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Kola_boof
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Username: Kola_boof

Post Number: 57
Registered: 07-2004

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Posted on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 01:03 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I decided to pick a poem for each of the men that I like at AALBC.COM from my collection "NILE RIVER WOMAN".....and post it.

Of course since that book is so autobiographical, it's dangerous taking the poems out of context. But I think these poems fit.

Although I don't know Rondall, (at all), I picked one for him, too. Because this is his board.

__________

FOR Sire Rondall

"My Master, My Husband" (Nilotic Traditional 1997)

Once there is blood involved
it is out of our hands, Jabena (coffee worshipers).
In the river, where the Cushite women bled
a thousand years cycle.
tima!
the Soldier's wine
...tinting the Nile; your Orange Moon
assed
bareness

here, my lover, where you
drew us BLACK and of a lion
and a lamb
God has spilled his joy! (and I still drink it)

here where I come
(born over and over again)

to be Naked with you



_______
FOR ABM:

"Black Beauty's Totem" (1997)

I wish to find the swell of
constant waters

...and the death of the locust night

I wish to find the anguished heart
of the blue blackened earthquake
and lay my minkish head against his
armoured chest.

To bless him with full, swollen lips
and behold his darkened portholes
drinking my softened flesh...oh, but yes

I wish to die as spirits then...

droplets

lost and swishing forever
deep within my purple folds
SWEET

like birth and no regret

__________


FOR LAMBD

"Empty Arms" (2004)

He is the one we should give birth to!

His kiss is like Candy
Candy made from rain and slush
Everything I ever loved

It left me

Until I saw him wobbling towards me again.
The hanging diaper.
His big nappy water head.

I am born again. UP from my corner.
I am calling on the church moan.
I am speaking through the slowness of patience
saying

He is the one we should give birth to
He is my man.
He is my one moment to smile.
He is my everything.

Even though I am alone.

__________

For TROY:

"The Mysteries of Dignity"
(written 1998 for Ousmane Sembene)

I am the future.

Pregnant with God.
I am invisible
drowned out by the light
infested by sorrow

meaningless tides
overwhelming annoyances
(the silence)
of putrid rotting dignity; its curdling milk
more than whiteness could take

BUT I am the future.

Be it off camera.

___________

For LAMBD

"BETTER ANGEL" (1999)

Hurry up this way again

I always miss you.
I need you.
In my busy-ness...I wait.
Every moment.

I wanted someone to cook for/to talk to.
I am female--I like pain.
I miss you.

Making love to me.
I miss your rough dark chin.
I miss saying:

"every gently now...I'm not that strong"

I need your love...I need your arms
surrounding me.
I cannot sing for shit.

I only feel healed...when we pray
(Hugged up)

_____________

For CHRIS HAYDEN

"Dolphin" (During Pregnancy)

On morning's fin
I give birth to a new manchild
Into the water--out to the sun
I am naked because I have done nothing wrong
I am a woman (Yes)
I have Two Mouths to speak with.

Between disagreements eternal
Blood of fat men where they burst from life
Sudan and crocodiles/Sun and blackness
Undoing the death

I am revolution's woman
on morning's fin
Penetrating the surface--diving into the womb
Where my son is feasting
Where I dreamt of gallant daughters; dark as the blood in eggs...yellow as straw and sudd; caroling after my mothering
Black stick fingers scatching at the scalp; parting the knotted ancient proof (my natural mate)

Where the sun catches my wet tail
and our dreams take to feasting
before we fast (inside me)

___________

For CAREY

"Baby It's Cold Outside" (I Love My Man, the Remix) 2004


I never thought that I

would be burned up in a
fire
But it's your Kool/smooth love
I say it takes me
so much higher

ever gently now...I'm not that strong

I'm a woman/Yes
I have two mouths to speak with.
Beauty beguiling and abstract
Opening boxes...there is only water inside
that fascinates the damned.

I Love My Man.

I remember when the Ocean first started/I want
a new religion
Before everything comes back
Black woman;

"Give birth to a new son"

When you die come back to life

I never thought that I

would be burned up in a
fire/EVERYTHING I ever loved....it left me.

Baby, it's cold outside.
I remember when the Ocean first started.
Everything I ever loved. It left me.

Baby, it's cold outside.

"give birth to a new son".

Open your heart...to yourself....and

give birth to a new son.


__________


For ABM

"Long Live the Queen"

Take the beauty and conform to it
After all--you're nothing if you're not on the screen.
The men can't smell you
if you're not in the volcano.
Your pussy is just wood with a bubble of molasses
floating in the nostril of
fishing birds.
Their chirping laughter pecking at your
scalp like a warm, loving
Jesus.
They call that ugly.
To love silence and be dicked down by
Christ.
They feel sorry for the stump in the yard.
And for girls like me who suck dick
---because I'm not a bird, and never
had a NEST---
but was rather the
Arrow
killing the Dove as I stuck through
its chest.

____________


FOR YUKIO

Please note: This is a poem to "cheer" the men of Sudan in battle. "buk" is Sudan's river goddess.

"KING OF THE SON"

GOD is a black man
but his sons are
half devil

For this we named it war

We...who still know the names.
We...who memorize the faces.
We...the inward floors of the womb--where lives the garden of time.

buk:

protect my son
let there be the Nile
let there be my blood
let my cattle bare him goodness
from Sun and Sky
I chant down father's birds
protect my son

stand him up!
stand him up!

that he and his brothers unite

So that Kush rises from Ajok
and my breasts feed these Kings
"in her name"

Our mother, the Goddess Sudan
Her Black face
both Sun and blood of all man.

____________

FOR Michael

ASSIS
(a correct spelling of ISIS)

We killed our round mother
Arab
evil
eye

We killed our dark mother
milky
evil
eye

We wrapped up in the spider's web
and swallowed
all his flies

We killed our sweet mother
who
believed in the sky

We killed our dark mother/whose husband could
fly
We killed our own mother
brown
EVIL
eye

_______

NOW PLAYING

they killed their own mother

In the long form and short form
in f-stops and artificial
light

In Khartoum, Athens and Tel Aviv
in Cairo, Sicily
South Africa
and

the District of Columbia, New York

In jazz houses and dance clubs

on basketball courts and video
phantasms of paradise

in Seattle, at Cambridge and California and
EVERYWHERE
that dark angels slid out of dark wombs.

The darkest boys.

They killed their own mother.

_________


FOR ALL OF YOU.

"Christmas on the Nile" (for my mother, Jiddi. 1988)

She is mighty-mighty
(and I remember her)

I remember her toes
piercing the bloody Nile; the
glimpse of leg
beneath wool

I remember her blackness
--so sheer and deep like the
slippery hue of a charcoal panther

beauty abstract and beguiling.

I remember the roundness of her
face,
the diamonds in her eyes...and the
merriment of a hair like wool:
salt-jagged and knotty.

On Jesus birthday; I remember
the HOLY/unforgettable.








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Kola_boof
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Username: Kola_boof

Post Number: 58
Registered: 07-2004

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Posted on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 01:10 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

"THANKSGIVING DAY"

I make no sound, but a heartbeat

I take no liberties with the devil
nor do I
smoke his dandruff
or cut his pathways
because
life is much too hard

and I love the slow pace of my God
and the cornered grins of
my ghosts--I love the act of will
I savor the days of the earth
I love the height of the sky

I cherish every black man
with an unheard sorrow
because
our graves are just the same

and I live for the echo of my children;
listen for the BOLT

----with the silent faith
----with the silent faith

that they have in me.
I make no sound, but a heartbeat.

_______

I wrote that poem about the Black American woman who adopted and raised me, because ThanksGiving Day is my FAVORITE holiday. I love "cooking" and eating. And the poem also really tells how I feel about black men, about my responsibility as a mother and about my work.

I am always so AMAZED that people see the "anger" and "meanness" in me....and never the love or grace.

It's because people are weaklings and can't accept people who are GENUINE.



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Cynique
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Username: Cynique

Post Number: 1516
Registered: 01-2004

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Posted on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 03:12 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Well, Kola, you showed why many people react the way they do to you, when you wrote the last line of your post. It's because after singing your own praises, you become miffed if others don't reinforce your conceit. And the name-calling you resort to as the result of such indignation is usually insulting.
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Kola_boof
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Username: Kola_boof

Post Number: 60
Registered: 07-2004

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Posted on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 04:03 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

How exactly have Chris Hayden, ABM, LAMBD, Michael and Yukio....reacted to me CYNIQUE?

It's you and Thumper that I've been disliked by.

And once you've been around ENOUGH "professional" writers, Cynique...you will find that they are MOSTLY like myself.....a) well aware of their strengths and not above pointing them out, b) totally insecure and critical of their weaknesses, and in my case, not above pointing them out.... and c) always talking about themselves.

Others do it constantly, but you only PENALIZE ME....and of course, perhaps I'm just BETTER at doing it than others.

The one thing I have on my side is sincerity and vulnerability.

My nerves are ALWAYS.....exposed for public view.

And people who REALLY appreciate and like "art" and the PROCESS should be able to discern that.

But the "PETTY" folks will rain snub.

And we all know that I could give a shit.






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Cynique
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Username: Cynique

Post Number: 1519
Registered: 01-2004

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Posted on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 04:24 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Yada yada yada. You're the one who whined about people not appreciating you. You're such a cry baby. All you want is for people to stroke you. It's always all about Kola. Get over yourself. Yawn.
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Rondall
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Username: Rondall

Post Number: 40
Registered: 01-2004

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Posted on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 11:26 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Kola,

I appreciate the insistence that you **do not know me at all**. Unfortunately my darling wife is not buying it and she is asking me questions that I am unable to answer.

So after reading the poem that you dedicated to "Sire Rondall", we will now be spending our Thanksgiving holiday with a marriage counselor.

P.S. I must insist that this is "our" board. As long as we play nice, be nice, and are nice we can all do our thing. Unlike a T.V. show, no one gets immunity and anyone can be voted off.
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A_womon
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: A_womon

Post Number: 886
Registered: 05-2004

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Posted on Tuesday, October 05, 2004 - 12:16 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Unlike a T.V. show, no one gets immunity and anyone can be voted off.

Awl suky suky nah!

So after reading the poem that you dedicated to "Sire Rondall", we will now be spending our Thanksgiving holiday with a marriage counselor.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
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Brelei715
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Username: Brelei715

Post Number: 39
Registered: 09-2004

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Posted on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 10:46 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Kola,
As someone who does not really know you, is new to the board, and partial to what others think, i beleive the reason people do not accept you is because of you. The way you come across, the things you say, the way you say it. If this board is filled with writers and they are all the 'same', how come you are the only one who comes across like this? sometimes you talk in circles, sometimes you make no sense and sometimes you seem 'crazy'. when i first came to this board i was very interested in reading your work, now i wanna read it but i am not as interested as i was before. you just don't seem as real as i thought you may have been. now that is not to dis you, not to make you feel bad, it's just honesty...you asked a question, i gave an answer. just refer back to your 'whoas me, nobody likes me and i don't know why, i'm so loving and caring but PEOPLE ARE WEAKLINGS.....' no people don't accept you because of stuff like that!!! if want to be accepted and respected, you have to accept and respect...no if, ands or buts about it...can ya dig it?
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Brelei715
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Username: Brelei715

Post Number: 40
Registered: 09-2004

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Posted on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 10:47 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

LMAO @ Rondall.....dang yo' Thanksgiving is gonna be all jacked up!!!
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Rondall
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Username: Rondall

Post Number: 41
Registered: 01-2004

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Posted on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 12:01 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

ˇˇˇBRAVO!!!

I am a now a fan of Brelei715. That was exquisitely put in your previous note. And I still support artistic freedom, up until the "subjective" point that it no longer has a point.

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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm

Post Number: 1558
Registered: 04-2004

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Posted on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 12:35 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Rondall,

You're just co-signing for Brelei to get back into your better-half's good graces.

HAHA!
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Brelei715
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Username: Brelei715

Post Number: 41
Registered: 09-2004

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Posted on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 01:10 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

haha, that was funny Abm....thanks Rondall (although Abm is probaley speaking the truth).


Too Mrs. Rondall,
I for real, really DO NOT know your husband.
Brelei

lolololololol

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Kola_boof
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Username: Kola_boof

Post Number: 61
Registered: 07-2004

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Posted on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 01:14 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Brelei715:

Thanks for being honest. I truly value that and am like that myself.

RONDALL:

Thanks for revealing your personal feelings towards me (in your last post)...

and for pointing out that my WORK (which has been published in 8 countries and praised by the N.Y. Times, Rawsistaz Reviewers and a myriad of black artists)....."has no point"...and is beyond subjective.









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Rondall
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Username: Rondall

Post Number: 43
Registered: 01-2004

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Posted on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 04:59 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Kola_boof????

I want to cut this VERY short. I was not addressing your "work" in my reference to artistic freedom. As the statement I wrote was very specific about the subject matter.

By the way, I couldn't give a **rat's gas** about where your work has been published or who has praised it (although, I did not know that Jayson Blair was doing book reviews for the Times).

***O.K. Hold up!!! Now see...that is what happens when people start to post these personal attacks.***

Kola, I am asking you to try not personalize every freekin thing that comes across this discussion board. My interaction with you has been limited, so until I get a personal impression, I will reserve any judgements, insults, snipes, etc...

So just chill out and do what you do.


DISCLAIMER: All statements about any and all characters in this posting are fictitious. The purpose of the aforementioned statements are not meant to be inflammatory. Any resemblance to anyone either alive or dead is purely coincidental. In other words, this posting "has no point." ;)
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Kola_boof
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Username: Kola_boof

Post Number: 64
Registered: 07-2004

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Posted on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 05:24 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Actually, Mr. Rondall...WHERE did I post a personal attack on you? I HAVE NOT.

You certainly did, however, make a very clear one on me.

And in fact, if you go back and read every post you've written--you've been baiting me into some kind of immature "expectation" that you have of me to act up.

I posted POEMS.

You may not care where my work is published, and clearly were trying to compare my life to Jayson Blair....but any 6 year old could see that you were dissing me as a person and my work.

For instance...just WHAT EXACTLY...and I mean EXACTLY...would Jayson Blair and I have in common? I'm a fiction writer and a poet. Not a Newspaper man.

You're an adult. You should be able to answer that without becoming uncooth.

In the meantime...I did nothing on this board but post my poems, in honor of the black men on this board that I THOUGHT deserved mention and respect.

Cynique has posted personal attacks here. I have not attacked anyone. I discussed my work and talked about WHY I write the way that I do in my initial post. READ THE 2 POSTS THAT FOLLOW THAT.

I stated the FACTS of your post, Mr. Rondall. ANYONE HERE...can read what you said. You said that either me, my work (or both) were beyond subjective and had no POINT. You later came in to compare me to Jayson Blair?

How does one not take personally?

And since you and I have NO HISTORY....why would you come at me that way unless you were trying to impress others who hold some negative view and you wanted to make it clear to them that you AS WELL don't like Kola Boof?

You made that clear when you PRAISED 175 for putting "Kola" in her place. Even a CHILD could decipher that, Mr. Rondall.

Not one person....not ABM, not LAMBD, not Chris Hayden....posted even a minor "thank you" to acknowledge my GESTURE towards them. Wasn't that SNUB enough to satisfy your desire for Kola's blood?

Yes, I do take it very personal, because I have not been disrespectful to you, have not attacked you and have done nothing but posted some very POWERFUL poetry that is published and is part of a collection of poems that has been dubbed "classic". And as a matter of FACT, ( fact and not personal jealousy)....there are several poems in the collection that are indeed considered Classic by knowleageable Scribes in the poetry community--in the U.S., England and everywhere else that the book has been PRAISED.

To dislike a person's controversy, their work or their "personality" is one thing...but to engage in an unfair uncalled ROUTING is purely...to use the accurate word....

....OBVIOUS

Anyone, SIR...who reads this entire thread will see that I have been on the receiving end of the attacks from 3 different people...and that I have NOT attacked back.

I let you all have your say and I acknowledged the MESSAGE you were sending. Before I could change my behavior...there were MORE attacks.

And yes...my name is Kola Boof. I'm so glad that it's a memorable one....and not "run of the mill".

I am chilled, darling.

And got my feelings HURT--just as you would like, by everyone.

I won't post anything on your board, Mr. Rondall, and I apologize for trying to share my work with any of you.











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Rondall
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Username: Rondall

Post Number: 44
Registered: 01-2004

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Posted on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 05:57 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)


Okay, but...
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Lambd
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Lambd

Post Number: 604
Registered: 01-2004

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Posted on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 08:37 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I really don't understand any of this, but Kola Boof, I thought you knew how I felt about your poetry. If you need my appreciation for everyone to see, then by all means have at it.

Thank you sincerely for including me in your latest poetry posting. I am indeed honored. I am confused when it comes to figuring you out, Kola Boof. On one thread you denounce me for no apparent reason and on the next thread you are dedicating poetry to me. You are definitely a strange one, Kola Boof. By the way, I checked out your website and that two was impressive...along with your book, "Flesh and the Devil"...along with your poetry...along with your gigantimelons. Now that you are single, you should be able to press those super-sized milkduds up against me as much as you want without feeling like you are promising something you can't deliver.

Hey Kola,






Got Milk?
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Lambd
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Lambd

Post Number: 605
Registered: 01-2004

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Posted on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 08:39 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

That 'two' was impressive?
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Lambd
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Lambd

Post Number: 606
Registered: 01-2004

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Posted on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 08:39 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Those 'two' were impressive?
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm

Post Number: 1563
Registered: 04-2004

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Posted on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 02:15 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Kola,

"How Can You"

I thought that I were done,
Through,
Over,
Kaput,
Oh cold death set me free.

So why remind me I am man?

Can I not simply be alive
Pretend that I might thrive
Betwixt neither time nor passionate possibility.

What was it I did do,
That reminded you,
Of more.
When I wallow down,
Bang my head upon the squalid ground

How can you dare even to look at me?



BTW: Thanks for your poems. :-)

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