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OPPOSITES
Inspired by the tragedy in Colorado...
 (and for Gerry)

Again they turned on
The murder machine
You won't go easy
You won't go clean

And of course there was Elton
Back at the Kicking Mule
Another life corrupted
Replaced with a duel

Somebody somewhere
Is watching it all
The sky cried this morning
13 took the fall

And now two are seeing
Not knowing in part
The lives they have ended
The hearts ripped apart

Another day waiting
To play with my rhymes
Two souls so destroyed
That they could stop time

And now I am reeling
Seeing no sense
A dark side cultivated
Into pure arrogance

How many times
Will I type out this pain?
I want some answers
It's time to explain

The love and the light
We all seek to be true
And now to our horror
The opposite's true...

Cole Johnson (c) ColeJ@SWOG.fhcrc.org

============================================

I CELEBRATE THE LIFE

I celebrate the life I lead
Even stagnant and still waters run deep-
Not vexed by my unearthly dreams,
Nor transfixed in an unrelenting sleep.

I celebrate the life I lead
Though I have bore pain and trauma-
Witnessed life's many tragedies,
I've been through life's many dramas.

I celebrate the life I led,
My history is full and rich with endeavors
Accomplishments and failures strew my path-
Exhaling with joy to escape traps most clever.

I will celebrate the life I'll lead,
Assured that I can withstand any curve-
Not swayed by rudimentary temptations,
And all my vanities disposed and curbed.

C. Bentley (c) cbentley@memphis.edu

============================================

three

you look at me
reaching touching
holding
but your hand does not reach for
my hand
your fingers do not caress my palms
or notice the arms that crave an embrace
for
i am no longer woman
no longer she who is beyond the tangible
just
three body parts
i no longer have need for honeyed face
or lotioned knee
or craving mind
for i am
just
three body parts
derriere
cleavage
and that place you call yours
to you
i am
the sum total of parts one two three
there is nothing else major comprising of me
my legs 
you say
serve mighty purpose
to transport the three
to carry them swiftly to
wherever
you may be
yet
i am no longer woman
just three body parts
my left ear--
she once craved to hear you sing my name
shout out
and grip my shoulder twins strong
they are dying lonely now
neglected children that they are
and yes i remember
the days when i once 
twisted your touches
in my hair
oh yes i remember 
the days of yesterday
before the days of right way your way
when you loved my breath
before it left my soul's harbor
because it was mine
when three comprised
you
and me
and eternity
applauded by rain
supported by a cast of a thousand stars
not only the functional task to be
and body parts three

Jaci LaMon (c) JaciWrites@aol.com

============================================

 W 
Cross
   r
    d
     s

Broken traffic 
light at the X-walk 

But s/he 
needs a fix

Cross the RR tracks

Brand X
times any integer  
equals more niggers die

with a new drug 
delivery system to put

your balls on hold
your mind on empty
and your body at rest

X slave
X muslim
X wife
Ex X
X ecution

you won't solve this formula
with algebra or calculus
&it is not a chromosome

it's Y/our

X cuse for 
not knowing Y

Saleem Abdal-Khaaliq (c) nsa@vgernet.net

============================================

ILLUSIONS

True love is an illusion,
Searching for the perfect love, searching for the
perfect person
Filled with the hopes and dreams that somewhere is
person of our dreams
The reality is what?
There may not be a perfect person because there are no
perfect people.
When you think you’ve found the one your meant to be
with, the illusion fills you.
As you look into their eyes and they say Ill love you
always and will never leave
Isn't that an illusion?  When you can measure forever
on a calendar and the day comes when they don't love
you or they choose not to be loved by you and reality
shatters like a mirror falling from a wall, you open
your eyes to the illusion.  Grasping your chest, the
breath stolen from your body as pain overcomes you and
no longer blind you look upon the world and realize
you're alone.  

The world seems less bright and everywhere you look
you see people in love.  Emptiness fills your soul as
you begin to cry.  You would rather live a lie than
face the world alone.  Asking the question; am I
destined to die alone?  Is there someone for me?  The
answer lies only within you, searching for something
that's not there.  True love evades you because it
wasn't here from the beginning and as you look out
into the sky the illusion fills your mind and once
again you set out looking for the lie, the perfect
love.

Kelvin Lee (c) lee_0003@yahoo.com

============================================

cool is...

cool is...
the touch of his hand--
when i'm bouta go off on somebody--
reminding me that my energy
is worth more than that

cool is...
the fortitude
to be above it all.
not uncaring,
not uppity;
just--just.

cool is...
treading your *own* path
not just because you *want* to,
but because you HAVE to,
if you are to continue to be
you

cool is...
the shadyness
of unshade.
the light
behind the dark.
the tall drink of icewater
way deep in the desert.

cool is...
cool is...
well, cool just IS.

/bams (c) bams@nichemarket.com