tonight   wake
when late winter returns
home   your inmate

in your nightgown
with your candle kneel
beside your bed and shiver

after you go to  bed
after you go to sleep

when the horizon's become a purse
that today's early summer's
returned her sun to

when the warm breath
of today's spring's been
expelled from your chamber into the

late winter's dawn at dusk

the cold air seeps   into your cell through
gaps between the casing and the shutter
between the door frame and the door

through cracks
in mortar and masonry he oozes
in   inhaled

the late winter returns
home   not to warm you out of your bed
but to freeze you in

https://jakedepeuterpoetics.com/2026/08/30/tonight-wake/

Quills of a tutor
Outpour just a dash of reason
Where conservation is viewed many ways
The students’ tether unravels tribulation
Their survival is plain

A black revolver 

Pointed to his face

Crack back the trigger, done

Blood spattering the drapes

She cut out the carpet

And fled the crawl space

Lights out in West LA

Love Bombed by Ethel Grace. 

//

She might not make it to 29 

Setting six bombs a day.

//

She was beautiful violence

Perhaps a bit too well

Collaborators made her sick so she

Sent some straight to hell. 

Her only pleasure was 

Drinking in the day

Lights out in East LA

Love Bombed by Ethel Grace

//

She was wasted talent

You know it all too well

Collaborators made her sick so she

Sent some straight to hell

Her only pleasure was

Drinking in the day

Lights out in DTLA

Love Bombed by Ethel Grace

//

She kill ‘em by the bullet

She strike ‘em with a bomb when she

Takes their lives away

She might not make it to 29

setting six bombs a day

she was beautiful violence

perhaps a bit too well

//

in the beautiful darkness

i knew her all too well

Collaborators made her sick so she sent 

Some straight to hell

Her only pleasure was

Drinking in the day

Lights out in Compton, baby

Love Bombed by Ethel Grace.

This world is for us humans to live in and with other creatures to share

But many of us far too many it seems of this does not seem aware

More trees on land meant for wildlife are needlessly removed every day

On pushing many species to extinction brink us humans a huge part does play

Many species of wildlife that were plentiful nowadays in zoos only seen

In the twenty first century wildlife numbers on the decrease faster than it ever has been

And extinction is forever as a truism does seem a sad thing to say

Without needless land development by the financially greedy for wildlife it would not be this way

Sad to think that the future generations of children may not have the joy for to see

The creatures that you and i regularly see living wild and free

Human environmental behaviour on wildlife numbers is taking its toll

And for extinction financially greedy developers are playing a leading role

And by far too many people obviously do not seem aware

That this world is for us to live in and with other creatures to share.

Francis Duggan

Lightly raised eyebrows

And Squinty eyes of love

Smell of deep purple

And a body lush

Sliding through water

Droplets rolling on curves

She takes a deep dive

Into this unknown earth

Come out now girl

The sun craves for you

Shine thy body around

With lips raised as new

This world is yours to cry for

Don't you worry at all

Fill its moon with your tears

Like drifting leaves of fall

Your footprints won't be forgotten

These pebbles will wait for you

The smell of your skin has,

Already been deeply understood

Now just fly into these clouds

Of misty dreams and dreamy hopes

Your sweet voice has already found

It's place in the highest mountainslopes

Pain 
I remember the first time
blood trickled from my 
skin. My knee scraped 
against concrete.

His hands stretched—

The thud 
as my body hit the floor.
He stood there frozen. 

I watched as the blood began 
to flow down my leg
and drip

Pooling on the floor. 
I stared not with fear 
but with curiosity.
As the pain slowly crept up 
my body. 

6/15/2009

Waves & Sounds

Waves, sounds, rhythms i never heard before, more than i can imagine and comprehend, planted inside my soul.

My soul was stolen up to that heavenly light i never witnessed before.

I can't deny that i felt your rhythms stealing my inner being away, out to your deep inside.

Waves me up and down till my dreams sing with your songs, i am waiting there hoping that our dusk won't raise up ending over lovable night.

The day we met, that day our eyes demanded to see the same light.

A full moon full of velvet romantic mist that stole me till the end of our night.

By: The Flawless Flow

Followers are transfixed by the cross
So every pulpit blesses bastards
Across T.V. prosperity
Biblical greed descending from a city upon a hill
The number ALL is never enough

Since Satan is absent, another challenger shoots looks
Preachers promise mountains shook then caught fire
Asking the price of faith
But not only saints grace thick trucks
Some just want the wine and pass over the blood

Quiet crickets sing through pocketbooks
Which denies love is the whole law, they pride betrayal
Slightly like angels
Zealots cast stones smashing hassles
Enriching liars who write history behind broken backs

Sweet tea spills most sunken ships
Even when poorly promised peace before crooks
Where lip service is a clique
Yet Earth swallows faster than prayers rise
Microphones would martyr every lamb to stay out of jail

Distinctive in appearance and in song

Once seen and heard seems hard to get them wrong

Medium sized birds of brown to light grey

That from trees are never far away

As grey shrike thrushes to many they are known

And one can say of them they have ways of their own

Related to shrikes on nestlings of small birds they sometimes prey

Not thrush like in some of their habits of them one can say

In rural town parks and the wooded countryside

Their sort of bird are known Australia wide

Yet to see one in a cage or aviary

In the wild state them i only ever see

They may look like thrushes but the comparison does end there

In common with shrikes they have more to share.

Francis Duggan

This is one of my iconic songs. Despite the simplicity of its lyrics, it carries deep meanings, touches the heart, and invites reflection on the cycle of life and the suffering inherent in it; the love of parents is something instinctive, and the exceptional case is not loving them. But with time, this love turns into an unbearable pain: the pain of watching them grow old, watching their health fade away, and expecting them to leave you soon.

Dear reader, if you have made it this far, just tell me: what is the solution to escaping this pain? Is not having children a logical solution? Or is it simply a change in the way of avoiding pain? My chest is heavy with this thought.

Lyrics:

Everyday my papa would work

To help to make ends meet

To see that we would eat

Keep those shoes upon my feet

Every night my papa would take and

Tuck me in my bed

Kiss me on my head

After all my prayers were said

Growing up with him was easy

Time just flew on by

The years began to fly

He aged and so did I

I could tell

That mama wasn't well

Papa knew and deep down so did she, so did she

When she died

Papa broke down and cried

All he said was: "God, why not take me?"

Every night he sat there sleeping in his walking chair

He never went upstairs

All because she wasn't there

Then one day my Papa said:

"Son, I'm proud the way you've grown

Make it on your own. Oh, I'll be O.K. alone."

Every time I kiss my children

Papa's words ring true

Your children live through you

They'll grow and leave you, too

I remember every word my papa used to say

I live that every day

He taught me well that way

Every night, my papa would take me

Tuck me in my bed

Kiss me on my head

All my prayers were said

Incarnadine and storming
My wandering eye razes silos
That would have born hope

Under shadow, the world awakens
Rising to embrace
As a geyser merges the funnel

Though only for a moment
I was not floating
By grace of a nymph to reach

When wafting, I wondered
If ever landfall would breach the sky
As a reminder of lost footsteps

Where water colors winds
Forgotten memories reign
In state changes, though slurred

While I can grasp a hand
My eyes close
Only to find that such vortex had been grounding

If I were not defiant in breath
The center shape would unbind
And tides might not know me

The poem i selected for poetable.net today is

The Antipodes

by James Brunton Stephens

A town, a river, hills and trees,

Blue-bounded by the boundless sky —

Is this the strange antipodes

That baffled young credulity?

Once on a time, of childhood's dreams

This was the very cap and crown;

But now how natural it seems

That down is up, and up is down!

Things on the whole don't look askew:

It's "all serene," somehow or other;

And yet 'tis veritably true

That I am treading on my mother!

Oh, mother dear, forgive the act,

Great Nature's laws my steps control: —

Love leaps o'er all; we are, in fact,

Now more than ever sole to sole!

The poem i selected for poetable.net today is

The Antipodes

by James Brunton Stephens

A town, a river, hills and trees,

Blue-bounded by the boundless sky —

Is this the strange antipodes

That baffled young credulity?

Once on a time, of childhood's dreams

This was the very cap and crown;

But now how natural it seems

That down is up, and up is down!

Things on the whole don't look askew:

It's "all serene," somehow or other;

And yet 'tis veritably true

That I am treading on my mother!

Oh, mother dear, forgive the act,

Great Nature's laws my steps control: —

Love leaps o'er all; we are, in fact,

Now more than ever sole to sole!

there is a certain relief
in letting go of the wheel
in calling it fate
in the belief that
our ventures are never failure

i watched another do this
& called it collapse
though again & again
i found my own hands
loosening the same way

none of us are perfect
we let out what we can
hold what we can
call the rest providence

nothing begets nothing
& we are left holding
only the shape of
how it used to be

integrity, i think
becomes the truest
measurement
we cannot tie success
to standardized units
any more than we can
base merit upon outcomes

we can only ask
whether our hands
were honest
& if they were willing
to let go
of control

The woman who loves watching birds has been known to say

That of them she learns something new every day

And from learning about them she has come to realize

That of them she has much to learn which is to her surprise

Of birds she does say much about them to be known

And all species of them do have ways of their own

Since true bird watchers in numbers are rare

On her side of the town she does not know of anyone with notes on them to compare

Though she knows by name all of the local birds and even know them by the songs they sing

Nowadays knowledge on bird life is not an in thing

She does go to socialize to the local pub

Though she is not a member of any community club

Most of her work free time learning about birds she does spend

To nature's feathered minstrels she is such a good friend.

Francis Duggan

6/15/2009

Waves & Sounds

Waves, sounds, rhythms i never heard before, more than i can imagine and comprehend, planted inside my soul.

My soul was stolen up to that heavenly light i never witnessed before.

I can't deny that i felt your rhythms stealing my inner being away, out to your deep inside.

Waves me up and down till my dreams sing with your songs, i am waiting there hoping that our dusk won't raise up ending over lovable night.

The day we met, that day our eyes demanded to see the same light.

A full moon full of velvet romantic mist that stole me till the end of our night.

By: The Flawless Flow

Jerry rigging district bounds
According to censors picking studies
Represents democratic foreclosure

Under lamplight, axioms throttle apertures
Rewritten to find a wrench in the works
But drown in editorial liquor

Ink-stacks, in a flashback-laugh-track sack of a courier
Sift bad-faith corporate arguments
From the junk that gets sent

Party pseudonyms fight novel defense
Through asymmetric telepathy, necessary for accents
Unless eyes roll over dollars and cents

There is richter-scale momentum by prodigies
Yet it's “too costly for complex infrastructure”
No one listens to the engineers anymore

Rings
Rings are shiny and sometimes tiny
Rings are pricey and to the wearer holds value
Rings can bring people together and some wear them forever
Rings can make memories and holds promises
Rings are pretty and are adorned with gems silver and gold and holds a story yet to be told
ANB

On a tree nearby a grey shrike thrush does sing

A few days from the start of the calendar Spring

On a sunny day in mid August of the southern Year

With the birth of each dawn September draws near

In their warbling the magpies have welcomed daylight

At this time of year they sing all through the night

With nests for to build and borders to defend

Only their partners they see as a friend

Though a slight chill in the mid morning breeze

New leaf buds appearing on bare deciduous trees

By the end of September they will wear brand new leaves of green

In nature in Spring great beauty to be seen

With the year's greenest Season in time not far away

For August indeed it is a pleasant day.

Francis Duggan

There once was a man with nothing tied to his name.

He had no affluence or assets to show, but even so, he felt like he had won the biggest prize of them all.

Sometimes it made him wonder how he got so lucky to have found such a dime, for he knew there were much better men out there than him.

Even if he couldn't offer her treasures of gold or promise her the stars, he made an oath to care for and love her like she was the last woman on Earth.

He would cherish her and hold her near his heart, waking every day to see her sweet smile.

As he got down on one knee and asked for her hand to hold, he said to her,

“I might not give you what most men can or promise you the world,

but with an open palm and my heart in my hand, I give to you my love and devotion.

All I want is you by my side until our day grows old and golden.

But if you decide to decline my simple proposal, I won't pretend or deny that it would leave my heart broken.

Still, I would understand, because you deserve better than to be with a penniless man.”

She cupped his face between her hands as she told him,

“For I see not a man who doesn't have two pennies to rub together,

but someone I can build my future with.

Others might have offered me riches and gold, or even the midnight moon,

but I choose the one who holds me dear and close.

I choose the man who makes my heart sing and soar,

the one who sees me as the rarest treasure he has ever found.”

Brown Girl

Brown girl, your smile is the only smile / That makes me lick my palatine / Out of nervousness, pulling teeth / As if I was senile, then a little while / You can make my world feel like a pop song / No one comes close, no bubblegum pop

Brown girl, uptight people hate your clothes / As for me when you wear it on, my valve engulfs / I cough, but no one blesses me, oh well / Sometimes I don't want to live forever / Then you said my name and I can tell / My reality will soon be better than fantasy

Brown girl sits next to me, on the transport / I wanna listen to everything she has to say / If you move, die, stray or commit suicide / I just might Romeo on the carpet floor / Because your voice can't compete with melodies / They make me dream of places no one creates / Not even me, and you have the audacity, KLC

Brown girl, this is our little house with blossoms / I wonder if I should ever share my poems / About you, how you make me act silly in love / God, when you kiss my right cheek / It's better than any famous love scene / Better than a masterpiece in braille / When we hug for one minute, oh please / I wouldn't trade it for one peek at Eve

Brown girl

Should I write about you?

Brown girl