I watched as the homeless man collided with her. “Spare some change for a cuppa coffee?” Lois looked at the ragged man, then seemed to melt. “Sure. Wait a minute.” She opened her pocketbook, rummaged around, and came up with a five dollar bill, which she gave to the man, smiling. “Ma’am that’s real great of ya… could you maybe stretch it to ten? I haven’t eaten since yesterday.” She paused for a heartbeat, then dug back i...

In recent months I have been to four funerals,All of them close friends I have known for many years,People I respected, and in some cases loved;People who had all led rich and fulfilling lives,All loved by family, successful in business,And who had all served their local communities,Enriching others through voluntary service,Often going the extra mile for no rewardOther than the satisfaction of grateful smiles.Every day w...

Lost and alone, abandoned to my fate,I wander in the barren wildernessDespised and forsaken, longing for death.The cold and bitter ashes of remorseFill my mouth with gall, and blister my tongue,And utter self-loathing darkens my mind.Broken on the wheel of my arrogance,I bend my head to this desolation.No act of abject mortificationCan cleanse my soul of my iniquities,And condemned to eternal suffering,I must live the res...

Like a foolI was taken in by your tendernessbelieving your sweet wordsof unforgiving liesThis jester's outfitI now wear in shamebelittled by your charmsbeaten by your evil mindTears spread like oceanswaves of emotionscrashing inside my bodymaking me think bad thingsYour words of hatredspread invisible marksupon this demonic skinI wearShaming meof the man I see in the mirrorspreading my black wingscreating a Dark Angel of...

I'm tired of being made a foolof those silent nightsmaking my mind think terrible wordsa friendship blossomingbut just like the flowers that grow with waterit all withers and dies in the endwords once spokenof opening oneself to a brave new world of someone's lifeblackened by the darkness encounteredsaying hello is hardfor someone like me to master such braverygoodbyes are bitter pills I must swallowcut the string that bi...

This smiling mask I wearUpon my face for you all to seeHides the anguish beneathAnd the swelling tears in my eyesWhen I look in the mirrorIt's not the one you see before youBut the real face beneathAnd that truly scares meThe harsh cold that surrounds meOf loneliness and that sense of fearFills my mind with bad thoughtsOf pain and suffering I've enduredThis path I find myself walkingDistant and cruel with each step tookTh...

He sits and screams at nightVisions consume his dreamsFighting with no lightHe remembers all the screamsDeath all around Shells of bullets thereBodies on the groundEverybody saying prayersFear is all that's feltFighting all through the nightTakes his canteen from his beltHe's consumed with just frightHe lived and most friends diedDuring the Vietnam WarPain that makes him cryHe cannot take any moreBeen back for yearsHis ni...

The story you are about to read contains mature content that some may find offensive.By choosing to read this piece, you agree that you are 18 or older and do not object to this content.  I wonder often, what do you all think of meTo suffer in pain, many would agreeI have fought back tears, crying for endless daysLooking out into the wonder, as I sit and gazeAll those words you said to me, I am unable to forgetAll them li...

Stars sprawl across the skyPursuing their everlasting questsHow I, too, wish to journey afarGoing window shopping for a dreamPerhaps I will be an adventurerCarving stories out of my lifeAway from this mental prisonWhere I am forced into domesticationBut maybe I want that as wellA happy wife and a homestead of my ownWhat a dream that would beShould I leave this infernal pitOr maybe I shall make myself knownFar and wide peo...

I hear the voices in my headThey speak to me, wishing me deadA gun, a knife, or even some ropeBecause this life I live, is growing hard to copePain and suffering, torture and guiltCrimson tears, that I have spiltWaterfalls falling, from within my eyesOf wishes to be different, a human disguiseThey scream at me, voices so loudImpossible to hear my own, from inside the crowdMan, woman and child, they're all the sameThrough...

Yesterday I was optimistic as the sun, broad as the sky, impish as the morning mist. Now I bleed, slowly, like a finger through my letterbox. Today,the sky-hooks are embedded in my fllesh again, and I am dead inside.

The rainwhich beatsupon the glasspoints thewayto poisongas. The sunwhichwarms the stagnant poolgoes down atduskand leaves itcool. The cloudsmushroomingoverheadtell us there’smuch more todread. The lightning strokewhich tears theskycarries deathto low and high. Good and evil,love and hate,they’re all waiting at the gate.Betrayal, fear,pain, and deathcan be feltin every breath.

once my belly was as full as the moon, till God scowled upon my boy and made him die; now we are afraid to speak to one another, you and I, lest we bring him back to us.

I wish I has the words to explainThat every morning I wake up, not sure that I can stand the painI feel like a zombie pretending I am happyHaving the strength for everyone but me I don't know what it is I need But I know it is not this, which makes my heart bleedI have become frozen out of fearAnd come close to drowning myself in tearsWhen did I start caring so little about myself Feel too much put my heart on a shelfI mi...

once I watchedjust afterduska hugeflock of birdsfly massively froman old mildewed pier.deserted it was;the pier I mean.it had sat therein itsstinking mould for manyyears,friendless and alone.then the birds,crows I’m sure,(though they say crowsonly roost in trees)detached themselvesfrom the dark silhouetteand skimmed the sky.as one smallflockpassed overheada singlecrywas uttered.it pierced mybrainlikean ice-colddart,bringi...