Poetry: Issue 228
Nirvana
By Benjamin P., Arkansas
There was a disciple named Floyd
Who was destined to thus be annoyed-
Yet he found his own dharma
And did work on his karma
Til the bad stuff was all null and void
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Color Me!
By Clark H.
Color me red
Color me blue
Color me into
A life with you
Color me violet
Color me pink
Now color my mind
To make me think
About what color i’d be if
We were walking down this
Road together
Would I be green?
Not to envy
Color me silver
Color us gold
Color your hands
It’s me they hold
Color me now
Or color me never
So if love is forever
Hey you what color are
We if we walk down
This bridge together
Would we be blue
No, not me and you!
Color me Dharma
Color my friends
A color of rainbows
That never ends.
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For The Birds
By The Traveler, Georgia
My fine dining china is divided into 5 sections
I analyze each compartment carefully for anything inedible
(Rat turds blend in very well with the beans)
I am usually disappointed.
But – on every tray – one item always meets it's intended
Albeit I'm not it's last stop.
Cornbread!!
Now mind you this is not your Grandmother's cornbread.
(Piping hot, slathered with butter and Sorghum syrup.)
Oh no. This meal comes in 50 pound sacks,
along with our oats and are labeled:
Animal Feed. Not for human consumption.
(Comes to us from our Canadian friends. F/U NAFTA!!)
Now this somehow escaped the eagle eye of the law,
In whose care us lambs have been entrusted.
So, once again, supper will be a Ramen soup in the dorm.
As I leave this fine dining facility, I collect a large stack of cornbread, and as I exit,
(Leaving my compliments to the Chef.)
I find awaiting their meal -
Crows, Sparrows, Blackbirds, Doves and Mockingbirds.
They are all aflutter in anticipation.
Yes my little feathered friends,
This bread is for you.
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Untitled
By Jeffery B., New York
There's a place I like to go
It's a place where
There's so much more love to know
It's a place where
One could learn to fly
Never have to say goodbye
Feel pain or suffer
Or have those tears to cry
It's a place where
One could learn to see within
The ebb and flow
Karma
Twice at once to know
What it means to love and grow
Traveling through and through
The yesterdays and now's
For a bright and better tomorrow
But this world we live in
It's a cruel world
Filled with hate, greed, lust and sin
And I'm afraid
Because I dare to care
And I wear
My heart on a sleeve
For the world to see
And my privacy they try to take
And my gift of self they try and rape
And the man I try so hard to be
Is at times, forced back down inside of me
And it makes me incredibly sad
Because what this man who loves knows
The haters will never be able to understand