Author: Amanda Miller

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She Who is Inexorable by James Casper

James Casper

She Who is Inexorable

In your kingdom abyss, you wait for me
Whispering names of those soon to join,
A world below that hears no plea
The other side of Inanna’s coin;
To hold rare flowers in your tomb,
Celebrate birth from your stillborn womb.

I feel you in each shadow cast
Cold as the ice in your veins,
Harlots alike, as well as the chaste
Subject to your final embrace;
For whom do we wait so long?
No pity for the right or the wrong.

There is no tribute to your presence
Or shrines that bear your name,
Whether faith or good works reach heaven
First they must pass through your grave;
A testament to their fears,
It is you who are their tears.

Pale light of moon as it wanes
Aloof to the suffering of pride,
Rulers cling to their thrones in vain
Subjugated by death’s only bride;
Ereshkigal, it is you,
The only undying truth.

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Reflections by Lindsay Freeman

Lindsay Freeman

Reflections

Sometimes as I sit back and watch my children,
Really watch them and listen to what they say as they play their games,
I wait for them to ask the same question they always ask,
To tell them a story of what I did as a child.
What I did as a child? What games did I play?
How my life was and the toys that I had.

The answers that I give them,
Honest to the point of my memory,
Would depend on their ages.
How do I say my parents didn’t live as we do?
What do I say when they ask what that means?

So instead I think to myself that I will smile
Simply, as I did when I was a child
And didn’t know there was another option.
And I will be thankful for the childhood
I have been able to provide for them.

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Dies Mei Cat by Robert Kollman

Robert Kollman

Dies Mei Cat

Our morning starts early, way before light,
Smothering our owner who sleeps through the night.

As one of us plunges from the chair to the bed,
The other one pounces on our owner’s head.

With a prize in my mouth from the depths of the house,
I wake up my owner by bringing him a mouse.

Much fatigued from our napping all day in our bed,
We rest while our owner brings home the bread.

The cat laser’s out now, it’s time to play,
Devil’s eyes roaming, best time of the day.

Dizzy and knock-kneed in circles we go,
Why can’t we catch it? We’ll never know!

The laser is gone now, heads whirling and sore,
Incurable desire drives us for more.

The sound of the snack bag brings us from afar,
Ecstasy we’re in, like a drunk in a bar.

Too many snacks in the course of one day,
Cause froth-corrupted hairballs on the carpet to lay.

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Dear Stranger by Cara Divelbiss

Cara Divelbiss

Dear Stranger

Are you real or just a memory?
Through distance and time, it is impossible to say.
I hate you; I’m afraid.
Is it me? Or did you make me this way?
Your face is now so unfamiliar; it saddens me to say,
Meaning has no meaning.

Do you remember?
Remember the little tutu-ed little girl
With eagerness to prove her love and eyes so thirsty for yours,
Wondering if love exists in your world.
Love is forever; love is infinite.
Is this something that you know?

I remember, I do.
Because she is me, and he is you.
I never realized but, upon my aging, discovered
You are the reason I never really knew
Assurance and confidence with men.
Ah ha! It all makes sense now.

You were around but never really there.
It all seems quite backwards if you ask me.
Hero to ZERO, is that how you’re going to be?

Are you real? Do you exist?
Or are you just a memory?
A picture is what I’ll cherish always
Of our lives before.

I’ve never loved someone that I hated so.
You’re everywhere I look and everywhere I go.
You’ll never read this confession of my feelings.
Dear Stranger,
You’ll never know.

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Broken Love by Rebecca Perkins

Rebecca Perkins

Broken Love

Your presence is no more,
Yet still you trespass on my heart.
You tread across each chamber,
Breaking my wounded soul apart.
My love for you is bruised,
A tender black and blue;
And now it bleeds a steady flow,
As I forget all I thought I knew.
Your absence stings like needles,
A series of sutures aimed to heal.
My thoughts of you and me are bandaged.
I lay numb and cannot feel.
Weeks pass as I recover,
And my wounds fade into scars.
Yet still I’m a prisoner of our love,
A cellmate trapped behind steel bars.
My only option of escape
Is to give love a second chance,
To garner up the strength,
To keep moving at life’s dance.
Though hurt I am and missed you are,
I am not giving in.
Although I may feel broken now,
I’ve learned life’s quitters never win.

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Titled by Samantha Baldwin

Samantha Baldwin

Titled

My mind’s voice is hoarse
From so many ideas flowing at once
So many words need to be expressed
The paper is my echoing wall

These aren’t the words I want!
Some fit better than others
Though they may all mean the same thing
This choice is hard but it’s the best

A life flows from my fingers to the parchment
Yet so too does a new essence flow into me
Be it a poem, a story, or a letter
This is the energy the spoken word cannot convey