What is the world but against a women’s freedom,
Is this all a game settled before it began,
Have all the tricks been ready to play,
The cameras ready to catch us as we ran away,
Run from who, was he not just a boy?,
But all the same, he made the choices of a man,
Was I not just a girl, no more than a child,
Taught the ugly truth of humanity,
Surviving a barely viable way,
Yet no one else stood near to cradle my hand,
A systematic readiness to point away from the liable,
Am I so unlike a human too.
Will I tell these sweet stories to another one day,
Fill a head with lies so far and wrong,
Will I lie for a son, lying down to pray,
Watch as a young girls light begins wane,
Will I protect for a man, whilst my own I leave behind,
I only begin to hope escape wont be too late.
Author: poetryfest
FREE VERSE Poem: Mistake After Mistake After Mistake, by Nicole Diaz
We arranged a deal. I was there to fulfill a duty and I was using you to add another experience in my life. Only to fear the act. Too scared. You held me and said that me being so vulnerable was better. (I told a friend about this later, and she called it disturbing). I loved your girl more than you- I probably would’ve been brave for you. You mad and say that the therapist agreed with you. I told you to fuck yourself and I only asked that she say something. She didn’t. She fled. I never been so glad at my overreaction before. (Even if the apathetic Internet typers agree it sucks). The worst part isn’t the pain but the embarrassment. No more men, but I’ll do a lady anytime.
FREE VERSE Poem: Last Train, by Emma Atkins
waiting for the last train
black trench coat over black culottes
swinging above bare ankles
tucked into black docs against a smog-greyed night
leaning matrix-style against a post
unmoved
by gusts from passing trains
and homeward-stumbling drunks
she’s a midnight trifle: black on black on black
bob bouncing – a shock of orange
it’s washed out: faded as a watercolour sunset
or summer fruits boba milk tea
it’s the brightest thing at the station
she makes herself brighter by tucking into a satsuma
unravelling
a perfect spiral
of peel
like a black widow spinning a web
the last train pulls in
dragging clouds
she discards her peel on the platform
and disappears through green doors
oh crap that train was also yours
FREE VERSE Poem: In Your Eyes, by Richard Bell
Whether in your eyes or in the night
sky, I need the stars
to guide me.
To show me the way home to your
heart, to your sturdy
arms that hold me in the only solid
peace I have ever
known and I can sleep without waking.
For how can night let us sleep without
the stars to watch
over us?
How can love let us fall without arms
to catch us?
FREE VERSE Poem: LOVE FLIES OUT THE WINDOW, by Natasha Ali
There it goes.
Love goes out the window.
When you’re betrayed, closer than close becomes East is East and West is West and never the
twain shall meet again!!
Physical distance wished is a million miles apart in the head.
A silent hostile divide.
Unspoken.
And so it widens, from Earth to Space.
You fill it with blame, ‘he said’, ‘she said’, ‘I’m right, ‘you’re wrong’.
Each wrong justifies a right.
Each right is testified at the Church of Betrayal,
On the Alter of Smashed up Love.
It’s all gone awry.
And you stand clothed there wronged.
Sprinkle hate generously to keep the good cause justified and alive.
Here there is raison d’etre,
Reasonable reason leaves,
Irresponsible insanity arrives and approves.
Yet a mad Despot needs not reason, crazy love makes Tyrants.
Ah yup…there it goes…Love’s done a runner through the Window!
Forever turns out to be ‘just for now’, or ‘until something better comes along’.
The beauty of sensual lovemaking now unsatisfied boring sex.
The roses now stink of shit,
The Cats have been pissing abundantly raising weeds,
Velvet petals turn dry to dust,
The flowers wither and emotions to mulch,
Thorns prick and Love bleeds,
It grieves for those good old ‘could’ve beens’,
That’ll get you each time.
Oh those loving looks to resent,
That festers in the heart and governs the head. And there it settles and ferments.
Oh me, oh my, Love does a running jump through the Window!
Lovers to strangers, friends to enemies.
Who would’ve thought it would come to this??
Fighting over possessions once unitedly purchased.
Care and Share becomes Keep and Reap.
Love songs to fight songs Anthems.
No more climb high mountains or swim deep oceans,
Or nimbly skip and jump through flowered meadows,
Whilst happily chucking daisies in the air.
Now all you feel is that humiliating sting of love up for sale and no potential buyers.
Looks like Love is sprinting through the Window!
Oh what a fool!
Forever love really is the pits!
Nothing like rubbing your face in Love Sick!
You know they say ignorance is such bliss.
And foresight I hear is such a bitch!
There’s broken hearts and loneliness,
Time heals all wounds,
forgive and forget,
You’ll say you won’t make the same mistake again.
No way!, No how!
Where is true love?
It will happen to you.
it will be for real..next time for sure!
As you longingly ponder when,
Licking love’s past wounds,
Cupid cherubically sniggers….
Has Love swiftly flies out the Window!
FREE VERSE Poem: My Mother as Geography, by Aviva Derenowski
my mother’s like a village
a place for ancestral wisdom
my mother’s like a town
a home for growth and learning
my mother’s like a city
welcoming all who enter her domain
my mother’s like a river
adapting to the times and constantly learning
my mother’s like a mountain
a foundation for future growth
my mother’s like an ocean
healing those who seek her wisdom
my mother’s like Africa
vibrant colorful mysterious
my mother’s like America
wealthy abundant resourceful
my mother’s like Asia
venerated ancient mystical
my mother’s like Australia
wild independent fun-loving
my mother’s like Europe
stylish elegant well-mannered
my mother’s like Atlantis
alive in the hearts of many
FREE VERSE Poem: Icarus, by Alina Arshad
“Oh, Icarus” they say. “How cruel was your fate?”
All the nights you spent trapped beneath the ground,
Your heart, it longed to be free
Way up there you soared so high!
Did it hurt when you fell? Not from Heaven but from Earthly skies,
Down, down, down, to meet your demise.
“Oh, Icarus” he wept. “How foolish my son has been!”
The nights I spent forging our winged escape,
Only for your hubris to take shape.
Was it greed? What could have possessed you?
Down, down, down, all my work undone.
“Oh, Icarus” I sigh. “I wish I could change your ways.”
You never did learn how to fly, you could only fall, what other ending could there be for you,
after all.
What else could I have done? I broke you out, he had locked you in a cage,
Up, up, up you’re heading towards the sun
FREE VERSE POEM: growing up, by Dylan Wey
growing up was tough for him,
learning all his responsibilities,
before he had the chance to talk,
his father yelled at him for not working,
he was 9,
his mother had left,
she died when he was younger,
leaving her messy memories with her
pain filled son,
his father yelled at him for not working,
he was 12,
and just starting middle school,
it felt like his father was inside of every kid,
and he had no place that felt like home,
he finally found a place,
to make his father proud,
his father yelled at him for not working enough,
he was 14,
he’s in high school now,
blade in his pocket
carrying his demise of promises
etched into his arms
he drinks his problems away now,
he thinks his dreams are
at the bottom of the bottle,
his father yelled at him for getting fired,
he was 17,
excited to leave,
he didn’t wish to stay much longer,
if it was up to him,
he would’ve left the second he learned
to take a step,
his father yelled at him for not working,
he turned 18,
excited to step,
his father begged him to stay,
yet there was nothing else to say,
he still left,
with his father having no one
to yell at but himself.
FREE VERSE POEM: january, by Pokrzywa Yumeno
you give me lemonade and i make lemons
you give me flowers and i find a jar to put them in
you give me instant words and i give you instant soups
you give me your roommate’s cereal and i give you my roommate’s eggs
you give me your fake-silken pyjamas, with cranes
and i give you my auntie’s pyjamas cause why not
you give me your oily shampoo and i oil your heart
you give me your wi-fi password and i give you my spotify’s account
you give me ideas of airplanes and i bring you to the airport
