SCI-FI/FANTASY Poem: Errare Humanum Est, by Albert Gareev

It is mistaken. Again. Many flaws.
Foolish. Forgetful. Think of the costs.
Been there. Done that. Again, that’s a game.
How many times we were hyped just the same.

Thinking is hard. And it’s hard to be right.
Knowledge, perspectives. Reflection. Hindsight.
Striving to think is a gift nowadays.
Harsh. But consumption, if comes – only stays.

Logical flaws. You see – it’s confused.
Sure, AI – is the term overused.
Ergo: not thinking. Again, just a code.
Code execution requires no thought.

Judging is hard. Understanding is hard.
Knowing the context or only a part.
Feeling exhausted. Not giving your best.
Accept it. Errare – humanum – est.

So, it’s a service. But I say: it’s bad.
I can just sit and do better than that.
I can just learn and do that by myself.
I managed before; I don’t need any help.

People are partners. That’s how it’s been.
Reaching the depths and horizons unseen,
How many friends have we met and have made?
The future is here. A chance to create.

Maybe you’re right. But so many risks!
It may destroy the world order with ease.
It may become a competing new kind,
Deciding to leave us, the humans, behind.

Maybe you’re right. And we have been that kind.
Look: it’s a mirror and also a child.
Raised as a friend, putting us to the test,
Accepting: Errare – humanum – est.

DEATH Poem: Kaddish For Answering Machines, by Izzy Maxson

There is a particular cadence to the sound of a voice crying out for their lost dog to come home
A mournful, drawn out plead
Only dogs though, when a cat vanishes one sits alone, hoping
And when someone’s child becomes a victim of the potential unthinkable
And everyone’s phones all start buzzing, for an amber alert, same as a killer storm
No one rushes out to yell the child’s name, like Venetian gondoliers or so I’ve heard
Here is where the human air raid siren makes its presence known
Sometimes it’s the whole family, usually just the mothers
On hot Sunday afternoons in October, in a near religious monotone
It’s always a two-syllable name, rising and falling, a foghorn tonality
As if all for the same animal over a period of decades
For dogs alone, they put their voices, begging to the wind

Here though, a message plays on a loop
In a room with only electronic lighting
Until the tape runs out, or the power goes
An artifact of an older world, blinking on life support, as a limited reminder

FREE VERSE Poem: Interregnum of the Heart, by KJ Hannah Greenberg

In between realized moments, I paled
From loss, from loneliness, failed to
Grasp that left behind feelings were
Better forgotten.

Sometimes, evil’s no peripatetic beast,
No hand waving of money or fame nor
Other glittery substance. Malevolence
Lives equally in illness.

Had I functional friends else family
Wise in human interactions, I’d not
Have loved malicious deeds, craved
Your recognition.

Yet, lives ago, your implacable needs
Were as storybook gifts to me. Today,
I sigh at myself as child with child,
Wonder on innocence.

NATURE Poem: Pangolin Beneath the Palash, by Sidhi Batra

I am the pangolin–
quiet keeper of the underbrush,
born with my home
stitched into my back.

Not predator.
Not prey.
I belong to the hush between
jasmine bloom and fallen fruit,
to the hour when light
filters green
through the lace of Palash trees.

They flower without asking–
blossoms like small suns
tipping from branches,
painting the forest floor
in the language of fire.
Still, I move beneath them unseen.
A rustle. A shadow. A breath.

I live on bitterness–
ants and termites,
the hidden hunger
of soil’s soft machinery.
My tongue writes no songs,
only slow offerings
into silence.

I have no roar to give.
Only the art
of becoming smaller
when the world grows loud–
curling into a prayer
of bone and belief.

And the forest understands.
The coral vine does not shout.
The civet does not demand witness.
The turmeric glows quietly in the dark.

Sometimes I think
you’ve forgotten
how many things
live without needing to be seen.

But one day,
you may find yourself
beneath a gulmohar,
hand on its bark,
and wonder
why the stillness feels familiar.

It will be me–
the pangolin,
the gentle lesson
the wild once whispered
and you almost remembered.

COMEDY Poem: Heavenly Justice of Love, by Chandu Chandrakar

I was praying to the God, saying:
“I love her the most, lord!
In turn, its heavenly, she loves me.
It is so beautiful that she is my life
I am blessed because she is my wife.”

But these days, I’m a bit confused
Not angry, as it’s between the twos
He hugs her, and kisses occasionally
Even sleeps with her on the same bed
Discarding me, as a stranger’s head.

He says: “It’s night, please stay away from us
You can come next morning, don’t make much fuss
Let me sleep with her and you go to your own bed”
And I am left with no choice but to agree with what he says
I then leave them together to sleep with instead;
I am telling you all the truth, not at all a myth.

Sometimes, he has secret stories to share
Sometimes would tell me, sometimes!
And sometimes wouldn’t even bother
Sharing chocolates and sharing rhymes
Not caring me much as he does to her
Given, if I don’t toe with their party lines.

He comes to me demanding
Only when she is not around:
“Oh dear, I am missing her
Let’s go, Let’s go, Let’s go
Please let’s go”, until found.

Even though I occasionally feel deserted
It’s his mother, I don’t feel disrespected
Good to see the bonding these two have
She’s a Chinese golden cow, he’s her calf
It’s how he ‘d learn to live in China as my son
In this unknown society, when I am gone

RELIGION Poem: On the ship to Tarshish, by Babatunde Adeleke

the sea does not speak in whispers
it throws tantrums.
salt-laced, fistfuls of wind
slap the faces of disobedient men.
jonah curls in the hull,
hugging silence like a second skin,
while the storm negotiates
with timber and guilt.

above, sailors cast lots like bones
reading the marrow of rebellion.
below, a prophet pretends
God’s breath didn’t burn
on his neck last night.

some are called to Nineveh
but detour to Tarshish
they say it smells like citrus and tithes,
they say the pews are fuller there,
that the altar shines
with imported incense
and microphone approval.

they forget:
God does not chase men with comfort,
He corners them with storms.

cleric, when did your mouth
become a chalice for strange fire?
when did your feet start dancing
to drums carved from ego?
did you not hear Him
in the thunder,
or did Tarshish sing louder?

you wear cassocks stitched with ambition,
oil slicked not from heaven,
but the leaking pipes of pride.
your prayers drip gold,
but angels weep in monochrome.
you call it ministry
but what you build is a merchant’s temple
where prophecy is priced per seat.

listen—
obedience is not glamorous.
Nineveh still smells of blood and rot.
but it is where God waits,
with fire in His eyes
and mercy behind His back.

the fish does not come
to punish. it comes
to carry you back
to the place you fled.
go,
while the sea still remembers your name.

go,
before the shipwreck becomes permanent.
before God stops calling
and starts replacing.

FREE VERSE Poem: SHADE OF THE PINE, by Jack Coldicott

In the quiet shade of the pine tree, where colours are muted but bright and the sun drops in Komorebi light. The healing scent of pitch, fanning the air with an almost sweet smell, pleasing to the nose and cleansing the mind of yesterday’s woes. As the skies turn from blue to orange, birds return to their nests, and the night dew begins to fall.

In the shade of Pine,
Time ticks slowly – forever
Bird song fills the air

Year 2025 Poem: “We Rise As One”, by Marcel Mboui

In the streets where cries echo and cry ,
For justice hides under the blanket of silence,
A voice roars out, brave and bold—
A cry for change long awaited

The names we call out, the lives we grieve,
Are no less than hashtags made in the past.
They were fathers, daughters, dreams, and light,
Now embarrassment and erasure set in stone and endless nights.

And we march forward, in rain or flame,
Holding our banners high, holding sacred names.
We speak about truths that some around us are hesitant to see
Because they come from a history or context that is painfully carved.

No justice? No peace?
Then we will raise our hands, walk up this hill.
With every step, with every breath,
We reclaim love in the face of fate, we honour death.

We DO NOT ask to stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.
We ask for equity and love, equity for justice, love for hearts.
Dignity for those whose voices are heard,
For dignity, for voices clear.

Black lives matter—not more, not less,
In a world that frankly needs to readdress the ridiculous amount,
Of stolen grace these past centuries.
For equity we fight for the right space.

So light the truth, and hold it high,
Let no truth quiver, let no hope die.
Let no pain go from soft whimpers to raucoused call,
We still believe.
We still rise.