Everyday
By Patrick Cao
The only hood I knew was on my sweater
But my life wasn’t good and never got better
I grew up in the grass but fell in the lot
Every day I was gunned down but never got shot
The views of others are what I was shown
Life was destiny but never my own
A slave to the last name
I wanted to blast flames on past fame
But disappointment is worse than death
I’d please my folks even if it meant breathing my last breath
I’ll be the golden child
Live forever mild, die never wild
And fulfill the path never navigated
By those who are agitated
And can’t realize their clown dream
Is meant for sleep, not downstream
Where their children will pick up broken pieces
And ask why the kitchen hung Jesus
If no one ever prayed
But wanted their priests to be paid?
They claimed I was Cain but I am Abel
Since I didn’t hide the truth like gum underneath the table
But since you never knew the feeling
I was found hanging from the ceiling
On All Fronts
By Patrick Cao
Preachers are killing teachers
By unleashing creatures
Of mass destruction
And words of crass construction.
But dreamers will fall
For schemers who call
Out their fears
And claim it’s a career.
Let the socialist
Believe in hocus-pocus.
Let the capitalist
Die the nationalist.
Let the Democrat
Act rat but play cat.
Let the Republican
Restrict publishing.
Let the young
Destroy lungs.
Let the old
Think they’ve been told.
Nothing will be done
If something is to be won.
Those that fight for freedom
Want their supporters to be dumb
And never have their questions released:
“Do those that speak the most, know the least?”
Thoughts Before Bed
By Patrick Cao
Forever, I thought I was all game and no gimmick
Never have I fought for a tall name to mimic
But life started to make me question
Is my wife regarded as my best friend?
Or is she waiting on my tomb to arrive
To start dating the groom that made her alive?
Are my children looking up to me because I’m their father?
Or am I a villain cooking up the next greatest author
Who only knew success from involuntary pain
And skewed progress with monetary gain?
I have no clue why I’m going through this metamorphosis
I’m turning into glue asking whose horse is this?
I can’t sleep until I’m dead
I’m too deep into this bed
(Untitled)
By Ashley Diaz
How can you call what we had love,
When love does not hurt you.
Love puts a blanket around your shoulders when you’re cold,
Love makes you soup when you’re sick,
Love rubs your shoulders after a long day,
Love holds your hands when they’re shaking.
And love, so warm and true,
Would never break up with you over text message.
(Untitled #2)
By Ashley Diaz
The love I gave you I took back
Watered my garden with it
Drowned my flowers in respect, forehead kisses and absolute adoration
(Untitled #3)
By Ashley Diaz
I fear judgement from strangers,
I fear words that have never been said;
And may never even be thought
I fear so deeply being disliked.
But for you, my love,
I’ll let the whispers wrap around me
Like a pretty dress on a spring day
I’ll let the looks and scoffs
Walk me down the aisle
As I make my way to you.
The only place I never felt fear.
(Untitled)
By Alexis Norman
Pupils dilated.
I can hardly.
Ever so slimly.
See the brown of your eyes
I love your brown eyes.
They make me smile
You know the smile.
It makes you smile.
Then we look in each other’s eyes.
And laugh.
And ever so slimly.
Collapse on each other
Eyes to the stars.
Head to shoulder.
Conflict (A Ghazal)
by Ignacio Leon
I ride alone on this desolate road
Deviating avenues distract me from this destined road
The wind blows my hair, the sun beats down
As I continue on this proverbial road
Sights and sounds dominate the landscapes
As my senses direct me on this colorful road
Yet the hunger persists, penetrating my bowels
Time, enough on this monotonous road
As I flirt with my idols and my loneliness
Suddenly, nothingness paves my road
The fears of failure–no, Iggy, snap out of it
It will be you, only you, that shall dominate this road
Independently Attached: 75 Years
By Layla A Williams
You have grown veins beneath your aged skin now fragile
Droopy drops of caramel hang below your lush brows still
My love
You make your way steadily across the hardwood
Brittle arms rattling hazily,
Feet scooting at your patient pace
Your compass, a cup of chai
5 sugar cubes with half a spoonful of honey
In shaky fingertips
The ones that traced the outline of my being
For as long as I can remember
I sit,
Write of palm trees and coconuts I can never eat
Of you in everything I see
And feel
Frozen evergreens outside our front porch
Hummingbirds and sperm whales
Glass doors covered by frost
Toasty flames warming my slowly beating breast
The one you’ve rested your head on all these years
All these decades
Through each creation and death of a star
300 seasons with you
And many more to come
My love
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