By: Stanley Lovell

WORDS ON PAPER

Soft grinding sound of cheap plastic ballpoint pen
dragging through white pulp striated blue.

Pen shuffles forward inky snail slime
letters stretch into pained words classic

bread and butter only descriptions
lack calories.

Starting the day I have elongated
crisp words tightly coiled black rope with flourishes

at the corners of each hairpin.
At the end of the day

fat loopy squished nearly undistinguishable
characters drizzled on smudged wrinkly notebook pages.

Words on paper

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PARADOX

Like a dream to be living
and a nightmare to die.
Ah, and here we are
somewhere in-between.
Existence is blissful
and equally hellish.

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PSYCHOSIS

Dancing over trampled fair grounds
Chance to see a girl with hair crowned
In lovely jewels
Of raindrop fluid
Such a view I’d ne’er found

And so my feet move through the grass
Nearer to the beautiful lass
Who stood there smiling
And so implying
Thoughts contrived would soon pass

But she was an apparition
The psychosis of cognition
A beautiful ghost
That had me engrossed
One more host envisioned