all that remains

we are born
empty phials for memories
accumulated & preserved
for all time
drop by drop
warm & cold, sweet & bitter
laughter in sorrow & love
fumblers of rhyme

leaving’s never easy
but look, there, the stars
hopeful like our dreams

shade by shade
a unicorn’s funerary wreath
a pallbearer’s rainbow raiment
all is sublime
& then we die
caulked in eternity boxes
blest in rot for posterity
our burial heim

leaving’s never easy
but look, there, the stars
hopeful like our dreams

by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2025

white man (go ooga booga)

you keep hunting brown people
how does that make you feel
are you feeling big enough yet
did you get those extra inches you needed

this caveman mentality of yours
it makes you more tribal than them
why fear those who bleed out like you
& why hide your proud face behind that mask

a clear & present danger
but not them, it’s entirely you
& something has to change

now you’re moving on to the woke
on to the alphabetic people
the different, blamed & broken
the compassionate who use their words & hearts

this gunman mentality of yours
it makes you more brutal than them
& now you’ve moved on to ice fucking bitches
don’t you see, to the face equals fascism

something has to change
but not them for you
it’s you, little man, & only you

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2026

Tumblevision #36

This little piggy went to war.

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2026

a joke is born

more bad poetry
& scribbles in the margins
ready the tissues
cue the gothic orchestra
sackcloth, keening & ashes

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2025

weltschmerz

your voice echoes back from yesteryear
as i perch on the edge of hope & fear
once more there’s this pang of you not here
the sun leers through cloud’s shame above
upon grounded white crow & black dove
whose answer for the wrong question needs love

tar soap scent atween the birches
your shadow no longer afore me
just othering eyes from briar to fens

your hand reaches through the fullness of time
untold happenstance of future clime
dusts sensate shoulder with earthly rhyme
it signals to turn that withered page
to uncloy myself from ferocity’s cage
release sweet sadness & fathomless rage

tar soap scent atween the birches
your shadow no longer afore me
just othering eyes from briar to fens

now & again when i turn to look back
i still see you not here & your hand’s slack
still you’re part of me on this doomen track
in these memories of you i abide
what remains of you the urn at my side
with no hope of turning time’s avian tide

tar soap scent atween the birches
your shadow no longer afore me
just othering eyes from briar to fens

by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2024