Cut Short

you can pry starting sentences with 'and' or 'but' out of my cold, dead hands

it’s hiding, just behind my eyes

i cannot call it a creature, for 

it has no face, no limbs, not 

even a heart. it is just a shadow. 

a lingering memory that disappears

whenever i focus too hard. 

~K.T.

The fog creeps in,

thick like breath

on a window,

the hills fold

into themselves,

and I am

somewhere else

while the red bridge

cuts through the mist

like a wound

that has yet to heal

no longer that cold-running fear that       lonely my hands would droop and wrinkle so flat they would never       lift or hold the world again

Are you breathing only  

Because the world demands it?  

Do you move through life  

Just to check off the boxes?  

Dear one,  

Have you ever paused  

And not because you were told?  

Are you smiling only  

To hide what’s aching inside,  

Or do you laugh  

Because it genuinely sparks joy?  

Friend,  

Have you wandered outside  

And not just to run away?  

Have you truly lived  

For yourself?

Poems are just word structures, sometimes devoid of poetry. Poetry goes far beyond words. Images are words too... Poetry is how we use these images.

FRAGMENTS

Fragments, oh fragments

Small pieces of brokenness

Time chiseled off moments

in detached consciousness

Shattered hope and dreams

In solitary confinement

Fear, in suppressed screams

Enforced early retirement

Retained disappointed feats

Trigger the onset of delusion

Unto bowing lowly in defeat

Reduced to utter confusion

Blasted, stripped of dignity

Unretrieved pieces of unity

Fragments of human sanity

©Johnny J P Lee

(Novelist, Author & Poet)

A Gogyoshiren Poem (15)

Photos, Unsplash Images

We need more cutesy horrors

silly oc doodle sticker ideas

Thoughts like koi flop from

a stranger's wishing well mouth,

toxic with copper.

wandering illusions

they all have your face, except

you look happy. that’s how i know

this is not real.

~K.T.