Tag Archives: Hope

retrofitting salvation

snowfall
shrouded the roofs
festooned with icicles
antennas’ calvary crosses
preaching

by TETIANA ALEKSINA
© All rights reserved 2026

cripple at beautiful gate

well, i went & trod the great south road
when you told me not to go
i meandered in the crayon fields
but that child died long ago
the colours weren’t anywhere to look
yeah, far as flies the crow
except the black that bled from these stumps
that carried me to & fro

well, life is such a disappointment
where did the years all go
i gambolled in the hambone hills
but lust is death don’t you know
fantasy splayed by heat & look
yeah, pecked on by the crow
i eat the sickly gangrene stumps
that carried me to & fro

well, no matter where i lay my head
i’m always fear on the go
i’ll never be too innocent, yeah
gehenna’s bloody flow
she’s so damn hot, she makes me look
yeah, spit on by the crow
burn bright you cursed charcoal stumps
that carried me to & fro

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2008

ask nothing

infinity
a crumb, our collective mind
from the day we are born
we’re enmired in longing
& we reach all our lives as if
our slow death has barely begun

infinity
we’re avoiding in the rain again
as it washes away the tears
past stars inert down the lane
dare we to wear our insides out
like we were ever here

who are we to hope for love
as we lift our heads above
the skies could fall any moment
how on earth are we alive

infinity
too many arks on mountains
for any of them to be the one
our jesus is nothing
our buddhas are nothing
so too our drowned expectations

infinity
it’s another god for the blind
yet we feel that white room calling
boundless, all walls fallen away
we’re dispossessed in night’s array
how heavenly the stars

who are we to hope for love
as we lift our heads above
each moment an accusation
how are we still alive

what if infinity left us blind
to vanish beneath the sands of time
& yet we hope
yet we love
we live

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2025

TATI’s & TONY’s DEAD POET TOUR // A Hope by Charles Kingsley

Twin stars, aloft in ether clear,
Around each other roll alway,
Within one common atmosphere
Of their own mutual light and day.

And myriad happy eyes are bent
Upon their changeless love alway;
As, strengthened by their one intent,
They pour the flood of life and day.

So we through this world’s waning night
May, hand in hand, pursue our way;
Shed round us order, love, and light,
And shine unto the perfect day.

by CHARLES KINGSLEY (1819–1875)
Public Domain Poetry

for sanity’s sake

here between the seasons
the drought & hoped for rains
how on earth we prevail is
a puzzle for analytical minds
we try one smile on at a time

one smile at a time
to keep that sultry darkness at bay
one smile at a time
but perhaps today is not that day
mayhap i wish to sluttily lay
in disarray like i belong
& die erelong

but life goes on
while i whore myself to ruination
& smile along with the twee
their cock-a-hoop clarity in
hopes that we might cohabitate
in peace between drought & rain

& life goes on
one smile at a time

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2025