Tag Archives: Mental health awareness

cracked stasis (1,183 days)

i didn’t get rid
of that cracked cup
because i know
one day from the tap
will drip a quantum of poison
& said cup will be handy

let me not drift in convenience
let me not fall asleep
while concrete is melting
& the stylus is charging

i didn’t get rid
of that cracked hope
because i know
one day from the news
will beam a quantum of light
& said hope will be handy

let me not sink in clamour
let me not fall asleep
while trust is hardening
& a stylus is charging

by TETIANA ALEKSINA
© All rights reserved 2025

two years, eleven months, seventeen days

the black stains
of morning coffee
on a white tablecloth

others prefer fortune telling
with coffee grounds
but i believe in vapour
& its aerial butoh dance
above the cup’s abyss

forbearance sucks
& gravitas falls
on the white tablecloth

i see bare, broken twigs
against a blue sky
will this coffee be the only darkness
that fills me today
i take a sip, open my news feed

by TETIANA ALEKSINA
© All rights reserved 2025

clarity

shake it out & lay you down
lean into the hushly furrow
atween cotton wool eyes

the approbation of dreams
where you don’t need to be heard
where you don’t need to be owed
where forever can be like nothing

aslumber in their scaffolding
yet you don’t need their dispensation
to let it all fall away now
so no more maimly going clear
no more sideways tussle
& no more fuzzy words in your ear

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2024

detached

let’s walk to one side
under cover of quiet
observe how they go

why do they hurry
will they be on time
would that give them peace

anxiety sponges all
bloated beyond reason
so ready to explode

let’s take careful steps
under cover of quiet
mustn’t let them splash us

we are the hidden
happy to be nowhere
ghosting for sanity

by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2024

this terminal horizon

rockets, the whistle & drone
chill morning’s zombied air
& perhaps i’m wondering why
as grief covets the grasp of resolve
why more things can’t be possible
why all tomorrows must end

for certain i once was not
dread certain i’ll be not again
but how many days shall pass between
between crib & the yawning earth
for to compose nullifidian hymns
for to soothe in the ghast of dawn

& mainly they drink their own tears
vainly they think their pious fictions
plainly i’ll not be fooled so again
by the quiver of strongmen in bunkers
by gormless rumours of peace
by hope or scripture or fairness or whim

why all tomorrows must end
round & round in war’s grave spin
for to soothe in the ghast of dawn
& the immurement of being
by hope or scripture or fairness or whim
we inhumane vie for suffering

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2023