You walk beside me
ignoring my presence
You read others except me
though I write about you!

You hear me every day
but don't care about me
You like others except me
tho you know I love you!

Your silence hurts me deep
with every passing moment
Your pride tears me apart
like a wounded heart!

I miss you in my teardrop
and I love you the same
I am the only crop
who's alive with your name!

any two people  coming together can be a game/life changer
but without intimacy they are only like
a fish without water a bird without air
leaves without roots dreams without a dreamer
this dazzling carousel of constant stimuli
this attack of never-ending newness
that spins the world is the ******* of  void
I dissapear from thought I dissapear from heart
I am just a message an unresponded voice
a poor sign without the depth of symbol
an avoided truth an impossible commitment
there is no time there is no space for giving and receiving
the most precious substance, our deeply lonely selves
the tears are helpless, here it is, have some void
it evacuates itself in language, oh, language games
played with much innocence,  and eagerness
I contemplate the void in mesmerizing eyes voices words
taking responsibility for  illusions the hardest bit
the body knows first about the danger left behind
by a theoretical love
only by entering the void I can feel it, oh yes
the ******* of emptiness is inside me, too

a fantasy of love is
a sinkhole
full of water and deaths,
of hearts torn in sacrifice to
false gods, human gods,
indignities, caricatures of reality

I gave everything to them
believing
because it was easier,
because it was the program,
the curriculum,
the single choice available to me

it made of me a cenote,
drowned my heart in waters
caught
by the stony hole
in the indifferent jungle

sank me
in a deep blue hole
waiting to be discovered
by you, who made
of me a treasure, a precious cargo
priceless
worthy
beloved


c. 2023 Roberta Compton Rainwater

My girl,
when I ****
you
I’m on top of the world.
I become unfurled—like a  
whale’s tail,
like a dolphin in a
sea of love,
your ***** fits me like
a glove.
They say doves mate for
life,
and swans die in
the spring,
you make my ****
sing, like yang ling or
whatever that panda’s
name was.
It’s love that  
makes the world go around,
and baby,
I found it.

Nothing good can come of this
Noted the plain man for his soul
I lent over and distorted my frame
To put a coin in his bowl

On closer inspection his pullover
Flew out at me in rainbows
And his eyes glinted through a face that was hurried
But for all time, slow

We chewed the cud for an hour
My spineless talk criticised power
The rain fell mercifully
And he sauntered off to ***

I said I didn't like to see people unhappy
More to myself than to him
He said I was a 'good lad'
I said the little guys would win

Who is the benefactor
In a time-drenched street?
The hypnotised or the ostracized
The elephant in the room,
The mouse at your feet?

© Copyright David Bosworth July 2023

I know I'm ridiculous
Bipolar, obsessed, lost
Hemingway, Eliot, Melville
Poe, Emily, Frost

Grateful for good sleep
Talk with my son
Cranberry juice with lime
History 101

Don't believe in politics
Or newspapers. Or Donald Trump.
France for 2 weeks
Michelle Obama fist bump

Tired. Sad. Tired.
Wishing she was here
Drifting toward death
I drive. You steer.

           3 beautiful deer