Kept rowing
flowing,
until the waters stormed,
Sense broke through,
then drowned
beneath the foam.

The vultures circled,
crying out in mourning…
shadows wheeled
above…
the boat drowning.

I heard the ghouls
awaken in the dark,
their lust like wick-fire
burning through my soul…

The night grew still,
the boats fell quiet…
too quiet,
something vast
threatening below sight.

The human heart
became a hollow bell,
beating through the ear
that could not flee hell.

Each wave carried something
I had buried…
The hunger,
and the cruelty,
beneath me.

Reason split
like wood in the current,
I fell past the reach
of name and prayer.

Through every depth,
I met a different stranger…
Each one wore my face,
and each one stared.

No hand came down
to save me.
The water had forgotten
where I’d been.
I reached for God
and touched only my reflection…
watched it smile
beneath the water’s kin.

And somewhere
where the water ceased to carry,
I found the things
I feared were not there…

The rage I fed,
the love I turned to hunger,
The parts of me
I learned to look away from.

I surfaced,
but the world was not the same.
The sky was pale,
the morning strangely cold.

I looked behind me,
again…
the drowning darkness
had come back with me.

You are the fix,
you are the fall,
You are the voice,
the silence behind it all.

You are the hunger,
I cannot name.
You are the guilt,
I am the flame.

Wherever I turn,
you’re in my veins,
Pulling me back
through the rusted chains.

Even when I beg…
to bleed.
You feed.

You are the mirror,
I cannot smash.
You are the wound,
I love to scratch.

You are the poison,
I am the cost.
You are the stain
I’ve never lost.

Come closer…
Let me drown
in your stare.
I crave this weight.
I need the snare.

When you’re gone,
I still feel your grip.
Every thought
frays at the edge.

In this mind,
there’s only you.
Every lie
I swallow as truth.

You carved your name
into my ROM.
Now I rot…
but not alone.

You are the sickness
I never see.
I am the hunger
that feeds on me.

Inside the hollow
of your chest,
I am the unrest
you call the pest.

Time warps and bends…
we lose our name.
We don’t recall
from where we came.

Since we became
this quiet war.
Why don’t we remember
who we were before?

Your words…
they stain.
They stay.

They crawl beneath
the skin I wear.
I call them yours,
but find them there.

I’m not afraid
to fall apart,
‘Cause you live
inside my heart.

Without you,
I cannot exist.
Without me,
you still persist.

And somewhere between
the breath and the death,
I can’t tell…
whose lungs I left.

You are the fix.
I’m your fall.
I am the silence
after the call.

You are the hunger.
I’m your blame.

You are the guilt…
The forever stain.

My eyes
wanna decorate
this ordinary world…
this un-carved broken face.
Smiling,
choosing…
let me put my cheap glasses
over my view.
Let me embrace…

The shade of my shoes brings every halt.
But I keep moving,
dragging afar,
walking with bones,
burdens, and loads.
These shoulders have grown tired.
How do I take the weight…
off my heart?

My dreams seem expensive.
Responsibilities lie
along the route.
History wants to come back.
I’ll rewrite my own myth.
The people I call family or friends
deceived me to my roots.
My home will be somewhere.
My courage has never known defeat.

I miss myself,
my spotless heart.
A stomach that’s not hungry
still needs warmth.
Dust settled over every mirror.
Something has been missing
forever,
ever since I became aware.

Oh, the land is broken,
and so am I.
My deeds need a writer ,
my own pen nearby.
Searching for a place
where I belong,
learning how to carry,
how to give life
to my dream.

Wooden locks hang on doors.
Hinges rust.
The courtyard calls.
The self’s screaming
has turned into little remains.

Sunken here
like a lost river,
time flows out…
I stand among aliens.
Termites keep coming… piercing this heart.
Darkness, let me engulf the bruise.
My swords are here, waiting for me.

This is the pause in my search…
my destination,
I still cannot find.
Thinking of the One
who was already living within me,
or the One I keep searching for.

Is it easy to stay so dry,
to watch the clouds
just drifting by?
You lock the windows,
shut the door…
As if you don’t need
the downpour anymore.

It’s written in
the drought you keep,
in all the places you don’t weep.
Why choose the pain that settles in,
instead of rain that washes skin?

Are you safe in your quiet room,
far from thunder,
far from gloom?
Still, there’s a rhythm on the pane,
a silver hymn of coming rain.

It traces every scar you hide,
every wound you keep inside.
So tell me now,
where will you run,
when even stillness comes undone?

What if the raindrops
had to fall?
What if the silence
was never a wall?
You are the root,
I am the storm…
hopes were dry,
still wanting to be born.

Why don’t we bury the past and try?
Maybe the rain will bless the sky.
Maybe the flood is not the end,
but the place where
broken things can mend.

You call it peace,
this careful retreat,
but soft piano spills
through the street.
It hums where broken hearts belong,
untying knots that held too long.

When the world begins to slow,
the clouds repeat
what we used to know.
All I want is to feel the grace,
of dancers lost in time and space.

Don’t shield your roots
let the storm break through,
the rain remembers…
what once grew in you.
A quiet hope as the grey turns clear,
unlearning what we held so dear.

What if the raindrops
were made to fall,
to answer the pain
that outlives it all?
You are the thunder,
fierce and high,
I am the lightning
slicing the sky.

Why don’t we open the door and cry?
Let the rain wash out the goodbye.
You know you have tears
let them fall tonight,
in the hush where storms give way to light.

Maybe our answers were never far…
just hidden in weather,
bruises ‘n scar.
So let it pour till the stillness breaks,
till the heart remembers what it takes.

I see a lamp
hanging alone,
in the lane,
without a groan…

No pain,
no plea,
no call for light,
just waiting through
the quiet night.

It does not move,
it does not speak,
Its glow is steady,
slow, and meek…

A thread of light
in darkness sewn,
A witness,
but it stands alone.

The lamp sits
like a silent jury,
It sees the thief
in all his hurry.

Watching from
its corner post,
The mourner weeping
for a ghost.

It sees the struggler
fighting hard,
With hearts worn down
and faces scarred.

The lover hiding
in the shade,
By all the choices
they have made.

The lamp
could easily have started,
To show the broken
and faint-hearted.

A bright and sudden
yellow spark,
Just strip away
the helpful dark.

But it stayed cold,
and it stayed still,
It wouldn’t judge,
it never will.

To give them comfort
in the gloom.
And let the darkness
keep its room.

Oh! In that stillness,
something stays…
The lamp asks nothing,
gives no praise.

A quiet weight,
a wordless hand,
But it won’t leave,
and that’s enough to stand.

My New Series… Micro-Poems #2

I took an elephant safari once,

just like a Jurassic screen,

I’d seen too many dinosaurs,

and that trunk looked way too mean.

I never liked those creatures,

their size,

their weight,

their sound…

but you stood there beside me,

and you didn’t let me down.

You told me,

Just one try, my child,

I’ll hold you till you trust.

You didn’t push, you didn’t rush,

you knew that fear would rust.

And when I climbed that gentle beast,

my heart began to slow…

the mammoth in my mind grew soft,

and I let my courage grow.

That big fat Elffie taught me,

what patience truly means,

the calmest thing I’d ever met,

the kindest I had seen.

It filled my veins

with love for life,

and now I don’t care

if I fear,

I love those creatures,

big and warm,

because you helped me

see them clear.

You gave us sweat,

you gave us time,

you gave us all you had,

you built our world with steady hands,

you turned our fears to glad.

I don’t show it much in front,

I’m shy with words and praise…

but one day I’ll tell you all,

on some long, quiet days.

So thank you, Dad,

for the elephant,

for the courage and the trust…

for showing me

the biggest things

are often the most just.

Happy Father’s Day, my dearest one…

you’re the mammoth in my heart,

the one who taught me how to try,

and never fall apart.💛💛💛

You’re the ocean,
rising,
falling
turf that moves
when no one’s calling.

Depth and peak,
quiet and vast…
the steady ground
that holds you fast.

Not just a wave
that crests and breaks,
you’re the whole sea,
with all it takes.

The rise,
the fall,
the silent deep…
the ancient rhythm
that you keep.

When the wind
forgets your name,
you still hold sway
without the fame.
When the shore
forgets your touch,
you stay,
you don’t need
praise as such.

You are the anchor
and the spray,
the calm that swallows
harsh dismay.

Let the surface
crash and roar,
your depth has
seen it all before.

Rise or rest,
crash or creep…
you’re the ocean,
wide and deep.

Not just a wave,
not just a crest,
You’re the whole damn sea,
at its best.

Carry the weight of this body…
I’m walking this road,
will find a grave for it
at the end
of the journey I took.

Through dark, hazy fields,
I try to run,
but only crawl.
All my life I was taught
to follow what the hands could hold.

Then I reach the mountains…
treks, peaks, greenery, lush.
I measure depth with my feet.

The sun shivers
at dawn, at dusk,
never calm.
I learn the wisdom…
don’t lose to the steep,
don’t look back
and run toward the next one.

Now the river…
cold water numbing my feet,
I don’t stop.

Through the desert,
sand swallowing every step,
the sun a white fist.

I bear my sacred weight of body and soul,
no longer walking,
just dragging.

At last,
the graveyard gate,
rusty, half‑open,
waiting.
I’m dead,
walking the road
to bury what’s left of me.

But the gate isn’t the end,
it’s just another mountain.

Attempting the prompt by

White Rabbit Poetry Society

When Your Inner World Goes Still Poetry Prompt by Andrea Thorfinson

Before writing, pause…

Read more

4 months ago · 18 likes · 24 comments · Dorie Snow/雪多丽 and Andrea Thorfinson

The lotus in the pond,
looking purple,
the way blue feels to me.

I sat there,
searching for some room.

Just mindless,
thoughtless,
cold catching my feet,
travelling through my heart’s beat.

Just me,
just the pond…
and, some quietness.

I was on hold.

Light drifting
across the crest,
gold crawls slowly
before rest.

That snail
still trailing behind…
something there
was never lined.

Sun was down,
but stars not seen,
felt like they’d
discovered nothing.

That space,
that freezing,
healing air,
the lotus in the damp,
glowing still.

The breath…
not deep, nor shallow,
not fast, just slow.
A quiet anchor
that helps me know
the world's asleep
and I can go.

I didn’t search for words
or run through tone,
they arrived anyway,
as time slowed.

In the gap between
one thought
and the next,
just sitting
like hollow…
stillness spoke first.

Happy Mother’s Day To All the Mom’s💛💛

You wiped my nose,
you kissed my head,
you found my socks
beneath the bed.

What if I’m worn,
Mother Duck?
Still whole,
I paddle
my own pluck.

They sneer, too clumsy,
slow, a mess
but you saw feathers,
not distress.

You swore I’d fly
through storm and roar…
I found my sky
beyond your shore.

Why wear their doubts
like extra fleece?
This duckling’s heart beats
its own peace.

My essence,
a downy spark, not tame
no pond too wide,
no lost good name.

I’m your chick,
your toddler,
your own…
I need your hug,
your care, your gentle tone.

Hey, Mama, look…
why can’t you see?
I’m your fierce, free duckling
look at me!

My wings will grow,
they’ll find the sky,
I’ll fly all day,
I’ll learn to try.

You see
I love you for everything.
We share the same roof,
the same heart string.

I have my own stone,
my hidden thorn
but you’re forever my mom,
my warmth, my crown.

Ten, nine, eight…
Are you in my fate?
Let me claim, let me shape…
have you seen me?
My horror waits beyond this gate.

Seven, six, five…
how many deaths will you survive?
Seek me, shroud me
don’t just stay quiet.
This is me, all of me. I came to thrive.

Four, three, two…
Why do I bleed into your blue?
The gaze, the hook,
the love, the lust
I need something to trust.
Your fragrance…
are you there, or is it only thirst?

Left behind… just one…
Wanna join me in this fun?
Still here, not undone.
Newly lit, I have a long run.
You remain there, a barren sun.
Tell me your stories or were there none?

Two faces, two fates,
shifting tides…
what thread is there?
It never hides.
Do you call this a ‘we’?
Or just time circling back to me?

Hasn’t the final goodbye been said?
Hands touched,
yet the silence spread.
Still, I know you’ll be there,
where horizons hold what we never shared.

That’s the journey from ten to one…
you and me,
untamed, unnamed
what are we?
Not love. Not loss. Not memory
just something that refuses to leave.

On the occasion of World’s Earth Day🌻

You fill
the lifeless ones with breath,
And wake silent bones from quiet death.

You stir
old desires left to sleep,
And plant new mornings buried deep.

You left
your breath , made heaven stay.
A quiet storm that found its way.

Your wind
now runs inside my veins.
A love that pulses through my pains.

You gave
without a measured need.
I took it all in silent greed.

Never asking
how much to give,
Just wanting more of you, to live.

Oh life!
of mine,
in rain I came,
Never asking what you’d claim.

Soaked in
all you chose to pour.
Only reaching out for more.

Each layer
that you placed in me,
I stand within your destiny.

Turned into
roads beneath my feet…
Still make your endless journey incomplete.

I am
a burden that you bear.
These eyes have learned too much to care.

My wants
grow wild each time I see,
Even lost what they were meant to be.

This is
the fault I shouldn’t know.
I took from you and let it grow.

This is
the line I crossed alone.
And carved your giving into stone.

I drained
you dry without a sound,
I tore apart what I had found.

Never asking
what loss you faced …
And left your kindness stripped, displaced.

Oh life!
I stood in borrowed rain.
I feel the weight,
I feel the stain.

Now empty
skies fall back on me ,  
Of all I took so carelessly.

You are
the stubborn pulse I keep.
No other wish runs half as deep.

The only
truth I choose to feel .
No other presence feels as real.

With you,
I belong somewhere .
Without you, I dissolve to air.

A fragment
shaped within your whole.
A fading outline with no soul.

I fear
the harm I’ve left in you.
While I kept taking what was true.

You held me
long before I knew .
You gave,
you cared,
you stayed,
you grew.

Still, Dear Earth…
 your soil,
your grass,
your sky …
Even where my deserts lie.

Your rain
continues as before.
Some hidden spring begins to pour.

The lies
I held have worn away.
Your truth remains, it chose to stay.

Their fleeting
traces disappear.
A quiet love that abides here.

Why does home feel so far… at night?
The moon and stars,
they look… dark… yet bright.

Who knows what’s left… for me to take?
My feet are cold,
and the night… won’t break.

Why can’t I call you, Mom… and cry?
I hum alone…
no lullaby,
just tears that fall…
and I don’t know why.

Waves carry… all my sky away,
don’t leave me here…
don’t let me stray.

Why is this wall… so firm… so strong?
These feathers float,
but don’t belong.

Hold my heart,
let me stay…
pull me closer…
I need your light, your gentle ray.

Don’t let me become
my own dark shade,
I want to be yours…
no longer afraid.

To fit your side,
through thick… and thin…
let your light
find where I’ve been.

Why did you make me… without fire?
The earth still turns,
it won’t retire.

Cold in my bones…
I’m tired… I’m gray.
remember me…
once…
before I fade.

Oh!
I bid you farewell… I guess.
Or…
was I just left behind…
in this mess?

You kept… or threw… my old attire,
the curving moon,
hides in the mire.

Endless clouds…
they make it clear,
nothing holds…
nothing stays… near.

Wordless.
Alone.
I keep my stare
in a world so sharp…
I need your care.

You never ask
what I have left…
as I unravel,
sorrow-pressed.

Is it the cool…
pure autumn breath?
Autumn is gone…
I face… what’s left.

Being busy… knots the thread,
pull it once…
and all goes dead.

If I call…
when light feels thin…
will you still…
let me in?

Who plucked the roses,
left no trace,
and nothing left
for thought to chase?

I am the thorn
that fought the sound,
and now no one
to wrap around.

Don’t you want to shift,
to move?
What part of life
feels true to you?

Look at the morals
they display…
they love the rose,
not me,
not my way.

Whoever walks
beneath the bloom,
petals free
from any gloom…
the thorn still carries
all the weight,
the light you shine,
so rare and great.

I don’t wish
to pierce your skin,
never meant
to steal your win.

But every night,
an ache takes seed,
why can’t they see
my lonely need?

Don’t you feel
that same dull ache?
Why every inch
of ground you take,
dust drowns my will,
my stake,
my trust?

I am the guard,
the one who must.

Let this thorn
die soon, I plead…
born to be
your guard in need.

Now tears can water
the moon’s tide,
this sting,
this spiral,
this fracture.

Don’t you turn
your face away?
Whose praise do I need,
night or day?

This longing grows
in the same soil,
without your red,
I’m just a weed.

I envy,
but my heart
grows only toward you,
the distance shrinks
since I was born.

My envy,
my you,
my hollow grave…
body empties,
none to mourn.

My garden dies
where you once grew,
yet still I watch
and wait for you.

Yeah, I don’t want
to be the rose
just to be loved,
or to be true.

A li’l fry as a try.. for the prompt started by (Try using as many of these as you like in something short— a post, a poem, or a bit of nonsense: splat · wobble · squelch · plop · gurgle · thwack · sploosh · jiggle · boing · squish · bloop · clatter · thunk · wiggle · sproing · plunk · plonk · smoosh · rustle · dribble · thud · whoosh · fizz · pop · crack)

The weekend stretched,

a lazy cat,

no rush to move, no need for that.

I thought

I'd cook a simple meal,

a sunny egg, a happy deal.

But fate had other plans,

it seems…

my pan turned to crazy dreams.

But oh,

that egg had other schemes!

My peaceful morning burst at the seams.

Before the pan

could pop it out,

the howl itself kept up the threat,

and did its loudest,

day and night,

in any rough place where it splat.

The pan wiggled,

What is wrong?

It had no crack, no way to blow.

It fizzes too hard…

the fry went thud,

and clatter had to go too slow.

I took a bloop

to taste the broth,

then wobbled long enough to rest.

I let it wiggle,

let it sit,

then dribbled out… hmmm

to give the flavor one last test.

A little through

the lips and throat,

the egg was fried, the pan went free…

better than rustle,

better than bought.

This elephant got fixed. The end of me.

I thought you’d choose the fire,
the burning, the deep hell.
But you walked past the flames,
chose a story I couldn’t tell.

I wrote you’d aim for mountains,
reach the peaks I’d never climb.
But you took a different valley,
found your way in your own time.

I never drew horizons,
still you stayed un-confined.
so tell me,
why were you always on my mind?
I thought
I’d drawn the borders,
but I was blind…
come, define me,
leave no doubt behind.

I traced the edges of your cage,
but you never saw the bars.
I built a pile of all my fears,
you turned them into stars.

I said, This is where it ends.
You laughed and walked ahead.
Now I stood in the wreck of plans,
alive inside what you said.

I never drew horizons,
still you weren’t confined…
so tell me,
why did you stay on my mind?
I thought
I knew the edges,
but I was blind…
come, define me,
leave no doubt behind.

Not hell, not mountains, not the lines I drew,
you were the question I never knew.
And every answer broke the frame,
but I kept calling out your name.

Define me.
Yeah… define me.
I thought I knew your shape, your edges, but not you.
Now I was the one left undefined…
still calling out, still losing my mind.

Define me.

The shadow is not simply dark,
it holds what we refused to mark.

The habits worn, the truths we bend,
the fears we carry without end.

It starts before
we have a name,
the small betrayals, quiet shame.

A word we swallowed,
a look we hid,
a need we learned to keep a lid.

Layer by layer,
stone by stone,
we built a barrier, kept it grown.

For years I thought the fight was won
by cutting loose what I’d begun.

But what I pushed away would stay,
a quiet guest that would not fade.

The cost of keeping walls so high?
A low hum always underneath
The breath I held,
the lie I’d breathe,
the endless question…
why not I?

I sat with rage ‘n let it speak,
I asked what made its anger peak.

A boundary crossed, a line ignored,
it only asked to be heard.

I stood with fear,
its trembling hand.
I did not silence or command.

It did not shout
or try to flee,
it simply needed to be seen.

I met the numbness,
cold and wide.
A shield I’d worn to stay inside.

I thanked it for the years it held,
and with that grace its power fell.

We think we win when we divide,
when we cast pieces out to hide.

But nothing whole,
is built this way,
we gather back what went astray.
We don’t become whole by cutting away.
We become whole by bringing them home… to stay.

Call me Sakura,
call me Yīnghuā,
A bloom that paints the spring display.

A pink-veined pulse,
a fortnight stay,
I let go … not in grief, but play.

I come to wake
the winter’s yield,
And stir the hope in naked field.

New beginnings,
prosperity,
These heavy names belong to me.

But touch my skin,
my warrior’s vow,
A path where strength and beauty bow.

A short, fierce life,
a prideful fall,
I bloom to teach, not just to be seen.

They call me fragile ,
skin-thin, belief ,
The fleeting heart of spring’s relief.

But I’m honest,
I am true,
I give the world what I must do.

I am the balance
you cannot hold,
Life and death in petals fold.

The breath you catch,
the hand that waves,
The tender space between the graves.

So when you see
my blossoms fly,
Don’t mourn the colour from the sky.

For you are blooming,
too, and brief ,
A blush, bright, and precious leaf.

Call me Sakura,
wild and free,
Your mirror, sweet mortality.

I fall to let you,
rise and reign,
Remember spring   and me again.

🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸 🌸

Distorted…
Ugh, is this new?
Think again.
Huh.
Why it’s always you.

Run…

The problem,
knocking at my ribs again,
I’m the runner, always been this way, my friend.

Don’t be my mirror,
don’t be my ghost,
I ruin the things I love the most.

Step away,
I’m a storm
you don’t wanna be in.

They see the lightning,
hear the sound,
but they don’t know
what drags me down.

I’m the runner
always on the run,
problem chasing, never done.

Don’t you follow
I’ll come undone.

Stay back
I’m the scent of ozone,
the grinding gear that cannot hone.

Left, right, left
don’t look back,
the high-voltage hum before the crack.

(I’m the runner…)

The silence,
louder than the sirens now,
I’m the runner
don’t ask me how.

Don’t get close,
don’t try to heal,
I’m the jagged edge you’re forced to feel.

Guard your heart,
don’t play this game
the fire dressed in a softer frame.

They hear the thunder,
call it power,
but I’m just counting down every hour.

I’m the runner,
miles from the sun,
chasing damage before it’s begun.

Watch me ignite
a beautiful fire
in a losing fight,
climbing higher.

Stay back
I’m the dangerous one,
the runner, never done.

Thunder…
I’m the memory of the crash,
Lightning… the ghost inside the flash.

Not the hero,
not the lure,
the friction burn that won’t stay pure.

Don’t come closer,
the pull runs deep,
the storm that doesn’t sleep.

The problem…
it’s always me.
I’m the runner…
set me free.

This isn’t a race
just a wildfire trying to outrun the place
it already burned to the ground.

Always
on the run,
chasing the spark until it’s done.

Watch the horizon,
catch the flame,
I’m the runner without a name.

Still running.
coming undone.
Don’t get caught in my thunder.