Our hearts entwined
Your spirit mine
Merged together
Like grapes in wine

Our journey grand
Through lovers’ land
But darkness came
And took your hand

My dear, do not struggle
My mind I shall juggle
My one true love
The dark shall not smuggle

A plan I shall make
To find you and take
Back the only thing
That keeps my soul awake

I’ll brave the sharp rods
And staffs of the Gods
I’ll barter with Hades
Two forces, at odds

I’ll swim the fiery lake
Whippings I will take
Be cut, be beaten, bled
Or devoured by a snake

Through the deathly mist
I shall grab your wrist
Pull you close
And share a kiss

For every realm, it’s true
Knows of my love for you
A power so strong
Death itself cannot skew

If alas, I happen to fail
All will still be well
For I’ll stay with you, my love
Wherever you do dwell

Our world means
Very little, it seems,
Without you my dear
It’s a world of machines

If we cannot depart
We shall stay with the dark
For without you I die
Now our end is the start

Submitted by Kyle Kepner, UK

Love? What is love? Like the flesh-weak heart from which it stems, it pumps, it warms, it circulates, it makes dreams real, inspires hope, moves us smiling from one day to the next, infectious, consuming, until such time the delicate mechanisms no longer work. And then they grind and shudder like a great and weary clock,
pheromones, hormones, inclinations all conspiring to end their streaming.

Love grows cold, snow and ice, the mind no longer caring, the eyes no longer seeing, blind to vivid colour and to gentle touch. Love like cigarettes enjoyed until the lungs turn black. Addictive, love as a stone weighs heavy on the chest and mind, torturing the cupid fool until his skin begins to burn and blister, backed into a corner like an animal for slaughter, afraid, unsure, not knowing what will come and remembering not what came before, thinking to himself, my harp, my wings, my fortune withers on the vine, pounds become pennies and pennies dwindle to a poverty of broken soul, my soul.

What is this clinging film that conspires with atmosphere to storm the barricades, to bring down the love-lost soldier, love-smacked, love-torn? Love like a war photo fades to sepia brown: forgotten moments, staring out of Time like so many dead men looking for their bones.

Submitted by Andrew Hinkinson

Oh dear Mother,
How I feel your breath dances
Upon my skin,
Placing me in a trance,
We are all your kin.

Oh dear Mother,
I see your light,
Shining through the trees.
It warms my soul, so bright.
Places the world at ease.

Oh dear Mother,
How we have distressed you!
The green is brown!
What will we do?
Is this why you frown?

Oh dear Mother,
You used to shine,
You used to keep us so safe.
Now all we do is cut down every pine.
For you, how do we save?

Oh dear children,
Band with me now!
Save our mother!
Let our love sound!
For Gaia, we have no other!

Submitted by Ava

There’s thoughts of loss
but that may be melodrama,
I’d rather not be involved in either.
I’ve nothing to offer
except my flip-switch gender.
I kept trying for a while,
lessons are learnt slowly
my mind traipses quietly
thinking long over situations
that present themselves to my heart.
I’m unsure of the truths,
whether they be hers or mine
and I never learn what to do
where to change my hearts
way of feeling,
my minds way of thinking.
There is really little to do
that I am willing,
little change beyond the extreme,
there is comfort in familiarity,
even familiar heartache.

Submitted by r.l.w, UK