A pair pulling their weight
sandwiching the meat of my literary treasure
~ shelving their showstopping good looks
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
There is no scale that can weigh the power of hope
Winter ICE riding an Alberta Clipper from the new northern state down to the Gulf of America
A Brown wave
No time for Brown waves good bye
A brown wave
Sky ships set sail
Rouge cargo
Stripped, strapped, secure
Refugee - no refuge - Refugee
Loose dirt plowed
Roots shifted, strained
Lumps gathered
Tear watered seeds sewn
In Brown soil that hope
might sprout like a tree
Sky ship sets sail
Bounded cargo
Refugee - no refuge - Refugee
Dear dumbbell,
I can remember the first time
I held you in my hands.
Two 5-pound weights - small, yes,
But if you can remember,
I was seven.
My father, forty-six and still going,
Introduced me to you.
I was young, and wasn’t as dedicated.
Not as I am now.
He loves you
Just as much as me.
Maybe more.
If I’m being honest,
You saved us both.
When I’m in the gym, it’s the only place
I feel at peace. Powerful, and after all
In pain, isn’t there strength?
The more I use you, the more it hurts
But
The more it hurts, the more I use you.
Some judge me for loving you.
My own mother
Calls it unladylike.
If delicate, fragile, tiny, is
Ladylike
Then I think I’ll be a brute.
Every time
I step down, enter your home’s dark embrace,
Calm washes over me, comfort in knowing
I am strong.
And every time I don’t,
I regret it.
This is a thank you,
A promise
That because of what you gave me,
I will give you my
All.
Ten pound weights,
of encouragement,
uplifting smiles,
curl,
extend,
as fingers unwind,
and
romanticize.
Felicitous lips,
the story of joy
explored
with
double dutch
jump.
Flickers of
childhood light,
that of
a born again
saint.
Cash into my hands,
at Christmas time,
as my smile
made her smile.
I passed on
the bills
to my child,
who needed it more.
Pass your smile
around the world;
the pine lit up
with ethereal light.
Humans
can be rich
and kind.
The weight
He had written two short books
Wanted to show her, his work,
Not now she said, I’m watching telly.
Around the beam that keeps the heaven’s roof from falling down,
He slung a rope fastened to a scrap iron drum using
Himself as a counterweight.
He hoisted the drum up, but he was too heavy
He carried too much weight of pride.
He cried in the night struggled to get rid of unwanted feelings
The drum becomes lighter, descended until
He was lifted to the top of the beam feeling free
Of false pride and ambition.
Why did you cry so much in the night? He was asked.
He smiled, was at ease with himself, but didn’t answer.
Big and Carrie, a romance that carried
Passion, desire, hunger and thirst
But a bad boy’s love is what hurts the worst
For when one craves and gets an inner inch
For love that’s wings are clipped and stitched
Conditional flight takes root in one’s soul
They forget that unconditional love is the most important goal
For his kind cannot fill the voids inside her heart
Just like an addiction you want to stop after it officially starts
And when she finds pure love she does not know how to receive
For she is used to this man that always picks up and leaves
Soul mates or soul ties that should have been broken
For a writer that’s aware has a special token
Reflection on pages filled with the mind
Could have saved her from going back to Mr. Big in later times.
By: sabina
soul partners
Big and Carrie