Sweet little girl with a teddy bear,
Standing almost naked on her porch
Eyes blue, perfectly round, large as dinner plates
Glimmering like jewels in the golden morning sun
I approach, smiling, leaning down to meet her eyes,
I ask her how’s life in her little world today
From her mouth comes the sweetest little voice
Telling me I’m a fucking asshole
Abandon me
Please won’t you phantom?
Apparition don’t appear.
Abandon me
Please dark ether,
You fill my nights
With fear
Leave me
Sorrowful specter,
Haunt my floor
No more,
The way you smirk
and giggle
Shakes me
To my core
You’re unwanted
Wicked wraith,
Please incorporate
Elsewhere,
Cease the seizure
Of my family,
For that I can not
Bare
Performed by Carina Cojeen
At ocean’s edge
I pledge
a solemn oath
to both
the sea and sky
that I
shall be as true
with you
in harmony
with me.
Performed by Carina Cojeen
After centuries of living with nothing, but my love to you, friends,
I found myself surrounded by the luxury of feelings and I am safe
now, I am alive, I am breathing again, but where were you, my friends,
when I was broken? I am calm now, but where were you my friends
when the emptiness encircled me and I was afraid? Where are the friends
when I need them most? I was yearning for knowledge, but from this
day on, I don’t want to know a thing except for, will I be able or not
to love you again, friends. Maybe everything and maybe nothing that I
have given or maybe not given away will ever be really as mine, as my
own breath? Hello friends, I found you after centuries of living with nothing
but my expectations — our life is what our expectations are. I thank you all.
David Dephy
January 2, 2020
—
Producer/Director: Matthew Toffolo http://www.matthewtoffolo.com
Festival Moderators: Matthew Toffolo, Rachel Elder
Casting Director: Sean Ballantyne
Editors: Kimberly Villarruel, Ryan Haines, John Johnson
Festival Directors: Rachel Elder, Natasha Levy
Camera Operators: Ryan Haines, Temitope Akinterinwa, Efren Zapata, Zack Arch
Genre: Life
Website: https://ajosephpoetry.wordpress.com/
Muse, dear muse
Faintly, I still hear you
crying, now laughing
with Charon
You are gone, yes
You’ve let me go
Now you can breathe freely
Dear muse
Do our dreams go on endlessly ?
Could you not have shown me one kindness
and taken from me these memories ?
Which, unbidden,
remind me of what was, once ?
The cruelty isn’t that you’re gone
It is that I remember.
Performed by Carina Cojeen
Generation, by A. Brown
To have Strength to persevere
in a time filled with:
peer pressure,
envy and hate,
is a modern-day miracle.
I’ve come to realise,
that the greater the blessing,
the greater the obstacle.
There was a glass ceiling,
until it was broken by
my,
desire not to be,
compared.
There are many opportunities,
but only one chance.
Father, help me,
I pray thee.
When disappointments come,
Please help me
to respond with integrity.
I don’t want to be,
another statistic,
whose life ends in tragedy.
You have never left our side.
Your promises are true.
Lord, I need you,
and our generation does too.
—
Producer/Director: Matthew Toffolo http://www.matthewtoffolo.com
Festival Moderators: Matthew Toffolo, Rachel Elder
Casting Director: Sean Ballantyne
Editors: Kimberly Villarruel, Ryan Haines, John Johnson
Festival Directors: Rachel Elder, Natasha Levy
Camera Operators: Ryan Haines, Temitope Akinterinwa, Efren Zapata, Zack Arch
“I saw truth flick a cigarette at those guys”
“Truth don’t even smoke,” somebody else said
Another witness remarked, “Truth didn’t do anything, the guys in the car just shot for no reason”
Three people said truth started saying stuff, stuff nobody wanted to hear and that some people told truth to shut up, but truth kept jawing at every body
An elderly woman said truth was in the wrong neighborhood; had no reason to be there, especially at that hour
Somebody said truth needed to get its head on straight, needed some correction, one person, who refused to reveal her identity said all the witnesses were liars
Every body is coming from a different angle here
Every cusp of a cause is claiming their truth is the real truth
It was discovered truth had been shot in the back
Apparently, truth tried to walk away from the scene that night, wasn’t looking for a fight, it was suggested that maybe truth was a victim of mistaken identity, that perhaps the guys in the car thought truth was truth’s half-brother, half-truth, that happens a lot
Five suspects alleged to be in the car that night were brought in for questioning
Nobody admitted to anything and no one who was at the crime scene was willing to go to the lineup and identify anyone
You can’t blame them
If they can kill truth, they wouldn’t hesitate to kill friends of the truth too
You should have seen truth’s funeral
People from every race, neighborhood, income, political affiliation, religion, showed up
Who knew truth had touched so many lives?
Many testified how truth had always tried to make a difference, wasn’t afraid of being unpopular and how truth repaired their marriages and enabled others to face their conflicts and addictions
One person even claimed truth helped them give up fried calamari
It was very moving
At the cemetery, with the lowering of the coffin into the ground (You may not believe this, but I was there and saw it happen)
Truth opened the casket lid and got out, looked at everyone and said, “I’m not dead; you can’t kill me, I’m still here”
Then truth just walked off the cemetery grounds, still in grave clothes, crossed the street and went into this nondescript Chinese take out place and five minutes later got on a bus with what looked a carton of chicken fried rice
Some people were upset, “Where did truth get money for bus fare and food?” said one. Others blamed the media for hyping truth’s death in the first place to further their agendas
Truth, it’s been reported, was seen the following week at a police interrogation in Damascus, a divorce court in Akron, a perjury hearing in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a confessional booth in Holland and at a high school audition for “Cats” in Branson, Missouri
Truth, I just found out, was recently stabbed in a domestic dispute in Richmond, Virginia, but survived
Truth, it seems, gets around a lot
But maybe not as much as some folks get around the truth.
Performed by Carina Cojeen
Performed by Carina Cojeen
Performed by Norma Dunphy
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