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
it’s just another night
they go home by taxi
i go the other way
the driver looks at me
he asks where to stop
but i stay silent
it’s just another night
they go home by taxi
i go from myself
and now my only thought
that i’m short of money
for such a lifelong ride
by TETIANA ALEKSINA
© All rights reserved 2021
Why fades a dream?
An iridescent ray
Flecked in between the tryst
Of night and day.
Why fades a dream?–
Of consciousness the shade
Wrought out by lack of light and made
Upon life’s stream.
Why fades a dream?
That thought may thrive,
So fades the fleshless dream;
Lest men should learn to trust
The things that seem.
So fades a dream,
That living thought may grow
And like a waxing star-beam glow
Upon life’s stream–
So fades a dream.
by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR (1872-1906)
Public Domain Poetry
Harvested by night, eaten by day.
by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2020
you wake at night
when first snow has tucked the city in
and neon glow has plucked glam rings
into the supercilious dark
you see outside
something shaggy and stark wants in
presses craggy nose, sharp tightening
unto the chilled window pane
you rush through the door
jump up bare to the porch sans clogs
and december like a debauched dim dog
licks your cheek with frosty tongue
by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2019
unbolt me 