“It’s Amazing How Much Damage Can Be Done When You Have Nothing But Good Intentions.”

We scroll past

starving children

to buy shoes we don’t need

and call it life.

Babies are born

with lungs full of poison,

their bodies warped

by toxins we dumped for profit.

Mothers wrap sons

in flags

like it softens

the sound of a coffin closing.

We skin the earth

for gold and oil

and hang it on our necks

while forests burn

and oceans bleed.

We worship Gods

but not Their creation.

Pray louder

than we love.

Animals scream in silence.

Children rot in camps.

Water is sold.

Air is dying.

Truth is filtered.

Kindness forgotten.

We kill over dirt

though we are made of stars.

We hoard

while others die thirsty.

This is not a world,

it is a graveyard

we are still digging

with our eyes wide open.

-Cyrus K.

Joy Sullivan, from “These Days People Are Really Selling Me On California”, Instructions for Traveling West

“One smile can start a friendship. One word can end a fight. One look can save a relationship. One person can change your life.”

— Unknown

Fin

No more love No more poems No more hearts No more souls

No more sticks No more stones No more splints No more bones

No more bricks No more walls No more mines No more yours

No more tears No more loss No more fears No more gods

No more graves No more rows No more wars No more jokes

No more needs No more wants No more sex No more cunts

No more slack No more ropes No more deaths No more ghosts

No more breaths No more goals No more dreams No more hope

No more sleep No more thoughts No more thoughts No more thoughts

Embrace the dark Till the new day's begun There's always the dawn Always the sun

--- 30-4-2025, M.A. Tempels © Napowrimo 30: Always the sun

She believes she knows my ache,

she thinks she understands my sorrow,

because once, she too was broken.

My pain is

a slow implosion,

a daily funeral

with no mourners,

a storm I must swallow

so she may walk beneath clear skies.

She remains with another,

while I cradle her chaos in the dark,

I try hold her world steady,

bleeding in silence,

so she never sees the stain.

Quietly tearing at the seams

just to keep her whole.

I laugh when I want to scream.

I smile so she can cry.

I disappear so she can shine.

And each day,

I wake inside a coffin

just to hold her hand.

This doesn't feel like love.

This is a man burning

so she may feel warm,

and never knowing

that the smoke

is me.

-Cyrus K.

“I choose to love you in silence because in silence I find no rejection, and in silence no one owns you but me.”

— Rumi

“I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.”

— Og Mandino