Things I keep

things I keep in mind

Vanity from head to toe,
Beauty’s far from love.
Beauty is a deathly dove.

Vanity from head to toe;
Falling men into their graves,
Sinking them below dead waves.

Vanity from head to toe;
Eating giants of the earth,
Their very soul and very mirth.

I am alive. I have my health.
And my blood is my very wealth;
Not Vanity from head to toe.

I’ve fallen from each horrid height.
I’ve slept past every sleepless night;
Not Vanity from head to toe.

And when my last moon glows above
A man I’ll be, for I did love
Not Vanity from head to toe.

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“Everything has Beauty, but not everyone sees it.” - Confucius

The form of the beautiful, no matter where he greets it, is the same form everywhere! That is something kind of reworded from the Symposium.

“How foolish he would be not to see that their form is one and the same!” - Diotima teaching the mysteries to Socrates

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The true groom,
Within me,
Kneels no knee
To Vanity’s skirt.

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from discontinued threads: “do you love yourself?”, “do you love you?”, “stories omg”

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Telling fake accounts, a beast showed scars to a man who laughed. Then it coughed and looked at his silver watch, and then at the train car’s time.

“You, beast, seem too sick for that job interview.”

“But I have no choice, eh man?”

They got off at Burke Avenue. Two running schoolboys tackled the coughing monster. The man threw curses, censored by the train’s screeching wheels.

“I should’ve stayed in the train” it coughed while Peter rose it and dusted it off.

“But you have no choice, eh?” reminded the silver watch guy while buying it a bottled water.

The beast silently eyed the water, slowly taking the bottle while coughing, then smiled: “Yes, officer Peter. I owe you one, if we ever meet again.”

=====

The high school lockers clanked with cold metal. A boy gave a strongly concerned look to his friend.

“Don’t look at me. I don’t think of that person.”

“Good because I’m tired of fending you off.” he blushed and laughed.

But the locker slammed shut as his friend snatched a glare like a coyote.

“I only laugh because someone asked me for help against some stalker who is surprisingly you, a man on the male fencing team!” he held his giggles to formally pat his friend who then winced away and shouted:

“Having forced intimate thoughts about someone is the most horrific experience!” His eyes were wet as he sniffed his nose.

“You are on our team that’s here for you whenever you get those thoughts, Spencer. We can practice fencing, walk around the city, play video games, or anything you want. But don’t let those thoughts eat you because you are our best man. Honestly, here’s the secret: you are the only man on our team.”

And at that secret, Spencer smiled a little. Then he choked a laugh and wiped his eyelids.

=====

On my best day,
My shadows paint not darkness
But paint every glowing thing
Around them.

=====

I heard a lonely boy
Crying near a pond.
I took his hand so that he
Knew he wouldn’t be alone.

And near that pond
My salt tears stopped
In his warm hand
Because I
Knew I wouldn’t be alone.

=====

I love myself because nobody else will

=====

Someone is always thinking about me.
I found him in the mirror,
A great being.

I have a tainted innocence.
And I will try to be the man
Who makes every wrong decision.
And so if I have no faith in turning myself,
Who would?

I am a maze-
But a great maze
That only I appreciate and understand.
Only I appreciate and understand,
But I forget that more than the pathways
Within my amazing maze.

And when I am lost in my labyrinth
I will try to be the man
who destroys himself.
And so if I do not love myself
And turn myself from my destruction,
Who would?

=====

I learned to love myself
Because nobody else will.

I’ve learned to be grateful
For what I have been given:
My own blood and soul.

Nobody can be me

A true being noone sees
but I and my inner eyes
That never lie
About my self-worth
My achievements
My amazing survival
My faith and belief.

One day I looked at a bottomless pit
And felt its emptiness
Eating my existence.
Whispering falsehood
of how I’m less than what I am.

I’ve learned to love myself
Because nobody else will.

I’ve taught myself to smile,
And to have good dreams at night.

=====

Mouse Trap

 
I live with cats and mice;
Even grown dogs
Who stave off felines.

This morn, a mouse
Was taken by Vanity’s claw
Within a kitten’s jaw.

"I’d be a dog and not a mouse,"
Remembered I.
“lest next morn I’d soon die.”

A Knight Saved Himself

 
Vanity’s babies mature
With wonderful features
Of no value-

What are their smiles?
What are their blushes?
What are their lips?

There are good strong men.
Neither do these men train the lip,
Nor garden the blush,
Nor perfect the smile.
These men collect not such features for trade,
To sell nor to buy.

Some meek thieves do,
But no: those thieves live short.

I live for promises to fulfill
So I’m avoiding Vanity, still;
For Vanity’s fruits can privily kill
My armored soul, my metal will.

I’ve met the stupidest boy of earth

 
I’ve met the stupidest boy of earth.
He loves to run into a tree
Where turtledoves rest.
Dashes onto its sharp bark.
Cries, cries, cries.
The birds laugh at him.
I do too.

What idiot chases birds?

And afterward, I wrap him:
he’s just like me.
Only a bit younger.
I kiss his wounds shut because
He’ll keep at it, until he rips into pieces.

But if he dies,
I do too.