GRIND THEM INTO GRAINS OF SAND

I have no sympathy for the powerful

and the privileged,

those who see the world

but a stage for themselves

and us the unwilling spectators.

I want them to be bloody sand

running through the hands

of uncaring humanity

and blown away

by harsh gusts of time.

21.04.2026

FAILED CREATION

There is little inspiration,

only longing to write

so these brief lines

forced in the faltering

night as a act

of failed creation

shall live as homunculus

in a jar placed

on the mind's shelf

as it gazes with slowly moving

eyes through its glass

into yet another prison

03.04.2026

JUST AFTER SUNSET ON A MID-APRIL EVENING

The Sun set twenty minutes

ago, and you barely notice

it. Still the same bright

evening light, still the same

long shadows piercing

the golden hues of spring

and the short night

with its

waning stars

still hours away,

adrift in

winding time.

19.04.2026

WHY DO THEY HAVE TO REVEL IN INHUMANITY?

When the Holocaust

is so sacred to them,

why do the Zionists

mock the victims

of the genocide

they are committing?

Isn't killing their victims

enough to those

who demand to themselves

the entire world's sympathy?

Can't they have even

little decency?

19.04.2026

ALEXEI BALEN

If I could go one day

without Zionist supporters of Ukraine

celebrating the genocide of Palestinians

and insulting and mocking the victims

I would be able to feel something else

than anger towards them

and their yellow and blue flag.

They have drained almost

all the sympathy

I had for Ukraine and I have

to think of Belarus and Chechnya

to hope for Russia's defeat,

liberation of those countries,

for these people I could never wish

victory - they are so vile.

They desecrate a just defense

with their genocidal,

hateful Zionism.

Why can't they all go

and die for Ukraine?

19.04.2026

HERACLES' APOTHEOSIS

Deianeira hands over the garment

stained with Nessus' blood

and it will burn

the man

and burn

with the man

on the pyre.

A god will be born

from that fire.

But the dead

centaur has his revenge

and the dead children

Heracles begetted

and slaughtered

theirs too, briefly,

as the flesh feels

the poison

and the flames

of apotheosis.

But in the end

Heracles will be a god

amidst gods

on Olympos

and the shades

of his children

he slew

shall wail in Hades

with the spirit of Nessus.

19.04.2026

A MIRACLE FOR THE AGES

If there is a future

for humanity

beyond these ruins

physical and mental

it's a miracle

for the ages.

18.04.2026

SALVAGED FROM THE WRECK

The future is not made

but salvaged

from the wreckage

of MF Today.

18.04.2026

THE LINEAR PATH

Birds singing the spring

to be, as not only light

and warmth but sound

make the season ascending

to verdant resurrection,

all things returning

that unlike us and our kin

return with nature's turning

wheel while our fate

is linear through the cycles.

18.04.2026

COLD LIGHT

Cold in bright sunshine,

an April spring day

cast in pale blue.

18.04.2026

JUST ANOTHER WAR CRIME

Killing truck drivers

working for UNICEF

driving water tankers

in occupied Palestine's

destroyed Gaza Strip

just another day,

another war crime

for Israel.

18.04.2026

OUR SIN

A spring

and yet

death

not rebirth

for our sin

of electing

not incarcerating

our worst

listening

not entombing in solitary

the fascists raging

on our screens

that should be broken

and made

into pencils

14.04.2026

I CLAIM IT

A universal smile

on your lips

and yet

I claim it

as mine

in these verses

no matter

how many faces

it brightens

in these

it brightens

mine

14.04.2026

TRANSLATING PATRICK KAVANAGH

Odd how much

pain even the lines

of long-dead strangers

poets of unvisited

lands

evoke in us

as we read the lives

of our loved ones

and our own

through them

unwillingly

each verse a hook

to fish from depths

of time loss

and grief

preserved

in the Black Sea

of our existence

11.04.2026

MAGNOLIA BLOWING

White and pink blossoms

after a cold March

on the magnolia

rooted seventy-three years

on its spot in the world,

since 1953, since Eisenhower,

Korean War, the echoing

coup in Iran,

Stalin, tanks against

protesters in Berlin -

so few, the years

circling the maelstrom,

so many, the flowers

returning with the seasons.

11.04.2026

NO LEASH

Not an escape

trajectory

but bending

home

for a return

05.04.2026

LUNAR GRIEF

Grief is a cold

moon too big

to hide

behind

your thumb

not too distant

to touch

with your hand

05.04.2026

EARLY SPRING EVENING'S RAIN REMEMBERED

It started to rain

as afternoon

turned evening,

yesterday; steady

rain that went on

in the background

of the devouring news.

The weather through

the windows looked

chill, so in the dim

indoors I imagined

the raindrops

to be cold, 

yet never

went to feel them

on the palm of my hand,

on my face. What

I imagined was enough

for the passing moment,

and what I imagined

was soon lost

in the thickening dark.

03.04.2026

LOSS WITH PAIN'S SHARP SCISSORS

Loss with pain's

sharp scissors

tries to reduce us,

define

us, drawing

bleeding boundaries

for our

being through

separation,

yet

bright

in memory

with a halo

of grief,

what we lost

endures,

keeping us

intact, whole.

05.04.2026

AND ALL THE DIM HOURS

The first appearance
of the Sun
at sunset,
and all the dim hours
of the day
erased
in the brief moments
as it hovers
at the sky's edge.

23.03.2026