to say.

This skin feels wrong,
too tight,
too foreign.
I want to step out of it,
but there’s nothing underneath—
just old memories
and promises I never made.

I once knew who I was,
a version of me that walked with fire,
light in every step
and a quiet confidence in my chest.
But now I search for him
in the spaces between breaths,
in the silent moments
where I almost remember
the man I was before
I became someone else.

I’m tired of chasing a reflection
that isn’t mine.
I’m tired of feeling like a ghost
in my own skin.
But maybe,
just maybe,
I’ll find my way back
through the cracks in this armor,
back to the man I lost
without even knowing it.

And when I do,
I’ll stand taller.
I’ll be the man
I was always meant to be.
 Jul 27 Kalliope
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
I’ve got finger stitches — love handed me needles;
the attentions of spiraling vines; some bear grapes,
but not all are ripe with maturity, some just needless.
Burning every bridge while the sky stays divinely nested,
and I’ve tied these knots around my tired heart,
left admiring birds of a feather — but never flying
south together — all bested.

They press your buttons just for their luck to press —
dim suggestions also light up the road to regret
Lessons in subtle form and silent —whatever mistakes
you walk into and out of, never forget their steps.

Hiking with joy into the last light of sunset; yes, we can
fall in love like the sun falls behind a mountain crest —
rising bright by morning, but crying in the dark —
perhaps this isn’t love yet.

And that’s okay.
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