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 Dec 2024 Cné
Nemusa
Nowhere to Run
 Dec 2024 Cné
Nemusa
Magnifying glass, a preacher’s eye,
You held it steady, watch the edges fry.
Her smile curling like a silent crime,
Promises snapping, one wail at a time.

Sirens call.
They call you home.

Cigarette burns where her lips once lived,
A paper throat, and you’re unforgiven.
The smoke uncoils like a serpent’s hymn,
In the ruins of her, your fingers swim.

And she’s tasting something holy,
A chemical prayer on her tongue.
While your stranger smiles slowly,
His palm says run.

Oh, you’re tracing lifelines,
Marking graves on borrowed skin.
Childhood shadows, beasts still whispering,
When no one could save her, where were you then?

Where were you then?

She claws at the mirror where her ghost resides,
Fighting sleep, fighting him,
Fighting years she thought she’d outrun—
Oh, but trauma’s a promise kept in blood.

And it’s no longer safe for you here,
Not in the ruins where her voice disappeared.
Sirens wail but don’t baptize.
A stranger’s smile, a forest gone numb,
And a ******* fire with nowhere to run.

No, no—
Nowhere to run.
Going through a rough time again, indecisive about whether to run away again and let it all go up in flames.
 Dec 2024 Cné
A Stranger Bleu
So today made a pact with tomorrow
to run away.
Gently closing the door as I lay.
Leaving me here alone with yesterday.
 Dec 2024 Cné
A Stranger Bleu
Strange flowers
with a strange hue.
Strange birds over them flew.
From a strange leaf dripped a strange a morning dew.
Still nothing stranger...
than an estranged you.


A time revisited.
 Dec 2024 Cné
Thomas W Case
Many years
ago, I went to
this little
Irish bar.
On Sunday nights,
there was a jazz band.
They played
Monk
Mingus
Coltrane
Miles
and the Duke.

I drank gallons of
****** marys on
those hot
summer nights.
Dill pickle spears, and
green olives came up
later on those
hungover, dreamless
mornings.

I was young.
I wasted the days,
lying in the sun,
bayonetted by youth.
Copper colored skin,
tin soul.
I would go thousands
of miles, chasing
that train, before I
would be forgiven.
Here is a link to my you tube channel where I read my poetry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMvnUCN6Rmc
 Dec 2024 Cné
Thomas W Case
I sit in the day room of
cell block one in the county jail at
4: 30 am.  It's quiet, almost serene.
All the other inmates are asleep.
I wait for breakfast: two hard-boiled eggs,
a doughnut, juice, and milk.  
Once a week we can order books.
They will deliver them today.
I'll get Bukowski, Steinbeck, and Cervantes.
The remaining six days will
fly by.
When I'm released, I'll go under
the bridge—steal wine and
stay drunk.
I'll eat every three or four days.
It's January with record-setting
frigid temperatures.
Survival will be a challenge.
There will be an ex-girlfriend to
contend with.
I'll try to get what little
clothes that I left at her place,
that is if she didn't throw them away;
she's somewhat of a **** like that.
My two best friends who stayed under
the bridge with me, died a day
apart two months ago,
so, nothing but
ghosts and memories there now.
I'm going to miss jail.
Here's a link to my YouTube channel, where I read poetry from my recently published book, Seedy Town Blues Collected Poems.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMvnUCN6Rmc
 Dec 2024 Cné
Tim Emminger
Give me a little hope
That the world can  be a better place
Give me a little love
It's our saving grace
Give me a little joy
The pleasant state that makes everything ok
Give me a little peace
Nirvana,utopia, a tranquil place
 Dec 2024 Cné
Tim Emminger
New Love
 Dec 2024 Cné
Tim Emminger
Do you like to hear the birds singing
or the sound of ocean waves
Do you like watching the sunrise in the morning
or seeing it set in the eve

Have you ever been to the mountains
or seen the view from the peak
Have you ever swam in the ocean
or soaked up the sun on beach

Do you remember that feeling of a new love
or remember being as happy as you can be
Do you remember the music that was playing
or feeling that the moment was a dream
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