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GONE and GONE

The poets are gone
Buried under sword and shield
Buried under a thousand years of snow and ice
Their songs of love and death 
On parchment, slim and frail
Ragged and torn, blowing in a dark wind
No one remembers their names
Where did they come from
Where they lived 
Or if they lived at all
Names are only a whisper in their dreams
Only a friggin in the early light of dawn
Only a fish jumping in water at dusk
Kings and jesters howled at their cries of war
Their cries of love lost and regained
Soon, only the moon and the sun remain
The voices of the wise drift from trunk to branch
And down into the bowels of hell
Lying on a balcony in Hades
Drowning in the current of Styx
Euripides and Simon slay those left to sing
Those whose dreams would not die
The poets and the bards 
Striving to climb the ladder of Jacob
Shifting to balance on a stairway to heaven
Clawing the eyes out again and again
Shedding the cloth of animals long dead
Tearing at the hair and hands of life itself
The lights of the homes are going out
The bridge is closing
The geese are south as south they can go
The cats and the bears lean into the wind
The soul of many 
Have not been seen
Have not been heard
There was no God
There was no heaven
The angels were not real
The trumpets did not blow
The chariots did not fly
The earth never was
The race of man 
Was the only dream
He sat and wondered
Why is it 
I am left 
I am no one
I am nothing
I am death
I am life
There were none before me
There will be none after
Only a story
Only a poem
Kiss your bird
Touch the clouds
But do not dare to look 
Do not dare to see
For it may be the soul
Who has come for you
Forget the poets 
Forget the bards
Life is nothing
We are nothing.

~ RP Leith

Willful Ignorance


I once had a friend 
That never knew
Anything
Of 
Current events

“The news just
Brings me down. 
It’s easier to live a 
Joyful life
Without knowing what
Is going on
Around the
World.”

So instead of knowing
About 
Climate change
Deforestation
Drought
Police brutality 
Settler colonialism 
Or 
Anything 
That didn’t 
“Mesh” with their vibe
They just ignored it

I don’t know how
I was surprised 
That they
Ignored 
The mass death
The multiple genocides 
On different continents

It’s much easier to
Turn off the news
It’s easier to
Turn off your phone
It’s easier to look
Away
It’s easier to stay
Willfully 
Uninformed 

But then again


They do say

Ignorance 
Is
Bliss 


~ V. Hanway




Winged 

 
brewers blackbird 
shiny white eyes 
limping to me 
watching  
waiting 
 
water 
seeds 
peanuts 
set near  
she rested 
white eyes on me 
 
giving her  
space 
she drank 
ate  
disappeared 
 
her eyes 
called me 
 
night fell 
morning 
dew lay 
quiet 
no disturbance 
no feathers 
lost 
 
grateful hearts 
 
they followed me 
through the yard 
mockingbirds 
doves 
cardinals 
robins 
standing on the 
fence 
watching 
 
across the street 
crow sat 
perched high 
watching over 
us 
 
white eyes 
sent a  
message 
 
crow  
answered 
in kind 


heartfelt 


~ Orannhawk