house of cats

I stink at fulfillment.

Letting moment after moment of possibility slip by,

sometimes there are just too many to make up my mind.

I manage to sit between them, avoiding each one.

There is something I will eventually get to,

and if I knew what it was,

I wouldn’t be

here,

now.

kimmydbones

I know a lot of people
believe in peace
and harmony.

I don’t.

I believe barriers
cause friction
which allows heat
to energize us
and reach within
ourselves

climb
over those barricades
and get where
we want to go,

with veins popping
sweat grinding away
our efforts to continue,

and some one
slips
nearby,

give them a hand
not to save
but out of respect
due a fellow warrior.

Steve Thomas

I work the second shift
At night when I come home
I open the refrigerator and
I eat something simple
Already prepared
Yesterday’s white rice
I do this not
Because I am too tired to put the food in a pot and place it
on the stove
But because
It is simpler to
Take something
Just as it is
Love is like this
You don’t have to think put me in a bowl and heat me in
the microwave
You’re perfect just the way you are.
A hundred single kernels of delicious white rice.

Russell Vidrick

among the wild buttercups
a broken umbrella lays open
underneath an unswung set
bent and rusted

shattered rolling rock bottles
hidden in coarse uneven grass

a few surviving tatters of Mexican pink
waterproofed polyester
an upside down plastic flamingo handle
the beak now a dull yellow gray

an unmovable teeter totter
stuck
one side up
one side down
a thick heavy board grown with splinters

there is blood
dried, unseen
on one of the ragged green horse headed edges
she used to

cut and swing
cut and swing

watching the blood
drip
her clearance rack designer shoes

dangle and swing
dangle and swing

she doesn’t want to die
soon

just eventually
or even let anyone know she was ever here

so eventually when she doesn’t die
yet

she hides in mojitos and house music
banging her head against the headboard
saving up her unspent nightmares

she wakes and wonders where she is
who is there

she believes in struggle
she counts
the dollars and cents she never has never needs

losing or leaving her umbrellas
somewhere along the way

at least
she can still wear the same shoes
classic, timeless,

bloodstained

Kimberley Diamond Bones

all
visited overnite
th father bachelor
when hz love
had been drained
into hz absent kids
no sparks left
as we walked
by th lake
no despiration
to dodge lonliness
in th breast
of th past
i always believe
that next
holds
th prettyer breast

lang