time is a big black bird
that swallows you before the dawn
a well of days running dry
harrowing youth with utter scorn
you’re stuck in the bird’s craw
like jonah in the whale’s belly
you’re trapped down deep in a well
like hot water & gemelli
time to clip that bird’s wings
to sharpen up the silver knife
cut open its stinky throat
remove the guts of your half-life
by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2025
Hateful is the dark-blue sky,
Vaulted o’er the dark-blue sea.
Death is the end of life; ah, why
Should life all labor be?
Let us alone. Time driveth onward fast,
And in a little while our lips are dumb.
Let us alone. What is it that will last?
And things are taken from us, and become
Portions and parcels of the dreadful past.
Let us alone. What pleasure can we have
To war with evil? Is there any peace
In ever climbing up the climbing wave?
All things have rest, and ripen toward the grave
In silence, ripen, fall, and cease:
Give us long rest or death, dark death, or dreamful ease.
by ALFRED LORD TENNYSON (1809-1892)
Public Domain Poetry
have you ever felt
that your life is mortgaged
from the very first cry?
they squeeze your persona dry
they gain interest from everything
starting with your imperfect reflection
and its teenaged acne
ending with a type of upholstery
on your second-rate coffin
and nothing really belongs to you
except a nightingale’s song
that reverberates outside your window
every single night
by TETIANA ALEKSINA
© All rights reserved 2024
You can find TROTTERSVILLE #1 here > Ba Dum Tish!
by TONY SINGLE & TETIANA ALEKSINA
© All rights reserved 2024
Hypocrisy will serve as well
To propagate a church, as zeal;
As persecution and promotion
Do equally advance devotion:
So round white stones will serve, they say,
As well as eggs to make hens lay.
by SAMUEL BUTLER (1613-1680)
Public Domain Poetry
