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alex 3d
She’ll stay up all night,
liquor on her breath,
smoke trailing from cherry lips,
intoxicating, glazed eyes.
She’s in pieces.
flickering like a fire,
entrancing
I can never look away.

Please tell me something nice.

See you in the bathroom,
inhale your cloying scent.
You smile with fangs—
out for blood,
not love.
You’ll eat me alive,
but it’ll never be enough.

She’s ecstasy.
She’s poison.
She’s bad for me...
but a taste couldn’t hurt—
RH Sep 17
Water
Smoke

Are they any different?
One drowns the Body. the other; the Mind.

I’d choose to drown in both if given the chance.
I wrote this today in a moment of clarity in the fog of my mind. Enjoy! -RH
Before the profit of the prophet,
He tried to fit into a prophecy,
Living like furniture wrapped in plastic,
Always waiting, never too honest.

As a kid, barefoot on the stone,
Toes split rocks he called his own.
Didn’t matter, he never kept score,
Tears skipped like pebbles, lost on the shore.

Teenage nights taught him to choke,
Lungs full of secrets, lungs full of smoke.
Coughs hidden deep in a pedestrian bush,
Dreams of riches, but so broke on a hush.

Exhaust from his mouth, he claimed the street,
Pretending that silence was something complete.
But silence was clothing, handed down rough,
Trauma sewn tightly, never enough.

Now he walks past mannequins, frozen in glass,
Faces like lessons too heavy to pass.
Breathing was something he learned to fake—
Lungs filled with pressure he couldn’t escape.

So he asks in the dark, was he living at all?
Or just holding the smoke longer than them all.
Geof Spavins Sep 15
https://hellopoetry.com/poem/5156835/three-things/
(a poem of presence)

I could be your echo,
soft and steady,
a voice to lean against
when your own feels tangled.
We’d sit with the mess,
name the knots,
and breathe through the “what now?”
No fixing - just listening
until the fog thins.

I could take one thing,
just one,
from your crowded shelf of “later.”
Sort the papers,
fetch the milk,
untangle the tech that won’t behave.
You rest.
I’ll be your hands for a while.

I could make you a pocket of peace:
a walk, a poem,
a playlist that hums (like your favourite socks).
No agenda, just joy.
Just the reminder
that you are allowed to feel good
for no reason at all.
And if you’d like,
I’ll hold your name in prayer,
not as a fix,
but as a quiet flame.
A breath. A whisper.
A way to say:
you are not alone.
Amanda Kay Burke wrote https://hellopoetry.com/poem/5156835/three-things/ and made this challenge: Prompt is "write down three things you could offer to do for a friend that would really help them. Can you continue?
Ship is sinking but no one wants to know             Love is thinking, but it’s scared of the glow Submarines where warlords and tech gods go…   Ship is sinking but no one wants to know

Babies blinking before their whole lives blow…
Elders warning, but no one wants to know
Death is forming a strange prison of gloat…
Ship is sinking but no one wants to know

Time is ticking, but we’ve put that on hold
Weather’s wilding - some relief from the groans
Photos fading, the ocean bottom’s *****…
Ship is sinking but no one wants to know

Sun is calling but no one wants to hope
Rainbows form differently, still no one takes note…
Sun is calling but no one wants to hope
We’ve bought the idea that humans are a *****…

Somebody finally feels good in the smoke;
Hand turns the dial higher, but dreams they’ll never know…
A whole world that’s sick and tired and inspired -  
A picture of sad old pirates shrunk in their attire…
1.) Help throw garage sale so extra belongings can sell

2.) Smoke with somebody sick so they can get well

3.) Lend ear to listen to somebody who is going through hell
Prompt is "write down three things you could offer to do for a friend that would really help them"((
Mica Wood Sep 8
The smoke filled air
Burns my throat.
Ash fell like snow last night.
Yet here I sit
Outdoors
Filling my lungs
With smoke of another kind.

As without,
So within my blackening lungs.
4AM-
a boy runs across
the four-lane roadway,

eyes like rare stones,
face burlap-creased dust,
jean shorts, a dolphin backpack
meant for someone smaller.

I track in my car,
take the exit that curves
around an abandoned encampment.

I find cement steps,
but the boy is gone.

Only smoke remains:
a hooded figure curled
in a doorway of a derelict building,
an empty tent split by knife.

The world recedes,
layered, unbroken.

another vision settling
into the mind,
a thick silence I fold
into the others.
neth jones Aug 19
fuelled summer  from my balcony        
                       fumes  and the deep night in heat
wilming  frequency  ridden under a flight path
        the red and green eyes of the airliner
stare us down whither                                        
           descen­ding the smokey stair
forest fires out west                                  
                     my eyes are wiltered against
aggressive peppery air   ***** creosote vapours

the view from my balcony                      
neighbours walk dogs
people earn their way back from the pubs
and restaurants      and concerts  
and some  greatly received  comedy show
and there’s the streetlight          
; orange wash              
this season
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